Vinyl reached into her trenchcoat and drew forth a guitar. The zombies, disoriented from the death of their controller and the piercing scratch that had cut off their chanting, began to recover. For an instant the soundpony could be seen yanking his tail away from a former oboe player's teeth, then diving behind another chunk of cover. The vampire kissed the headstock of her instrument. It was a gleaming point of steel atop the rune-engraved fretboard and had been carefully molded in the image of the Fire-Beast, Cremator of the Sky in ancient Draconic lore. She leaned back on her haunches and ripped out a wicked solo that was amplified by the headphones around her neck. It rumbled through the ground, the room's acoustics and sanctification to music multiplying her skillful playing, until she lept into the air and slammed down the final note as she landed. A great fissure opened in the heights of the ceiling, webbing out through the marble dome until it could take no more and crumbled down to reveal the moonlit night above. Massive chunks of marble fell upon the zombies, smashing them into paste, and the stage too collapsed, leaving nothing but an island of rock around the unicorn and her chosen survivors. The roof just above her crumbled to gravel and sloughed off around them, catching the few zombies who had escaped their initial judgement under a hail of smaller rocks.

The soundpony murmured a long plea of protection as he huddled together with the cameramare. Her voice joined his as Vinyl tilted her head back and began to laugh maniacally while drawing the song to a close. The concert hall lay in ruins, though it was almost an improvement over the carnage that had desecrated it. With a final power chord, the vampire struck a dramatic pose and held her guitar high above her head, the strings still vibrating. The film crew pulled away from each other, evidenced by the camera shaking just so and a hint of the boom mic visible at one corner of the screen. Their subject rolled her forelegs and stowed her guitar after kissing it again, then glanced about the room. That, that had been fun, but it was over too soon. She had just given final rest to the many innocent souls caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, but all the emotion she showed was an idle lick at her bloodstained left fetlock. "Mmm. Chee, he sucked on a lot of them. Musta been linked with his zombies. That's pretty 'ard to do."

The cameramare tried to get as much of the destruction on video as she could, but found her skills wholly inadequate to capture just how it felt to stand in a once proud concert hall and see it so thoroughly demolished. She gave up and just swiveled the camera to follow the vampire, her movements numb and mechanical as the frightened film jockey's consciousness retreated from the world. Blood and drama was one thing, having a building collapse around you quite another.

Vinyl adjusted her hat. "Well, that wraps things up here."

A soft gargle came from the earth pony below her as she struggled to not choke to death on her own blood. Her mulberry eyes had long ago clouded over, and the grey mare could barely see. Hearing was the last thing to go, so she could still register the pale mare's voice even if her brain could barely comprehend it. It was much more occupied with trying to understand how she was still alive.

"Oh. Forgot about you. Right." The pale mare scratched her neon mane with a hoof. "Sorry about that, got a little caught up in the moment. Stabbing him in the face just didn't seem as cool. I'm sure if you look deep in your heart, which is probably all over my left fetlock, you'll be able to forgive me."

She could not even move her eyes. A slight twitch, the barest hint of adjustment in her soft purple irises, was all that remained to her. Something collapsed inside her barrel, and a hiss of escaping air pushed flecks of blood out of her mouth along with a sad "Mmhlp."

"Aww, you're like a puppy." The vampire knelt down by her side, crimson eyes still dull behind her glasses. "A black-maned, eviscerated puppy." The "puppy" gurgled again, her muscles going slack. Any other breed would be dead, only her earth pony resilience gave her any excuse for clinging to life. Vinyl looked away, for the most part ignoring the stirring of her mind in reaction to black hair. She was running on automatic tonight, walking as the dead among the living. Thought was a bother, for it distracted from chaos. Good chaos, though. She did good things, not evil ones. Another gurgle came from the floor.

"Celestia! Fine, I'll help you." She smirked to cover up her act of mercy. Vinyl leaned down to the musician, mind frantically trying to grasp that important realization that any mortal would have made long ago. "But only because you've got a nice flank. A really nice flank." She paused. "A really familiar flank." Too familiar. For the first time since she had left her apartment, the pale mare thought about her surroundings instead of simply reacting to them. Her mind reconnected to her body, and all of her senses poured in the volumes of information they had archived. It took the unicorn a long moment to accept what her eyes had been trying to tell her ever since she walked into the concert hall. Vinyl looked from her left foreleg to the gutted mare one last time, then whispered in horror "Octavia?"

The grey mare gurgled again. None but her could say if it was in recognition or exasperation, and even as she watched the scene the cellist could not remember. Her brain had been almost dead from oxygen deprivation at that point, and her recollections of that night were hazy at best after she had been brutalized by the ex-professor.

Vinyl raised a hoof to her mouth in shock. Her mind should feel no worse about impaling the mare now than when it had been an automatic action. Everypony would have been dead if she had not shown up, right? No use thinking about the ones that got in the way. Still, she was horrified that her secret was out. Octavia now knew what she was, had seen it with her own eyes and felt it with her own body. The wall between her masks had broken down abruptly, and the unicorn did not know what to do. Octavia was not collateral damage, but somepony Vinyl had tried for a considerable length of time to disguise her true nature from. She was the one mare that was always there for her when she was in a jam. Now she was lying on the floor, close to death, and Vinyl had no idea why. Yes, the vampire had stabbed her, but she had not stabbed Octavia! She had just... She had only... But...

It wasn't fair!

The unicorn pressed her front hooves, one bloody and one clean, against her face. No, this was not good. She had a system set up. Lie to everypony. Keep everyone away from what was behind her masks. That way she could please everypony, especially herself. It was not her fault, Octavia shouldn't have been here tonight! This and hundreds of other excuses swirled through her mind, but she was burdened with knowledge that kept her from slogging off the blame. It was her fault. She had been raised better than to run away from her mistakes. So, after forcing her eyes open to discover that yes, this was real, all the swirling thoughts drifted away. She felt a vague ringing in her ears, not from shock as a mortal might but rather a call to chaos that seethed in her blood. Yes, she could "help" the mare. Warm, fresh blood to get that disgusting taste out of her mouth. Bury everything, run away. It was her nature, after all. She was of Discord, not Harmony. Vinyl swallowed hard, forcing the beastlike tendencies back, and bit down on her tongue as she focused on one simple question that she should have asked as soon as she stepped into the concert hall. What was her roommate doing here?

That expression was on the mare on the screen's face for quite some time, for the projector stalled at that precise frame. Vinyl groaned loudly. "Well… that's a sign if I ever got one. Thanks a bunch, Celestia."

The cellist next to her raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"Octy… look, the reason I showed you this is because I've never been completely honest with you about the reason I saved your life that night." The vampire began. "I was going to leave you there, even after I knew it was you. I was going to let you die so I could keep laughing and living how I thought I wanted to live." She shuffled her front hooves together nervously, unsure how her partner would react. "But I couldn't. You were the only friend I had."

Octavia breathed in slowly. "DJ-P0N3 had-"

"Yeah. She did have all the friends she wanted. I couldn't be DJ-P0N3 all the time, I had to be Vinyl Scratch. Even when I was DJ-P0N3, all those friends didn't care about me. They cared about the persona, or what I could do for them. You were the only one who cared about me, because I had to keep everypony else away or they'd find out what I was." She smirked. "An undying monster." The smirk fell away. "But... I would'a died. If I'd stood by and let you go just because I wanted to keep some secrets, I'd have..." Vinyl bit her lip. It would have been cute, save for the rather noticeable fangs the act revealed.

"Acted in an immoral and irresponsible manner superseding even your own lax standards, and jeopardized what you try to pass off as principles?" Octavia supplied helpfully with a twitch of her tail. She should not have enjoyed that nearly so much, but it had been her life in the balance all those months ago.

"Yuh... yeah. That would... well, it'd drag me down the same path as all the rest of those creatures. I'd have been able to go on, keep living two lives, but what would be the point? I... Octy, the reason I was your roommate was because you put up with me. You were the only friend who liked Vinyl Scratch, not DJ-P0N3."

"'Liked' might be a bit strong." The grey mare said quickly, avoiding the vampire's gaze. Vinyl actually being serious about something made her nervous. "I knew you always... well, usually at least, meant well. I knew there was something strange about you, but... well, you could be..."

The pale mare leaned back and raised an eyebrow. "Octy?"

Her partner blushed. "As much as I hate to admit it, you were always there for me when I really needed somepony. You were a terror, but whenever I was truly depressed and thought I would never amount to anything, I had you as a reminder." A grin crossed the mare's face. "You always were there to make me smile when I was out of sorts."

"R-really?" The vampire felt a lump form in her throat as blood rushed from her reserves into her epidermis. "Wow. I thought you just put up with me because I was always good for the rent, plus damages."

"No, Vinyl. It was because I knew, no matter how bleak things might seem, there was proof that anypony could make something of herself with nothing more than hard work."

The pale mare ran a hoof through her electric-blue mane and adopted a cocky smile. "Yeah, I know I'm pretty awes-"

"Just imagine what a mare with actual musical talent could accomplish, Octavia!" Her partner continued, flopping onto her back and pointing up at the ceiling with a hoof. "I would repeat that to myself over, and over, and over! Why, if a mare like Vinyl could toss money about as though it were dirt, the sky was my limit!" A grin to rival her partner's best worked its way across her face. "Oh, stop with the hurt expression. I told you, it does not work on me."

Vinyl did not stop. She had bared her soul, and though it had been a well deserved jab it still throbbed.

"Listen, you really were there for me when I needed it. You remember that time with the music store, when I felt like good deeds never failed to go unpunished?"

"Uhh... You mean the time I burned down-" The withering glare from her partner answered that question. Vinyl Scratch spun through her memories, youth making it easier for her than others of her kind. "Ehrm... Oh. Ohhh!" Only one memory truly fit the bill, a moment neither of them could forget. "You mean with the music book?"

Octavia nodded. "Quite. That event was early on in our sharing of the cost for a Manehattan residence, but it colored our relationship. I think... well, I think it solidified our friendship." The cellist sat back upright. "I have never forgotten how you put a smile on my face that day."

"See? That's what I'm talking about, Octy. Even when you got nothin', you still try to give." She hugged the grey mare. "That's what I was trying to say before. If I just let you die, I wouldn't have anypony who cared about Vinyl. Just DJ-P0N3. You didn't want anything, you tried to give. Doin' stuff, or music, or even just being there."

Her blush now crimson, Octavia tried to push the vampire away. "V-Vinyl, that is quite kind, but I think you are looking back with rose-colored glasses. I was always quite... well, grumpy, whenever you needed me."

"Eh?" Their eyes met over the purple shades. "Octy, you're always uptight. How was I supposed to tell a difference?"

A long sigh escaped the grey mare.

Vinyl hugged her tight once more, then let go. "Breakin' it down, if I let you die, it would have been different than some random bystander who was dead anyway if I hadn't shown up. I know life's precious and all, but right then I wasn't thinking that. I was thinking that you were my only real friend." She pulled off her glasses, the movie screen still frozen on one wall of the room. Now came the hard part. "In the end, I was selfish. I needed you as a friend, and it was that greed rather than any guilt that convinced me to save you." Lowering herself to the floor, she looked up at her partner with sorrowful eyes that held the silent screams of a thousand souls within their swirling crimson currents. "I... thought you should know. Lately, well, we've both gotten quite a few lessons in being honest... so I wanted to get that off my back. You're one of the most generous ponies I know, and I treated your life like it was a record on a table. I thought if I just spun things back a little bit, I could keep hearing that part of the song I loved, but that's wrong, and... and... and that's why I set up the movie and everything, because I'm sorry." Vinyl was completely flat on the floor now, hat pushed back off her head and a single tear forming in one eye.

"So... you are apologizing for not letting me die?" Octavia ran a hoof through her black mane in embarrassment.

"No-"

"Then are you sorry for impaling me?"

"Not exact-"

Octavia tapped a hoof on the floor. "Then are you saying that you are sorry for saving me just because you wanted a friend, without thought for my opinions on the matter?"

The vampire nodded. Her partner sighed.

"You already did, remember? Just after I woke up?"

The pale mare shook her head. "I just came to my senses and realized that I couldn't force you to be my friend. I never said sorry... and you really deserve an apology for me taking you for granted, Octy, since I do it all the time."

The cellist was silent for a moment, then broke down laughing in as dignified a manner as possible. Even the sight of her own body on the screen behind her, so close to death that it still chilled her to think of it, could not stop the fitful giggles. At length, she regained her composure and laid down to match eyes with the confused vampire. "You know I am guilty of the same thing, Vinyl Scratch. That is what true friends are able to do, I think. They poke and prod within the boundaries of kindness, but never with the intent of truly harming one another." She reached out and took the mare's red hat, settling it just above her horn. "And you feel bad, because you feel you stepped too far. Is that about right?"

The vampire nodded. "I was bein' selfish..."

"No. Vinyl, you cared about me, so you gave me life when I had nothing. To you it may have been a joke, a selfish gamble to preserve the way you wanted your life to go. To me it was a kindness that I did not deserve, for I had failed, and though I did not realize it at the time it was a reason to smile that I sorely needed. You do not understand how a small gift at the right time can change the world."

"Nah, but you do, Octy." The tear in her eye shimmered in the dim light. Vinyl was not given to subtle emotion. Her body had to emulate many responses that came naturally to mares, and so her moods fell within a quadratic scale of averages and extremes. Actually holding herself in reserve let her mind's true emotions show, rather than her undying body's response to various stimuli. "And if I let that die... well, I'd have killed something inside me so I could keep everypony away. If I did that, Vinyl Scratch would run out of reasons to stick around soon enough, and I'd either fall into torpor or fade into that grey discordant morality where anything could be justified if it made me smile."

"It would do more than just hurt your mental stability, if I understand you." The cellist said in a soft tone. "A musician without passion cannot compare to one who devotes her existence to her art."

Vinyl nodded. "Yeah. I'd be a sellout, and that would kill DJ-P0N3 deader than disco." Her ears flopped down. Contemplating what could have been threatened to draw her into an angst-ridden spiral. Many of her kind fell to such thoughts.

Few of her kind had mortals who actually cared about them. "Oh. Then you will not be needing that garish mirror-ball you left-"

The vampire's eyes bulged. "I said deader than disco! Keep your refined hooves off my gear chamber!"

With a smirk of her own, Octavia reminded her partner, "That's actually my undercroft."

"Hooves! Off!" Vinyl poked her friend in the shoulder and started to grin. They both broke out laughing after a few seconds, and wound up sitting close together after a moment of mirth. Still, something bothered the vampire. "Octavia... can you forgive me?"

"Oh, Vinyl." Her partner sighed, tapping the pale mare's dense head. "I already have. Long ago."

A goofy grin spread across her face. "You got no idea how good that feels."

"I suppose I could." She quietly chided. "I have far more practice in apologies."

"Awww. I forgive you too, Octy. For... stuff." The vampire's eyes rolled back in her head as she thought. "Yeah. Stuff!"

They broke out laughing again.

Vinyl was the first to recover. "Do you want to skip the rest of the film?"

Octavia shrugged. "May as well see it through to the end. The hard part is over, after all. Besides, if we stop now, I am still dying on the stage." She smirked. "Hardly the image I want in my mind next time I put bow to cello before an audience... a real audience, that is." Her voice trailed off mournfully, and her eyes turned to the doors behind them for a moment. She finished silently, "Whenever that day comes."

"Hey-hey!" Vinyl quickly gave the projector a magical smack. "C'mon, you ancient-" It sputtered reluctantly into motion again.

"Octy, it's okay. I'm gonna fix this." The vampire began, a broad smile showing off her fangs. Sometimes running on automatic got her into trouble, and on occasions she fell into a trap. Then her brain woke up and provided a magical solution to fix everything. It always worked, especially when the cameras were on her. She preferred not to listen to her brain until she really needed to, because it was always nudging her about something not being quite right. Vinyl ran from her mind, ran from that realization that she was not happy, and tried to fool herself with moments of pleasure. Deep down, she hated cutting herself into little bits of personality just to survive, but saw no other way to live. Besides, it had never turned out badly for her before.

This time was special. Vinyl Scratch cut down horrible monsters because it was fun. The only problem that slowed her was keeping up the masquerade when one of her victims ran through a crowd of mortals. Her nature was to take life, not preserve it. She sucked out souls and tamed her thirst with blood. Now, the closest thing she had to a best friend was lying on the floor with a hole straight through her trunk. That could not be solved by a little cunning or a lot of lead. The pale mare glanced down toward Octavia's body, still unmoving. No ambulance in all Equestria could save her.

"I'm gonna fix this." The words were quieter this time. Silence pressed in around them. The room's collapsed ceiling retained just enough sonic enchantment to muffle that trademark Manehattan bustle, but the fallen rocks quickly swallowed up any echo. The Concertorium, though on a prestigious avenue, was secluded enough that any first responders would be a while yet. Vinyl would be able to watch the earth pony die alone. Her lives had spiraled from her grasp into a horrible mess. She was completely removed from control for the first time since she could remember. DJ-P0N3 dominated all clubs, even as a mere guest. When on the hunt, the only challenge was how long it took the vampire to snuff out the monsters that crossed her path. Even at home, the little apartment that she and the mauled cellist shared, Vinyl was always in control. She just let Octavia think otherwise and boss her around. Because.

Without words, the pale mare knelt closer to the earth pony. This was why she needed to have more power, more control. Oh, that was you, Octy? Sorry, lemme zap you back to life. How? Because I'm Vinyl Scratch, babe! Power. If she had enough, all these problems would go away. A hissing breath rose through the silence. Octavia was still alive, somehow. Her eyes were unfocused, and her body was limp against the floor. Vinyl pressed her front hooves to her face again, and felt the warm blood on her left fetlock as it dribbled down her cheek. No, the problem was not power, but control. Not control over the world, but control over herself. Her mind wound slowly back through other nights, other battles. A small voice, the same one that had begged her to pay more attention when she entered the Concertorium, asked how many other ponies had died as collateral damage. Many were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. The vampire hissed in pain as a thought wormed its way into her consciousness. How many could you have saved?

Was this payback? All those others had meant something to somepony else. What was more important, their lives or her feeling a little more awesome? She couldn't even remember what most of them looked like, they had just been details to a bigger story. Like wallpaper or flowers in a garden, just a living backdrop for her campaign of carnage. Each one of them was probably Octavia to somepony. Some, nearly all, had been beyond help. The things she fought were wretched, and mostly viewed mortals as grass. You nibble it, and more grows back. Vinyl was a clever mare, and her mind was sharp. That was why she ran from contemplation so much. Her mind did not guilt her with those she could not have saved, but rather staked the pale mare right in the heart with memories of the ones who might have been given a second chance at life. To say she had a conscience would be too kind. Her mind was far more merciless, for it wielded the principles that the vampire had been raised with. It did not nag, undercutting its message with useless angst about understanding this sooner, but used its most potent tool. A void. Between each memory was a gap, a dropping of the bass if one thought of it in musical terms, in which the mare could form her own conclusions about her behavior. It was her choices that had led her down this road, and as the memories pulsed faster through her mind the pause after each bass wub grew shorter and shorter. This was the song of her life, and it would end on this stage with the death of her roommate. Panic gripped the pale mare.

Vinyl fell upon the cellist, grabbing her by the shoulders and blubbering "Octy, please don't die! Y-you can't, I don't want you to!" The begging was not very effective at healing the earth pony. She was still gored, and losing blood. The scent tickled the vampire's nose, and her muzzle was already so close to those pulsing arteries, struggling to push what life-giving vitae remained through Octavia's neck. Her heart was not truly all over Vinyl's fetlock, just one of her lungs. It would be a mercy to drain her now, after all what else did she have to offer her "friend", save a quicker death? Vinyl swallowed hard, arching her body away from the cellist until the urge passed as quickly as it had come. It left behind a grain of truth. Death was all her vampirism let her offer the grey mare. The taint came in many strains, for its original sire was Discord himself. In the last desperate days of his dominion, he had twisted the bodies of many mares and stallions. They remained long after Celestia and Luna, the Sisters Astral, sealed him away in stone at the turning point of the Great Crusade. Some of these fallen ponies remained loyal to the ideal of Harmony. They resisted the corrupting influence of Discord either on their own strength, or because they were burdened with knowledge. They held true to principles, and thought of loved ones who could not be betrayed. Almost every resistor had a different reason. Vinyl knew nothing of those times, or those reasons, for she had never experienced that moment of choosing to be a monster or a mare.

Long ago, one earth pony had resisted because of the life inside her. Love for that child, as ridiculous as it might be to contemplate, gave her the strength to defy the deceit wound into her mind by Discord. For over a thousand years she had carried that unborn foal inside her, still barely more than a little marble of cells, through trials and torpor. Finally, she found a way to give her daughter what Discord had stolen. Vinyl Scratch was not born, but coalesced. She had never known existence as a mortal, and had nothing to hold her back from becoming a monster. Nothing to give her perspective on the value of life, save her parents. No matter how many times a lesson is taught, sometimes it has to be learned firsthoof.

The pale mare had just made that decision. She had killed Octavia. She was a monster. Her masks melted together, all walls now breached. The DJ wanted to live like a common Equestrian, to have friends and enjoy life in a body that would never tire of parties. The taint of Discord clamored for chaos and blood. Somewhere beneath them, Vinyl was crying over the body of her roommate, her perfect little portrait of life now in shambles. It was too much for her to bear, and for the first time in a long time her mind and body were aligned in emotion. Trembling on the outside and screaming on the inside, Vinyl Scratch felt herself hanging over an abyss. She could not face herself, or her parents, after what she had done. When the earth pony's heart stopped, the vampire would fall. The taint hissed in joy, finally it would have its champion! With her power, especially all the power she had just gained from the pathetic pegasus, she would be able to wreak untold chaos on the world. It was her fate, her destiny. She could not face the world, so the vampire would destroy it, that she might never have to face herself.

No. That was not what Vinyl wanted. She wanted her friend back, she wanted a night of fun, and she wanted to go home afterward and feel alright. Finally, the pale monster realized where her thinking was wrong. Everything was always about her, her having a friend, her having fun, and her having a home. Octavia's eyes were dull, her body limp on the stage, and her coat marred from a doomed struggle. Vinyl did not even know what she was doing here. What had the earth pony wanted from this night? Certainly not death. She had nothing, absolutely nothing, but she was still teaching the vampire a lesson. Surely she had no idea of what was passing through her roommate's mind, but that was Octy's way. Always giving, even though she never really had that much. Vinyl leaned her muzzle close to the grey mare's ear, a tear working down the blood on one side of her face.

"I... I can't fix this. I'm sorry, Octavia." Vinyl sobbed. She hugged her friend close. "I can't fix you. But I'll never forget you. A lil' piece 'll always be inside me." She hiccuped. "An' that's kinda like livn' forever, isn't it?"

The earth pony was silent, safe for her labored breathing. It was slow now, the breaths very shallow, and a thin resin of blood coated her lips. A sprinkle more was thrown out with each breath.

The vampire sniffled. "That's it, isn't it? I always was thinkin' too much about myself. I never thought about you, or anypony else who got in the way. I'm so sorry, Octy." She desperately wanted to take it all back, but her actions had harsh consequences. Vinyl had let herself live out of control, and this was the price. It would break her. Inside she felt the discordant echo. Now you are a monster, a real one, it hummed in crazy-backward tones, it is time to begin! Time to sow chaos in Discord's name, to weaken the False Princess, and to send Equestria spinning back into madness. It will begin with chocolate rain and buffalo ballet. It shall end in everlasting horrors of a cosmic kind, and this time no savior-sisters will rise to defeat their rightful dominator!

"Please, Octy." Vinyl whispered. "I need you." She bit her lip. The blood smelled good, really good. Octy sometimes cut herself while making dinner. Resisting that was nothing, if a vampire got that excited over a few drops of blood she had no business being around mortals. No, this was like the time Octavia had gotten a nasty slash up her left foreleg and the vampire had to rush her to the hospital. The pale mare shut her eyes. She had snuck into the blood bank while her roommate was in the ER and left a sack of bits in place of a cooler full of bags. Once she got a taste of somepony, she never forgot how their blood warmed her tongue. That was why Vinyl had never let herself even consider her roommate as a potential donor. Now, half of her demanded that she give in, and the other half had no rebuttal, just a mush of morals that told her somehow it would be wrong. Mush was useless. Desperately, the mare dug through the mush until she found a little bead of hope. She could fight with the memory of Octavia, and live in defiance of her fate. Her mother had done much the same thing when she was turned by Discord, fighting for the child that had been stolen from her, until one day she won. Vinyl looked up. The stars were bright, the night sky was beautiful. She could live as long as those stars, if she was skilled enough. In her heart, she knew she was not strong enough to fight for the right cause just on a memory. Maybe a week, but after that she would break. Vinyl Scratch was at her wits' end, slumping down next to her friend on the stage and whimpering softly. "I... I need to remember you, if nothing else."