Chapters Octavia’s little hooves clip clopped happily as she walked to the backstage where she knew her teacher, Harmony Note, was. The cello mock concert had ended a little while ago but the gray filly was so happy, first she had worked together with one of the best cello players in Equestria, second she managed to pull such a tight piece and not get stage fright at the same time. She did it, she performed the cello, she even got her cutie mark in the process.
The gray filly beamed happily at her flank where the violet treble clef rested, even though the event had happened mere moments ago, the excitement of finally getting her cutie mark still lingered in her veins to the point she was partially jumping on the spot. Oh Octavia couldn’t wait to get backstage, explain to her teacher and parents the good news then they can all go out, maybe have a cake at the Cakes’ bakery or something else, she wasn’t sure but the possibilities were endless. So the gray filly bounced on her hooves to where Harmony and her parents were waiting for her to take her out to celebrate.
However when the little gray filly entered the backstage area, she didn’t see any trace of her teacher anywhere. Confused at her teacher’s absence, Octavia blinked and slowly but carefully walked further into the unknown darkness that awaited her. Her head turned this way and that, trying to find Harmony but there was no trace of her. Octavia raised an eyebrow at this, confused at the lack of response her teacher gave her. “Harmony?” No answer came. This confused the gray filly even more and she continued on into the darkening backstage, her hoofsteps barely making an echo in the rather large room.
Sure, it was normal for Harmony to not always be waiting for her student after a practice as there were times the older unicorn had to take care of some private business of hers while Octavia did some solo practices on stage with no help just so she could get the hang of handling a cello. But it was unlike her to just ignore Octavia like that, usually when the filly called out for her teacher for help or something else, she would be there in a heartbeat. Something was off, even at her young age, Octavia was able to pinpoint the possibility of something going wrong racing through her brain.
And if Octavia turned around to look behind her, she would’ve been proved correct for the curtains swished softly as a sickly yellow magical aura that was almost barely visible in the darkness shined briefly before they moved on the user’s command, covering the last rays of light from behind Octavia leaving the poor filly in total darkness. On instinct, the filly squeaked and whipped her head around to face where she had last seen the light from the stage. She bit her lower lip as she took a few steps forward, trying to find a new source of light.
But there was nothing but darkness all around her and the backstage supplies that she couldn’t see, she yelped when she walked into a large box filled with costumes. It swayed a bit before stopping completely, thankfully not hitting the filly. Octavia backed up, her little hooves clicking the wooden floor as she walked. Her ears pulled themselves back and her heart started to race faster than what she expected, she bit her lower lip harder as her worried gaze turned around and around in the void she was within. What was going on? Why were things happening? Where was her teacher and parents?
“Harmony? Mom? Dad? HARMONY?! MOM? DAD? WHERE ARE YOU? WHERE ARE YOU?” As if on cue, a magical aura flickered into being causing Octavia to nearly jump out of her skin, the earth filly squeaked in terror as she whipped her head around to face the source of the light. The filly’s purple eyes widened to the size of dinner plates as she saw who or what was in front of her, it was her teacher but not the mare Octavia had known her whole life.
There was instead a monstrous wooden mare built by rusted nails and rotting dark brown wood, a worn, patchy weathered leather mask encased her face, hiding her facial features. On the top of her head, a rotted light yellow bony horn that didn’t belong to the wooden mare was stitched to the spot where a unicorn usually had a horn. Covering the body of the monster was a worn, ripped and weathered cloak nearly covering her body and reaching her hind hooves, pitch black in color with several rips along its surface. Hanging around the monster’s neck down to her stomach were several strings like that of a cello.
At the sight of this monster, Octavia screamed with nothing but pure terror and wasted no more time in running as fast as possible. Behind her, the mare made of wood smiled widely at the fleeing filly, the stitches on its mask pulling apart to reveal a mix of rotten pony and wooden teeth as its wooden hooves went down to her stomach, detaching the strings there. The strings moved off and on its mistress’ command with a forehoof raised, shot toward the scared filly as she moved like the wind to get away from whatever had come into her sights, getting closer and closer with each step.
Despite the speed Octavia was traveling, the strings wrapped around her legs with a tight grip, tripped her then wrapped around her body, dragging her backwards toward the open maw of the monster. As the wooden mare faced the terrified filly, she gave a soft smile as she brought a wooden hoof up and delicately stroked one side of her face, examining the filly closely. This move, though soft and gentle in its nature, paralyzed Octavia into icy cold fear. Though her heart pounded heavily within her chest, the adrenaline rushing through her veins and fear hitting every nerve in her body, Octavia couldn’t move.
And even if she could, it wouldn’t matter for this mare was stronger than her even with her rotting wooden limbs. She was done for, dead meat, doomed to whatever fate this wooden mare had plotted for the poor filly. Something that this monster was well aware of as she grinned, her cloak opening up and encasing the filly before disappearing into the darkness, the magical aura vanishing as well.
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.
The streets of Canterlot were cold, wet and rainy as the thunderstorm raged far harder than what the pegasus weather team were expecting. The streets were nearly flooded making it more difficult to walk home, the white filly with the electric blue mane was getting the worst treatment out of everypony. She was dumb enough to not bring a raincoat and was suffering the consequences of such actions. Her white coat was soaked, her mane hung heavily over her face, her expression was fixed in a scowl as she struggled to find any trace of her family or at least, a place out of the rain till the storm passed over. Though a quick look at the sky told her that the possibility of that happening was very slim.
She knew that she was an idiot for not bringing a raincoat, her eldest brother would call her so, her mother would scold her for being so stubborn as the weather was taking a turn while they were traveling. But her pride came before her common sense and now all she could do was struggle through the storm then hopefully learn for the best. It didn’t take long for her to get separated from her family, but she tried to shake the thoughts for they would do her no good. What would help her was finding a place suitable for her to hide in. She could knock on a random door to see if anypony would shelter her for the night, but most of the lights were off and nopony was in sight.
However she had to try, she couldn’t stay out here for much longer because if the storm got worse…she shook her head, getting rid of her thoughts before trotting along, her wet hooves splashing the ground and the puddles that had formed. Her legs were already soaked from the rain but she still felt a shiver run down her spine that reminded her of her situation and what could happen if she didn’t escape it. That thought made her ears flattened but she didn’t stop, she wasn’t going to give up until she was safe.
Her ears flickered when she heard something, a single something that she couldn’t identify yet. She blinked, her head looking up and around the rain soaked city, trying to find the source of the noise. She took a turn off the road, hooves taking her from possible safety to the source of the noise. Her ears straightened more, realizing the sound was music. It wasn’t just any music, classical music Mother enjoyed. It had been a long time since she had heard this kind of music, but she recognized the music the second she heard it because Mother and Father had taken her to one too many orchestra concerts to count.
The music became louder and the building it was coming from became clear as she stepped closer to the source, finding a theater that she remembered from barely interrupted naps. It wasn’t ‘rundown’ so to say, but the slightly rusty and abandoned look of the theater made it clear that whoever owned this place hadn’t taken care of it for a while. But as long as this place could shield her from the rain, that was all that mattered. She didn’t think of the consequences of breaking and entering as she approached the front door, her horn giving a few flickers before casting a light spell but the light was nearly useless against the storm. However she didn’t need it for long, she just needed to find the door knob.
The handle was encased in a pink glow then pulled down, a creaking sound echoed as the door opened. The sound made her flinch but she ignored it as her hooves carried her inside the theater then shutting the door behind her.
Light pink filled the darkness of the theater as the white coated filly lit her horn, illuminating the front hall to see better as she walked along. It was exactly like she had expected a theater hall to look like except everything was covered in dust and slightly rundown. This wasn’t surprising given the outside condition but it still made her eyes widen and a shiver run down her spine, making her entire body colder than what the storm did to her. Though it was a bit creepy, she found nothing wrong that would make her run back into the storm well besides the music. Her ears straightened more at the increase of volume, the music more louder and recognizable with each passing second.
“So it was a cello, guess that answers one of my never ending questions,” she muttered under her breath, brushing aside some of her electric blue mane out of her face as she headed deeper into the theater. “But not who owns this place or why everything is like this or what is going on here or whatever. Obviously this is a theater but it’s empty right now as evident by the lack of anypony greeting a scared wet filly like me, though everything is covered in dust, it seems like it’s closed.” Her head reared back up as she looked around the front hall then looked forward, the sound of the cello becoming louder even though her hearing should’ve caught the noises more better than before.
“But if it’s closed, then why is somepony practicing a cello this late at night?” A hoof reaching out to a door that the light of her horn barely caught, the dust on the knob tickling her nose. “Guess I’ll find out.” A loud creak echoed within her ears as she pushed it open, her eyes squinted when the lights over head hit her sight making her wince. The music became louder but the volume became dampened as she flattened her ears then backed up a few steps, allowing her eyes to adjust before entering. Her hoofsteps echoed louder as she fully entered the room, her horn’s light fading as she peered around the theater room with an unnerved look on her face.
There were many things to take in but the one thing that grabbed her attention was the Mare standing upright on the stage with the instrument in one of her hooves and the bow in the other. It was hard to make out features from her position but she could see spots of brown and something black wrapped around her neck, hiding most of the Mare. “Maybe she knows what’s going on or maybe she’s the owner?” She nearly stumbled over her own hooves as she dashed down the stairs, almost crashing into the rows and columns of chairs on her sides, her horn sparkling unintentionally. “Hey! Miss, hey…!”
The Mare’s ears perked up at her voice, her purple eyes widening beneath the heavy hood she wore. They then narrowed at the stranger charging at her, her hooves gripping her cello and bow as she whipped her cloak around her. The white filly skidded to a halt when the Mare suddenly vanished into thin air, nearly crashing into the stage from how fast she was going. “H-Hello?” she called out uncertainty, pausing for a few seconds before climbing on, walking toward the center. “Miss? Hello? Sorry to startle you but I need some help…” Her words were cut off when her magic pushed aside the dusty red curtains to peer backstage, her light spell returning revealing the nearly empty backstage.
Her irises barely caught the dragging of something dark on the floor from the light of her horn even as her hooves carried her from the curtain rack to the next door. The pink glow barely lit up the window and the words above read: ‘Employees only’, but she still made them out as well as the shadow of what looked like a pony behind the glass. “Miss?” Her magic tried the door knob but nothing happened. “Must be locked.” She let out a grumble, her hooves hitting the ground as she turned away. “Hello?” This new voice that didn’t belong here nearly made her jump, her horn’s light moving in response to her movements.
“Hello?” She pulled her ears back as she wandered over to the unknown voice, slightly worried at what she’d find. Pink met purple as the white filly locked eyes with another filly, barely illuminated by the light of her horn. This new filly, light gray and thin, black mane and tail disheveled, shakily stood on her hooves. One of her hind legs struggling to keep her upright revealed her cutie mark: a violet treble clef. “Who are you?” The silence dragged on. “Who are you?” Both fillies never breaking eye contact. “My name is Valentino.”
“Nice to meet you Valentino, my name is Octavia.”