Techno of Emotionsby RipcordChaptersUnheardDay 1Day 2Day 3Day 4The LetterDemonsPulling a DreamUnheard"It was two days ago when she left me, currently it's five days before a big event when I try win her back. I believe you'll need to understand what happened so here is the story of what happened those past two day, this is my story of loss and heartbreak." It was raining out, hail pounded the sides of the house as me and Octavia fought. I never thought I could go so wrong in my life, sleeping with someone other then her, what was I thinking. The sounds brought spectators as we fought. I remember every word. "Vinyl how could you, why?" yelped Octavia as she charged up the stairs. "I-I didn't mean to she means nothing to me," Cried Vinyl back. "It doesn't mater if you liked it or not Vinyl, you still did it....you still hurt me," Octavia was holding her emotions tight, as if they were in a steel cage. "I'm sorry Octavia, just put your stuff back, please Tavy please," "Sorry doesn't cut it this time Vinyl, you don't understand, I did everything for us I even gave up my spot as 1st seat in the Royal Band, I worked and fought and bled for us and you go off and sleep with some random mare," "N-no it didn't work like that," "How did it work she bought you a fucking drink and you thought "Oh this could be fun" why Vinyl, tell me why," "I don't know what I was feeling, the music and her voice....I lost myself in her, the daze was bliss and I let myself get sucked in, I was weak Octavia and I'm sorry," " I-*sniff, sniff* darn nose, I can't believe it Vinyl, I don't want to, I need to get out, I need to leave," Octavia ran out the door, I was close behind. I grabbed her hoof with tears streaming down my face, Octavia looked at me and that steel cage cracked and she too began to cry a little. She shut her eyes and broke away, I watched as she ran and ran farther away until i could see her anymore. I shut the door and walked a few paces before collapsing in the middle of the floor, I balled and screamed when I hit. "I'm sorry, why am I weak, so fucking weak I can't control myself and I lost her *kack* I lost her. I-I-I can't go on. I CAN'T DO IT ANYMORE," I cried on and on until morning. The sun broke through the curtains, I tried to hide but the sun seemed to find me in my state of dismay, my heartbroken, tear stricken state of solitude. I managed to get up and walk to the top of the house, I sat on the roof and took a deep breath. The thought of jumping flogged my mind, it seemed like such a sweet relief just a few moments of peace before it would be all over, no more pain, no more fear, no more memories. But I remained on the roof, something wouldn't let me it held me there and I felt comforted a bit, the suns rays warmed my backside and the smell of colorful flowers in Apple Acres filled the air, and for the first time I heard the birds true song of life. I decided to stay a while longer, to fight past my emotions and carry on. I ran down stairs quickly, falling as i did so and shot back up, running to my studio never seemed like such a long run but being beat down by grief can make anything seem hard. I broke down the door, grabbed my silver bone key and unlocked the chassis to where I kept my synthesizer. I carried it to the sound table next to the generator, I hooked it up and pressed the record button and began to pour all my feelings into one harmonious ballad of sounds that could make even a dragon feel pity. As tear drops hit the synthesizer new sounds were beginning to unfold, as if it too felt my pain and I continued to go on and work the new sound into the song. I composed on and on until the tune was complete, I wasted no time trying to fix it, it was a raw interpretation of my emotions, and I was going to save it till the Equestrian Musicians Contest where I knew she would be. IT was already dark out so I went to the bar to have a drink, It's a small gift that might let me forget for a moment. I walked in and sat down, I tapped my hoof to signify that i wanted a Hay Maker, the bar tender slid the drink down. I slammed it down, it burned as it went down, I tapped again and he sent another as the mare from a few nights ago sat next to me. she put her hoof on the one I left on the table as I pounded another before facing her. "Hey babe, you come back for another go hehe," the pony dancer said. "No, I don't want to see you, I came to get shit faced and leave," replied Vinyl. "Oh but you can't go home like that, you'll be hung over with nothing to remember," the pony dancer said cutely as she moved closer, I pushed her away and began to wobble out the door. "I'll always remember what I did, goodbye and please don't talk to me anymore," I slammed the door wobbling out of the bar, I began to tear up as I walked home and the fireflies danced around me. It seemed like my world got flipped, like everything was just pulled away in a blink of an eye, but I'll get it back and keep it. I made it home and fell a few times trying to climb the stairs, only two Hay Makers and there goes my coordination, but I managed to get up the stairs and collapse in my bed thinking about her....Octavia. "Octavia, where are you, where did you go Octavia....Oh there you are, why are you crying?" asked Vinyl questioningly "You did this to me, you killed me, you broke my heart," Whispered Octavia as she fell over onto the floor in the same spot she cried when she left, revealing the large gash in her chest. there was a trail of blood leading to where her heart lay, I gasped for breath scared out of my mind. "Wake up Vinyl wake up!" Vinyl screamed. "You can't run from this Vinyl, you can hide from what you did to MEEEE!" Octavia's mane began to turn black, she flacked up and ashes began to fall from her, her body slowly fell apart and she screamed the whole time as it happened. I watched crying in both fear and sadness for her as she faded away into ash. Tho only thing left was her heart on top of a table locked in a stone cage, I wanted to wake up I wanted to leave this damed place, but something made me stay and watch as she was blown away. I awoke in a cold sweat, my mane was dripping wet and my hoofs were cold, my vision was foggy and I could see my breath as I shot out of bed and ran downstairs to see if she was there...dead, burned alive somehow, but there was nothing there just the couch and rug that had always been there. I walked back upstairs and sat down on the recliner, I grabbed the glass of water on the counter top and chugged it all down. I got up and got in the shower, the hot water brought relief to my aced body as every part finally began to relax after that terrible, terrible nightmare. As the water ran down she played with her mane a little before getting out, she looked in the mirror and rubbed some of the fog away. "Five days," I said as I looked at myself bare and exposed in the mirror, eventually I left to style my mane before heading out to tackled another day. Day 1The birds were chirping and the smell of wild flower filled the air putting me into a sweet surrender for a while as I listened to the birds up beat tunes. The sun was breaking through the curtains into my room as I was accepting a new day, a day without Octavia. I came out of the trance quickly to realize that today was the Festival of Birds and I was told to stage a techno light show for the end of the Festival. I ran downs stairs grabbing my hooded jacket that I hoped will conceal me from everypony, to bad it was blue and purple with sapphire VINYL written on the back. I opened the door to my cottage and left to head out and see Flutter Shy before the festival started to get an idea on when i needed to have the song fine tuned by. I walked amongst a maze of ponies to get to her, it felt like everyone was staring at me as I walked, all those eyes trying to find answers but ears never willing to accept. I began to trot until I bumped into Flutter Shy. she was startled as normal but came through quickly when she realized who bumped her. "Oh, um hey Vinyl, hows the music coming along for the festival," ask Flutter Shy shyly. "Oh yeah it's almost done just need to fine tune it, so when does it need to be played?" I asked in reply. "It um, needs to be played at night fall if thats okay?" "Of course it is Flutter Shy, trust me girl it'll get done," I said as strongly as I walked away waving goodbye to Flutter Shy, I held back my emotions as best I could in that conversation. I wanted so badly to just open up to her, she would know what to say, she would make me feel secure even for a moment. But instead I'm going on to my studio to fine tune a song I promised for the Festival, The walk seemed shorter then the run I made yesterday but still as hard. I opened the door and sat down at my soundboard, I leaned over almost falling out of my chair trying to reach the song for the festival. I put the disk into the soundboard and waited for it to play, when it did the synthesizer began to glow, I looked over at it and touched it. It was.....cold, it seemed it knew how I felt even on such a glorious day. I plugged it in and composed a new song, the sounds from last night have changed and adapted to how I felt as I played and it glowed different colors depending on the mood of the song. "I want a song that will bring people together, give them the love that I lost," I said to myself as the synthesizer changed its glow to a light purple hue, the sounds changed to a more harmonized tune instead of a cold chilly beat. The synthesizers hue grew stronger and stronger the more and more I went on, the beat brought a tear to to my eyes and it fell on the synthesizer, it began to glow brighter and I covered my eyes before it exploded into a bright purple nova. It knocked me back a few feet into the wall, when I got up the glow began to fade away and fall. "*sniff, UGH* guess that means it's done, ha and still a few hours till I play, might as well enjoy the festival," I smiled at the thought of the festival, but before leaving I put my coat over the synthesizer, couldn't figure out why it was acting so strangely but I didn't care when there was a few Rainbows to drink. I opened the door, it felt warm and purple dust began to rise from it, I began to shake my mane out at the thought of having some of it on me but nothing came off, so I continued out. I walked out and the air filled with the joyous sound of birds and little fillies alike just having fun and playing, I put a fake smile on and walked out into the center of the Festival square. I stopped at the booth where they were serving Rainbow Juice and tapped my hoof, it was the bar tender Slick Hops serving the juice and he smiled at me sliding the tankard down. I reached into my bag to grab a few bits as a tip but he waved his hoof and I walked off with the drink in my hoofs. "VINYL *oof* VINYL," yelled Derpy as she clumsily found her way over, knocking over a few barrels of apples along her way. "Oh hey Derps whats up?" I asked holding my drink tighter. "Are you going to perform tonight Vinyl?" "Ha of course, it wouldn't be a party without me Derps," "Oh I know Vinyl can't wait for nightfall, well bye Ditsy needs me," Derpy said as she flew off in a awkward angle, such a fun pony she is to have around. But I went off and screwed around at some of the game booths making some kids feel bad about there game skills. I was having fun for once, I laughed without forcing it and played and began to blush from the juice but I didn't care. The thought of Octavia completely escaped my mind until I heard the sound of a violin playing. My heart began to race, me eyes were watery and my legs grew numb. "Oh Celestia, you're back, you're back Octavia!" I yelled running threw the crowd of ponies leading to the tent, tears were pouring down my face as I ran to see her. The sound became louder as I got next to the fine blue silk tent, I opened the curtains. "Octa....., no you're not her," a said sadly. "Not who deary," asked the elderly mare in reply. I began to cry, I gave in for once in public, ponies from all around the festival looked at me as i ran to the outskirts of the festival and hid behind a tree. I cried softly so no one would hear me. "How could I be so dumb, she's gone, she's fucking gone *sniff gasp* I-I can't believe I thought it was her...I *sniff aahhh eheh gasp aaaaaaahhhh*" I continued to cry under the tree as the birds watched me, some even landed next to me, it was a welcome comfort. Eventually the sounds of the bird chorus came into play and I let the sounds wash over me and relax my body, but dusk quickly came upon me, the darkness covered the stains left on my mane from the dirt and tears. I hoped nobody would recognize me just forget me breaking down like that, but i continued back into the festival. This time i knew every eye was on me as i held my head down, they stared at me with their wandering eyes, but ears ready to hear my truth. I walked on stage and everyone clapped I put another fake smile on, this one was harder then the last, this one couldn't hold a lie for long. "*sniff* AH sorry everyone, runny nose now are you ready for this!" I yelled and the crowd cheered on and on ready for a show, but a show is not what they were getting, but a story told with music instead. I plugged it in and the first harmonious chorus of sounds to wash over the crowd, the riled up ponies began to calm down and move closer to the ones they loved. The soundboard began to glow a purple hue along with me and the colors went into the crowd like a mist. It brought everyone closer and one, just one pony, the old pony from before began to cry because she could hear the story i wrote into the song, she felt the beat of my heartbreak. when the song was ended everyone cheered louder and louder they all went mad over the song but quickly calmed down and watched the purple hue of dust begin to float away into the sky. Everpony walked off with there special someone and i collected the music from the soundboard, I walked off the stage and began home but was stopped by the old lady. "Your story was beautiful, I heard your crying and felt your heart beat slower withing its pages," The old pony said, "Ho-how could you feel that, only....," I was confused at how she knew, at how she could hear my story. "I am an expert musician my dear and we hear things most people don't cause we understand good music is emotion, but true music is a story written and infused with your emotions to let the audience feel the song. Your song is a perfect example of this true music for it brought everypony together, but what is wrong dear, whats hurting you?" asked the old pony, her eyes were kind and body language showed me I could trust her. "I-I lost her *sniff* I lost my...MY OCTAVIA AAAHHHH!" I collapsed into the old ponies arms and she held me close, she whispered in my ear "It's ok" over and over but I couldn't stop. she held me and never let go, I could feel her heart beat and the hum of her voice as she continued to comfort me. Eventually I stood up still pouting but able to listen s she spoke. "It'll be ok deary, just go home and get some rest and come see me again sometime, an old mare like me gets lonely when her grandson never visits," She said walking away, soon disappearing behind darkness and water, I walked home pouting the whole way there. I opened the door and fell on the floor in the same spot as last time, the wind shut the door behind me. I began to cry again and soon fell asleep on the floor. "Vinyl Scratch, It's ok wake up honey," Said Octavia cooking something up in the kitchen, it smelt delicious and I rose from the floor. The air seemed foggy and the room was brighter then I thought it usually was. "Ugh honey why is it so.....OCTAVIA NO GET OUT OF HERE!!!" I yelled as I walked into a burning kitchen, I ran into it and a burning beam slammed down behind me blocking the exit. I looked around and found a blood trail leading outside, I fallowed it and broke down the door to the backyard. The sky was red and the earth began to break away as I walked closer and closer to the tree, there was a pool of blood around the tree. My heart raced as I fearfully walked around it only to see a horrifying sight. "*GASP* Octavia, no....NO OCTAVIA NOOOO!" I yelled out of fear at the sight in front of me, Octavia was pinned to the tree with her violin threw her heart. She looked up at me and pointed up, I saw her heart in that stone cage again but quickly looked down to see Octavia right in front of me. Blood was streaming from her eyes and the large gash remained in her chest from last time, she grabbed me by the throat and lifted me against the tree and sent her violin through me. "You'll never know what you did to me Vinyl," Octavia hissed. "Bu *kack, gag* But I know what I did *gasp* I'm sorry Octavia I'll get you ba-back," I said fighting threw the pain. "I hope you do Vinyl, but I don't think you have the HEART," Octavia yelled as she charged at me. "AHHH NO OCTAVIA! *gasp weeze gasp* oh Celestia, it seemed so real," I breathed heavily as I got out of bed, I wobbled over to the mirror and opened it to grab some herbs. As it closed I noticed Octavia, not the one I loved but the horror she became in my dreams, I jumped and turned quickly but nothing was there. I took the herbs and went to the recliner in my room and sat down. " Four more days," I said with hope in my heart. Day 2As I rose from my recliner I walked back into the bathroom to shower for a new day, I turned on the shower and went to the area where I saw...her. There was nothing there, nothing at all. "Ah stupid nightmares got me seeing things again, I need to shower," I said as I walked into the shower and washed out my mane. I took the comb from the shelf in the shower and pulled the knots from my mane, wincing as I did. I Turned off the shower and walked out to look in the mirror, I was pleased to see all the dirt and grime from last night was off of me. I went downstairs and poured some Wheat Thins into a bowl, I opened the fridge to grab some milk that I bought yesterday. I poured it in the bowl and walked over to my cot and began to read the news paper for anything interesting. Nothing, like usual, so I quickly finished my cereal and headed out the door. I walked out and was greeted again, by the suns glorious rays and they warmed my body so well. I took a deep breath and could smell the food made yesterday at the Festival as work ponies began to clean up it up. I continued on to the market to buy some food for the coming days, there were stands for everything you could ever want to eat scattered across the market area. The sounds and buzzing feeling you get walking into the place livened up your senses. It made you feel like a bee in a hive just going around trying to stay out of every other bee's way as they worked. I walked up to my favorite stand and was greeted by Ripcord. "Hey hey hey, Vinyl Scratch, heard your song last night, very good," said Ripcord joyfully. "Oh thanks bro, so what have you got for me this week?" I asked. "Ha nothing but the best for you girl, now take a look at this," Ripcord walked over to a chest that he kept specialty items in for his "Favorite Customer". he walked back over slamming the trunk down down so hard the top flew open, barely missing his head. "BAM, hahaha not to shabby huh Scratch," "No, not at all Ripcord so how much for, whatever this is?" "This scratch is nothing but the finest fruits brought in from over seas, It has been magically enhanced so it never goes rotten...very good shipping technique if you ask me," "Oh sweet bro, how much is it though?" "Free of charge Scratch," He leaned closer to me "I heard about you an Octavia, I'm so so sorry Scratch, so just take it." Ripcord pushed the trunk over to me. I began to tear up at this generous gift, It's nice to have a good friend in a time like this. I put the trunk on my back and Ripcord strapped it for me, he smiled and waved me off as I walked of to see what else people had to offer. I scoured the market place stopping only one other time a stall, It said "Trixie's Lovely Psychiatry" very cheesy but after what I'v been seeing in my dreams I wanted to know what was happening. I walked in and saw Trixy whipping another colt strapped to a bed, She looked over and winked while motioning for me to come over. "Nope, nope nope fuck this, just no," I said as I turned a round and walked out the door. "How is that lovely, or psychiatry?" I asked myself as I walked to my studio to unpack. I entered the room and saw that my synthesizer was still glowing, but in a rainbow of colors. I disregarded for now and walked over to the fridge and unpacked the various fruits. They smelt so very sweet and looked delicious, I decided to try one. It was a small purple one that had red spots all over it, It smelt like and apple mixed with a grape, but I continued to take a bite. The sweet taste filled my mouth and I fell into a trance of deliciousness. I took small bites and savored the fruits, but quickly got up and ran to the fridge. "Oh, Octavia would.....Oh, I forgot again...she's gone," I fell down in front of the fridge and laid on it. "Fuck..*sniff*.. I'm so stupid hurting myself like that, why.....* BANG BANG BANG*" someone loudly banged on the door, I quickly regained my composure as best as I could and walked over to the door. I looked trough the peep hole and saw the old mare from last night. "Hello, deary it's me, Soft Treble, from last night?" Soft Treble asked as she continued to knock. "Soft Treble, a nice name actually,Um hang on I'll let you in," I yelled back letting Soft Treble into the studio, she walked in and hugged me tightly. She eventually let go even though I never wanted to, but I did and she sat down letting her case drop as she did so. She looked around as if examining the room for anything strange, she stopped and stared at my synthesizer. "Oh very interesting, mind if I take a look deary," Soft Treble asked. "*sniff* ah no, not at all go ahead," I replied moving closer to her as she began to tinker with my synthesizer. She looked at it closer and began to smile as the synthesizer colorful hues began to fade. She flipped it over and looked closely at it, she smiled again and swiveled to look at me. "Touch it deary, open the lock," She said smiling at me, I reached down to touch it and the colorful hue came back. The closer I got the warmer it got and the more intense the hue got and finally I touched it. The back sprang open and revealed a glowing heart in the center of the machine, I backed up in fear as I saw the machinery around it. "Ah exactly what I thought, you see this deary?" She asked as i moved closer. "It's a changeling heart, but not like others, its been purified so it doesn't feed off your emotions, it bolsters them. As you can see it feeds and power the machine as you play," "Bu-but what about the colors and how it changed it's sounds depending on my mood," I asked. "Oh it never did that before?" "Nope, just when....Octavia left," I turned around saying this to cover my emotions from Soft Treble. She was old but not dumb and came over and put her arm around me. "Come, sit down deary, I'll explain," She walked with me over to the couch in the recording room. She shut the door and sat down with me, she sat down and I sat next to her resting my head on her shoulder. She put her hoof on my mane and moved it out my face and looked at me. "The Changeling heart must of been dormant all these years until it was awakened by you true emotions. The shear magnitude of your fear and sadness had opened up it's magical properties. So with all this magic the synthesizer could feel your pain and adapt it's music to how you felt, as it was always meant to. But I want to know about you, what happened deary." "Wh-what do you mean," "With you and Octavia, what happened?" She looked at me and I began to tear up at the thought of her again, I put my arm around her and moved in closer, she began to comfort me as I spoke. "I-I cheated on her *Sniff* I wasn't thinking clearly cause I was drunk and her voice. *sniff aaahhh* her voice made my body melt a-and I lost myself in her *sniff sniff* I-I fucked up Soft Treble, I love her......*whimper sniff* I loved her, *ahhhhhahaha-eheh-sniff-kack-sniff-ahhhh* I LOVED HER!" I yelled and pulled myself closer into her and he just hummed and held me as I cried into her shoulder. My mind raced at finally admitting to somepony, somepony I barely knew but it felt good. Soft Treble held me but moved her head up, I looked at her and she kissed me on th forehead and I began to lose it again. "Why, why do you care so much about me?" I whispered as I began to calm down. "Because Octavia is my granddaughter," She said to me, I sat back and broke out of her arms. "I-I thought you had a grandson?" "Yes and a granddaughter deary, I didn't mention it to you because you weren't ready to hear it," "Eye's looking for answers," "But ears never willing to listen," She replied and pulled me back in again, I didn't fight it. She began to sing the lullaby that Octavia sang to me when I was sad, this was her grandmother. I hugged her tighter and began to relax as I calmed down, she embraced me more and continued to hum. Eventually she got up, I looked at her and waited for her to talk. "Go get her back Vinyl, she still loves you, trust me," said Soft Treble softly as she stood in the doorway. "I will Soft Treble, I will," I said smiling as she walked out the door. I laid there for a little bit and thought to myself, "she's Octavia's grandmother, and my synthesizer is...magic?" but I got up and walked out of the studio. I locked the door and started off to go see what i could do for the other half of my day. I walked out to Twilights house to see if she knew anything about nightmares. *knock knock knock* "COME IN," yelled Twilight. I proceeded to open the door, there were books everywhere so I knew twilight was in work mode. "Oh Vinyl, whats up?" Twilight asked as she continued her tests in magic. "Twilight, what do you know about nightmares?" I asked, she turned around quickly and trotted down the stairs grabbing a book on the way. Spike came out of nowhere with a stand for twilight to put the book upon. "If I remember correctly, nightmares are cause by a multitude of things such as fear, anxiety, sadness or you saw something scary and you couldn't stop thinking about it. Funny thing about dreams is that we have thousands of them in our sleep but only the ones we have in REM sleep we remember. REM stand for Rapid Eye Movement because in this deep level of sleep your eyes move quickly as if trying to examine this new world." "What, ok thats cool," I said pretending to understand. "So when did you start having nightmares?" "When...Octavia left," "Oh I'm so sorry Vinyl, I didn't know" "It's ok twilight, please don't tell anyone," "Promise, but this could be a bad thing, because of your deep depression and fear of loosing her it might have manifested into Night Terrors. These are bad because Night Terrors can actually kill you, and the victims remember the dreams so vividly they never forget it." "Oh so I'm having Night Terrors?" "Possibly, but be careful Vinyl ok, I don't wanna see you get swallowed up by this ordeal," "Nothing will happen Twilight, thanks but I need to go," I said this waving as I walked out the door. The sound of these night terrors sounded horrifying, but at least I know that...thing is only a dream. So I continued to bar, it was getting dark out and after all I heard today I needed to relax my brain, or kill it. SO I walked in and Slick Hops motioned me over to the counter, he put a Hay Maker with a Rainbow Killer shot on the table. I put them together and slammed it down, I made the craziest face to the feel of the burn. Slick Hops smiled at the sight and everyone including me in the area enjoyed a good laugh. After a few of those Rainbow Killers I wobbled home, It was very dark out tonight because of the new moon so I hit a few things on the way. I reluctantly made it home and tried to climbed the stairs up to the bedroom, but fell half way up and fell down banging my head on the floor hard enough to pass out. This time the dream was different, I heard the lullaby that Octavia always sang. She was sitting in a swing across a field of flowers, she swung back and forth not a care in the world. I ran through the haze, but before getting to her a bunch of birds flew up in front of me. When they cleared, She was in front of me but this time was different. She wasn't dead, she wasn't evil she was, Octavia. "Vinyl, what have I become in here?" Octavia asked. "You became a monster in my head, the fear drove me mad internally and created you," I replied. "But I'm not a monster.....not yet, hahaha," She laughed menacingly as the field disappeared. We were standing on a stage now and the spot light shown on us, there was no crowd, just us. "I never truly became a monster, you do know that don't you?" "Yes, you never were though," "Then why do you fear me in this state of mind, I can smell it Vinyl," She moved closer and sniffed me. "Because your not Octavia, you'll never be her," "Oh but I look like her, talk like her and feel like her," She moved closer and held me, he hoof rubbed against me gently as she whispered in my ear. "Just let go, forget Octavia when you can have me,". I slowly began to fall into the spell she put around me, but broke free from her grasp and stared at her. "YOUR NOT OCTAVIA, you'll never be her, your just a sick monster in my dreams and nothing more," "Oh shit, she's angry hahaha well dear then just wake up and leave me here, don't worry you'll see me again soon enough," She began to laugh louder as the doors to the theater opened up. I quickly ran out into the light and when I reached the doors in the dream, I awoke on the floor. I got up holding my head and looked over on the couch and she was sitting there smiling, I blinked and she disappeared as quickly as she appeared. "Fucking bitch,I'll never let her have control of me, she never get control," I said to myself as I moved over to the couch and sat down. when I did a knock came on the door, It was Soft Treble and she looked frightened. Day 3I was sitting there on the couch with Soft Treble, she looked scared like she had a nightmare. I went to the kitchen to make some Sun Tea to help calm her nerves. "One or Two lumps Treble?" I asked as I leaned over to see through the doorway. "Oh, two please, I like it sweet deary," Soft Treble whimpered as she began to relax on the couch. I walked over and set the tray on the table, I used a small hint of magic to float the cut over to Soft Treble. She grasped it weakly in her hoofs as she leaned upward to drink some of the tea, she smacked her lips and set the cup back down on the table. I backed up into my chair and sat down to enjoy my tea also, so I floated the cup over to to my mouth and tried a little. I cringed at the raw taste of the sun tea, Soft Treble smiled for she knew I didn't understand Sun Tea was very strong. I poured the rest back into the pot and sat back down, Soft Treble looked at me as she took a deep breath in relaxation. "Vinyl, I heard you've been having...Night Terrors," said Soft Treble quietly. "Y-yes I have how did you know?" I asked in surprise. "Because deary I can tell by the look in your eyes, I didn't quite understand what that feeling was yesterday. So I got up and looked through some old photo albums and remembered my granddaughter had the same problems as a filly. She was terrified to go into the house, she always said "NO, no he's waiting for me," and we didn't understand who she was frightened of. Eventually she overcame these fears but at a great cost, she had to leave home...forever." "So your saying i have to leave home?" "No, I'm saying you need help that I can't give," "Then, then how do I get this monster out of my head," "For now fight it, fight it off and keep control Vinyl," "I will Treble," I said as I sat back, sinker deeper into the recliner. Soft Treble got up after finishing her cup of tea and trotted out the door. On her way out she pulled a few pictures out of her bag and set them on the desk. I got up quickly as the door shut and cantered over to the desk, they were pictures of Octavia as a kid. She was absolutely adorable, always looking happy like nothing was troubling her. I looked through the pictures and only stopped to look at a few with Octavia and Soft Treble in the same picture, eventually I reached the last one. I looked at it closely at it, it was Octavia again, but as first chair in the Princesses Processional/Recessional Band. She looked positively jubilant, a tear was in her eye and she was looking at someone, I backed away a little to see who it was. It was me waving back at her. "Oh *sniff* oh Celestia, I remember this day, our first...date," I said as my eyes began to water, I remembered the day so well. It was a warm fall evening, Octavia was holding my hoof pulling me through the crowd. She laughed the whole time out of excitement and I was blushing cause she was holding my hoof. We eventually pulled through the mass of ponies at the back door entrance of the auditorium, she kissed me and handed me a ticket. "You'll be in the first row were I can see you haha," Octavia giggled, "Oh this is so exciting but I'm so nervous I mean what if i miss the first octave in the middle ch....," I stopped Octavia by grabbing her with both my hoofs and kissing her gently, she looked at me blushing redder than a apple and looked down for a little. "You'll do grate babe, now get out there and show Celestia your the best," I said moving her hair out of her face as she looked back up at me. Her purple eyes glistening with the street lamps and moonlight, I wanted to kiss her again but I knew I had to let her go and play. So I let go and she smiled and tried to hide her true emotions but I knew she loved me, I sat there under the street lamp for a while. Eventually I heard the started B flat octave for the band warm up and ran into the theater to take my seat. As I sat Octavia looked over and smiled with a tear in her eye and waved back. The concert ended and I met Octavia behind the massive velvet curtains of the theater. I embraced her deeply and she did too, my heart raced in this moment of sheer joy and bliss. "I'm so glad you were here, it made this concert perfect," Octavia said quietly. "No, you did," I said stereotypically, she came closer to me and fell asleep. Everyone looked at me when she started snoring, I laughed a little because it was cute. I lifted her up and carried her out of the theater and walked out on the street, I tried to hale a cab but didn't want to wake her. So I carried her to the apartment building, my legs were exhausted climbing the three stories of stairs trying to get to the room. I opened the door, probably should have locked it, but I walked in and set her on the bed. I placed her gently into the sheets, I stepped back and looked at her, she was happy and smiling in her sleep. "Goodnight, little baby," I said as I kissed her on the head. "*guh* snot......bab....meh," Octavia said in her sleep. I went to the kitchen to pour a quick drink before joining her. Oh the thought of being in the same bed as her drove me mad, but she was fast asleep. She looked peaceful in her deep sleep, I drank my mix and climbed in next to her. I gathered my courage and got closer until we were to close to separate, she whined softly and rubbed herself into me. I put my arm around her and drifted into sleep. It was a perfect day, and the perfect end. "I miss you so much right now Octavia, please please please still love me," I said under my breathe, a tear found it way down my face and on to the photo. I looked at it for a few minutes longer, losing a battle of emotions that I never had control of anyways. I put the photo down and covered my face. "How could it come to this, we loved each other so much not even Celestia could pull us apart. I'de bass cannon armies just to get to you Octavia *sniff ahhha* I would do everything just for you to be happy, everything *sniff*" I cried again, stuffing my face in the cushion trying to muffle the screams. The memories brought back so much pain, but it was a good pain too me. I couldn't stop this time, this time I didn't go outside to greet the birds or the sun, this time it would hurt to fake my emotions. I walked over to the kitchen to fix up something to eat, all I had to eat was hay, again. So I decided to put a fake smile on anyways and go to Sugar Cube Corner for a afternoon snack. I opened the door and the sun hurt my eyes, but soon they adjusted to its rays. I walked to Sugar Cube Corner, I and I noticed some kids looking at me angrily as I walked on. They seemed to remember me embarrassing them at the festival yesterday, they stuck their tongues out at me and I smiled back. I continued on and eventually saw Pinky Pie at the front door. "OH, oh Vinyl, Vinyl come here quick, quick," yelled Pinky Pie, she is a crazy pony but lovable all the same. "Hey Pinks, whats got your senses all messed up today?" I asked. "I got this super duper recipe for the greatest cake EVER, even gummy loved it," "Oh sweet lets see it Pinks," I followed Pinky Pie into the bakery. Mr. and Mrs.Cake were working tediously like usual to bring delicious treats to everyone in Ponyville. I nodded as I walked by and they smiled back as I followed Pinky Pie to a casket, it gleamed in the light and Pinky looked anxiously at it. She began to drool, I did too just looking at her but she moved closer to it. "Behold, The Peach Reach Mountain!" Pinky yelled loudly, startling the Cakes. "Oh wow, that looks delicious, how much Pinks?" "No charge, just let me know how it was when your done," "Haha no problem, thanks Pinks," I said as my eyes began to sparkle with joy at this magnificent cake. I put the cake into a cart and totted it back home to enjoy, on the way everyponies eyes began to wonder onto the case. There eyes sparkled like mine did at it's grandeur. I totted it back home and upon entry of the house I felt relaxed, I walked into the kitchen and put it on the table. The case was cold and the notched on the side indicated where it was supposed to be opened. I flicked a switch *Hsssss, pop* the case opened slowly and the cake began to reveal itself, it looked marvelous. I spared no time and devoured the cake, It filled my mouth with magnificent flavors of peach, mango, strawberry and whipped cream. It filled my stomach withing minutes, I burped on completion of the cakes delicious end. I managed over to the chair and sat down. I got up right away and lit a fire in the fireplace and walked back to the chair, slowly sinking back into it. I felt tired, my stomach grumbled and my mind yelled at me to sleep. I got relaxed and fell into a deep sleep again. "Oh your back girl, you come back to tell me that I'll never win," said the monster mockingly. "Wh-where are we now?" I asked. "Oh my home, you see I want you to feel at home when I kill you," "No ones dying here, now answer me one question," as i said this she turned around holding a violin in her hands. It was stained in blood and she sat down on a chair, I was somehow pushed into a chair to and a spotlight came down on us. The only thing I could see was her, a rug and a record player. She pushed the nub over and a quiet beat began to play, she the violin like Octavia and composed a new song to this beat. It was creepy, and off putting but still good. "And what is your question," she eventually asked. "Why are you haunting me in my dreams, why not leave," "Oh girl I can't go, I'm your manifested fear, I'll always be with you," when she finished the chairs fibers were wrapped around my hands legs and head. I didn't feel it happening. "*ugh* let me go!" I pleaded but she kept moving closer to me, She broke the violin and pulled off a string. She came closer and got in my face, she reached into her body and pulled out a sewing needle. "Lets shut that mouth shall we," She quickly sewed my mouth shut, it was so quick I couldn't fight. She began to laugh and grab the violin stem. She came back and looked at me with her deathly, blood filled eyes. "If she can't here you scream, haha, how can she save you girl," She said ramming the violin into my leg. I couldn't scream, I tried but nothing came out. I felt hopeless in this state and she knew it so she continued to laugh and pulled the stem out and rammed it into my other leg. The pain was intense and I still couldn't scream, eventually the blood loss was getting to me and I became dizzy, she looked at me again and smiled. I passed out. "*Gasp, weeze, gasp* Holy shit, oh god, uh *Byuuuuugg*" I threw up on the floor in front of me. My stomach hurt, and I was sweeting from the pain. My legs felt like they still had a her violin stem in them, I got up and walked to the mirror. I looked in it and grabbed a comb to work my hair out for today. "She's trying hard to win, but she won't, I won't fucking let her," I said in the mirror, soon I finished combing my hair. I looked in the mirror for a while longer to admire my work, but I heard a violin playing in the background. I quickly turned around and she was sitting on the chair playing it, I took a step forward and she disappeared. I thought it was Octavia for a moment, but again my mind and heart were playing tricks on me. I got up and took a deep breath. "2 more days," I said happily. Day 4I walked up stairs to grab a few items for todays show in Apple Acres, I had to put on a show for the coming apple harvest. Every year in Ponyville, ponies from across the surrounding farming communities come in and celebrate the coming harvests. I was personally asked by Apple Jack to put on a light show to put everyone into a harvesting mood. I happily obliged of course, but this was two weeks ago, before Octavia left me. I gathered my items and headed back down stairs, I again heard a violin playing in the back of my mind but I disregarded it and continued on. I reached for my jacket but couldn't find it. "Where is that damned th....Oh yeah it's at the studio, haha so forgetful," I told myself as I headed out the door. I walked outside and it was cloudy out and gloomy, very few ponies were out except the pegasis ponies moving the clouds in for the day. It was an unscheduled drizzle of rain for the day to help soften down the ground for the Harvest Festival. I floated newspaper over my head as the rain came, It was a soft rain but I still didn't want to get wet. I began to run to my studio as the rain slowly became harder, I saw lighting and looked at it as I ran. It was blue lightning which was a treat on days like this, but because of my carelessness I broke down the door to my studio. The door was under me and mud flew into the room and onto the floor, I got up and kicked my hoofs off before entering the room. As I got up I realized that Soft Treble was sitting in the chair waiting for me, she looked terrified upon my entrance but relaxed as I pulled the mud off my face. "Oh Celestia deary, you startled me," Soft Treble said. "Sorry, the blue lightning distracted me and...door," I blushed as I spoke. "Ah door, well now deary I heard that you had to perform today at Apple Acres. So I thought we could add some class to your music," "That would be wonderful Treble," I said motioning Soft Treble into the recording room. "Here put these headphones on and I'll play to the beat for the song. After your done we'll incorporate your music into what will be made for the Festival," I yelled through the glass because the door slammed shut as Soft Treble entered. I pointed up at a red light and flashed it green a few timed before letting remain a solid green flicker. She began to play a soft, sweet melody, and the hum of her violin only echoed the beautiful sound that was being composed. I listened close and heard something different about the song, I heard words as I turned up the volume. It was a story, a sad story with a sweet serenity to it. She continued on and my eyes began to water, I felt her heart song, what she was feeling years ago when Octavia left forever. Upon completion of her Recessional my head was already hidden with my arms and I was whimpering softly, I didn't notice that she left the studio. She came up behind me and rubbed my back and put her head next to mine. "You can hear the story now can't you?" She whispered into my ear. "*sniff* yes, it's beautiful, and I heard it, the words," I replied softly. "Now you know why I care," "because you too lost Octavia, Treble," I whimpered softly to her. I raised my head and Soft Treble backed away, I looked at her and she had a tear slowly falling down her face. I got up and pulled her into me, this time it was her turn to let out the pain she bottled up over the years. Yet she couldn't cry, Soft Treble only smiled and said thank you. She let go and looked at my synthesizer, I looked over at it too and it was glowing a warm orange color. I went over and touched it softly and hue became stronger as I rubbed the chassis, the warmth of of glow was calming. "It's ready, go and play it Vinyl," Said Soft Treble quietly. I grabbed the synthesizer and carried it into the the studio, I plugged it in as the door shut behind me. I set it gently on the table in the studio, I placed my hand back on it and felt the heartbeat of the machine. It was slow and rhythmic, and you could feel the pulses in the magic it extruded from the speakers. I turned the machine on and began to play, the sounds it made were warm and frantic putting you in a calm state. The synthesizer hue began to grow brighter and it slithered it's way onto the floor and creating a foggy affect onto the floor. This mystical feeling brought warmth to my body and relaxed my muscles, I was going numb everywhere but still remained standing. The hue began to grow brighter and stronger, I backed up thinking it was going to explode again. Yet it didn't, instead it made the dust floated in the floor wave and jump to the beat. I came back to it and started to hit the bass harder, the treble exploded along side it and a soft piano sound filled the background. I looked up and Soft Treble was smiling, she knew that the song was about hope although it may not sound like it to an untrained ear. I finished the song and stepped back form the synthesizer and watched as the hue slowly began to fade. I smiled because for once, for what seemed like forever, I wasn't alone. I was accepted by a mare who I never saw, but knew me well. Soft Treble smiled as I walked out and hugged me. "Beautiful deary, just beautiful," Soft Treble said quietly. I walked over to the soundboard and started to mix the two sounds, it took a few minutes but the two completely different styles mixed perfectly. It brought a warm feeling into your heart when the song was played, it was perfect. I grabbed my synthesizer and the disk from the soundboard, I waved to Soft Treble as I ran out the door. It was slippery out but the heat from the sun quickly dried the ground and made it easy to run on, I ran as fast as I could to Apple Acres. I reached it quickly and ran into the orchard where they were holding the event. I decided to come early to enjoy in the festivities and the games earth ponies traditionally partake in. The one thing I thoroughly enjoy is a drinking contest where all earth ponies tested there livers against one another. There was one were it was a Hay Maker heavy drop, I walked over to watch this. It was amazing to see how much these ponies could drink actually, one of the actually finished an entire keg in 5 minutes and walked off like nothing happened. It was wonderful to see this and more, as I walked away one of them grabbed my hind hoof and pulled me back. "Where do you think your going little pony, it's your turn," said a bug gray one enthusiastically. " Ok then, lets do this shall we," I said confidently as they carried me cheering to the table. They set me down and slided a tankard in front of me, another large brown pony, speckled in black sat down on the other end. They slid him a tankard and he grasped it harshly in his hoof, the other earth ponies gathered round and watched this spectacle. "A unicorn drinking more than an earth pony," said an earth pony. "Yeah it's unheard of," said another. "Hey shush up lets see what she can do," a third one chimed in. They all watched intently, waiting to see who could drink more. The refry put his hoof on the table, we both nodded and he threw his hoof into the air. I slammed the first one down as fast as the other pony and quickly another one appeared in front of me. After about five full tankards my head began to hurt with my stomach, the other pony looked like he was about to fall over to but we continued to drink. Soon 9 were down and I couldn't hold it down anymore, I was about to throw up but the other pony did first. I held my juices down and all the earth ponies came in and hoisted me up cheering, they yelled and threw drinks into the air in celebration. The fact that I out drank a farmer was impressive to these ponies and they revered me for a while before letting me down. The day drew on as I sobered up under a tree, the light was filtered through the leaves of the tree. The birds chirped along with the earth ponies festive songs, the smell of freshly brewed Rainbow Juice filled the air. It was a good afternoon and I watched the ponies dance and sing along joyously, they didn't care about anything today. It was there day. So sun down came quickly and I tried to get up and walked back to the farm, I heard a pony nervously speaking on the stage trying to entertain the others. as I walked I noticed the pony she looked familiar but then it hit me. Apple Jack was sitting on stage stalling as best she could and soon she noticed me and she quickly diverted the attention. "And then she....OH HEY look the entertainment is here, everyone give large round of applause for VINYL SCRATCH!" She trotted quickly down the stairs of the stage and stopped me before I went up. "Hey sugar, thanks for getting here when you did, it was getting mighty tough to entertain these fellas," Apple Jack said weakly, I nodded and went up the stairs to the stage. When I got up the crowd began to cheer and clap for me, I paid no attention and set up the synthesizer quickly. It began to glow that warm orange glow, I plugged the CD into the synthesizer. The music was hypnotizing and put everyone into a trance, the combination of techno and viola was magnificent. The synthesizer created an orange glow that drifted its way off the the stage and me, the audience became more relaxed and happy. Then the bass dropped with a heavy treble and the crowd was put into a jubilant state and smiled brightly, they had a feeling brought unto them that only a emotion could pull out. The waves of amber began to fade away as the song did and all the earth pony farmers began to rise from there seats. Relaxed and calmed they said goodbye to everyone and walked there separate ways. I grabbed the synthesizer and walked off the stage in the opposite direction of the other ponies. It was dark out and the orchard was gleaming in the moonlight, the smell of freshly grown apple filled the night air. I walked on and suddenly was stopped by the sound of a violin, I turned around thinking Octavia came to the festival. She knew I played today, I knew she still loved me. "Octavia.....OCTAVIA, where are you?" I yelled and searched frantically, I ran through the orchard and found nothing. My synthesizer dropped along with me, the sound disappeared with the moon that night. The clouds moved in quickly and it began to drizzle again, it was light unlike my heart. I wanted so bad to believe she came back, my mind was bent and beaten to make me believe she was here. "Why *sniff ahhh* WHY!! AAAHHHHH....." I yelled wobbling around in my sudden depression. I couldn't get over the fact the I believed this illusion. I wanted her back so badly I believed anything....just anything. "I just want you back, I just want you back Octavia *sniff*. I JUST WANT YOU OCTAVIA.....*aaaahhh*fuck me she can't hear me, she's *sniff* gone," I cried into the night. Yelling and kicking not caring if anyone heard me, the soft touch of the rain kissed my skin. It's cold embrace held me lightly on the ground, and I began to tire. My heart was to heavy to let me leave, so I stayed on the ground and let the night take me. "Hey, haha welcome back girl. I was getting boared," Said the monster mockingly. I was in the orchard rising from where I fell asleep. It was Black everywhere I looked and the only thing i could see was 7 trees around me, and her. She climbed down from the ladder wearing a stray hat and holding an apple. I looked at her intently and she smiled back. "So how are your legs girl, are they haha a bit stiff," it asked in a rude tone. She continued on eating the apple and walked closer to me. "Why do you care, your just a lie!" I hissed back at her. She began to laugh loudly and a bloody tear ran down her face, she stopped abruptly and disappeared in a black haze. I felt a hoof on my flank and spun around quickly, she was there and her mane began to fall of revealing the wound from before. "Oh girl your just hurting my feeling, If I'm a lie how can I do this," She said softly as she lifted me by the throat up slammed me to the ground. "You can't tell me this doesn't feel real to you girl, you can't tell me that I'n a LIE!" She yelled and the roots shot through my arms and legs. They wrapped quickly around me limbs and held me down, the blood trickled from the openings of the roots. I screamed in pain and she just laugh along. "*GUH* ah why do you do this *AAAHHH* to m-me?" I asked weakly fighting the pain. The roots pulled tighter and and went deeper into my skin, wrapping around my bones. I cried out into the darkness but no one heard. "HA, you think I enjoy this, no. I enjoy this *clop*" She clicked her hoofs and the roots ripped my left arm off. "AAAAAHHHHH FUCK!" I yelled as the roots began to tighten around my other limbs. She smiled intently, and put her hoofs back up. "N-n-no p-please no more, just l-let me go," I pleaded. "Only if you let me out," " Fuck you," I said weakly, she smiled and got close to my face. "So be it," She said quickly. She turned around and clacked her hoofs three times, the roots began to constrict and then *RIP* every limb was ripped from my body and pulled into the ground. It was so painful I couldn't scream, the pain was making me black out and she came close to me and whispered into my ear. "I'll win soon enough my dear, I certainly don't need your permission to do so either," She said as I blacked out. I jumped up off the ground in Apple Acres and toppled myself over. I couldn't feel my arms or legs and I fell into a tree, the Night Terror was intense this time. I was sweating still and the pain was still there in my muscles, I wanted to die in the dream but I couldn't let her win. The morning was cold and I couldn't move from fear and pain, I felt helpless and just sat there. The LetterI walked out of the field slowly, my limbs still felt like they weren't attached. As I walked I heard noises, musical instruments of all sorts playing off in the distance. "The Musicians Festival," I gasped at this realization. The music festival was today and I completely forgot about it, I began to run but fell over in a feeble attempt. My limbs still ached from the dream, how could they hurt so bad from a dream. I got back up, legs shacking under my weight and I continued to walk. The cool breeze only settled the mood I was in, cold, dying on the inside. Yet hope decided to play a card in my favor and Soft Treble was walking up the hill toward me, she was holding a mix tape. It was mine, I walked down a little faster to meet her in the middle. She smiled when she saw me and I did the same, we met in middle and hugged. "Oh deary I've been looking for you everywhere, you need to go down and perform. Here hand me your CD and run along," Soft Treble said quickly. "Thank you Treble, this will save me so much time," I said happily while trading CD's with her. She ran off quickly to go get her violin I presumed and I began to walk down the hill again. My mood was instantly brightened by the surprise visit of Soft Treble, my legs began to regain feeling finally so I ran down the hill. I reached the bottom and used the momentum of the run to shoot past Soft Treble looking back and smiled brightly at her. The grass waved slowly from the wind generated from my run, it's golden waves made this cold day seem brighter. I smiled without forcing it, the beauty of the landscape could make even a dragon smile. I ran faster then I've ever ran before and reached the festival in no time at all. The festival was a mass of pony musicians of all types, all with unique talents and abilities. The art of music is put on display in this spectacle of arts, the air filled with all kinds of different music types as each pony played. I couldn't believe my eyes at the sight of this, so many musicians, so many sounds but none like mine. No one here had a story, only a fast paced riff raff that all ponies could understand. I shouldn't judge, I was the same weeks ago but then I heard the truth of music. So I continued to walk up to my tent that Derpy kinda set up. "Go Derps, almost got I....," I was cut off by some ruffling coming from under the tent and soon Derpy came out from under it with all sorts of speaker cable tangled around her. "Hey Vinyl, I almost got it set up just gotta find where these go," Derpy said confused. "Haha it's alright Derps, I can handle it from here," I said enthusiastically. Walked over to her and unwrapped the cables from her body, she smiled and flew off to go see her little Dinky play her recorder. I walked in and put the synthesizer on the stand, I grabbed the cable laid on the floor and carefully hooked the cords into the synthesizer and speakers. I pushed the speakers out in front of the tent, everypony watched as I floated one one top of the other. It made a stack of two on both sides of the tent, ponies began to gather around my tent and I walked back into it. Soon I ripped the curtains down and the true nature of the tent was revealed, it was a giant sub woofer. I grabbed the the microphone and addressed the crowd. "Hello visitors in Ponyvill, are you ready to rock!" I yelled through the mike. Everypony cheered and watched intently as I dialed up the volume and put the track on five, within seconds the bass exploded and the massive sub shook the crowd. They all stood up quickly startled at the boom, a shock wave shook all the tents in the surrounding are. I stood up for the shock nocked me over and dialed the music down. "Sorry everypony, technical difficulty," I said blushing. The music began shortly after the bang was corrected and the air filled with the sounds of hundreds of instruments. I noticed that ponies were still surrounding my tent listening silently to my music, all marking something down on the voting card. I sat there and continued to play my techno and watch the others closely, they all seemed to become happy listening to my music. I soon I heard a sound that seemed all to familiar, I looked back and saw little Dinky Hooves tooting away on her recorder. Derpy was following closely behind her smiling with absolute glee enjoying her little filly trying to play her recorder. Dinky landed awkwardly on top of me and Derpy landed next to us. "Vinyl Scratch, listen I figured out how to play hot cross buns," Dinky said quickly. She began to play, the sound was scratchy and out of tune but it was still cute. Derpy was blushing in excitement of her daughters new found abilities, I was smiling at how funny Derpy looked. She was rubbing her face and scrunching it in awkward positions in her excitement. "So Vinyl what do you think, was it good?" Dinky asked me. "It was wonderful DInky, a class act," I said enthusiastically. "Really, you think so," Dinkies eyes were sparkling as she asked this. I said nothing in return and just kissed her on the head, she flew off and Derpy came next to me. " Thank you Vinyl, I'm so proud of her," Derpy began to tear up. You could tell that it was a mothers love in her eyes when she looked at me. "It was good, and your welcome Derps," I said to her. I leaned over and hugged her, she smiled and walked back. She looked at me before flying off cock eyed into the sky. It was nice to have a friend like Derpy, although people question her parenting. They don't know her like I do, but my mind drifted off and I didn't realize that my music wasn't playing. I quickly ran back to turn it back on, luckily nobody left and they all clapped when the music came back on. All my music was made before the concert, except for the music I made for Octavia. I wanted to go out and look for her but never did for I knew she would hear my song soon enough. The night came over Ponyville and everypony knew what it meant. Time to reveal the final act, everypony was given a card to jot down a name for the winner. The score tallier, walked onto the the stage and drew in a deep breath. "Welcome everypony to the Equestria Musicians Contest, it is my pleasure to announce the winner of this years contest," Yelled the announcer. Everypony cheered in excitement and watched in anticipation to see who would be crowned winner. "And this years winner is, Vinyl Scratch!" Yelled the announcer. I walked, chest buffed out onto the stage, everypony was cheering loudly still. I got up to the podium and waved to the crowd, I walked back and put my CD into the music player. The system was massive, and I was fairly sure some tweaking and you could hear my song all the way in Canterlot. I placed it carefully into the tray, it shut and the whole system began to glow in a light purple hue. When the speakers began to boom and and the hue drifted out of the speakers and off the stage, it drifted into the crowd. I listened the music I made days back, I was heartbroken back then, still am but worse days back. It's feeling was untamed and true, it's story was pure and songful, It's beat and sound brought the crowd closer. They all listened closely and they felt my heartbreak, they all began to sway holding who they loved closely. Some even staying still and just sitting head on top of head enjoying the moment. For some odd reason I began to glow too, brighter than before. The magic was flowing off of me, my horn was going crazy and when the song reached it's peak the magic exploded off. Like the first time it made a giant purple nova except off me, my body tingled as the magic extruded from my pores. I sank to my knees as the magic finally stopped, everypony looked in amazement at the sight portrayed in front of them. Soft Treble rushed onto the stage and haled me off, she was old but not weak. I must have blacked out somewhere because I woke up into her house, my head ached and my horn felt like it was going to explode. Soft Treble was coming in with a troth of tea, she put to lumps of sugar into my tea smiling. She placed the cup on my chest and rubbed my head. "You ok deary, that was quite a show you put on," Soft Treble asked quietly. "I *ugh* my head," I said weakly trying to sit up. "Whoa now deary you need to lay down and drink this, it's herbal so it'll fix you r head right up," "Thank you Soft Treble," "Your welcome, that song you made. It was for Octavia wasn't it?" asked Soft Treble in a low tone. She looked dismayed for some reason. "Y-yes why do you ask?" I said looking at her hands. They were trembling and she got up quickly and walked back into the kitchen. I heard rustling coming from the kitchen, Soft Treble looked like she was trying to find something important. She came back into the room, her eyes said don't look but she handed the letter to me anyways. It was from Octavia, I opened it slowly, anticipating what it will say. *Dear Vinyl Scratch, I apologize to you personally, I should have never left you. Grandma Treble filled me in on what is going on with you, the Night Terrors and depression, I'm so so sorry my love. I wanted to come to the Festival so bad and see you again, to kiss you one more time. I still love you Vinyl but I'm afraid I will not be able to see you, I'm stuck in Canterlot and the guards are not letting anyone out. They said there was a threat placed on Celestia and they said anyone could be the rebel assassin. I'm sorry again my love, I love you and I pray that you still love me too. Yours truly, Octavia.* I set the letter down, Soft Treble came over and hugged me. She rubbed my back, I began to cry again. Not from fear, not from sadness, but because I was happy. I grabbed Soft Treble and held her tight, she squeaked a little at how hard I grabbed her. She looked at me because she knew what it said just by looking at me. "Go get her Vinyl, Go get her," said Soft Treble bravely and I shot out of the house and ran home to go pack. I ran home quickly, my breath was so hot from the excitement and my running that it fogged in front of me. I ran so hard the I didn't stop to open the door, I hit it dead on and sent it sliding on the floor into the living room. It made a loud crashing noise startling some nearby ponies going for a stroll, I ran upstairs and looked on my desk for the song. "Where did it go....SOFT TREBLE!" I yelled in surprise, I crashed down the stairs and ran out the door. Soft Treble was sitting on a bench outside my house, I looked at her with a large smile on my face as she waved the CD in the air. I rushed over and hugged her grabbing the CD mid way into it, I let go quickly and dashed off into the direction of Canterlot. I Dashed to the city outskirts and ended up in the wheat fields waving gracefully in the cool night breeze. As I finally slowed down and started to walk, I heard a violin playing off in the distance. I walked off and marched over a hill only to find Her sitting into the ravine staring at me smiling. DemonsI walked down the hill to see the monster from my dreams was sitting there playing the violin just like Octavia would. She played a mellow hum that would put anything to sleep, except me, I walked closer to her and she looked at me deeply. I walked even closer and she got up and stepped towards me and disappeared in the black smoke from my dreams. She disappeared and reappeared on top of a wheat stack, the wind made her mane flake off revealing the wound in her chest. She had her hand on the stone cage with her heart in it. She looked at it for a few seconds, then looked at me with a bloodied face. "You see girl, I never needed your help to escape. Well not entirely, you made me so only you could free me," She said happily. "But how, I'm not sad anymore, how did you get out?" I asked quietly. "Oh you see it wasn't your sadness I needed, when you would become extremely happy your mind would reject me as a fact. So here I am, you lovely companion," "This, this is impossible your just a figment of my imagination," "Oh and the imagination can be a powerful thing girl, it can make even a simple doll come to life," She said dissapearing off the wheat stack. She reappeared again in the seat in front of me. "You see, I am real to you at least, and this is were it gets complicated," "How does it get complicated?" "Because now I've won girl, hahaha!" It laughed mockingly at me, she got up off her chair and ran towards me. I took off going deeper into the field trying to get away, I looked back and she was gone. I stopped and looked around and she shot from the ground in front of me. This time the black haze remained at her he feet and slowly came toward me. She smiled because she knew i wanted to escape, I wanted to get away from her but couldn't. I ran away in the opposite direction then circled around to hopefully confuse her, and get to Canterlot. "Gotta get to Octavia, must find her," I repeated over and over as I ran through the field. I gasped for breath, my fears realized and portrayed right before my eyes. A monument to my sins that is going to kill me, so I ran faster and faster, but being mortal my legs gave out. and I collapsed. She appeared out of the shadow of the grain, her grin wide and freakish starring me down at me. Her eyes began to gleam in joy, she spit blood as she broke out into a demonic laugh. Black shade of dust sprung from her feat and came at me, the ground shook and began to break as more dust rose from the cracks. I used all my strength to rise from the ground and run at her, I charged my horn leading the assault, I screamed when I charged her. Feeling the fear build inside of me I rammed her in the side of the chest without the wound. My horn dug deep into her chest before the force sent her rolling back. She remained on the ground without moving, without breath, I watched her body dissipate and fly away into the wind. I rested for a while, regained my breath and held my head, the thought of her being real was flogging my mind. I rose from my rest and began to walk to Canterlot once more. The night became colder, the wind grew stronger and the golden waves slowly faded beneath an invasion of white frost. I walked slowly colling of from my run, the cold air was a welcome sight in my eyes. I continued on and the golden waves became a landscape of white frost, soon the wind died down and I could clearly see canterlot from the distance. "Almost there, thank Celestia," I said to myself under my fogged breath. I walked on and soon exited the field, I continued to a massive hillside where a stone pathway marked the entrance to Canterlot only a mile away. I took the first stone stepped, the white snow glistened beautifully withing the crescent moonlight. I looked up from the steps and she was there right in front of me, with both wounds protruding from her chest. She looked at me, anguish filled her eyes as blood ran from them and speckled the ground below. "You almost killed me you bitch!" She hissed at me as a cool breeze swept by. "Did you think though, for even a moment that all you needed to do was fucking stab me, no, no girl you'll need more TO KILL ME!" Her anger was fueled by pain, she looked at me with contempt for my loss of my sanity. I stared back all the same, but my mind began to hurt, my vision was slowly becoming blurred and something had a hold of me. I looked down to see black tentacles wrapping around my body, she had a hold of me. She smiled that big disgusting smile again and walked closer. She looked me dead in the eyes, her eyes became sweeter and she moved my cold, sweat beaded hair off to the side. She moved in closer and kissed me, he lips were soft, sweet and hypnotic. My mind raced as she continued, before I could realize this was wrong I already lost, she had me where she wanted me. "Now, come into my world, and experience a hell like never before...HAHAHA!" She laughed menacingly as I blacked out. I fell slowly into a world that was all to familiar, the stage of me and Octavias first date.It was old and decrepit now, the curtains were burnt, and the wood was rotted. The seats were all gone and the floor showed signs of blood stained from its base to the walls. I hit the ground and shew as above me watching me fight her, she picked me up and smiled. Blood stained her teeth and she carried me to a table, it was an old mahogany table, mad back in olden times when Equestria first started. I was placed upon it, the black dust surrounded my limbs and held me tight against the table. She came back with and old scalpel, I was scared, my eyed began to water and I couldn't scream again. She hovered over top of me and looked carefully at my body, she put the scalpel on the table. She walked over to the center of the stage and pulled up the stone cage with her heart. She hoisted it up and noticed it was breaking, she knew that she was dying, but not now. She flashed back next to me and lifted her hood, the black dust rose from it falling into the sky. "Remember when I said you didn't have the heart. Lets make that a literal term shall we." She said intently as her hoof began to glow. She raised it higher and crashed it deep into my chest cavity, she grasped my heart. Blood splat from my mouth as she pulled it clean out, it was still beating and she threw it on the floor across the stage. She let the restraints go and I fell to the floor, my body became cold and the pain was excruciating. I began to crawl across the theater to retrieve my stolen heart, she laughed at my feeble attempts. She came up to my when I was only inches from the heart, I reached out to grasp it and put it back. She laughed harder and sent the scalpel through my hoof and plant it in the theater floor, I screamed but nothing came out but blood. I felt trapped here, forced to loose a battle I thought I could win, "I'm sorry Octavia, I wasn't strong enough" I thought to myself. _*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_OCTAVIA__*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_* I walked out from my loft near the Canterlot castle, the night was brisk and the wind nipped my cheeks. I trotted down the square, no pony was out this late and on a night like this. I wanted to try and sneak past the guards and go home, I wanted to be with my Vinyl Scratch again. I stuck to the shadows, every street lamp was out and speckled with frost, I ran down the alley way. It was dirty and covered in grime, there was also a homeless guy in the shadows sipping on his gin. I tried to be quiet as I exited the alley way, I saw a guard with a lantern making his rounds. I quickly sat against the wall, unmoving so the guard wouldn't see notice me. It worked he walked by and didn't turn back, I slipped out of the shadows and into the moonlit streets. I ran quickly down the side walk, sticking close to the wall to remain unseen. my naturally dark mane made hiding in the dark easy, So I continued to run to the walls of the city. It was lucky that tonight all the guards had to go relight the lanterns so they were all preoccupied for a few moments. I used this distraction to slip under the gate, it was always left open a little in case of emergency entrances. I creped along the wall and saw both guards still stationed in front of it. I prepared myself for my daring escape, my heart pounded in my chest at the thought of seeing her again. I reared my legs, they were stiffening from the adrenaline, I cocked back and before I could bolt a blood curdling scream echoed in the night. It happened again shortly after and soon you could here someone begging for their heart back, I recognized the voice....it was Vinyl Scratch. I shot out, like a horse in the starting gates and ran sown the path, the guards followed suit and came with. They were pegusis ponies so the flew down quicker then I could run, My heart was stopped and everything in my head screamed for me to help her. I ran and ran, never stopping until I reached the end of the path. I collapsed in my exhaustion and slid down the path a few feet, the guards were surrounding Vinyl Scratch and they were becoming frantic. I listened closely and overheard their brief conversation. "Oh Celestia no, not this," exclaimed the white guard. "What wh...no, not good at all," said the other in surprise. "Go get the princess and some royal doctors, this ones bad," "Yes sir," the black pony stated as he flew off. I got up and weakly walked over to see Vinyl, what could be wrong with her. I got close and became horrifies at the sight, she was bleeding from her mouth, she was shaking and her glasses were cracked. I dropped next to her and picked her up into my arms, I began to cry as I held her. She continued to shake and I held her tighter, my arms were becoming numb from holding her. I held her close and fought through the pain in my arms, she screamed again and her hand began to shake franticly. It scared me at the sheer intensity of it, I couldn't hold her anymore and dropped her on the step.The guard watched me as i sat there, I jumped though when she whispered "I'm sorry Octavia, I wasn't strong enough," "No Vinyl I was weak*sniff* you tried to stay strong for us, you fought for us. I'm sorry Vinyl, I did this to you Vinyl," I said planting my face into her chest. I continued to cry and the guard came over and put his arm around me. "I'M SORRY VINYL, AAAHH!" I yelled into the night and remained next to her body. I got closer and remained n the ground with her, her shakes became less frantic as I lay with her. I kept my head on her chest, her breathing was frantic and her heart was racing. I propped myself up on one arm, I got next to her and whispered into her ear "Quiet now Vinyl, I'll never leave your side again," and I moved in and kissed her. She stopped shacking and let out a deep breath, black dust rose from her mouth and disappeared into the sky. As I lay with her I heard wings and hoofs noises coming from behind me. Celestia and a Red Cross were behind me, Red Cross came up to me and motioned me aside so her could examine her. Celestia came over to me and placed her wing around me. "I'm so sorry Octavia," She said softly and the guards hoisted Vinyl off to the hospital. Pulling a Dream(Still in Octavia's point of view) I walked back to the hospital with Celestia, she kept her wing over me covering me from the snow. I stared at the ground, walking in a grave stage never daring to look up. We continued on, Celestia's magic lighting the to the hospital. It was a few blocks away still so Celestia took this time to ask me a few questions. "Octavia, how long have you known about these night terrors?" She asked quietly. "O-only a few days now, my grandma told me about it but I paid no attention to it," I replied. "But how did Night Terrors escalate to this? I've had them before and, and they weren't this bad," "Thats because you were able to escape your fears, but Vinyls fears she could never escape. The fear manifested into a being within her soul and it's trying to destroy her," "I-it can't possibly do that," I said in a state of shock. I quickly looked up from the ground and into Celestia's eyes, she wasn't lying. "Unicorns react to imagination differently then other ponies, our magic can make what we dream a reality. It is difficult even for master magic user's, even myself and Luna, to project our thoughts," "But there was no one there, it was only Vinyl scratch s-screaming on the roadway," "That's because it had already taken her, the creature pulled Vinyls soul into it's realm....and it's torturing her," Celestia tone was strong yet passionate. She wanted peace in her kingdom and happiness for everypony, even one pony that is unhappy. Can make Celestia trifle over it. We walked the last block in silence, the steps to the hospital were large dragon stone blocks. Celestia looked and me, a tear formed in one of her eyes and she flew to the top. I walked up the steps and entered the building, a nurse noticed me and came over quickly. "You need to come with me mam, the doctor needs you," She said hurriedly and started off towards the intensive care unit. I followed behind her and we entered a large room, it was white with curtains covering each individual room. I was two stories high and had at least 50 rooms, the nurse led me up the steps and we walked down the isle. She stopped and room B-14 were they were keeping Vinyl sedated. "Dr. Cross, I brought her here like you asked," the nurse said. "Good, thank you nurse now please go back to your duties," said Red Cross. "Now Octavia please come here," Red Cross motioned me in. As I entered the room I saw Celestia standing on the other side of the bed, she looked deeply saddened at this sight. I came in, Vinyl had an IV sticking out of her arm, her breathing was short and raspy. The thought of her being in this state crushed me, but I did not show it. Celestia came over and nudged me closer to the bed, she walked over with me and we all looked at Vinyl. "So Celestia, how do we proceed with this "operation", it's new to me," Red Cross said moving to the other side of the bed. "We need someone close to Vinyl to free her from the monsters grasp. Then I can pull her out of this state," Replied Celestia. She looked over at me "this is where you come in Octavia, only you are close enough to Vinyl, only you can free her," Celestia finished, she put her wing over me again. "Do you think you can do it Octavia?" Red Cross asked. "I-I don't know, but I'll try," I replied worriedly. Celestia let go of me as I moved closer to the bed, I got up on it and pulled Vinyls head into my chest. I moved her hair away from her face and removed her glasses, she looked so calm, yet she was dying. I began to hum, and rest my head on the wall, I remembered the lullaby I always sang to her when she was mad. I took in a breath of air and began to sing. "Now in the night, it'll be all right. For the worries of the day have gone away. So come with me, and I'll set you free, let your spirit roam the land and be with me." I began to whimper as I sang, tears fled down my face and hit Vinyl face. I continued on, I had to save her. "Now hush my dear and just let me lead the way, for my love will keep you safe in the night. Cause in the night, It'll be alright, Just let the worries your day fade away with me." I finished the lullaby. Vinyl began to move a little, she let out a small moan and then began to speak. "T-thank you Octavia" and then her voice faded. Celestia looked at me and I moved off the bed, her horn began to glow and she hit Vinyl with beam of pink light. Vinyls back arched and she began to scream, but it wasn't her voice, it was someone else's voice. The scream echoed throughout the room and hospital, black dust rose from her mouth. I stepped back a a black shadow appeared from the dust in the air, it dropped to the ground and slithered toward me. I backed up running into Red Cross as I did, the shadow stood up and retained its form. It looked like me, a creepy smiled came across it's face. It began to walk toward me, Red Cross stepped in front of me and rammed the shadow back. "NOW!" he screamed and Celestia's horn began to glow brighter. She cocked back to get her bearings, and a crimson beam of light shot from her horn hitting the monster in the cavity in it's chest. It screamed again and started to rise, white speckles of light began to show as the black shell cracked. A black plate fell from her face, It was me, I was Vinyls monster. I stepped back and looked at her, she smiled and exploded into a cloud of white dust. Her ashes fell over Vinyl, it speckled her face, her eyes began to move rapidly before she woke. _*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_Vinyl_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_ I woke from my nightmare, I was in a hospital bed and Red Cross, Celestia and Octavia were standing next to me. I sat up in my bed and Octavia came over and hugged me, tears were streaming down her face. Celestia was smiling and Red Cross looked intrigued at the situation, I came to my senses and hugged Octavia back. "V-Vinyl, your back, you came back for me," Octavia said quietly. "I could never leave you Octavia, I love you," I said weakly. "I love you too, Vinyl Scratch,"
Unheard"It was two days ago when she left me, currently it's five days before a big event when I try win her back. I believe you'll need to understand what happened so here is the story of what happened those past two day, this is my story of loss and heartbreak." It was raining out, hail pounded the sides of the house as me and Octavia fought. I never thought I could go so wrong in my life, sleeping with someone other then her, what was I thinking. The sounds brought spectators as we fought. I remember every word. "Vinyl how could you, why?" yelped Octavia as she charged up the stairs. "I-I didn't mean to she means nothing to me," Cried Vinyl back. "It doesn't mater if you liked it or not Vinyl, you still did it....you still hurt me," Octavia was holding her emotions tight, as if they were in a steel cage. "I'm sorry Octavia, just put your stuff back, please Tavy please," "Sorry doesn't cut it this time Vinyl, you don't understand, I did everything for us I even gave up my spot as 1st seat in the Royal Band, I worked and fought and bled for us and you go off and sleep with some random mare," "N-no it didn't work like that," "How did it work she bought you a fucking drink and you thought "Oh this could be fun" why Vinyl, tell me why," "I don't know what I was feeling, the music and her voice....I lost myself in her, the daze was bliss and I let myself get sucked in, I was weak Octavia and I'm sorry," " I-*sniff, sniff* darn nose, I can't believe it Vinyl, I don't want to, I need to get out, I need to leave," Octavia ran out the door, I was close behind. I grabbed her hoof with tears streaming down my face, Octavia looked at me and that steel cage cracked and she too began to cry a little. She shut her eyes and broke away, I watched as she ran and ran farther away until i could see her anymore. I shut the door and walked a few paces before collapsing in the middle of the floor, I balled and screamed when I hit. "I'm sorry, why am I weak, so fucking weak I can't control myself and I lost her *kack* I lost her. I-I-I can't go on. I CAN'T DO IT ANYMORE," I cried on and on until morning. The sun broke through the curtains, I tried to hide but the sun seemed to find me in my state of dismay, my heartbroken, tear stricken state of solitude. I managed to get up and walk to the top of the house, I sat on the roof and took a deep breath. The thought of jumping flogged my mind, it seemed like such a sweet relief just a few moments of peace before it would be all over, no more pain, no more fear, no more memories. But I remained on the roof, something wouldn't let me it held me there and I felt comforted a bit, the suns rays warmed my backside and the smell of colorful flowers in Apple Acres filled the air, and for the first time I heard the birds true song of life. I decided to stay a while longer, to fight past my emotions and carry on. I ran down stairs quickly, falling as i did so and shot back up, running to my studio never seemed like such a long run but being beat down by grief can make anything seem hard. I broke down the door, grabbed my silver bone key and unlocked the chassis to where I kept my synthesizer. I carried it to the sound table next to the generator, I hooked it up and pressed the record button and began to pour all my feelings into one harmonious ballad of sounds that could make even a dragon feel pity. As tear drops hit the synthesizer new sounds were beginning to unfold, as if it too felt my pain and I continued to go on and work the new sound into the song. I composed on and on until the tune was complete, I wasted no time trying to fix it, it was a raw interpretation of my emotions, and I was going to save it till the Equestrian Musicians Contest where I knew she would be. IT was already dark out so I went to the bar to have a drink, It's a small gift that might let me forget for a moment. I walked in and sat down, I tapped my hoof to signify that i wanted a Hay Maker, the bar tender slid the drink down. I slammed it down, it burned as it went down, I tapped again and he sent another as the mare from a few nights ago sat next to me. she put her hoof on the one I left on the table as I pounded another before facing her. "Hey babe, you come back for another go hehe," the pony dancer said. "No, I don't want to see you, I came to get shit faced and leave," replied Vinyl. "Oh but you can't go home like that, you'll be hung over with nothing to remember," the pony dancer said cutely as she moved closer, I pushed her away and began to wobble out the door. "I'll always remember what I did, goodbye and please don't talk to me anymore," I slammed the door wobbling out of the bar, I began to tear up as I walked home and the fireflies danced around me. It seemed like my world got flipped, like everything was just pulled away in a blink of an eye, but I'll get it back and keep it. I made it home and fell a few times trying to climb the stairs, only two Hay Makers and there goes my coordination, but I managed to get up the stairs and collapse in my bed thinking about her....Octavia. "Octavia, where are you, where did you go Octavia....Oh there you are, why are you crying?" asked Vinyl questioningly "You did this to me, you killed me, you broke my heart," Whispered Octavia as she fell over onto the floor in the same spot she cried when she left, revealing the large gash in her chest. there was a trail of blood leading to where her heart lay, I gasped for breath scared out of my mind. "Wake up Vinyl wake up!" Vinyl screamed. "You can't run from this Vinyl, you can hide from what you did to MEEEE!" Octavia's mane began to turn black, she flacked up and ashes began to fall from her, her body slowly fell apart and she screamed the whole time as it happened. I watched crying in both fear and sadness for her as she faded away into ash. Tho only thing left was her heart on top of a table locked in a stone cage, I wanted to wake up I wanted to leave this damed place, but something made me stay and watch as she was blown away. I awoke in a cold sweat, my mane was dripping wet and my hoofs were cold, my vision was foggy and I could see my breath as I shot out of bed and ran downstairs to see if she was there...dead, burned alive somehow, but there was nothing there just the couch and rug that had always been there. I walked back upstairs and sat down on the recliner, I grabbed the glass of water on the counter top and chugged it all down. I got up and got in the shower, the hot water brought relief to my aced body as every part finally began to relax after that terrible, terrible nightmare. As the water ran down she played with her mane a little before getting out, she looked in the mirror and rubbed some of the fog away. "Five days," I said as I looked at myself bare and exposed in the mirror, eventually I left to style my mane before heading out to tackled another day.
Day 1The birds were chirping and the smell of wild flower filled the air putting me into a sweet surrender for a while as I listened to the birds up beat tunes. The sun was breaking through the curtains into my room as I was accepting a new day, a day without Octavia. I came out of the trance quickly to realize that today was the Festival of Birds and I was told to stage a techno light show for the end of the Festival. I ran downs stairs grabbing my hooded jacket that I hoped will conceal me from everypony, to bad it was blue and purple with sapphire VINYL written on the back. I opened the door to my cottage and left to head out and see Flutter Shy before the festival started to get an idea on when i needed to have the song fine tuned by. I walked amongst a maze of ponies to get to her, it felt like everyone was staring at me as I walked, all those eyes trying to find answers but ears never willing to accept. I began to trot until I bumped into Flutter Shy. she was startled as normal but came through quickly when she realized who bumped her. "Oh, um hey Vinyl, hows the music coming along for the festival," ask Flutter Shy shyly. "Oh yeah it's almost done just need to fine tune it, so when does it need to be played?" I asked in reply. "It um, needs to be played at night fall if thats okay?" "Of course it is Flutter Shy, trust me girl it'll get done," I said as strongly as I walked away waving goodbye to Flutter Shy, I held back my emotions as best I could in that conversation. I wanted so badly to just open up to her, she would know what to say, she would make me feel secure even for a moment. But instead I'm going on to my studio to fine tune a song I promised for the Festival, The walk seemed shorter then the run I made yesterday but still as hard. I opened the door and sat down at my soundboard, I leaned over almost falling out of my chair trying to reach the song for the festival. I put the disk into the soundboard and waited for it to play, when it did the synthesizer began to glow, I looked over at it and touched it. It was.....cold, it seemed it knew how I felt even on such a glorious day. I plugged it in and composed a new song, the sounds from last night have changed and adapted to how I felt as I played and it glowed different colors depending on the mood of the song. "I want a song that will bring people together, give them the love that I lost," I said to myself as the synthesizer changed its glow to a light purple hue, the sounds changed to a more harmonized tune instead of a cold chilly beat. The synthesizers hue grew stronger and stronger the more and more I went on, the beat brought a tear to to my eyes and it fell on the synthesizer, it began to glow brighter and I covered my eyes before it exploded into a bright purple nova. It knocked me back a few feet into the wall, when I got up the glow began to fade away and fall. "*sniff, UGH* guess that means it's done, ha and still a few hours till I play, might as well enjoy the festival," I smiled at the thought of the festival, but before leaving I put my coat over the synthesizer, couldn't figure out why it was acting so strangely but I didn't care when there was a few Rainbows to drink. I opened the door, it felt warm and purple dust began to rise from it, I began to shake my mane out at the thought of having some of it on me but nothing came off, so I continued out. I walked out and the air filled with the joyous sound of birds and little fillies alike just having fun and playing, I put a fake smile on and walked out into the center of the Festival square. I stopped at the booth where they were serving Rainbow Juice and tapped my hoof, it was the bar tender Slick Hops serving the juice and he smiled at me sliding the tankard down. I reached into my bag to grab a few bits as a tip but he waved his hoof and I walked off with the drink in my hoofs. "VINYL *oof* VINYL," yelled Derpy as she clumsily found her way over, knocking over a few barrels of apples along her way. "Oh hey Derps whats up?" I asked holding my drink tighter. "Are you going to perform tonight Vinyl?" "Ha of course, it wouldn't be a party without me Derps," "Oh I know Vinyl can't wait for nightfall, well bye Ditsy needs me," Derpy said as she flew off in a awkward angle, such a fun pony she is to have around. But I went off and screwed around at some of the game booths making some kids feel bad about there game skills. I was having fun for once, I laughed without forcing it and played and began to blush from the juice but I didn't care. The thought of Octavia completely escaped my mind until I heard the sound of a violin playing. My heart began to race, me eyes were watery and my legs grew numb. "Oh Celestia, you're back, you're back Octavia!" I yelled running threw the crowd of ponies leading to the tent, tears were pouring down my face as I ran to see her. The sound became louder as I got next to the fine blue silk tent, I opened the curtains. "Octa....., no you're not her," a said sadly. "Not who deary," asked the elderly mare in reply. I began to cry, I gave in for once in public, ponies from all around the festival looked at me as i ran to the outskirts of the festival and hid behind a tree. I cried softly so no one would hear me. "How could I be so dumb, she's gone, she's fucking gone *sniff gasp* I-I can't believe I thought it was her...I *sniff aahhh eheh gasp aaaaaaahhhh*" I continued to cry under the tree as the birds watched me, some even landed next to me, it was a welcome comfort. Eventually the sounds of the bird chorus came into play and I let the sounds wash over me and relax my body, but dusk quickly came upon me, the darkness covered the stains left on my mane from the dirt and tears. I hoped nobody would recognize me just forget me breaking down like that, but i continued back into the festival. This time i knew every eye was on me as i held my head down, they stared at me with their wandering eyes, but ears ready to hear my truth. I walked on stage and everyone clapped I put another fake smile on, this one was harder then the last, this one couldn't hold a lie for long. "*sniff* AH sorry everyone, runny nose now are you ready for this!" I yelled and the crowd cheered on and on ready for a show, but a show is not what they were getting, but a story told with music instead. I plugged it in and the first harmonious chorus of sounds to wash over the crowd, the riled up ponies began to calm down and move closer to the ones they loved. The soundboard began to glow a purple hue along with me and the colors went into the crowd like a mist. It brought everyone closer and one, just one pony, the old pony from before began to cry because she could hear the story i wrote into the song, she felt the beat of my heartbreak. when the song was ended everyone cheered louder and louder they all went mad over the song but quickly calmed down and watched the purple hue of dust begin to float away into the sky. Everpony walked off with there special someone and i collected the music from the soundboard, I walked off the stage and began home but was stopped by the old lady. "Your story was beautiful, I heard your crying and felt your heart beat slower withing its pages," The old pony said, "Ho-how could you feel that, only....," I was confused at how she knew, at how she could hear my story. "I am an expert musician my dear and we hear things most people don't cause we understand good music is emotion, but true music is a story written and infused with your emotions to let the audience feel the song. Your song is a perfect example of this true music for it brought everypony together, but what is wrong dear, whats hurting you?" asked the old pony, her eyes were kind and body language showed me I could trust her. "I-I lost her *sniff* I lost my...MY OCTAVIA AAAHHHH!" I collapsed into the old ponies arms and she held me close, she whispered in my ear "It's ok" over and over but I couldn't stop. she held me and never let go, I could feel her heart beat and the hum of her voice as she continued to comfort me. Eventually I stood up still pouting but able to listen s she spoke. "It'll be ok deary, just go home and get some rest and come see me again sometime, an old mare like me gets lonely when her grandson never visits," She said walking away, soon disappearing behind darkness and water, I walked home pouting the whole way there. I opened the door and fell on the floor in the same spot as last time, the wind shut the door behind me. I began to cry again and soon fell asleep on the floor. "Vinyl Scratch, It's ok wake up honey," Said Octavia cooking something up in the kitchen, it smelt delicious and I rose from the floor. The air seemed foggy and the room was brighter then I thought it usually was. "Ugh honey why is it so.....OCTAVIA NO GET OUT OF HERE!!!" I yelled as I walked into a burning kitchen, I ran into it and a burning beam slammed down behind me blocking the exit. I looked around and found a blood trail leading outside, I fallowed it and broke down the door to the backyard. The sky was red and the earth began to break away as I walked closer and closer to the tree, there was a pool of blood around the tree. My heart raced as I fearfully walked around it only to see a horrifying sight. "*GASP* Octavia, no....NO OCTAVIA NOOOO!" I yelled out of fear at the sight in front of me, Octavia was pinned to the tree with her violin threw her heart. She looked up at me and pointed up, I saw her heart in that stone cage again but quickly looked down to see Octavia right in front of me. Blood was streaming from her eyes and the large gash remained in her chest from last time, she grabbed me by the throat and lifted me against the tree and sent her violin through me. "You'll never know what you did to me Vinyl," Octavia hissed. "Bu *kack, gag* But I know what I did *gasp* I'm sorry Octavia I'll get you ba-back," I said fighting threw the pain. "I hope you do Vinyl, but I don't think you have the HEART," Octavia yelled as she charged at me. "AHHH NO OCTAVIA! *gasp weeze gasp* oh Celestia, it seemed so real," I breathed heavily as I got out of bed, I wobbled over to the mirror and opened it to grab some herbs. As it closed I noticed Octavia, not the one I loved but the horror she became in my dreams, I jumped and turned quickly but nothing was there. I took the herbs and went to the recliner in my room and sat down. " Four more days," I said with hope in my heart.
Day 2As I rose from my recliner I walked back into the bathroom to shower for a new day, I turned on the shower and went to the area where I saw...her. There was nothing there, nothing at all. "Ah stupid nightmares got me seeing things again, I need to shower," I said as I walked into the shower and washed out my mane. I took the comb from the shelf in the shower and pulled the knots from my mane, wincing as I did. I Turned off the shower and walked out to look in the mirror, I was pleased to see all the dirt and grime from last night was off of me. I went downstairs and poured some Wheat Thins into a bowl, I opened the fridge to grab some milk that I bought yesterday. I poured it in the bowl and walked over to my cot and began to read the news paper for anything interesting. Nothing, like usual, so I quickly finished my cereal and headed out the door. I walked out and was greeted again, by the suns glorious rays and they warmed my body so well. I took a deep breath and could smell the food made yesterday at the Festival as work ponies began to clean up it up. I continued on to the market to buy some food for the coming days, there were stands for everything you could ever want to eat scattered across the market area. The sounds and buzzing feeling you get walking into the place livened up your senses. It made you feel like a bee in a hive just going around trying to stay out of every other bee's way as they worked. I walked up to my favorite stand and was greeted by Ripcord. "Hey hey hey, Vinyl Scratch, heard your song last night, very good," said Ripcord joyfully. "Oh thanks bro, so what have you got for me this week?" I asked. "Ha nothing but the best for you girl, now take a look at this," Ripcord walked over to a chest that he kept specialty items in for his "Favorite Customer". he walked back over slamming the trunk down down so hard the top flew open, barely missing his head. "BAM, hahaha not to shabby huh Scratch," "No, not at all Ripcord so how much for, whatever this is?" "This scratch is nothing but the finest fruits brought in from over seas, It has been magically enhanced so it never goes rotten...very good shipping technique if you ask me," "Oh sweet bro, how much is it though?" "Free of charge Scratch," He leaned closer to me "I heard about you an Octavia, I'm so so sorry Scratch, so just take it." Ripcord pushed the trunk over to me. I began to tear up at this generous gift, It's nice to have a good friend in a time like this. I put the trunk on my back and Ripcord strapped it for me, he smiled and waved me off as I walked of to see what else people had to offer. I scoured the market place stopping only one other time a stall, It said "Trixie's Lovely Psychiatry" very cheesy but after what I'v been seeing in my dreams I wanted to know what was happening. I walked in and saw Trixy whipping another colt strapped to a bed, She looked over and winked while motioning for me to come over. "Nope, nope nope fuck this, just no," I said as I turned a round and walked out the door. "How is that lovely, or psychiatry?" I asked myself as I walked to my studio to unpack. I entered the room and saw that my synthesizer was still glowing, but in a rainbow of colors. I disregarded for now and walked over to the fridge and unpacked the various fruits. They smelt so very sweet and looked delicious, I decided to try one. It was a small purple one that had red spots all over it, It smelt like and apple mixed with a grape, but I continued to take a bite. The sweet taste filled my mouth and I fell into a trance of deliciousness. I took small bites and savored the fruits, but quickly got up and ran to the fridge. "Oh, Octavia would.....Oh, I forgot again...she's gone," I fell down in front of the fridge and laid on it. "Fuck..*sniff*.. I'm so stupid hurting myself like that, why.....* BANG BANG BANG*" someone loudly banged on the door, I quickly regained my composure as best as I could and walked over to the door. I looked trough the peep hole and saw the old mare from last night. "Hello, deary it's me, Soft Treble, from last night?" Soft Treble asked as she continued to knock. "Soft Treble, a nice name actually,Um hang on I'll let you in," I yelled back letting Soft Treble into the studio, she walked in and hugged me tightly. She eventually let go even though I never wanted to, but I did and she sat down letting her case drop as she did so. She looked around as if examining the room for anything strange, she stopped and stared at my synthesizer. "Oh very interesting, mind if I take a look deary," Soft Treble asked. "*sniff* ah no, not at all go ahead," I replied moving closer to her as she began to tinker with my synthesizer. She looked at it closer and began to smile as the synthesizer colorful hues began to fade. She flipped it over and looked closely at it, she smiled again and swiveled to look at me. "Touch it deary, open the lock," She said smiling at me, I reached down to touch it and the colorful hue came back. The closer I got the warmer it got and the more intense the hue got and finally I touched it. The back sprang open and revealed a glowing heart in the center of the machine, I backed up in fear as I saw the machinery around it. "Ah exactly what I thought, you see this deary?" She asked as i moved closer. "It's a changeling heart, but not like others, its been purified so it doesn't feed off your emotions, it bolsters them. As you can see it feeds and power the machine as you play," "Bu-but what about the colors and how it changed it's sounds depending on my mood," I asked. "Oh it never did that before?" "Nope, just when....Octavia left," I turned around saying this to cover my emotions from Soft Treble. She was old but not dumb and came over and put her arm around me. "Come, sit down deary, I'll explain," She walked with me over to the couch in the recording room. She shut the door and sat down with me, she sat down and I sat next to her resting my head on her shoulder. She put her hoof on my mane and moved it out my face and looked at me. "The Changeling heart must of been dormant all these years until it was awakened by you true emotions. The shear magnitude of your fear and sadness had opened up it's magical properties. So with all this magic the synthesizer could feel your pain and adapt it's music to how you felt, as it was always meant to. But I want to know about you, what happened deary." "Wh-what do you mean," "With you and Octavia, what happened?" She looked at me and I began to tear up at the thought of her again, I put my arm around her and moved in closer, she began to comfort me as I spoke. "I-I cheated on her *Sniff* I wasn't thinking clearly cause I was drunk and her voice. *sniff aaahhh* her voice made my body melt a-and I lost myself in her *sniff sniff* I-I fucked up Soft Treble, I love her......*whimper sniff* I loved her, *ahhhhhahaha-eheh-sniff-kack-sniff-ahhhh* I LOVED HER!" I yelled and pulled myself closer into her and he just hummed and held me as I cried into her shoulder. My mind raced at finally admitting to somepony, somepony I barely knew but it felt good. Soft Treble held me but moved her head up, I looked at her and she kissed me on th forehead and I began to lose it again. "Why, why do you care so much about me?" I whispered as I began to calm down. "Because Octavia is my granddaughter," She said to me, I sat back and broke out of her arms. "I-I thought you had a grandson?" "Yes and a granddaughter deary, I didn't mention it to you because you weren't ready to hear it," "Eye's looking for answers," "But ears never willing to listen," She replied and pulled me back in again, I didn't fight it. She began to sing the lullaby that Octavia sang to me when I was sad, this was her grandmother. I hugged her tighter and began to relax as I calmed down, she embraced me more and continued to hum. Eventually she got up, I looked at her and waited for her to talk. "Go get her back Vinyl, she still loves you, trust me," said Soft Treble softly as she stood in the doorway. "I will Soft Treble, I will," I said smiling as she walked out the door. I laid there for a little bit and thought to myself, "she's Octavia's grandmother, and my synthesizer is...magic?" but I got up and walked out of the studio. I locked the door and started off to go see what i could do for the other half of my day. I walked out to Twilights house to see if she knew anything about nightmares. *knock knock knock* "COME IN," yelled Twilight. I proceeded to open the door, there were books everywhere so I knew twilight was in work mode. "Oh Vinyl, whats up?" Twilight asked as she continued her tests in magic. "Twilight, what do you know about nightmares?" I asked, she turned around quickly and trotted down the stairs grabbing a book on the way. Spike came out of nowhere with a stand for twilight to put the book upon. "If I remember correctly, nightmares are cause by a multitude of things such as fear, anxiety, sadness or you saw something scary and you couldn't stop thinking about it. Funny thing about dreams is that we have thousands of them in our sleep but only the ones we have in REM sleep we remember. REM stand for Rapid Eye Movement because in this deep level of sleep your eyes move quickly as if trying to examine this new world." "What, ok thats cool," I said pretending to understand. "So when did you start having nightmares?" "When...Octavia left," "Oh I'm so sorry Vinyl, I didn't know" "It's ok twilight, please don't tell anyone," "Promise, but this could be a bad thing, because of your deep depression and fear of loosing her it might have manifested into Night Terrors. These are bad because Night Terrors can actually kill you, and the victims remember the dreams so vividly they never forget it." "Oh so I'm having Night Terrors?" "Possibly, but be careful Vinyl ok, I don't wanna see you get swallowed up by this ordeal," "Nothing will happen Twilight, thanks but I need to go," I said this waving as I walked out the door. The sound of these night terrors sounded horrifying, but at least I know that...thing is only a dream. So I continued to bar, it was getting dark out and after all I heard today I needed to relax my brain, or kill it. SO I walked in and Slick Hops motioned me over to the counter, he put a Hay Maker with a Rainbow Killer shot on the table. I put them together and slammed it down, I made the craziest face to the feel of the burn. Slick Hops smiled at the sight and everyone including me in the area enjoyed a good laugh. After a few of those Rainbow Killers I wobbled home, It was very dark out tonight because of the new moon so I hit a few things on the way. I reluctantly made it home and tried to climbed the stairs up to the bedroom, but fell half way up and fell down banging my head on the floor hard enough to pass out. This time the dream was different, I heard the lullaby that Octavia always sang. She was sitting in a swing across a field of flowers, she swung back and forth not a care in the world. I ran through the haze, but before getting to her a bunch of birds flew up in front of me. When they cleared, She was in front of me but this time was different. She wasn't dead, she wasn't evil she was, Octavia. "Vinyl, what have I become in here?" Octavia asked. "You became a monster in my head, the fear drove me mad internally and created you," I replied. "But I'm not a monster.....not yet, hahaha," She laughed menacingly as the field disappeared. We were standing on a stage now and the spot light shown on us, there was no crowd, just us. "I never truly became a monster, you do know that don't you?" "Yes, you never were though," "Then why do you fear me in this state of mind, I can smell it Vinyl," She moved closer and sniffed me. "Because your not Octavia, you'll never be her," "Oh but I look like her, talk like her and feel like her," She moved closer and held me, he hoof rubbed against me gently as she whispered in my ear. "Just let go, forget Octavia when you can have me,". I slowly began to fall into the spell she put around me, but broke free from her grasp and stared at her. "YOUR NOT OCTAVIA, you'll never be her, your just a sick monster in my dreams and nothing more," "Oh shit, she's angry hahaha well dear then just wake up and leave me here, don't worry you'll see me again soon enough," She began to laugh louder as the doors to the theater opened up. I quickly ran out into the light and when I reached the doors in the dream, I awoke on the floor. I got up holding my head and looked over on the couch and she was sitting there smiling, I blinked and she disappeared as quickly as she appeared. "Fucking bitch,I'll never let her have control of me, she never get control," I said to myself as I moved over to the couch and sat down. when I did a knock came on the door, It was Soft Treble and she looked frightened.
Day 3I was sitting there on the couch with Soft Treble, she looked scared like she had a nightmare. I went to the kitchen to make some Sun Tea to help calm her nerves. "One or Two lumps Treble?" I asked as I leaned over to see through the doorway. "Oh, two please, I like it sweet deary," Soft Treble whimpered as she began to relax on the couch. I walked over and set the tray on the table, I used a small hint of magic to float the cut over to Soft Treble. She grasped it weakly in her hoofs as she leaned upward to drink some of the tea, she smacked her lips and set the cup back down on the table. I backed up into my chair and sat down to enjoy my tea also, so I floated the cup over to to my mouth and tried a little. I cringed at the raw taste of the sun tea, Soft Treble smiled for she knew I didn't understand Sun Tea was very strong. I poured the rest back into the pot and sat back down, Soft Treble looked at me as she took a deep breath in relaxation. "Vinyl, I heard you've been having...Night Terrors," said Soft Treble quietly. "Y-yes I have how did you know?" I asked in surprise. "Because deary I can tell by the look in your eyes, I didn't quite understand what that feeling was yesterday. So I got up and looked through some old photo albums and remembered my granddaughter had the same problems as a filly. She was terrified to go into the house, she always said "NO, no he's waiting for me," and we didn't understand who she was frightened of. Eventually she overcame these fears but at a great cost, she had to leave home...forever." "So your saying i have to leave home?" "No, I'm saying you need help that I can't give," "Then, then how do I get this monster out of my head," "For now fight it, fight it off and keep control Vinyl," "I will Treble," I said as I sat back, sinker deeper into the recliner. Soft Treble got up after finishing her cup of tea and trotted out the door. On her way out she pulled a few pictures out of her bag and set them on the desk. I got up quickly as the door shut and cantered over to the desk, they were pictures of Octavia as a kid. She was absolutely adorable, always looking happy like nothing was troubling her. I looked through the pictures and only stopped to look at a few with Octavia and Soft Treble in the same picture, eventually I reached the last one. I looked at it closely at it, it was Octavia again, but as first chair in the Princesses Processional/Recessional Band. She looked positively jubilant, a tear was in her eye and she was looking at someone, I backed away a little to see who it was. It was me waving back at her. "Oh *sniff* oh Celestia, I remember this day, our first...date," I said as my eyes began to water, I remembered the day so well. It was a warm fall evening, Octavia was holding my hoof pulling me through the crowd. She laughed the whole time out of excitement and I was blushing cause she was holding my hoof. We eventually pulled through the mass of ponies at the back door entrance of the auditorium, she kissed me and handed me a ticket. "You'll be in the first row were I can see you haha," Octavia giggled, "Oh this is so exciting but I'm so nervous I mean what if i miss the first octave in the middle ch....," I stopped Octavia by grabbing her with both my hoofs and kissing her gently, she looked at me blushing redder than a apple and looked down for a little. "You'll do grate babe, now get out there and show Celestia your the best," I said moving her hair out of her face as she looked back up at me. Her purple eyes glistening with the street lamps and moonlight, I wanted to kiss her again but I knew I had to let her go and play. So I let go and she smiled and tried to hide her true emotions but I knew she loved me, I sat there under the street lamp for a while. Eventually I heard the started B flat octave for the band warm up and ran into the theater to take my seat. As I sat Octavia looked over and smiled with a tear in her eye and waved back. The concert ended and I met Octavia behind the massive velvet curtains of the theater. I embraced her deeply and she did too, my heart raced in this moment of sheer joy and bliss. "I'm so glad you were here, it made this concert perfect," Octavia said quietly. "No, you did," I said stereotypically, she came closer to me and fell asleep. Everyone looked at me when she started snoring, I laughed a little because it was cute. I lifted her up and carried her out of the theater and walked out on the street, I tried to hale a cab but didn't want to wake her. So I carried her to the apartment building, my legs were exhausted climbing the three stories of stairs trying to get to the room. I opened the door, probably should have locked it, but I walked in and set her on the bed. I placed her gently into the sheets, I stepped back and looked at her, she was happy and smiling in her sleep. "Goodnight, little baby," I said as I kissed her on the head. "*guh* snot......bab....meh," Octavia said in her sleep. I went to the kitchen to pour a quick drink before joining her. Oh the thought of being in the same bed as her drove me mad, but she was fast asleep. She looked peaceful in her deep sleep, I drank my mix and climbed in next to her. I gathered my courage and got closer until we were to close to separate, she whined softly and rubbed herself into me. I put my arm around her and drifted into sleep. It was a perfect day, and the perfect end. "I miss you so much right now Octavia, please please please still love me," I said under my breathe, a tear found it way down my face and on to the photo. I looked at it for a few minutes longer, losing a battle of emotions that I never had control of anyways. I put the photo down and covered my face. "How could it come to this, we loved each other so much not even Celestia could pull us apart. I'de bass cannon armies just to get to you Octavia *sniff ahhha* I would do everything just for you to be happy, everything *sniff*" I cried again, stuffing my face in the cushion trying to muffle the screams. The memories brought back so much pain, but it was a good pain too me. I couldn't stop this time, this time I didn't go outside to greet the birds or the sun, this time it would hurt to fake my emotions. I walked over to the kitchen to fix up something to eat, all I had to eat was hay, again. So I decided to put a fake smile on anyways and go to Sugar Cube Corner for a afternoon snack. I opened the door and the sun hurt my eyes, but soon they adjusted to its rays. I walked to Sugar Cube Corner, I and I noticed some kids looking at me angrily as I walked on. They seemed to remember me embarrassing them at the festival yesterday, they stuck their tongues out at me and I smiled back. I continued on and eventually saw Pinky Pie at the front door. "OH, oh Vinyl, Vinyl come here quick, quick," yelled Pinky Pie, she is a crazy pony but lovable all the same. "Hey Pinks, whats got your senses all messed up today?" I asked. "I got this super duper recipe for the greatest cake EVER, even gummy loved it," "Oh sweet lets see it Pinks," I followed Pinky Pie into the bakery. Mr. and Mrs.Cake were working tediously like usual to bring delicious treats to everyone in Ponyville. I nodded as I walked by and they smiled back as I followed Pinky Pie to a casket, it gleamed in the light and Pinky looked anxiously at it. She began to drool, I did too just looking at her but she moved closer to it. "Behold, The Peach Reach Mountain!" Pinky yelled loudly, startling the Cakes. "Oh wow, that looks delicious, how much Pinks?" "No charge, just let me know how it was when your done," "Haha no problem, thanks Pinks," I said as my eyes began to sparkle with joy at this magnificent cake. I put the cake into a cart and totted it back home to enjoy, on the way everyponies eyes began to wonder onto the case. There eyes sparkled like mine did at it's grandeur. I totted it back home and upon entry of the house I felt relaxed, I walked into the kitchen and put it on the table. The case was cold and the notched on the side indicated where it was supposed to be opened. I flicked a switch *Hsssss, pop* the case opened slowly and the cake began to reveal itself, it looked marvelous. I spared no time and devoured the cake, It filled my mouth with magnificent flavors of peach, mango, strawberry and whipped cream. It filled my stomach withing minutes, I burped on completion of the cakes delicious end. I managed over to the chair and sat down. I got up right away and lit a fire in the fireplace and walked back to the chair, slowly sinking back into it. I felt tired, my stomach grumbled and my mind yelled at me to sleep. I got relaxed and fell into a deep sleep again. "Oh your back girl, you come back to tell me that I'll never win," said the monster mockingly. "Wh-where are we now?" I asked. "Oh my home, you see I want you to feel at home when I kill you," "No ones dying here, now answer me one question," as i said this she turned around holding a violin in her hands. It was stained in blood and she sat down on a chair, I was somehow pushed into a chair to and a spotlight came down on us. The only thing I could see was her, a rug and a record player. She pushed the nub over and a quiet beat began to play, she the violin like Octavia and composed a new song to this beat. It was creepy, and off putting but still good. "And what is your question," she eventually asked. "Why are you haunting me in my dreams, why not leave," "Oh girl I can't go, I'm your manifested fear, I'll always be with you," when she finished the chairs fibers were wrapped around my hands legs and head. I didn't feel it happening. "*ugh* let me go!" I pleaded but she kept moving closer to me, She broke the violin and pulled off a string. She came closer and got in my face, she reached into her body and pulled out a sewing needle. "Lets shut that mouth shall we," She quickly sewed my mouth shut, it was so quick I couldn't fight. She began to laugh and grab the violin stem. She came back and looked at me with her deathly, blood filled eyes. "If she can't here you scream, haha, how can she save you girl," She said ramming the violin into my leg. I couldn't scream, I tried but nothing came out. I felt hopeless in this state and she knew it so she continued to laugh and pulled the stem out and rammed it into my other leg. The pain was intense and I still couldn't scream, eventually the blood loss was getting to me and I became dizzy, she looked at me again and smiled. I passed out. "*Gasp, weeze, gasp* Holy shit, oh god, uh *Byuuuuugg*" I threw up on the floor in front of me. My stomach hurt, and I was sweeting from the pain. My legs felt like they still had a her violin stem in them, I got up and walked to the mirror. I looked in it and grabbed a comb to work my hair out for today. "She's trying hard to win, but she won't, I won't fucking let her," I said in the mirror, soon I finished combing my hair. I looked in the mirror for a while longer to admire my work, but I heard a violin playing in the background. I quickly turned around and she was sitting on the chair playing it, I took a step forward and she disappeared. I thought it was Octavia for a moment, but again my mind and heart were playing tricks on me. I got up and took a deep breath. "2 more days," I said happily.
Day 4I walked up stairs to grab a few items for todays show in Apple Acres, I had to put on a show for the coming apple harvest. Every year in Ponyville, ponies from across the surrounding farming communities come in and celebrate the coming harvests. I was personally asked by Apple Jack to put on a light show to put everyone into a harvesting mood. I happily obliged of course, but this was two weeks ago, before Octavia left me. I gathered my items and headed back down stairs, I again heard a violin playing in the back of my mind but I disregarded it and continued on. I reached for my jacket but couldn't find it. "Where is that damned th....Oh yeah it's at the studio, haha so forgetful," I told myself as I headed out the door. I walked outside and it was cloudy out and gloomy, very few ponies were out except the pegasis ponies moving the clouds in for the day. It was an unscheduled drizzle of rain for the day to help soften down the ground for the Harvest Festival. I floated newspaper over my head as the rain came, It was a soft rain but I still didn't want to get wet. I began to run to my studio as the rain slowly became harder, I saw lighting and looked at it as I ran. It was blue lightning which was a treat on days like this, but because of my carelessness I broke down the door to my studio. The door was under me and mud flew into the room and onto the floor, I got up and kicked my hoofs off before entering the room. As I got up I realized that Soft Treble was sitting in the chair waiting for me, she looked terrified upon my entrance but relaxed as I pulled the mud off my face. "Oh Celestia deary, you startled me," Soft Treble said. "Sorry, the blue lightning distracted me and...door," I blushed as I spoke. "Ah door, well now deary I heard that you had to perform today at Apple Acres. So I thought we could add some class to your music," "That would be wonderful Treble," I said motioning Soft Treble into the recording room. "Here put these headphones on and I'll play to the beat for the song. After your done we'll incorporate your music into what will be made for the Festival," I yelled through the glass because the door slammed shut as Soft Treble entered. I pointed up at a red light and flashed it green a few timed before letting remain a solid green flicker. She began to play a soft, sweet melody, and the hum of her violin only echoed the beautiful sound that was being composed. I listened close and heard something different about the song, I heard words as I turned up the volume. It was a story, a sad story with a sweet serenity to it. She continued on and my eyes began to water, I felt her heart song, what she was feeling years ago when Octavia left forever. Upon completion of her Recessional my head was already hidden with my arms and I was whimpering softly, I didn't notice that she left the studio. She came up behind me and rubbed my back and put her head next to mine. "You can hear the story now can't you?" She whispered into my ear. "*sniff* yes, it's beautiful, and I heard it, the words," I replied softly. "Now you know why I care," "because you too lost Octavia, Treble," I whimpered softly to her. I raised my head and Soft Treble backed away, I looked at her and she had a tear slowly falling down her face. I got up and pulled her into me, this time it was her turn to let out the pain she bottled up over the years. Yet she couldn't cry, Soft Treble only smiled and said thank you. She let go and looked at my synthesizer, I looked over at it too and it was glowing a warm orange color. I went over and touched it softly and hue became stronger as I rubbed the chassis, the warmth of of glow was calming. "It's ready, go and play it Vinyl," Said Soft Treble quietly. I grabbed the synthesizer and carried it into the the studio, I plugged it in as the door shut behind me. I set it gently on the table in the studio, I placed my hand back on it and felt the heartbeat of the machine. It was slow and rhythmic, and you could feel the pulses in the magic it extruded from the speakers. I turned the machine on and began to play, the sounds it made were warm and frantic putting you in a calm state. The synthesizer hue began to grow brighter and it slithered it's way onto the floor and creating a foggy affect onto the floor. This mystical feeling brought warmth to my body and relaxed my muscles, I was going numb everywhere but still remained standing. The hue began to grow brighter and stronger, I backed up thinking it was going to explode again. Yet it didn't, instead it made the dust floated in the floor wave and jump to the beat. I came back to it and started to hit the bass harder, the treble exploded along side it and a soft piano sound filled the background. I looked up and Soft Treble was smiling, she knew that the song was about hope although it may not sound like it to an untrained ear. I finished the song and stepped back form the synthesizer and watched as the hue slowly began to fade. I smiled because for once, for what seemed like forever, I wasn't alone. I was accepted by a mare who I never saw, but knew me well. Soft Treble smiled as I walked out and hugged me. "Beautiful deary, just beautiful," Soft Treble said quietly. I walked over to the soundboard and started to mix the two sounds, it took a few minutes but the two completely different styles mixed perfectly. It brought a warm feeling into your heart when the song was played, it was perfect. I grabbed my synthesizer and the disk from the soundboard, I waved to Soft Treble as I ran out the door. It was slippery out but the heat from the sun quickly dried the ground and made it easy to run on, I ran as fast as I could to Apple Acres. I reached it quickly and ran into the orchard where they were holding the event. I decided to come early to enjoy in the festivities and the games earth ponies traditionally partake in. The one thing I thoroughly enjoy is a drinking contest where all earth ponies tested there livers against one another. There was one were it was a Hay Maker heavy drop, I walked over to watch this. It was amazing to see how much these ponies could drink actually, one of the actually finished an entire keg in 5 minutes and walked off like nothing happened. It was wonderful to see this and more, as I walked away one of them grabbed my hind hoof and pulled me back. "Where do you think your going little pony, it's your turn," said a bug gray one enthusiastically. " Ok then, lets do this shall we," I said confidently as they carried me cheering to the table. They set me down and slided a tankard in front of me, another large brown pony, speckled in black sat down on the other end. They slid him a tankard and he grasped it harshly in his hoof, the other earth ponies gathered round and watched this spectacle. "A unicorn drinking more than an earth pony," said an earth pony. "Yeah it's unheard of," said another. "Hey shush up lets see what she can do," a third one chimed in. They all watched intently, waiting to see who could drink more. The refry put his hoof on the table, we both nodded and he threw his hoof into the air. I slammed the first one down as fast as the other pony and quickly another one appeared in front of me. After about five full tankards my head began to hurt with my stomach, the other pony looked like he was about to fall over to but we continued to drink. Soon 9 were down and I couldn't hold it down anymore, I was about to throw up but the other pony did first. I held my juices down and all the earth ponies came in and hoisted me up cheering, they yelled and threw drinks into the air in celebration. The fact that I out drank a farmer was impressive to these ponies and they revered me for a while before letting me down. The day drew on as I sobered up under a tree, the light was filtered through the leaves of the tree. The birds chirped along with the earth ponies festive songs, the smell of freshly brewed Rainbow Juice filled the air. It was a good afternoon and I watched the ponies dance and sing along joyously, they didn't care about anything today. It was there day. So sun down came quickly and I tried to get up and walked back to the farm, I heard a pony nervously speaking on the stage trying to entertain the others. as I walked I noticed the pony she looked familiar but then it hit me. Apple Jack was sitting on stage stalling as best she could and soon she noticed me and she quickly diverted the attention. "And then she....OH HEY look the entertainment is here, everyone give large round of applause for VINYL SCRATCH!" She trotted quickly down the stairs of the stage and stopped me before I went up. "Hey sugar, thanks for getting here when you did, it was getting mighty tough to entertain these fellas," Apple Jack said weakly, I nodded and went up the stairs to the stage. When I got up the crowd began to cheer and clap for me, I paid no attention and set up the synthesizer quickly. It began to glow that warm orange glow, I plugged the CD into the synthesizer. The music was hypnotizing and put everyone into a trance, the combination of techno and viola was magnificent. The synthesizer created an orange glow that drifted its way off the the stage and me, the audience became more relaxed and happy. Then the bass dropped with a heavy treble and the crowd was put into a jubilant state and smiled brightly, they had a feeling brought unto them that only a emotion could pull out. The waves of amber began to fade away as the song did and all the earth pony farmers began to rise from there seats. Relaxed and calmed they said goodbye to everyone and walked there separate ways. I grabbed the synthesizer and walked off the stage in the opposite direction of the other ponies. It was dark out and the orchard was gleaming in the moonlight, the smell of freshly grown apple filled the night air. I walked on and suddenly was stopped by the sound of a violin, I turned around thinking Octavia came to the festival. She knew I played today, I knew she still loved me. "Octavia.....OCTAVIA, where are you?" I yelled and searched frantically, I ran through the orchard and found nothing. My synthesizer dropped along with me, the sound disappeared with the moon that night. The clouds moved in quickly and it began to drizzle again, it was light unlike my heart. I wanted so bad to believe she came back, my mind was bent and beaten to make me believe she was here. "Why *sniff ahhh* WHY!! AAAHHHHH....." I yelled wobbling around in my sudden depression. I couldn't get over the fact the I believed this illusion. I wanted her back so badly I believed anything....just anything. "I just want you back, I just want you back Octavia *sniff*. I JUST WANT YOU OCTAVIA.....*aaaahhh*fuck me she can't hear me, she's *sniff* gone," I cried into the night. Yelling and kicking not caring if anyone heard me, the soft touch of the rain kissed my skin. It's cold embrace held me lightly on the ground, and I began to tire. My heart was to heavy to let me leave, so I stayed on the ground and let the night take me. "Hey, haha welcome back girl. I was getting boared," Said the monster mockingly. I was in the orchard rising from where I fell asleep. It was Black everywhere I looked and the only thing i could see was 7 trees around me, and her. She climbed down from the ladder wearing a stray hat and holding an apple. I looked at her intently and she smiled back. "So how are your legs girl, are they haha a bit stiff," it asked in a rude tone. She continued on eating the apple and walked closer to me. "Why do you care, your just a lie!" I hissed back at her. She began to laugh loudly and a bloody tear ran down her face, she stopped abruptly and disappeared in a black haze. I felt a hoof on my flank and spun around quickly, she was there and her mane began to fall of revealing the wound from before. "Oh girl your just hurting my feeling, If I'm a lie how can I do this," She said softly as she lifted me by the throat up slammed me to the ground. "You can't tell me this doesn't feel real to you girl, you can't tell me that I'n a LIE!" She yelled and the roots shot through my arms and legs. They wrapped quickly around me limbs and held me down, the blood trickled from the openings of the roots. I screamed in pain and she just laugh along. "*GUH* ah why do you do this *AAAHHH* to m-me?" I asked weakly fighting the pain. The roots pulled tighter and and went deeper into my skin, wrapping around my bones. I cried out into the darkness but no one heard. "HA, you think I enjoy this, no. I enjoy this *clop*" She clicked her hoofs and the roots ripped my left arm off. "AAAAAHHHHH FUCK!" I yelled as the roots began to tighten around my other limbs. She smiled intently, and put her hoofs back up. "N-n-no p-please no more, just l-let me go," I pleaded. "Only if you let me out," " Fuck you," I said weakly, she smiled and got close to my face. "So be it," She said quickly. She turned around and clacked her hoofs three times, the roots began to constrict and then *RIP* every limb was ripped from my body and pulled into the ground. It was so painful I couldn't scream, the pain was making me black out and she came close to me and whispered into my ear. "I'll win soon enough my dear, I certainly don't need your permission to do so either," She said as I blacked out. I jumped up off the ground in Apple Acres and toppled myself over. I couldn't feel my arms or legs and I fell into a tree, the Night Terror was intense this time. I was sweating still and the pain was still there in my muscles, I wanted to die in the dream but I couldn't let her win. The morning was cold and I couldn't move from fear and pain, I felt helpless and just sat there.
The LetterI walked out of the field slowly, my limbs still felt like they weren't attached. As I walked I heard noises, musical instruments of all sorts playing off in the distance. "The Musicians Festival," I gasped at this realization. The music festival was today and I completely forgot about it, I began to run but fell over in a feeble attempt. My limbs still ached from the dream, how could they hurt so bad from a dream. I got back up, legs shacking under my weight and I continued to walk. The cool breeze only settled the mood I was in, cold, dying on the inside. Yet hope decided to play a card in my favor and Soft Treble was walking up the hill toward me, she was holding a mix tape. It was mine, I walked down a little faster to meet her in the middle. She smiled when she saw me and I did the same, we met in middle and hugged. "Oh deary I've been looking for you everywhere, you need to go down and perform. Here hand me your CD and run along," Soft Treble said quickly. "Thank you Treble, this will save me so much time," I said happily while trading CD's with her. She ran off quickly to go get her violin I presumed and I began to walk down the hill again. My mood was instantly brightened by the surprise visit of Soft Treble, my legs began to regain feeling finally so I ran down the hill. I reached the bottom and used the momentum of the run to shoot past Soft Treble looking back and smiled brightly at her. The grass waved slowly from the wind generated from my run, it's golden waves made this cold day seem brighter. I smiled without forcing it, the beauty of the landscape could make even a dragon smile. I ran faster then I've ever ran before and reached the festival in no time at all. The festival was a mass of pony musicians of all types, all with unique talents and abilities. The art of music is put on display in this spectacle of arts, the air filled with all kinds of different music types as each pony played. I couldn't believe my eyes at the sight of this, so many musicians, so many sounds but none like mine. No one here had a story, only a fast paced riff raff that all ponies could understand. I shouldn't judge, I was the same weeks ago but then I heard the truth of music. So I continued to walk up to my tent that Derpy kinda set up. "Go Derps, almost got I....," I was cut off by some ruffling coming from under the tent and soon Derpy came out from under it with all sorts of speaker cable tangled around her. "Hey Vinyl, I almost got it set up just gotta find where these go," Derpy said confused. "Haha it's alright Derps, I can handle it from here," I said enthusiastically. Walked over to her and unwrapped the cables from her body, she smiled and flew off to go see her little Dinky play her recorder. I walked in and put the synthesizer on the stand, I grabbed the cable laid on the floor and carefully hooked the cords into the synthesizer and speakers. I pushed the speakers out in front of the tent, everypony watched as I floated one one top of the other. It made a stack of two on both sides of the tent, ponies began to gather around my tent and I walked back into it. Soon I ripped the curtains down and the true nature of the tent was revealed, it was a giant sub woofer. I grabbed the the microphone and addressed the crowd. "Hello visitors in Ponyvill, are you ready to rock!" I yelled through the mike. Everypony cheered and watched intently as I dialed up the volume and put the track on five, within seconds the bass exploded and the massive sub shook the crowd. They all stood up quickly startled at the boom, a shock wave shook all the tents in the surrounding are. I stood up for the shock nocked me over and dialed the music down. "Sorry everypony, technical difficulty," I said blushing. The music began shortly after the bang was corrected and the air filled with the sounds of hundreds of instruments. I noticed that ponies were still surrounding my tent listening silently to my music, all marking something down on the voting card. I sat there and continued to play my techno and watch the others closely, they all seemed to become happy listening to my music. I soon I heard a sound that seemed all to familiar, I looked back and saw little Dinky Hooves tooting away on her recorder. Derpy was following closely behind her smiling with absolute glee enjoying her little filly trying to play her recorder. Dinky landed awkwardly on top of me and Derpy landed next to us. "Vinyl Scratch, listen I figured out how to play hot cross buns," Dinky said quickly. She began to play, the sound was scratchy and out of tune but it was still cute. Derpy was blushing in excitement of her daughters new found abilities, I was smiling at how funny Derpy looked. She was rubbing her face and scrunching it in awkward positions in her excitement. "So Vinyl what do you think, was it good?" Dinky asked me. "It was wonderful DInky, a class act," I said enthusiastically. "Really, you think so," Dinkies eyes were sparkling as she asked this. I said nothing in return and just kissed her on the head, she flew off and Derpy came next to me. " Thank you Vinyl, I'm so proud of her," Derpy began to tear up. You could tell that it was a mothers love in her eyes when she looked at me. "It was good, and your welcome Derps," I said to her. I leaned over and hugged her, she smiled and walked back. She looked at me before flying off cock eyed into the sky. It was nice to have a friend like Derpy, although people question her parenting. They don't know her like I do, but my mind drifted off and I didn't realize that my music wasn't playing. I quickly ran back to turn it back on, luckily nobody left and they all clapped when the music came back on. All my music was made before the concert, except for the music I made for Octavia. I wanted to go out and look for her but never did for I knew she would hear my song soon enough. The night came over Ponyville and everypony knew what it meant. Time to reveal the final act, everypony was given a card to jot down a name for the winner. The score tallier, walked onto the the stage and drew in a deep breath. "Welcome everypony to the Equestria Musicians Contest, it is my pleasure to announce the winner of this years contest," Yelled the announcer. Everypony cheered in excitement and watched in anticipation to see who would be crowned winner. "And this years winner is, Vinyl Scratch!" Yelled the announcer. I walked, chest buffed out onto the stage, everypony was cheering loudly still. I got up to the podium and waved to the crowd, I walked back and put my CD into the music player. The system was massive, and I was fairly sure some tweaking and you could hear my song all the way in Canterlot. I placed it carefully into the tray, it shut and the whole system began to glow in a light purple hue. When the speakers began to boom and and the hue drifted out of the speakers and off the stage, it drifted into the crowd. I listened the music I made days back, I was heartbroken back then, still am but worse days back. It's feeling was untamed and true, it's story was pure and songful, It's beat and sound brought the crowd closer. They all listened closely and they felt my heartbreak, they all began to sway holding who they loved closely. Some even staying still and just sitting head on top of head enjoying the moment. For some odd reason I began to glow too, brighter than before. The magic was flowing off of me, my horn was going crazy and when the song reached it's peak the magic exploded off. Like the first time it made a giant purple nova except off me, my body tingled as the magic extruded from my pores. I sank to my knees as the magic finally stopped, everypony looked in amazement at the sight portrayed in front of them. Soft Treble rushed onto the stage and haled me off, she was old but not weak. I must have blacked out somewhere because I woke up into her house, my head ached and my horn felt like it was going to explode. Soft Treble was coming in with a troth of tea, she put to lumps of sugar into my tea smiling. She placed the cup on my chest and rubbed my head. "You ok deary, that was quite a show you put on," Soft Treble asked quietly. "I *ugh* my head," I said weakly trying to sit up. "Whoa now deary you need to lay down and drink this, it's herbal so it'll fix you r head right up," "Thank you Soft Treble," "Your welcome, that song you made. It was for Octavia wasn't it?" asked Soft Treble in a low tone. She looked dismayed for some reason. "Y-yes why do you ask?" I said looking at her hands. They were trembling and she got up quickly and walked back into the kitchen. I heard rustling coming from the kitchen, Soft Treble looked like she was trying to find something important. She came back into the room, her eyes said don't look but she handed the letter to me anyways. It was from Octavia, I opened it slowly, anticipating what it will say. *Dear Vinyl Scratch, I apologize to you personally, I should have never left you. Grandma Treble filled me in on what is going on with you, the Night Terrors and depression, I'm so so sorry my love. I wanted to come to the Festival so bad and see you again, to kiss you one more time. I still love you Vinyl but I'm afraid I will not be able to see you, I'm stuck in Canterlot and the guards are not letting anyone out. They said there was a threat placed on Celestia and they said anyone could be the rebel assassin. I'm sorry again my love, I love you and I pray that you still love me too. Yours truly, Octavia.* I set the letter down, Soft Treble came over and hugged me. She rubbed my back, I began to cry again. Not from fear, not from sadness, but because I was happy. I grabbed Soft Treble and held her tight, she squeaked a little at how hard I grabbed her. She looked at me because she knew what it said just by looking at me. "Go get her Vinyl, Go get her," said Soft Treble bravely and I shot out of the house and ran home to go pack. I ran home quickly, my breath was so hot from the excitement and my running that it fogged in front of me. I ran so hard the I didn't stop to open the door, I hit it dead on and sent it sliding on the floor into the living room. It made a loud crashing noise startling some nearby ponies going for a stroll, I ran upstairs and looked on my desk for the song. "Where did it go....SOFT TREBLE!" I yelled in surprise, I crashed down the stairs and ran out the door. Soft Treble was sitting on a bench outside my house, I looked at her with a large smile on my face as she waved the CD in the air. I rushed over and hugged her grabbing the CD mid way into it, I let go quickly and dashed off into the direction of Canterlot. I Dashed to the city outskirts and ended up in the wheat fields waving gracefully in the cool night breeze. As I finally slowed down and started to walk, I heard a violin playing off in the distance. I walked off and marched over a hill only to find Her sitting into the ravine staring at me smiling.
DemonsI walked down the hill to see the monster from my dreams was sitting there playing the violin just like Octavia would. She played a mellow hum that would put anything to sleep, except me, I walked closer to her and she looked at me deeply. I walked even closer and she got up and stepped towards me and disappeared in the black smoke from my dreams. She disappeared and reappeared on top of a wheat stack, the wind made her mane flake off revealing the wound in her chest. She had her hand on the stone cage with her heart in it. She looked at it for a few seconds, then looked at me with a bloodied face. "You see girl, I never needed your help to escape. Well not entirely, you made me so only you could free me," She said happily. "But how, I'm not sad anymore, how did you get out?" I asked quietly. "Oh you see it wasn't your sadness I needed, when you would become extremely happy your mind would reject me as a fact. So here I am, you lovely companion," "This, this is impossible your just a figment of my imagination," "Oh and the imagination can be a powerful thing girl, it can make even a simple doll come to life," She said dissapearing off the wheat stack. She reappeared again in the seat in front of me. "You see, I am real to you at least, and this is were it gets complicated," "How does it get complicated?" "Because now I've won girl, hahaha!" It laughed mockingly at me, she got up off her chair and ran towards me. I took off going deeper into the field trying to get away, I looked back and she was gone. I stopped and looked around and she shot from the ground in front of me. This time the black haze remained at her he feet and slowly came toward me. She smiled because she knew i wanted to escape, I wanted to get away from her but couldn't. I ran away in the opposite direction then circled around to hopefully confuse her, and get to Canterlot. "Gotta get to Octavia, must find her," I repeated over and over as I ran through the field. I gasped for breath, my fears realized and portrayed right before my eyes. A monument to my sins that is going to kill me, so I ran faster and faster, but being mortal my legs gave out. and I collapsed. She appeared out of the shadow of the grain, her grin wide and freakish starring me down at me. Her eyes began to gleam in joy, she spit blood as she broke out into a demonic laugh. Black shade of dust sprung from her feat and came at me, the ground shook and began to break as more dust rose from the cracks. I used all my strength to rise from the ground and run at her, I charged my horn leading the assault, I screamed when I charged her. Feeling the fear build inside of me I rammed her in the side of the chest without the wound. My horn dug deep into her chest before the force sent her rolling back. She remained on the ground without moving, without breath, I watched her body dissipate and fly away into the wind. I rested for a while, regained my breath and held my head, the thought of her being real was flogging my mind. I rose from my rest and began to walk to Canterlot once more. The night became colder, the wind grew stronger and the golden waves slowly faded beneath an invasion of white frost. I walked slowly colling of from my run, the cold air was a welcome sight in my eyes. I continued on and the golden waves became a landscape of white frost, soon the wind died down and I could clearly see canterlot from the distance. "Almost there, thank Celestia," I said to myself under my fogged breath. I walked on and soon exited the field, I continued to a massive hillside where a stone pathway marked the entrance to Canterlot only a mile away. I took the first stone stepped, the white snow glistened beautifully withing the crescent moonlight. I looked up from the steps and she was there right in front of me, with both wounds protruding from her chest. She looked at me, anguish filled her eyes as blood ran from them and speckled the ground below. "You almost killed me you bitch!" She hissed at me as a cool breeze swept by. "Did you think though, for even a moment that all you needed to do was fucking stab me, no, no girl you'll need more TO KILL ME!" Her anger was fueled by pain, she looked at me with contempt for my loss of my sanity. I stared back all the same, but my mind began to hurt, my vision was slowly becoming blurred and something had a hold of me. I looked down to see black tentacles wrapping around my body, she had a hold of me. She smiled that big disgusting smile again and walked closer. She looked me dead in the eyes, her eyes became sweeter and she moved my cold, sweat beaded hair off to the side. She moved in closer and kissed me, he lips were soft, sweet and hypnotic. My mind raced as she continued, before I could realize this was wrong I already lost, she had me where she wanted me. "Now, come into my world, and experience a hell like never before...HAHAHA!" She laughed menacingly as I blacked out. I fell slowly into a world that was all to familiar, the stage of me and Octavias first date.It was old and decrepit now, the curtains were burnt, and the wood was rotted. The seats were all gone and the floor showed signs of blood stained from its base to the walls. I hit the ground and shew as above me watching me fight her, she picked me up and smiled. Blood stained her teeth and she carried me to a table, it was an old mahogany table, mad back in olden times when Equestria first started. I was placed upon it, the black dust surrounded my limbs and held me tight against the table. She came back with and old scalpel, I was scared, my eyed began to water and I couldn't scream again. She hovered over top of me and looked carefully at my body, she put the scalpel on the table. She walked over to the center of the stage and pulled up the stone cage with her heart. She hoisted it up and noticed it was breaking, she knew that she was dying, but not now. She flashed back next to me and lifted her hood, the black dust rose from it falling into the sky. "Remember when I said you didn't have the heart. Lets make that a literal term shall we." She said intently as her hoof began to glow. She raised it higher and crashed it deep into my chest cavity, she grasped my heart. Blood splat from my mouth as she pulled it clean out, it was still beating and she threw it on the floor across the stage. She let the restraints go and I fell to the floor, my body became cold and the pain was excruciating. I began to crawl across the theater to retrieve my stolen heart, she laughed at my feeble attempts. She came up to my when I was only inches from the heart, I reached out to grasp it and put it back. She laughed harder and sent the scalpel through my hoof and plant it in the theater floor, I screamed but nothing came out but blood. I felt trapped here, forced to loose a battle I thought I could win, "I'm sorry Octavia, I wasn't strong enough" I thought to myself. _*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_OCTAVIA__*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_* I walked out from my loft near the Canterlot castle, the night was brisk and the wind nipped my cheeks. I trotted down the square, no pony was out this late and on a night like this. I wanted to try and sneak past the guards and go home, I wanted to be with my Vinyl Scratch again. I stuck to the shadows, every street lamp was out and speckled with frost, I ran down the alley way. It was dirty and covered in grime, there was also a homeless guy in the shadows sipping on his gin. I tried to be quiet as I exited the alley way, I saw a guard with a lantern making his rounds. I quickly sat against the wall, unmoving so the guard wouldn't see notice me. It worked he walked by and didn't turn back, I slipped out of the shadows and into the moonlit streets. I ran quickly down the side walk, sticking close to the wall to remain unseen. my naturally dark mane made hiding in the dark easy, So I continued to run to the walls of the city. It was lucky that tonight all the guards had to go relight the lanterns so they were all preoccupied for a few moments. I used this distraction to slip under the gate, it was always left open a little in case of emergency entrances. I creped along the wall and saw both guards still stationed in front of it. I prepared myself for my daring escape, my heart pounded in my chest at the thought of seeing her again. I reared my legs, they were stiffening from the adrenaline, I cocked back and before I could bolt a blood curdling scream echoed in the night. It happened again shortly after and soon you could here someone begging for their heart back, I recognized the voice....it was Vinyl Scratch. I shot out, like a horse in the starting gates and ran sown the path, the guards followed suit and came with. They were pegusis ponies so the flew down quicker then I could run, My heart was stopped and everything in my head screamed for me to help her. I ran and ran, never stopping until I reached the end of the path. I collapsed in my exhaustion and slid down the path a few feet, the guards were surrounding Vinyl Scratch and they were becoming frantic. I listened closely and overheard their brief conversation. "Oh Celestia no, not this," exclaimed the white guard. "What wh...no, not good at all," said the other in surprise. "Go get the princess and some royal doctors, this ones bad," "Yes sir," the black pony stated as he flew off. I got up and weakly walked over to see Vinyl, what could be wrong with her. I got close and became horrifies at the sight, she was bleeding from her mouth, she was shaking and her glasses were cracked. I dropped next to her and picked her up into my arms, I began to cry as I held her. She continued to shake and I held her tighter, my arms were becoming numb from holding her. I held her close and fought through the pain in my arms, she screamed again and her hand began to shake franticly. It scared me at the sheer intensity of it, I couldn't hold her anymore and dropped her on the step.The guard watched me as i sat there, I jumped though when she whispered "I'm sorry Octavia, I wasn't strong enough," "No Vinyl I was weak*sniff* you tried to stay strong for us, you fought for us. I'm sorry Vinyl, I did this to you Vinyl," I said planting my face into her chest. I continued to cry and the guard came over and put his arm around me. "I'M SORRY VINYL, AAAHH!" I yelled into the night and remained next to her body. I got closer and remained n the ground with her, her shakes became less frantic as I lay with her. I kept my head on her chest, her breathing was frantic and her heart was racing. I propped myself up on one arm, I got next to her and whispered into her ear "Quiet now Vinyl, I'll never leave your side again," and I moved in and kissed her. She stopped shacking and let out a deep breath, black dust rose from her mouth and disappeared into the sky. As I lay with her I heard wings and hoofs noises coming from behind me. Celestia and a Red Cross were behind me, Red Cross came up to me and motioned me aside so her could examine her. Celestia came over to me and placed her wing around me. "I'm so sorry Octavia," She said softly and the guards hoisted Vinyl off to the hospital.
Pulling a Dream(Still in Octavia's point of view) I walked back to the hospital with Celestia, she kept her wing over me covering me from the snow. I stared at the ground, walking in a grave stage never daring to look up. We continued on, Celestia's magic lighting the to the hospital. It was a few blocks away still so Celestia took this time to ask me a few questions. "Octavia, how long have you known about these night terrors?" She asked quietly. "O-only a few days now, my grandma told me about it but I paid no attention to it," I replied. "But how did Night Terrors escalate to this? I've had them before and, and they weren't this bad," "Thats because you were able to escape your fears, but Vinyls fears she could never escape. The fear manifested into a being within her soul and it's trying to destroy her," "I-it can't possibly do that," I said in a state of shock. I quickly looked up from the ground and into Celestia's eyes, she wasn't lying. "Unicorns react to imagination differently then other ponies, our magic can make what we dream a reality. It is difficult even for master magic user's, even myself and Luna, to project our thoughts," "But there was no one there, it was only Vinyl scratch s-screaming on the roadway," "That's because it had already taken her, the creature pulled Vinyls soul into it's realm....and it's torturing her," Celestia tone was strong yet passionate. She wanted peace in her kingdom and happiness for everypony, even one pony that is unhappy. Can make Celestia trifle over it. We walked the last block in silence, the steps to the hospital were large dragon stone blocks. Celestia looked and me, a tear formed in one of her eyes and she flew to the top. I walked up the steps and entered the building, a nurse noticed me and came over quickly. "You need to come with me mam, the doctor needs you," She said hurriedly and started off towards the intensive care unit. I followed behind her and we entered a large room, it was white with curtains covering each individual room. I was two stories high and had at least 50 rooms, the nurse led me up the steps and we walked down the isle. She stopped and room B-14 were they were keeping Vinyl sedated. "Dr. Cross, I brought her here like you asked," the nurse said. "Good, thank you nurse now please go back to your duties," said Red Cross. "Now Octavia please come here," Red Cross motioned me in. As I entered the room I saw Celestia standing on the other side of the bed, she looked deeply saddened at this sight. I came in, Vinyl had an IV sticking out of her arm, her breathing was short and raspy. The thought of her being in this state crushed me, but I did not show it. Celestia came over and nudged me closer to the bed, she walked over with me and we all looked at Vinyl. "So Celestia, how do we proceed with this "operation", it's new to me," Red Cross said moving to the other side of the bed. "We need someone close to Vinyl to free her from the monsters grasp. Then I can pull her out of this state," Replied Celestia. She looked over at me "this is where you come in Octavia, only you are close enough to Vinyl, only you can free her," Celestia finished, she put her wing over me again. "Do you think you can do it Octavia?" Red Cross asked. "I-I don't know, but I'll try," I replied worriedly. Celestia let go of me as I moved closer to the bed, I got up on it and pulled Vinyls head into my chest. I moved her hair away from her face and removed her glasses, she looked so calm, yet she was dying. I began to hum, and rest my head on the wall, I remembered the lullaby I always sang to her when she was mad. I took in a breath of air and began to sing. "Now in the night, it'll be all right. For the worries of the day have gone away. So come with me, and I'll set you free, let your spirit roam the land and be with me." I began to whimper as I sang, tears fled down my face and hit Vinyl face. I continued on, I had to save her. "Now hush my dear and just let me lead the way, for my love will keep you safe in the night. Cause in the night, It'll be alright, Just let the worries your day fade away with me." I finished the lullaby. Vinyl began to move a little, she let out a small moan and then began to speak. "T-thank you Octavia" and then her voice faded. Celestia looked at me and I moved off the bed, her horn began to glow and she hit Vinyl with beam of pink light. Vinyls back arched and she began to scream, but it wasn't her voice, it was someone else's voice. The scream echoed throughout the room and hospital, black dust rose from her mouth. I stepped back a a black shadow appeared from the dust in the air, it dropped to the ground and slithered toward me. I backed up running into Red Cross as I did, the shadow stood up and retained its form. It looked like me, a creepy smiled came across it's face. It began to walk toward me, Red Cross stepped in front of me and rammed the shadow back. "NOW!" he screamed and Celestia's horn began to glow brighter. She cocked back to get her bearings, and a crimson beam of light shot from her horn hitting the monster in the cavity in it's chest. It screamed again and started to rise, white speckles of light began to show as the black shell cracked. A black plate fell from her face, It was me, I was Vinyls monster. I stepped back and looked at her, she smiled and exploded into a cloud of white dust. Her ashes fell over Vinyl, it speckled her face, her eyes began to move rapidly before she woke. _*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_Vinyl_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_ I woke from my nightmare, I was in a hospital bed and Red Cross, Celestia and Octavia were standing next to me. I sat up in my bed and Octavia came over and hugged me, tears were streaming down her face. Celestia was smiling and Red Cross looked intrigued at the situation, I came to my senses and hugged Octavia back. "V-Vinyl, your back, you came back for me," Octavia said quietly. "I could never leave you Octavia, I love you," I said weakly. "I love you too, Vinyl Scratch,"
