"Oh…" The slightly overweight earth pony moaned, her scratchy voice almost alien to her new senses. Around them was blood, so much beautiful blood splattered over the walls and floor. It was the blood of those who had hated her, despised her for being so good-looking, and tried to take her beloved away from her. "Yes!" Her eyes glowed a new shade of brilliant red, brighter even than the moonlight that trickled in through the house's broken windows. She looked up bashfully at the perfect unicorn of her dreams. "I love you, Edward!"

His voice was beautiful, and he had such a way with words. These others, full of such hate that they called truth, had thought it was dull and dry. They had just wanted him to themselves, but she had won! The old vampire's mouth worked slowly as he droned out his affection. "And I… love you… Bella." Such poetry, such peals of ivory wisdom and wild romanticism! She sighed as they kissed again, sloppily pressing their mouths together and sharing spit as the the mare had always dreamed. A stern knock at small house's front door interrupted their perfect little world.

With a long sigh of disinterested detachment that spoke of his apathy towards all things, one of his perfect attributes as she saw it, her stallion pulled away and trudged toward the entry hall. It was only a few steps, but he could not be bothered with a faster pace. He cast an imposing glare at the front door, his back to a wall that held an Icon Celestia they had defiled together according to page five hundred and ninety of the Necrodiscordobookidex. The door was painted white, a shade that caused him to brood as his coat was the same color. A long moment trudged by before he could bring himself to ask, "Who is it?"

"Oh, you know!" Cooed an energetic voice from the other side of the door, followed by the sound of what could only be a needle scratching a record. It shattered the gloomy drone of crickets almost as thoroughly as the hailstorm of flechettes shattered the entrance. The only warning the unicorn had was a wall of glowing metal shards that ripped through the white wood, traveling too fast for him to hope of dodging. They homed in on his cold body, the aura of magic driving each one through his diamond flesh. He burst like a bloated leach all over the defiled Icon, forelegs flung wide over the outstretched golden wings. By the time the distinct chung of an empty magazine was heard, the only thing still remaining was his head, one eye still whole and his brain able to comprehend only pain. A pale mare casually stepped through the hole she had reduced the front door to. She tugged another drum magazine from inside her crimson trenchcoat and fitted it into the tri-barreled Scatterspell shotgun. The hammer and sickle rune that marked the weapon as a product of the Vladof Corporation was as red as her coat and wide-brimmed hat. Without even a cursory glance toward the other end of the hall, she slung the shotgun around to her back and pulled up her headphones. Her horn glowed softly, and an alignment of soft blue lights pulsed on underneath her trenchcoat. Little sparks of electromagic sketched conduits of energy over her fur. The mare glanced up, her eyes hidden behind shades tinted deep purple. "A real bucking vampire!" A feral grin stretched across her muzzle.

She was a unicorn, like him. Her coat was white also, as was the remains of his. That was where all similarity stopped. This was not the defeat of a worthy opponent, but the extermination of an insect. The mare closed her eyes and pulsed her horn again. Two half-formed boxes levitated from the depths of her crimson trenchcoat, still linked by tendrils of blue energy to the belts of technomagery strapped around her barrel. As the flow of magic finished piecing the boxes together, the mare's smile widened. With a final flash of sparks, the Magistruct unit finished reproducing her speakers and powered down, but the strange patterns flowing in the shadows of her coat remained. Two massive subwoofers were now pointed at the impaled remains of Edward. He was cursed by immortality to remain alive until thoroughly purged. There were few more thorough ways than hers.

"I know you can still hear me, so I'm gonna tell you how it is. You're about to be cleansed." The mare pulled her red hat down over her purple shades. "On a microscopic level."

Edward could not even scream, his lungs had been perforated and his throat torn open by the initial salvo. His one eye stared in horror at the speakers as they began to glow brighter and brighter, distorting the air about them as they hummed with building sonic charge. The only other noise was the laughter of a madmare, until finally the overdriven 'woofers and tweeters pulsed out a wall of sound so absolute that he heard only silence. Silence that contained an eternity of music beautiful enough to write a new universe into existence, a universe of endless misery and torment under the heels of brütal legends that he would never escape. Then that universe was brought to a screeching end as its atoms ripped themselves apart, disintegrating into a roaring bass wub that was the last thing the soul formerly known as Edward ever experienced.

The pale mare let out a happy sigh as the speakers deconstructed back into her Magistruct unit with an explosion of dim sparks. The wall ahead of her was purified, the Icon Celestia once more a gold and pearl symbol of Harmony that reminded ponies of nearly a thousand years of order. She stepped closer and knelt before it, though instead of a litany of dedication the unicorn muttered "Sorry if that hurt your ears, ma'am." Her heart light now that she had apologized for possibly accidentally deafening the Sun Princess by proxy, she skipped merrily to the next room to mete out some most righteous tailwhuppins. Her neon blue and teal mane bounced about her head until she realized what those frantic hoofsteps she had heard meant. "Daughter of a-" The mare stuffed a hoof in her mouth and glanced back at the Icon Celestia behind her with an apologetic look. The images were not part of some state-sanctioned cult, nothing could be further from the Princess' will, but what was the use of a visual reminder of Harmony if it did not nudge your conscience when you were near? The vampire should have expected this much, really, but had hoped the fledgling would do something stupid like jump in front of the Wubbeams for her shredded sire. Intel had been that these two were hopelessly in love. Oh well. She would have to add "homewrecker" to her résumé. With a smooth gesture the pale mare pulled her headphones back on and swung down the attached microphone. After a light pulse of her horn, the communication runes under her trenchcoat shifted colors. "Octy, we got a runner. You have the target?"

"Again, V." The grey mare answered from atop a nearby roof. "I have told you the importance of operational codenames for these missions." It was a beautiful night, only a few clouds in the sky and a full moon overhead. Why was it always a full moon with these creatures? Still, at least there was more light out. She didn't trust the night-vision goggles, they sparked too much. The earth pony snugged her rifle close, steadying the bipod on the roof and cradling the stock against her shoulder. It was made of a fine wood, much like her cello. "And yes, I have the target in sight." She felt a brief pang of sympathy for the fleeing girl, after all they were of the same breed. However, the fledgling vampire had murdered innocents. The two of them were very different. The sniper tweaked her scope gently to bring the girl's face into focus, and a bulb of recognition lit within her mind. That was the same brat who had heckled a fellow musician years ago, the one who had started yelling right as the decrescendo began and kept going until the ushers drug her out! Now, her eyes were a deep red and her open mouth clearly showed her fangs. The grey mare kept her fetlock wrapped around the trigger. She could go straight to Tartarus as far as Octavia was concerned.

"Well, better take the shot!" Her vampiric partner yelled, trotting back out the ruined front door and looking for a place to climb.

The sniper exhaled, trying to focus her mind and hear the music of the world. A sharp pain began to well up within her skull as she closed one eye, letting the rifle become an extension of her well disciplined body. "Maybe if you just give me a minute to concentr-"

"She's running, she's getting away!" The vampire interrupted, hauling herself atop a nearby shed's roof before jumping towards the one Octavia lay on. "You're going to miss it!"

"If you would kindly shut up and let me focus!" She hissed into her communicator. It was not a hard shot or anything, barely over two kilometers! The target was even moving, to make it easier. A hint of wind tickled her black mane, and she adjusted her aim well above the mare. Her mind ground out estimates of how far the bullet would drop at this range, and how much the wind would play with that little round as it spun through the air. She heard Vinyl in her ear and wished to toggle off her communicator as easily as the unicorn might, but could not move to turn the little knob on her uniform's belt without bringing her weapon off target. She was the best sniper in the organization, she could do this. Just had to find the right set of notes, the right improvisation of movements that would guide the bullet to the target. Every gentle shift of the barrel, every minute adjustment of her body right down to her fetlock on the trigger as she began to pull it cleanly back, all was part of a concerto she was now sight reading. Octavia existed in the pocket of the moment, no longer was this a great contest between her skill with a rifle and the discord of the world. She was a natural part of the environment, completely at peace as though she were standing among a great orchestra's ranks. The grey mare let her mind go blank as the music flowed, both things she knew and those she could not know blending together for an instant of harmony, she merely a musician contributing to the inevitable. Her instrument was hoof-crafted for this work, blessed and enchanted with improbable accuracy. It was able, limited only by the ability of the artist who lay with it. The environment, the distance, even the inaudible thud of the mare's hooves against the road as she ran away in mad panic, was all part of a symphony no less elegant than one performed with her cello.

"Hey, Cellist! Hey, hey, Cellist! Listen! Hey, Listen!" Vinyl reached the roof and toggled off her communicator, close enough now not to need it, as she pulled her headphones down around her neck. "Hey, Octy!"

The roar of the gun tore through the night, punctuated a moment later by the scream of pain from the fledgling as the round tore through her body. The mare's trunk deformed into a bloody mess, and she flopped to the ground with an obliterated spine. Octavia closed her eyes and breathed out slowly, following through the shot just as a mare playing hoofball followed through the goal-winning buck. Decrescendo, dear. She breathed in again, feeling the cold of night fill her lungs as she let her senses sink back to normal. It reminded her that warm little ponies did not belong in this world of darkness. She squeezed her rifle tight for a moment, and when she opened her eyes the world moved at its normal tempo. The silver phosphorus slug at last detonated on the other end of the scope, consuming the fledgling from within before erupting outward in purifying fire that devoured her remains. A shiver passed down Octavia's spine as she stored the memory of carnage away in her mind, along with the string of notes that had ended the undead pony. The cellist nuzzled her instrument with satisfaction, feeling the warmth of the barrel and taking small comfort. She had spoken for the lost, those who would never smile again.

Then she whirled about on her impolite audience. "There! I took the shot, she is down, there is blood everywhere! Are you happy?"

The unicorn hugged her friend tight, wrapping her warm red trenchcoat about the grey mare's trembling body. "Oh, you are such a treat, Octavia."

The earth pony sighed, hugging back and leaning into the pale mare's embrace. Her body was cold, but it was the comforting kind of chill. "Pleasure performing with you as well, Vinyl Scratch." Their styles were in drastic conflict, but together they complimented quite well. It was an odd metaphor for the friendship they shared, but the two mares were admittedly quite odd.

"Dibs on their stuff. I wanna see how it burns." Her neon tail twitched beneath the folds of her coat.

"We have to tend to the dead." Octavia said softly. She felt some pity for the immolated fledgeling, but far more for the vampires' victims. Those who would never see the sun again deserved her tears more than those who had walked an evil path. As for the stallion, those would be wasted tears indeed. She was not a mare who cried much, though. "They deserve at least a peaceful grave."

The unicorn's smile terrified her. Especially the fangs. "Yeah. I know." Her partner pulled away after a moment. "What's wrong?"

"I... V, do you ever wonder if we are wrong? If-"

The vampire groaned loudly. "Octy. We kill ponies who chop up foals, who murder their friends, and who try to throw the world back into discord." She licked her lips. "And we look awesome while we do it. If somepony, or something, wants to live in harmony they have to put the hoof forward and actually do somethin' to prove it." A pale hoof pressed against the sniper's front. "You taught me that. Those two went on a petty spree of chaos, and that's dancin' in the opposite direction."

Something still troubled her partner. "But-"

"You always say 'We speak for the lost.'" Her glasses drooped down on her muzzle, revealing her crimson eyes. "Well, we just loved 'n' tolerated the tar outa those two for the lost."

A slight lifting of the corners of her mouth was Octavia's first response. "Yes, V. I know that." The grey mare cleared her throat. "I was asking if... well, if the two of us are wrong." She ran a hoof idly over a roof tile. "I do not want to hold you back."

The terrible smile flashed again. The unicorn tipped her head up and let her glasses slide down into place. "Hold me back? Octy, you cover my back. You give me the chance to take care of business my way and have a great time, but when I screw up and let something get away you drop a slug in her like it's no big thing." She smacked one hoof into another for emphasis, or perhaps just because she liked the sound it made. "You always help me out in a jam. I wouldn't, naw, I flat-out couldn't work with anypony who wasn't there for me like you." A pale fetlock ran smoothly through the earth pony's mane. Vinyl always admired long hair, but having it herself was out of the question. Too much work to mane-tain, haha!

Cheeks now almost as pink as her bowtie, the sniper looked up at the moon, chiefly because it was not Vinyl's eyes. There were stories that an ancient evil was locked away up there. They would stay stories, if she had anything to say about it. The world had enough missed notes already. "You really are much more effective than you let on. A little discipline and restraint would-"

"Take all the fun out!" The vampire groaned.

It was too humorous to the cellist. "We are quite unorthodox, are we not?" She chuckled.

"Heresy is my middle name, and the proof of the song is in the headbangin' fans." Her partner winced, so Vinyl naturally had to continue. "That wheel in the sky keeps on turnin'. Dunno where I'll be tomorrow night. For now... Wub-a-scrub-dub, Octy. Makin' the world a better place."

"We speak for the lost. Those who can never smile again, we give rest." Octavia whispered the mantra, told to her by another of her breed. The words were old, older than much of the music she liked and yet younger than some of the truly ancient masterpieces. She could not form the original words, written as they were for dragon-tongues rather than ponies', but the meaning transcended linguistic barriers and was quite relevant in the present nights. "We cheer the innocent. We act for the victims. We who have won life's lottery will answer, not in guilt but acceptance of our duty, for those too weak to cry out." A slow breath. There was one more line, but she need not say it now. Both of them knew it by heart.

Or, whatever it was Vinyl had inside her. Now that, was funny.

Author's Notes:

Welcome to Bon Hadescream, the first story I ever posted on FiMfiction.net! I've revised it a bit since it was first posted, and broadened its scope from a simple adaptation to a full-fledged action story set within the Friendship is Magic universe we all love. Certain liberties have been taken with things such as magitechnology and population density, but the core dynamic of little ponies in a hopeful world is still the main focus. That's why Vinyl and Octavia are friends rather than disgruntled coworkers!

This story is something of an experimentation ground for me, I use it to improve my writing skills. To that end, I wish to reassure you that this story does improve in quality as it continues! If you choose to read it, I thank you. Please let me know what you think of the story, and how I might improve.