As time went on, Octavia and Vinyl found themselves changing, becoming a greater rescue team with each progressing day. Vinyl no longer had a problem with being afraid of everything that posed as a threat. She began to DJ for almost every party that Ponyville had. She was wildly popular for her ability to get a party started with just a simple song.

Octavia on the other hoof, had not had a very successful music career, mainly because it wasn't her focus. She had given Luna her word, and she was going to help protect Equestria, even if it was just in small ways. She didn't go out exploring Equestria without Vinyl, who usually canceled her parties and handed it over to secondary Ponyvillain DJ, Neon Lights, just to go with Octavia.

It had been about a year since the Tower of Midnight incident. The two mares still resided in the guild and continued to run missions for whoever needed it. One morning while they were eating their breakfast, Bonbon approached Vinyl and Octavia, a smile on her face; which was very unlike her.

"I've got some good news for you." She told then.

Vinyl swallowed down her waffle, "What's up?"

Bonbon cleared her throat, "You are the team that has been selected to graduate the guild."

"What does that mean?" Vinyl asked.

Bonbon glared at her, "It means you can move on from the guild and become your own team. You won't have to talk to me or Lyra for approval or anything."

"In other words, you're kicking us out." Concluded Octavia, raising an eyebrow of disapproval.

This got a chuckle out of Bonbon, "Goodness no! You're free to leave and live on your own, but the guild will always be ready to back you up if need be. Y'know what I'm saying?"

Octavia didn't seem convinced, "Yeah... So you're just telling us that we graduated and that's all?"

"No no no!" Bonbon quickly answered, "Lyra has a very special mission for you, concerning the graduation. She's waiting for you in her chambers."

---

Upon entering Lyra's chambers, Octavia and Vinyl noticed that she had the light turned down. There was only one small candle sitting in front of her, barely illuminating her face. Bonbon trotted over and sat next to the mint-green mare.

"Have a seat, Scratch and Octavia." Lyra said mysteriously.

Vinyl and Octavia calmly took a seat in front of the unicorn, both looking quite nervous.

"Now, you've both been a part of this guild for a pretty long time," Lyra began, "After the whole Nightmare Moon fiasco, me and Bonbon came a decision to let you graduate from the guild."

"Lyra, that was a year ago," Octavia reminded, "You're just now deciding that?"

Lyra's glare became deeper, "It takes a long time to decide who will graduate. Only one team per year may graduate from the guild, and you two are the lucky pick."

"Really?!" Vinyl asked, suddenly jumping up, "Oh my gosh oh my gosh! This is so awesome!"

"Of course," Lyra interrupted, "Even though you saved the world, you must prove yourself in one of your most difficult tasks yet. Your mission, if you chose to accept it, is to travel deep into the Everfree Forest and locate Luminous Springs, a beautiful place said to be lost to the winds and locate it's treasure. Bring it back to us, and you can finally graduate."

"So you want us to find this place?" Vinyl asked.

Lyra nodded, "Yes. But!"

The two mares tensed when Lyra suddenly shouted this. She became calm again, taking a deep breath and looking the two straight in the eyes.

"You must be very careful," Lyra warned, "There lives a wicked mare simply known as the Grand Master of All Things Bad. She and her minions live there in the springs. They are very hostile and will do anything to keep you from getting to the treasure."

"Sounds like a challenge," Vinyl said, "A fun challenge! Whaddaya say, Octavia?"

Octavia nodded, "I'm up for it."

Lyra smiled, "You have accepted the mission. This Lyra will selfdestruct in five seconds."

"Wait, what?!" Vinyl asked, she and Octavia suddenly standing.

"Just run!" Bonbon commanded, pointing to the door.

Vinyl and Octavia obeyed, galloping for the door. Just as they shut the door behind them, an explosion rang in Lyra's chambers. It shook the entire guild and nearly threw the Musical Mares off their hooves. Just then, Derpy walked in, her wall-eyed stare looking quite confused.

"Graduation?" She asked the two mares.

Vinyl nodded, "How'd you know?"

"Me and Carrot Top had to take it last year." The gray pegasus replied, "We did it, but we decided to stay here at the guild and help out with future graduations."

Octavia raised an eyebrow, "What do you mean by help out?"

Derpy looked as though she had eaten a sour candy, "Uh... Nothing. Nothing at all."

"You're hiding something." Insisted Octavia, looking Derpy straight in the eyes.

"Uh... It's nothing!" Derpy argued. She turned, "Oh! I think I hear my muffins calling!"

And before they could ask anymore questions, Derpy took off towards the mess hall.

Vinyl seemed skeptical, "That was... Strange."

"I think she's hiding something," Octavia said, "She knows something that we should know."

"I doubt we can get anything out of her, 'tavia," Vinyl replied, "Whatever she knows... I doubt it's all that important. She is Derpy, after all."

Octavia scrunched her nose, "If she took the test last year... Then she must have met that Grand Master pony."

"She was pretty vague on it too," Vinyl agreed, "Must be a pretty bad character if Derpy didn't want to talk about her."

"Or it could be something bigger than that." Octavia suggested.

Vinyl bit her lip, "I have a feeling that this is going to be hard."

Octavia nodded in agreement, "Let's go gather up some stuff. If Derpy won't even tell us about the mission, we're in for something very difficult."

---

The two packed lightly before heading west, back into Ponyville. They went across Sweet Apple Acres and towards the back where the acres became the Everfree Forest. They were silent for this trip. Vinyl was shivering from nervousness.

Octavia looked at her, "Something wrong?"

"Little nervous, that's all." Vinyl replied with a small shakiness to her voice.

"We've faced a psychotic, possessed Alicorn princess and you're afraid of this supposed Grand Master?"

"I don't know. The name Grand Master of All Things Bad just sounds... Bad. You don't get called that for shaking hooves and kissing foals. Maybe for kissing hooves and shaking foals."

Octavia shrugged, "We won't know until we get there."

They walked on without another word. The forest was still creepy and intimidating, despite their being at much scarier places.

"I hope those Timberwolves are hibernating." Vinyl broke silence.

"I hope so too." Octavia agreed.

Vinyl changed the subject, "So where exactly is this place?"

Octavia hesitated, "Hmm... Lyra didn't say exactly where it was. She just said it was deep in the Everfree Forest somewhere."

"That's helpful." Scoffed Vinyl.

An owl hooted in the trees. A wolf howled, luckily sounding miles away from them. Octavia stopped suddenly, squinting into the bushes.

"I think I see something." She said, starting to walk into the bushes. Vinyl followed her, still looking quite nervous. They crawled through thorns and vines, scratching their skin and tearing their manes. When they finally broke through the bushes, it appeared that they weren't in the forest anymore.

Sitting before them was a beautiful pond. The water was glowing a beautiful shade of blue and there were small, glowing balls of light fluttering about the pond. Truly, the place was beautiful in its own dark and forbidden way.

"Luminous Springs." Vinyl breathed, "It's beautiful."

Octavia nodded, "Yes. Kind of hard to believe that this... Grand Master lives here. I guess beauty is deceiving."

Vinyl chuckled, "Yeah. Let's just hope we don't run into her."

"Let's see if we can find that treasure Lyra was talking about."

They started to trot around, wading through the pond. The water only went up to their ankles and it was nice and cool to their scathed hooves. They wandered around for a good fifteen minutes, but their efforts proved to be fruitless.

"What treasure?" Vinyl growled, getting frustrated by the second, "There's nothing here!"

Octavia looked around. She felt like someone was watching her, causing the fur on the back of her neck to rise. She knew that she and Vinyl were not the only ones here. There was someone else...

Just then, something sent Vinyl flying across the pond. From the trees came a familiar blue unicorn. She stood up, an evil smile on her face.

"Minuette?!" Octavia asked in outrage.

Minuette was joined by Lucky, who hopped out of the bushes. All around Octavia, members of Lyra's guild were surrounding her; Trixie, Big Macintosh, Cloud Kicker, Carrot Top, Derpy, all of them. There was something seriously wrong, for they all appeared to have malicious smiles on their faces and were all crouched down in attack stances.

Vinyl had stood back up and joined Octavia, "What the heck is going on here?!"

Just then, Bonbon approached out of another cluster of bushes with a hooded pony walking close behind her. The hooded pony walked out from behind the cream mare and stood very intimidatingly in front of the Musical Mares.

"Who dares enter the lair of the Grand Master of All Things Bad?" The hooded pony asked in a familiar voice.

"Lyra?" Octavia asked, now thoroughly confused.

"I am not Lyra!" The Grand Master argued, pushing back her hood to reveal that she was indeed Lyra Heartstrings, "I am the Grand Master, and you shall address me as such!"

"Noooo..." Vinyl said, "You're Lyra."

Lyra snarled, "You cannot see my true form because... Uh... I have a very special magic that disguises myself and my minions as the ponies you are friends with!"

Octavia rolled her eyes, "Lyra, what-"

"Grand Master!" The mint-green unicorn insisted.

"Lyra, just forget it," Bonbon sighed, "They know it's us."

Octavia started again, "What in the world is this? I thought you were our friends."

Lyra paused, "Er... We are. I mean, not right now! But... Your mission is to defeat us and find the treasure! And if you can, you can graduate the guild!"

"We can't fight you guys!" Vinyl cried, "You're our buddies-!"

The white unicorn was cut off with a blast of magic that knocked her off her hooves. Octavia turned, discovering Trixie was the one who had fired the beam.

"You don't know how badly Trixie wanted to do that!" She squealed.

Vinyl was standing up again, baring her teeth at Trixie as she did, "Alright, you asked for it... Let's get 'em!"

Minuette and Lucky went after Octavia. The cellist however, was more experienced in fighting than they were. She pulled out her cello and bow, using the flaming bow attack to catch their manes on fire with purple flames. They screamed and scrambled to the pond, where they promptly jumped in before running off into the woods.

Vinyl went after Trixie. Though Vinyl's magical abilities had gotten better, they were no match for Trixie's magic, which had been trained for years. The blue unicorn had her opponent thrown into the pond in less than a minute. Vinyl recovered, expanding her bass cannon and firing it at the unsuspecting Trixie. She was blasted into a tree head first, causing her horn to get stuck in the tree trunk. She was down for now at least.

Octavia went after Big Macintosh. Though Mac had the size and strength advantage, Octavia was limber and quick. She managed to land more hits on him than he could on her. However, when he did managed to get a hit in, Octavia was thrown halfway across the clearing, nearly breaking a bone in the process. She was quick to recover and fought with her bow instead. Mac eventually got tired of being smacked with the cello bow and fled.

Vinyl targeted Cloud Kicker next. Kicker was much faster, able to flit around Vinyl and confuse her before landing a blow. Vinyl was unable to shoot a beam of magic at Kicker before the pegasus quickly avoided it. The unicorn figured that Kicker would be much slower if her wings were unavailable. Therefore, she aimed her magic at Kicker's wings, eventually hitting one that caused the pegasus to plummet to the ground. Seeing that she had lost her only advantage, Kicker took off into the bushes.

Octavia went towards Derpy next. However, the cellist couldn't bring herself to hit the wall-eyed pegasus who couldn't do anything right. Instead, Octavia gently shoved Derpy into the bushes, hoping that would run her off. It did, thankfully.

Vinyl attacked Carrot Top next. Despite being an earth pony, Carrot was great at fighting with her bare hooves. She was also pretty quick, able to avoid Vinyl's blasts and magic quite easily. While Carrot avoided the attacks, she landed some light blows on Vinyl, causing the unicorn to think she might of been holding back. Vinyl fought back as best as she could, though Carrot counteracted every punch, kick, magic, and dubstep blast she could muster. However, Vinyl surprised Carrot with a drop kick that caused her to fall over. The unicorn took this time to use her bass cannon and blast the earth mare backwards. Carrot Top was damaged and fled into the bushes.

The only ones left were Lyra and Bonbon. Vinyl and Octavia reunited, now standing before their two opponents.

"Impressive," Lyra said with an evil smile, "But can you handle the AWESOMENESS of Lyra Heartstrings?!"

Bonbon rolled her eyes, "Really Lyra? Really?"

Vinyl shrugged, "Probably."

Lyra wasn't happy with that answer. She fired a beam of magic that Octavia and Vinyl quickly avoided. The magic beam left a large, steaming crater where they once stood, causing Vinyl to start shaking.

"Oh Celestia!" The unicorn squeaked, "She wants to kill us!"

Lyra attacked Vinyl while Bonbon attacked Octavia. Much like Carrot Top, Bonbon was good with physical attacks. She had to have taken martial arts some point in her life, because she was launching off kicks and punches like nobody's business. Octavia found herself ducking and avoiding every half-second, and getting punched/kicked every other half-second.

Vinyl was facing a bigger challenge. Lyra wasn't even lifting a hoof, and yet, Vinyl was being pummeled. The mint-green unicorn effortlessly fired off powerful beams of magic that left craters in the area. Whenever Vinyl was hit, she was thrown at least twenty feet across the clearing and was stunned for a couple seconds.

Octavia had drawn her cello bow, hoping that she could gain some advantage with it. Thanks to the bow, she finally could land some hits on the fast-moving Bonbon. Octavia had suffered quite a few blows and was becoming much weaker. Luckily, Bonbon was also getting tired, meaning that Octavia had to conserve her energy if she wanted to beat the cream mare. She did just that, spending her energy on her defense rather than offense.

Vinyl had finally managed to expand her bass cannon while avoiding Lyra's blasts. With the push of a button, Vinyl fired it at Lyra. Unfortunately, she deflected it and it went haywire, hitting Bonbon and Octavia instead. Octavia was only thrown into the pond, but Bonbon wasn't so lucky. She skidded across the pond and slammed head first into a tree trunk, knocking her out. Lyra saw this and was distracted for a moment, allowing Vinyl to hit her with a magic blast that launched her across the pond. Surprisingly, Lyra grabbed the out-cold Bonbon and took off into the bushes.

"Yeah!" Cheered Vinyl. She glanced over at Octavia, who was still laying on the ground. Seeing this, she ran over with a panic-stricken look on her face. She violently shook the earth mare awake.

"I'm up I'm up!" Octavia cried, standing up slowly.

"Oh good," Vinyl sighed, "You got hit with my bass cannon, so I'm just making sure you're okay. Lyra and Bonbon ran off."

Octavia blew a piece of her mane out of her eyes, "What a weird graduation exam. They made us fight our own friends... Maybe that's why Derpy didn't say anything about it."

Vinyl nodded, "Yeah. But what about the treasure?"

Just as soon as Vinyl said this, Octavia was hit with a familiar dizzy sensation. She reached for Vinyl's hoof before she toppled over, luckily having her buddy catch her before she hit the ground. What she saw in her vision was underwater. There was small chest that began to open on its own accord. The vision cut before Octavia could see what was in it.

"Whatcha' see?" Vinyl asked.

"The treasure," Octavia breathed, "It's in the pond somewhere."

Immediately, they began searching through the pond, splashing and sticking their faces under the water. Eventually, Vinyl hauled a small, wooden chest out of the water and placed it on the shore.

"Let's see what's inside." Vinyl said, expectantly rubbing her hooves together. Using her magic, she pressed the button on the front that opened the chest. Inside the red velvet-lined box was a large, multi-colored apple.

"A zap apple," Octavia said with slight disappointment, "This is definitely Lyra's treasure."

Vinyl sighed, "We went through all of that for a freaking zap apple? Ugh!"

"Well, at least now we won't have to deal with anymore of Lyra's pointless quests." Octavia replied optimistically. She shut the box and shoved it into her saddlebags, "Let's go home and give Lyra the apple."

---

As soon as Octavia and Vinyl entered the guild, they were greeted by a squealing Lyra who snatched the box out of Octavia's saddlebags.

"You got the super-special zap apple!" She cried, "Yay! I knew it would be in here!"

Bonbon approached them. Her head was bandaged up, probably due to hitting her head on the tree trunk, "Well done, you two. You're very impressive fighters. Both me and Lyra have been training for years, but you managed to take us out in less than a few minutes. Isn't that right, Lyra?"

"Om nom nom." Was all that Lyra said, her mouth full of zap apple.

Bonbon rolled her eyes, "Anyway, I'm proud to say that you have completed the graduation mission. Therefore, I award you with this," She held out her hoof which contained two, small golden horseshoes with wings, "You've been promoted to the highest rank we can give you. I am very proud of you."

Vinyl and Octavia took the horseshoes, pinning them on their saddlebags.

"You have officially graduated the guild," Bonbon continued, "Therefore, you no longer have to answer to me and Lyra. You can go on whatever adventures please."

Vinyl's smile was as wide as it possibly could get, "This... Is... Awesome!" She high-fived Octavia before jumping around the room, "Ooh! I know where we can stay! Come on, 'tavia!" She started to climb up the ladder, though Octavia stayed behind.

"Octavia," Bonbon began again, "You keep her in line, okay?"

Octavia nodded, "Of course."

The mare then left, the sound of Lyra's obnoxious eating accompanying her exit.

---

The Musical Mares arrived at Dragon's Bluff. Vinyl explained that since they didn't have to stay at the guild anymore, they could stay at the bluff instead. By the time they had gotten to the bluff and unpacked their things, the sun had set and was replaced by the full moon.

"Man," Vinyl sighed, looking out over the ocean, "I can't believe we've come this far as to actually graduate and become a master rescue team."

Octavia smiled, "We have the makings of it; considering we did save the world."

"Yeah..." Vinyl looked at the moon, "I think I'm going to hit the hay. You going to too?"

Octavia shook her head, "I may stay up a little longer. I'm... Not tired."

Vinyl nodded before flopping on her hay bed, "Alrighty. I'll be here if you need anything."

As Vinyl fell to sleep, Octavia climbed back up to the top of the bluff so she could get a better view of the ocean. She sat at the edge, much like when she and Vinyl sat here one year ago before Whooves dragged them to the Tower of Midnight.

Whooves... Octavia wondered how he was doing, or if he was still even alive. Did he forget about her? Did he still go around lecturing people on how time worked? Was he still saving the world?

Did he miss her as much as she missed him?

Octavia shook the thoughts away, suddenly feeling as though she was being watched. It was the same feeling she had had at Luminous Springs before the guild attacked her. She knew they weren't going to do it again, but... When she turned around, nothing was there.

The feeling was hard to explain. Octavia 'knew' something was there, watching her, waiting... It was as if the Invisible Mare had crept up on her without her knowing. She stood up, drawing her cello bow, only to have the strange feeling leave her soon after.

Odd, Octavia thought to herself, Maybe it was just a bird or some other animal...

The cellist was still a little creeped out by the feeling of being watched. She decided to head back into the safety of the bluff, hoping never to feel it again. However, she couldn't shake it, for it returned as soon as she put the bow away.

I think I'm going crazy...