Almost hyperventilating, Octavia fanned herself with her hoof. She couldn’t sit down because she didn’t wish to rumple her simple black gown. The understated garment was made in such a way that nothing would get in the way or impede her performance. Reaching out with her foreleg, she grabbed a glass of water off of the table and then gulped it down. Drinking too much water was bad, as too much water caused a full bladder, which was a disaster during a performance.

Emerging from the bedroom, Vinyl stepped out wearing a charcoal grey tuxedo trimmed in dark navy blue. Her mane, fresh dyed, looked as though it had been styled in an electrical storm. Vinyl crossed the room with a confident strut, and she went over to where Maud was sitting. Rearing up onto her hind legs, Vinyl threw her forelegs around Maud’s neck and gave the earth pony a squeeze. As she pulled away, she paused, then gave Maud’s stomach an affectionate pat.

“This is the biggest night of my career,” Octavia breathed out in a strained voice. “The most important music I have ever written. This might very well be my magnum opus. The theatre is oversold and there will be at least six thousand ponies in attendance tonight. I don’t know if I can take the pressure.” She put down the water glass and then closed her eyes.

“Octavia…” Tarnish lifted his head and looked over at the panicky mare. “Everything will be fine. Everything will be perfect. We’re all here with you and Vinyl has promised that she will behave and do her job as a conductor.”

“This is everything I have ever hoped and dreamed for. The trip—our trip—it gave me the inspiration I so desperately needed to make music that I feel is truly great.” Octavia, fanning herself once more, shook her head. “But what if the public doesn’t like it?”

Unable to stop himself, Tarnish thought of everything that had happened, everything that had transpired, all of the events that had ‘inspired’ Octavia. The laughter. The grief. The happy times. The pain. Meeting a half dead god down in the deep dark and then destroying something precious to him. Just thinking about it caused Tarnish to feel a twinge of pain around his muzzle, which was still healing. Octavia’s music was their story and the public didn’t need to like it, but Tarnish didn’t say it aloud, fearing that might cause Octavia to go into a tizzy.

Looking just a little bored, Vinyl pulled Maud off of the couch, lifted her up, and then began to whirl her around the living room in a delightful shimmying tango. This distracted Octavia, who watched with great interest. Maud was wearing a simple gown that matched the colour of her mane and it swirled around her hind legs as she danced with Vinyl.

“I think that Tree Hugger will be very pleased with the money raised tonight,” Maud said as Vinyl gave her waist a squeeze, “and I think everything is going to be fine.” She allowed herself to be twirled about and then she rested in Vinyl’s embrace once more. “Be careful when you squeeze me, I’m full of volatile gasses.”

“Save your volatile gasses for the theatre,” Tarnish said to Maud, “because it is almost time for us to get in a carriage and go.”

Holding Maud’s fetlock in his own, Tarnish gave a nod to Tree Hugger, who plopped herself into a seat between Helianthus and Black Briar. Beside Tree Hugger, Doctor Livingstone leaned over and whispered a few words to the dreadlocked mare. Turning his head in the other direction, Tarnish looked over at Long Ears and Kabuki, both of whom were crammed into a single seat together right next to Maud. Beside them, Minori was urging them to be quiet. Beside Minori, Mirrorshine, the ancient earth pony botanist, looked radiant in a flowing gown made in a style from some bygone era. Most of the front row were society members, all of them wearing their very best finery.

The theatre was packed and all four princesses were in attendance tonight.

A spotlight clicked on and then focused upon the stage. Octavia came out from behind the curtain and the theatre was filled with the rush of many voices speaking all at once. Almost looking timid, the courageous little mare approached the microphone so that she might speak. Tarnish watched her every move with unabashed adoration and affection.

“Ahem.” Octavia cleared her throat and waited for the crowd to quiet. After taking a step closer to the microphone, Octavia addressed the crowd. “To start with, I would like to say that none of this would be possible without my amazing friends. We endured some very troubling times, but our friendship sustained us. I understand that the tickets tonight were very expensive and I would very much like to thank you for being so generous, as all of this is going towards a good cause. Good ponies like you make miracles possible. Thank you.”

The prim and proper little mare bowed her head while basking in the audience’s applause. She stood there for a moment and Tarnish felt his heart rise up into his throat. Maud squeezed his fetlock with her own and he knew that she was feeling it too. None of them quite knew what to make of one another any more. They were more than friends, but what that meant exactly, no one knew quite yet. They were still in the process of sorting everything out. For now, they were a pair of friends that lived together and shared an apartment.

Octavia retreated back to the curtain and with a final wave, she vanished.

A minute later, the lights dimmed and Tarnish was overwhelmed with anticipation. He glanced over at Maud, leaned over, and kissed her as the curtain began to lift. The musicians were illuminated in pale, dim light and the parting curtain revealed them a few at a time. Vinyl stood before the conductor’s podium with her wand ready.

Vinyl tapped her wand against the wooden podium, then made a gesture. The first swell of music was all strings and it hit Tarnish like a runaway wagon. There might have been other musicians up on stage, but Tarnish was blind to them. All he could see was Octavia drawing her bow over her strings. She stood with her cello, her eyes closed, and she brought the music to life.

All of this music had been written on their trip, with the final parts written during their long recovery. Tarnish himself had suffered crushed and collapsed sinus cavities, some torn cartilage, and a few hairline fractures in his muzzle. He closed his eyes as the woodwinds joined the strings. An ominous sounding kettle drum kept time now and Tarnish’s head began to bob along with the tempo.

It stunned him to think that Octavia had heard all of this music in her head and had written it down. What everypony was listening to now was utterly unchanged from its original form. Not one note had been altered. It was unbelievable to witness and Tarnish felt that he was privileged to have watched it happen, to grow from its strange conception.

Swaying in his seat, the music made Tarnish think of the pitched battle with the diamond dogs and his delirium. The instruments themselves seemed as though they were fighting each other for dominance somehow, with woodwinds battling with the brass. The string section was a cacophony of discordant music, it was screechy, almost painful as the woodwind and brass battle rose to a fever pitch.

The percussion section played the rhythm of battle and there was a glockenspiel that added a haunting atmosphere to the music. The music shifted and instead of battle, Tarnish now felt bleak despair. His mind was transported away and once more, he was entering the diamond dog mine to uncover the horror within.

The memories were still far too fresh and Tarnish, unable to hold it in any longer, wept.

The music now was very dark and very bleak. They were in the dark now, down in the depths, working their way down into the bowels of the ancient, forgotten city, looking for the crown. The brass was heavy, deep, and overpowering. Hearing it made Tarnish feel an overwhelming sense of despair, and he wasn’t alone. All around him, ponies huddled down into their seats and shivered as many remembered that the darkness was something to be feared.

Deep resonating bells rang out and kettle drums created bone rattling thunder as tubas and other horns created an oppressive fog that seemed to crush the will. The effect was a little too good and Tarnish found that he had trouble breathing. He felt panicked as he remembered when his own shadow had become possessed by Grogar’s will and had attacked him. A cold sweat caused beads of moisture to appear in his pelt and his mane. He shivered and wasn’t sure if he could bear these memories as the sweat began to trickle down his neck.

The sound of Grogar’s voice could still be heard in his ears, usually when he was waking or was alone. It was a sound that haunted him. Turning his head, he looked at Maud, and thought about the foal growing in her belly. He didn’t know how he was going to keep that foal safe from Grogar and it was something that worried him a great deal. The old goat had made many terrible promises and Tarnish had no idea how to respond to any of them.

His only real comfort was Vinyl, who had promised to do everything she could.

When Octavia entered the room, there was a cheer that almost made Tarnish jump out of his skin. His heart lept up into his throat and decided to stay there for a while. Tarnish was a little worried for her, she looked exhausted and sweaty. He began to worry that the party was a bad idea and he wondered if getting some rest might be better for her.

“Like, you need to relax,” Tree Hugger said in a soft voice that Tarnish had a hard time hearing. “Hey, like, drink my tea, it will make you feel better.” With an almost smirky smile, the very relaxed earth pony mare passed her mug to Tarnish.

After a moment of consideration, he decided that it couldn’t hurt anything. Accepting the earthenware mug, he tried a sip, then another, and then watched as Tree Hugger looked up at him. Almost right away, he began to feel a little light headed, but in good way.

“Like, far out… I can see that it is working.”

Arching an eyebrow, Tarnish knew that Tree Hugger’s exaggerated speech was an act. He drank more tea and felt the tension leaving his muscles. He didn’t know what it was, but he liked it. When Tree Hugger began shoving him, he went along with it and allowed her to herd him to wherever it was that she wanted him to go.

“Like, lay down on the couch, ‘cause I’m gonna like rub your muscles and stuff. You’re a mess.”

Before he could protest, Tarnish was shoved down onto a couch as the ponies sitting on it scattered. Tree Hugger, laid back mellow little Tree Hugger, was strong and she overpowered him without any effort whatsoever. Pinned on the couch, there was nothing that Tarnish could do as she climbed up onto his back. When she punched him in the spine, he whimpered from the pain, but then it felt better in an odd way. She continued punching for a bit and then started kneading as other ponies gathered around to watch her technique.

“Like, dude… you need to talk to your better half about some deep prostate massage to help you relax… I think it would do you a world of good… I could totally give you a demonstration… like, what’s the deal? There you go again, tensing up… why do you do that to yourself?”

Standing on a balcony, four ponies looked down upon the streets below. It was cold and snow was falling, but it wasn’t sticking, not yet. Even as it approached midnight, the city was very much alive and was illuminated in artificial daylight from the street lamps. Though none of them said anything, all four of the companions were reminded of the buried city.

“I want to go home to the rock farm,” Maud said to her companions. “The cottage is done. I think we’ll have enough space to all be comfortable there.”

“I am feeling inspired and I just want to write more music. I don’t care where I do it.” Octavia, wearing a heavy winter coat, leaned up against Vinyl. “The concert was everything I had hoped for and more.”

“I don’t like Manehattan. Honestly, I don’t care where we go, I just don’t want to be here.” Sticking out his tongue, Tarnish tried to catch a few snowflakes, but then gave up after he tasted one and gagged.

“At some point soon, we need to visit Canterlot. Vinyl has to visit some cadre of wizards, graduates from Celestia’s school. She plans to purchase spellbooks and we’re going to need plenty of coin to do it. I see it as an investment in our protection.” Octavia, who had watched as Tarnish had tasted a snowflake, began to chortle in her own peculiar Trottingham way.

“That seems wise,” Maud said, agreeing with Octavia. “We can talk about it in the morning. For now, I am going to go inside, eat until I can’t eat any more, and then I am going to bed. That leftover nine layer bean dip that Tree Hugger made is calling my name.”

“Eww.” Octavia’s muzzle crinkled as she thought about the aftermath of a pregnant mare eating a nine layer bean dip. Nothing good would come of this.

“I don’t know how I feel about this life of ours,” Tarnish confessed. “We keep secrets now. Powerful secrets. We don’t even have a choice in the matter, all of us are now working for the Crown. I don’t mind, I want to keep the princesses safe after what Grogar showed me… but I don’t know how I feel about it.” His sides expanded like bellows and then he let out everything in a noisy half whinny, half huff. “I picked a fight that I don’t know if I can win.”

“So long as we stick together, we’ll be fine.” Octavia turned a serious stare upon Tarnish. “If Vinyl and I can keep each other safe, then the four of us should be just fine. Now, let’s go inside. There are leftovers to be eaten, I am cold, and I am in need of sapphic spousal snuggles.”

Author's Notes:

And so it ends.

Discuss if you like.

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