The Mare Of Entropy

Octavia pulled her ears back, her hooves moving her away in order to put as much distance as she could between herself and the creatures as possible. The wooden mare’s purple eyes flashed behind her leather mask, a grin crossing onto her lips as she took a step forward. Her wooden limbs made a series of creaking and groaning sounds despite how new the wood was, the cloak dragged across the stage collecting the leftover dust the cleaners had missed making the black blend with the gray. The same cloak that had once encased her the first time the mare in wood had first revealed herself to the gray foal, that was years ago but Octavia still remembered her appearance, her face, that leather mask.

That mask, that old rotten piece of leather that encased the mare in wood’s face, hiding her real identity that only Octavia had seen or rather, the gray earth pony thought she had seen her real face but was possible that the face she saw was another mask. But regardless, the old brown patchy leather mask was the most recognizable thing on the monster for it was the first thing Octavia had laid eyes on when the truth was revealed, that truth she hadn’t known until it was too late. Octavia took a few more steps back allowing the mare to see the monster in better view.

She looked exactly like she had years ago minus her rotting stitched horn as it was blasted into pieces but this mare, this monster, was exactly the same creature that had foalnapped her when she was young till her Vinyl, Valentino, had saved her and cut the strings that bound her to her puppetmaster. She thought they had destroyed her, burnt her wooden body to smoking embers, blown her horn, ripped apart every trace of her till nothing else remained but a distant memory that haunted Octavia’s dreams till marehood.

However, like Nightmare Moon, the mare in the moon, who had haunted Princess Celestia’s dreams for the last thousands of years, nightmares always have a way of returning to your beautifully crafted present and stain it ink black. And that was what this bastard creature with the mask and cloak was here to do, after all why else would she appear in the concert hall when Octavia was performing, holding her cello form that she had taken into when the young unicorn and earth pony had taken her down the first time. There were no other reasons for why this wooden mare had appeared, if there was then Octavia wouldn’t be the victim of her nightmare again.

A victim she was for the only things in sight was a crowd of skeletons and the monster standing in front of her, too close for comfort. Octavia had no idea where her other fellow musicians had gone to and her Vinyl was gone, probably in Las Pegasus? She wasn’t sure but did that matter in the grand scheme of things? Octavia barely heard her own hoofsteps in her own head making it difficult for her to register the world around her, if she had been paying attention then she wouldn’t have nearly tumbled off the stage onto the bony bodies and dusty chairs. The gray mare let out a gasp, her head whipping around to face the ponies she had killed.

Octavia’s light gray fur became an even lighter shade, a scream climbing up her throat but it didn’t get anywhere as the creaking and groaning of wooden limbs grinded in her ears. Purple locked onto purple as the wooden mare moved in a way Octavia would’ve never thought such a mare in that state could do, her nearly dead gaze meeting the gray earth pony’s. “Octavia.” Unlike the mare’s physical appearance, her voice was soft and elegant like that of herself. Though that voice was a pleasant thing to hear years ago, it brought nothing but a sickening feeling to her chest as the mare reared backwards from her monster as much as she could without falling off the stage.

“Harmony?” The cloaked mare tilted her head to the side at her name, her ears straightened then one flattened against her skull. The grin spread more across her face, the stitches on her mask barely managed to hide it. Octavia felt her heart race more, her irises shrunk down to the size of pinpricks, her ears flattened against her head and this time, the mare did fall off the stage in some attempt to get off and away from this nightmare. Octavia yelled out in surprise and pain as her back met bone which then cracked into cracked shards, the gray earth pony didn’t need to be a genius to know what had happened.

“Alright, alright, what is going on…what the fuck is that?” Octavia struggled to see the expression on the conductor as Harmony’s cloak was in the way but she managed to make out the horrified expression he made as the monster turned her attention to him, but that brief lapse in the chaos gave Octavia a few seconds to get up then run. The remainder of the skeleton flew in different directions as the panicked pony jumped to her hooves then dashed for the exit, the closest in sight that would get her away.

Harmony’s ears shot up at the feeling of something hitting her face, distracting her from her thoughts of how to deal with the conductor. She turned her attention to face the back of the fleeing gray mare who probably should’ve taken that ‘how to run without looking like an idiot’ class with Rainbow Dash, her shocked expression morphed into a scowl or at least, as close to one with the mask. Her wooden limbs groaned as she moved herself into a jumping position, her purple irises narrowing. As she leaped, Harmony let out a surprised yelp as her cloak caught onto something. In the past few seconds where her attention was focused on Octavia, the conductor had grabbed the two security guards on duty clearly detecting danger at the drop of a hat.

The ends of her cloak were caught in deep green magical aura, preventing her from going anywhere. The two guards glowered at the monster who had come into their peaceful lives and killed half of Ponyville, their scowls making their intentions clear. Harmony sighed in exasperation, rolling her eyes under her mask, her stance tensing despite her expression. She didn’t have her stolen horn as that damn unicorn had blown it to bits, but she’d still do this the hard way.

Octavia ran like hell through the streets of Ponyville, not caring where she ran just as long as she could escape that damn monster. Her hooves ate the ground like they never did before, she couldn’t remember the last time she ran like this. She might’ve done this before in the past but the mental trauma had blocked out everything leading up to that moment, so it was hard to tell. Either way, Octavia shook her head hard, ridding her brain of any invading thoughts. The only thought that she allowed to keep was the thought to run and Octavia was going to heed it no matter what as her nightmare was here, ready to snag her for her own ends.

It was unknown what that Harmony or wooden nightmare wanted to do with her but the flashes of blurry memory of strings and a flaring horn with sickly yellow magic told her that she didn’t want to know or know what wrathful punishment that wooden bitch would inflict on her, if she would ever survive Harmony’s wrath. Ponyville was empty as half the town had gone to the orchestra concert or they were either in bed, good for Octavia as she needed every advantage she could get otherwise others could’ve gotten caught up in her mess. Her legs were running low on energy but she didn’t care, there was no time to stop even if Harmony’s attention was deterred from her to the security guards. Every second wasted was a second that Harmony could use to catch up.

A yell came from both Octavia and another mare’s mouths as they crashed into each other, but the gray mare didn’t bother to see who it was as she was bolting for her home which was coming closer the faster she went. Her bloodshot eyes barely caught the familiar light brown of her home’s door, nearly crashing into it as she skidded to a halt. Despite not being Pinkie Pie, Octavia used the key under the mat and managed to unlock the door with frantic energy, barreling through the open door then bucking it close, the barrier locking itself.

The second she was safe, Octavia allowed herself to collapse on the floor, falling into an unconscious state.