Octavia glanced at her younger self, and saw that the figment was still as a statue. The purple of her eyes had vanished, and the pink of her bow was gone as well. The ghost stepped toward the other end of the car and swallowed hard.

"No running. No hiding. Searching," the cult leader yowled. Her left eye twitched. "Coming from the clouds! I have no time for this, the True Power calls to me from within the earth, and I must heed!" Her right eye twitched. "Should have all the time in the world, but I don't! Your mind is so stupid, mudpony! It's fighting me at every turn, hiding secrets, kicking back." She reared up and roared, "do you not know how to simply die?"

The grey mare pondered that as she backed away, carefully giving ground while remaining aware of her surroundings. "No. No, I... I was taught many things. But I do not think I was ever taught how to die." A smile cracked across her muzzle. "In fact, I believe that is the one thing I have refuted for my entire life."

"Then bite off your tongue and call me the Great Teacher," hissed Scoffing Song. Her fur began to glow as she once more took on her full spectral appearance. Behind her lay the frozen body of the Vinyl-figment. "I am in absolute control!"

"That is what drives you, is it not? Control." The grey mare felt a sense of calm flowing over her. A war of words. I can fight that battle. I have done so before, many times. "You long for it, simply for its own sake." She realized that this invader was stronger than her, even within her own mind. The cult leader was experienced in such wars of thought, and Octavia was not. Escape was her best option... or was it?

"Everypony wants power, little mudmare." She smiled wide and took another step. "I'm just honest about it. Too bad you didn't kneel. I could have used somepony with your talents."

"I am sorry, but I am rather too malnourished to make a good sacrifice." She fiddled with her bow-tie in what seemed a nervous gesture, but the cellist was actually very calm. She had finally remembered a momentous occasion. "And I already serve another master."

The specter giggled. "And where is that master now? What protection does she extend to you that can stay my hoof?"

Octavia shrugged. "She is off in a castle somewhere, probably filing paperwork and wishing desperately that she could shoot something. But it is still right to oppose you, for you seek to bring evil upon the world." The grey mare reached out with a hindhoof and felt the door of the railcar behind her. It led to the next car on the train. She started to feel for the handle, then set her hindleg back on the floor and touched her bow-tie again.

"So, nothing." Scoffing Song laughed. "Your master offers you nothing but death."

"I have died once already," retorted the sniper. "I do not regret what I chose to stand for." She took a deep breath. "Luckily, I have a friend who is both wise enough to agree with me, and malevolent enough to defeat you."

"Aww, Octy. You're just layin' it on with a trowel, ain't ya?"

Scoffing Song spun around and stared in disbelief. Standing above the frozen figment of Vinyl was a semi-transparent version of the pale mare, clad in a red hat and trenchcoat. They were the only color in the entire traincar, and the contrast caused them to seem as though they were positively oozing crimson. She reached down, plucked the shades from the face of her younger self, and slipped them on. Then she turned to admire her reflection in the glass window as the lenses turned purple once more. "Dang. I'm lookin' good."

The specter scowled, then held up a hoof. "You again? Halt! I command you with absolute authority, halt!"

Vinyl yawned, then took a step toward the cult leader.

"Halt!" roared Scoffing Song.

"Oh, fine then." The vampire paused with a hoof in the air, then smiled lazily. "Hey, cellist."

"Hello, Vinyl." The Asset touched her pink bow-tie. I belong to the Organization, and so does she.

"You remembered! I knew ya would!" She licked her lips. "Nopony forgets Vinyl Scratch for long."

"No, no, no!" Scoffing Song stamped her hoof, and her horn began to glow. "Halt!"

"Mmmm..." Vinyl rolled her eyes. "Octy?"

The earth pony smiled with just a hint of cruelty. "Green light."

As the cult leader screamed again, the vampire bounded forward, grabbed her by the scruff of the neck, and slammed her face into a window hard enough to crack the glass. Color began to seep back into the traincar. "Look, girlie. The nice cellist wants you to leave. You don't wanna bother her, get me?"

"Halt! You have to bend to my will, I am in absolute-"

Vinyl slammed the specter into another window, and more color began to trickle in through those cracks. "Wrong answer." She sighed. "No respect for private property these days, am I right?" The pale mare rolled her shoulders, stretched her forelegs, and then hurled the cult leader straight through a windowpane. Then she fell to her hind knees, threw her front legs up, and howled, "defenestration!"

Octavia walked to her crazy friend and threw a hug around her neck. "Thank you, Vinyl." The grey mare did not question how exactly Vinyl had come here. She needed her, had called out to her, and the pale mare had appeared. Was that not what friends did for one another?

"No problem, Octy." She pointed toward the door. "Now let's go finish the job, eh?" An evil sort of lightning crackled behind her purple shades.

The two mares stepped out onto the train platform, and found themselves back in the railyard. Scoffing Song lay on the gravel, surrounded by sparks that flickered from her glowing horn. "You! You have the stupidest mind I have ever seen! Your memories are wretched and uncontrollable, I don't know how you stay sane!" She pulled herself upright and pointed at Vinyl. "Any memory that strong should be damaging to your mental state, you should be a schizophrenic basket case in a rubber room, barely able to feed yourself!"

Octavia shrugged. "If you say so."

"I do say so!" The cult leader stood. "I have ravaged many minds, but yours is... yours is... wait." She glared at the pale mare, who had pulled her hat down further to keep the sun off. "You. You're... you're not a memory at all, you're... you're an alternate personality!" Scoffing Song cackled. "Isn't that just fine! Little mudpony couldn't handle that she was born without a horn, so she imagined herself a friend to make it all better! Aww, poor mudpony."

"Eh." Vinyl yawned.

The grey mare took a deep breath, then smiled. "I do not care. You were right about one thing. Enough time has been wasted here. I have a mission to complete."

"Then come and fight me," Scoffing Song taunted. "Don't hide behind your little delusion any longer. There never was any vampire unicorn, you made her up to make yourself feel better, my little mudpony." She smiled wide. "Come and fight me yourself, or you'll have to live with the knowledge that you're just a cowardly little earth mare forever."

Octavia bit her lip, then looked up toward the sun. What am I? Am I a Jäger? Am I an assassin? Am I a cowardly little earth pony?

Next to her, Vinyl yawned again. "Bugger all, it's bright out." She wrapped a front leg around Octavia's neck and snuggled against her.

What am I? She closed her eyes for a moment, then opened them when she heard the wind whistling through the railyard.

"You belong to the Organization now, Miss Octavia."

The grey mare smiled. I am an Asset.

"So, how about it? Are you a coward, forever?"

"No," replied Octavia. "I am a mare with a mission. A mission to complete by any means necessary." She looked down at the vampire. "Vinyl?"

"Huh?" the pale mare straightened up and shook her head. "What? I wasn't sleeping," she yawned. "I was just resting my eyes."

"Throw her out, please."

A wide grin stretched across the pale mare's muzzle. "Thought you'd never ask!" She turned toward the specter and flexed her front legs. "It's clobberin' time!"

"No!" shouted the cult leader. "You can't, you-"

"I," Octavia cut her off firmly, "have nothing to prove. Nothing to repent of. Nothing but the mission. And I will use any means at my disposal to complete it."

"That's me, the garbage disposal." Vinyl bounded forward. "Listen up, poser! If you hurt my friends, then you hurt my pride! I gotta be a mare, I can't let it slide!" She lept toward the glowing specter and wrestled her to the ground. Scoffing Song fought desperately, her horn glowing as she levitated herself and the vampire into the air before slamming the pale mare down into the gravel, but Vinyl quickly bounced back up and put her in a headlock. After that, the fight intensified into a battle of magic and muscle that kicked up a cloud of dirt from the old railyard, obscuring the melee from the cellist's view.

Even weakened by the sun, it was only a matter of minutes before Vinyl had thrashed the cult leader. When the dust settled, she picked the broken specter up with both fetlocks and held her over her head in triumph. "Huuurrggh!"

Octavia applauded. She knew that was what the egotistical vampire wanted, and Vinyl had certainly earned it. "Bravo, bravo, encore!" Perhaps that was not what one was supposed to say at a wrestling match, she did not know.

The vampire grinned, then tossed Scoffing Song a few meters away and produced an old ribbon velocity microphone from inside her red trenchcoat. "Hey, glow-eyes, I figured out what's wrong with your little halt command!" She flexed her front legs and tossed back her trenchcoat like a cape. "It doesn't work on somepony made of pure awesom-winium."

"Really, Vinyl, that's a bit much..." muttered the grey mare.

Scoffing Song struggled upright, then gaped at the vampire. "What... what are you?" Her horn began to glow as she charged up a last-ditch assault.

"I'm Vinyl Wubbing Scratch. The DJ-P0N3."

A meep came from the cult leader, and her eyes almost bugged out of her head. "N-no, impossible!" The terror of recognition bleached her face. "You... you can't be here! Not now, it's too soon, too close to-"

"Can and am," shouted the pale mare, her voice amplified and overdriven by the mic. "And I'm gonna show you how it's done!" She took a deep breath and held the microphone close to her muzzle. Then, as sparks began to flicker from her horn and an eerie hum filled the air, she whispered, "halt. Hippotime."

Octavia leaned her head to the side, thinking that she had misheard the vampire, then saw that cargo crane swing high above their heads. Something fell from it, something huge, grey, and four-legged. Scoffing Song looked up, gasped for breath, then tried to crawl away. The sound of her terrified scream echoed through all of Octavia's mind, then with a bone-rattling Ploomph! the railyard fell silent.

A massive grey mammal lay on the concrete, its mountainous belly and back completely eclipsing where the cult leader had been thrown. The droopy face and smooth features made the creature seem docile and cute... until it opened its mouth wide to roar, exposing tusk like teeth as long as the cellist's front legs.

Vinyl slowly sank back down to all four hooves and smirked. "Awww yeah. Can't touch this!" She danced to the side, then spun about and smiled at Octavia. "Wub-a-scrub-dub, Octy. Makin' the world a better place."

The earth pony nodded slowly. "We speak for the lost. Those who can never smile again, we give rest." The grey mare took strength from the words, glad that she could once more remember them clearly. The fog seemed to have lifted from her mind. "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. We find profit in Harmony, and liability in Discord. If the world will be shaped only by strength, it will be shaped with ours."

"Because we are the monster-killin', candy-hawkin', heroes-after-sunset Bon Hadescream Organization." Vinyl Scratch smirked. "I'm glad I let you talk me into this, Octy. It's been fun so far."

Octavia nodded, then sat down and shut her eyes. "Thank you, Vinyl. And now... I must return to my mission." She waited a moment for some... some ethereal tug that would signal her return to reality, but none came. The earth pony swallowed, then tried to will the illusion away. Scoffing Song was gone, the grey mare was once more in command of her own thoughts... right? She opened her eyes, and found the DJ sitting a half-meter away with a goofy grin on her muzzle and her front hooves over her face.

"V... Vinyl?" Octavia asked uncertainly. "What are you doing?"

"I dunno. Your eyes were shut. Aren't we playing peekaboo?"

Author's Notes:

Wrestling might be fake, but to paraphrase Mister Torgue, it makes for some good TV! I originally toyed with the idea of Vinyl using more sound-based destructive methods on Scoffing Song, then realized that I'd probably never have another chance to have her make a MC Hammer reference while dropping a hippopotamus on an enemy. The sheer mind-breaking insanity of that seemed right up her alley, so it won out in the editing process.

This chapter really caps off what I wanted to accomplish with Aquarium: giving Octavia an opportunity to affirm what and who she is. This entire experience has been hard on her, but she copes by reasserting her calm center and confirming that she is serving a just cause. Rather than destroying her, Scoffing Song has only made her stronger. Next will be a brief look at what Octavia needs to "tidy up" before leaving her own mind...

Also, a nod to the fans who requested "orbital fire-support" I don't think y'all ever expected hippo-based bombardment, eh?