"Very good," Octavia glanced about. "Which way leads out?"

Vinyl shrugged. "I dunno. I've never tried to leave, m'self." She yawned. "I usually just play video games or nap. Hey, there's an idea!" The vampire held out her front legs. "Come and play with me, Octy!" Her grin widened beyond what would be possible for a pony of flesh and blood. "Forever, and ever, and ever!"

"Ugh." The grey mare pressed a hoof against her face.

"Yeah, but seriously, I need to know how to beat that one level. Or just have you beat it for me. Or I could loot your brain for a Sybex strategy guide. There's gotta be one around here somewhere." The vampire glanced about. "And as for your question, the only time I'm anywhere close to getting out of here is when the real me is feeding on you. I need something to sort of tug me out." She flopped onto her back and looked up. "I suppose, since you are you, and you being you means that you're in charge of this place in an ultimate sense of it all, you should be able to figure some way out. But it'd probably still be easier if you had someone to tug you."

Octavia tried not to panic. "You mean... this will not simply fade away on its own?" Time was precious, all the more so because she had spent so long searching for knowledge. "All-right... where should I begin searching?"

Something echoed through the library, an electronic crackle that seemed to hold a word. Octavia perked up her ears, but could not quite catch the sound.

The pale mare shrugged. "I dunno. We can try going back to where you came in, see if that helps." She rolled to her hooves and began plodding along. "While we're walking, how'd you make that shot? You know which one I'm talking about, right?"

"I... think so." The grey mare sighed. That memory was vivid to her now, whether she wanted it to be or not. She wondered if the clarity was Vinyl's doing. "You have to ricochet the bullet off the backstop. It was-"

"Don't say luck. That's my gimmick. You're too good for luck."

Octavia sighed. "I... did expect the ricochet to hit the second target, but I was also prepared to hit him on the run if needed. Marksmareship is an art, Vinyl, but you should never trust environmental factors to tilt in your favor. Always build up your own strengths, then rely on them."

The pale mare pulled down her shades. "That's deep, Octy." She plodded down the library aisles where she had first sought Octavia. "You did a pretty good job of dodging me in here."

"I... I thought you were Scoffing Song."

"Well, I'm often imitated, never duplicated." Vinyl scratched her mane. "Uh... I mean, technically I'm a duplicate of the original Vinyl Scratch, just in your head. But at the same time... urgh. I knew I should have paid more attention to theoretical quantum entanglements."

Octavia laughed in spite of herself and the situation, then lept up into the ruins of her father's den. This was where the nightmare had started. It seemed long ago now, but the room was still cold and drained of color. Her father still sat in the chair, and the fire was frozen mid-burn. Everything was just as they had left it.

"You have a ton of training and discipline, Octy." Vinyl looked around the room. "I'm glad you finally found a good use for it."

That electric echo came again, whispering like a voice in the night.

"As am I, Vinyl." The gray mare gathered her courage and looked into her father's eyes once more. She felt an odd mixture of revulsion and love well up in her heart. "I... I still do not think I deserve the life I now live, but... but I will do my best to be worthy of it."

The vampire yawned. "Well, I suppose that's one option. I went with rampant hedonism and abusing my powers for my own gain, but y'know. I'm not as noble as you." She glared at the color-drained stallion sitting in the chair. He was responsible for messing up Octy, but he was also responsible for making her awesome. No. Octy was responsible for making Octy awesome. She'd have turned out fine with different parents, parents who respected her talent for music. But... she also wouldn't know how to kill two bad guys with one bullet.

Octavia walked up to the fire, then turned to look at her father in his chair. Is that what is holding me here? Do I... do I have to let go? She bit her lip. I do not think I can. I cannot forgive him, not for what he did to me... but I am grateful for some of his teaching. Her father had tried to "do the best he could with what he had to work with". He was wrong on a philosophical level, but very right about the value of the skills he had taught her. I need to go. I need to leave. I have a mission. Why can I not go and complete it? She shut her eyes. "A-am I really this useless? I cannot escape my own mind?"

"You're not useless, Octy. You're just trained." The pale mare patted her friend's head. "You're used to waiting on orders, following a prewritten sheet of music. You can improvise, but you need a push." She casually poked Octavia in the side. "Push. Push. Push."

"I do not think it is working, Vinyl..."

"Yeah. I mean, the walls are probably thicker than usual because of that hag wanting to keep you trapped, but there's still gotta be a way out." She sat back on her haunches and fiddled with her red hat. "Y'see, brain-worlds aren't like the real world. They're squishy and impulse-driven. Maybe that's why you're stuck in the mud."

Octavia leaned her head to the side. "What do you mean?"

"You were ordered to stop Scoffing Song, right? Well, you did. In here, at least."

"No, Vinyl. You did." Octavia smiled. "And thank you."

"Mmh. I was bored. It seemed fun." She grinned. "You know I'm always here for you. And don't distract me, you know I'm not good at this logical train-of-thought stuff." The vampire pulled her hat low over her eyes and made a choo-choo noise. "You used me to stop Scoffing Song. So, technically, you completed your mission."

"But she is still out there, in the real world."

"Ah," Vinyl held up a front hoof. "But your brain doesn't realize that, just like it took you a few beats to remember me. Your brain's all squishy, and it thinks you've accomplished your mission. And what do you do after you accomplish your mission?"

"Escape, evade, return to safehouse, and await... further... orders?" Octavia's eyes widened.

"Yup, that's you. Now, see, I prefer to hit up a club, beat up whoever they have crankin' tunes, and put on an impromptu show. Then I'll syphon a lil' off of the hunkiest looking stallions and be out the back door before the cops arrive." She shrugged innocently. "But that's how I roll. Your brain's spinning, but there's no needle on the record. You're stuck in neutral right now." The vampire leaned her head back and stared at the ceiling. "So, if your body's in control instead of your spirit, and you're running on automatic, what happens? Full stop. You've been pushing yourself too hard these past few weeks. You're gonna black out until your body's had a chance to recover a bit."

The grey mare shook her head violently. "No, no, no! I cannot, I have to find and eliminate the target!" She whirled about, searching for some way of escape. "Lives depend on me. I cannot fail again. Vinyl, please, help me!"

"Would if I could, Octy." The pale unicorn shrugged, then flicked her tail and turned to look at her friend. "Hmm... okay, let's try this... Octavia," she waved a pale hoof dramatically, "search and destroy!"

"Ah..." the earth pony looked back at her friend. "Vinyl... I do not feel..." The grey mare glanced around the room. She certainly wanted to leave and find the enemy, but she did not know how. "I do not know if that helped..."

"Yeah, you're used to resisting my influence. Plus, I'm not the real me. Well, I am, but I'm not." The DJ tapped her chin thoughtfully. "Hmm... maybe you just need to mellow out, y'know?" She rummaged inside her red trenchcoat. "Ugh, I think I left all my brownies back with the videogames..."

"Vinyl, I do not have time to mellow out. Operatives' lives are in my hooves, and I cannot let them down again!"

"Nah, I get it, but all that noise is clogging your brain, Octy. You have to calm down, open your mind a bit. That'll soften up these walls. I hope." She stopped rummaging in her trenchcoat and hauled herself onto all four hooves. "All that worry makes it hard to hear stuff that's happening outside."

The crackling electric echo pinged through her mind again.

"Wait... hear stuff from outside..." the grey mare looked up, searching for that elusive noise. "Do you mean..."

"Hearing's the last thing to go when you're passed out, Octy. So, even if your body's powered down, you might just be able to hear something that'll wake you up."

Yes, Octavia said to herself. It's time to wake up. Time to wake up... time to wake...

"Str... Strings. Come in." The crackle came and went, but this time she had caught its meaning. The grey mare looked at her friend, hoping this was not a trick of her mind.

"There's something." Vinyl smiled. "It's thin, but it's there. Here, I'll let you borrow my ears." She lifted the monogrammed headphones from around her neck with a glow of her horn, then placed them on Octavia's head. The grey mare found them lighter than she had expected. "Now, listen for something that'll anchor you out of here."

She heard words, songs, the sounds of machines grinding and lasguns firing, pegasi strafing and AFVs exploding, but none of them were current. The electric crackle came again, carrying this time the voice of the Lady Bon Hadescream, but that too was an echo. Octavia clung to each sound, wanting just to get out of here and continue her mission, but each echo seemed to crumble whenever she focused on it. The walls that Scoffing Song had put around her mind were thick.

"You are a continual disappointment to me." She heard the words of her father again, and bit her lip. "Not simply because of your body, but because of your heart. There is something in you I have not been able to crush, some... illness of the mind that holds you back from your potential. And I wonder as I sit here what the cause of that might be."

What was holding her back? What illness? Her generosity, her desire to help those in need rather than crush them? She shook her head a little. No... that is not an illness. Father was wrong... I... I think. Her generosity was not an illness. It was a talent. A gift that made the world better for everypony. She stiffened her back and held the headphones closer, listening intently for that electronic echo.

"You were born to bring death and sorrow, not joy. Do you understand?" Her father's words crackled like logs in a fireplace, turning to ash and blowing away once heard. "If... if there had been another way, I would have taken it. Any other way, but... I must pass on my mantle, and you are my daughter."

No choice. My father had no choice. But I do. I have the opportunity to give to the world rather than taking. "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." She breathed in slowly, and felt Vinyl's hoof on one of her shoulders.

"Listen, Octy. The walls are shakin'."

She listened, and she heard the clear crackle of the comm-bead that still rested in the ear of her real body. Words came with it, orders, inquiries, and pleas. Then, all faded into a roaring storm. Though her eyes were shut, she felt the walls shatter and heard the floor give way. Once more she was falling, once more she was floating in an abyss, but this time she felt Vinyl's front legs wrapped around her. She opened her eyes.

Vinyl cracked a grin as wind whipped past, bellowing out her trenchcoat and playing with Octavia's mane. "That's you. Break a leg, babe."

Author's Notes:

Ahh, good old Sybex guides! Just the thing if one was stuck in a videogame and needed a hand. "Remember, friends, circle-strafe!"

With this chapter, we're finally getting out of Octavia's head. Aquarium is the longest movement of The Carnival of the Animals, but now we're pushing on to the finale! Also, I didn't plan it, but there's a "blood moon" (better known as a total lunar eclipse) scheduled tonight. Some folks think it's a harbinger of bad times. Other folks note that it's happened many times before without the world ending. One thing's for sure, Octavia has a hard struggle ahead of her, but I think she'll come out on top!

Of course, I am the author of the story... I can mostly do whatever I want... Hey, here's an idea...

---

"Fly Princess Octavia! Fly!" cackled the vampire. "Fly me higher so I can rain my wubs of destruction down upon them from the sky!"

"Ungh," groaned the newly-ascended alicorn. She had awoken from a frightful dream to discover that she had somehow unlocked her hidden potential and transcended mortality to become an alicorn. "Vinyl, did you really have to make the bass cannon such a heavy thing?"

"Of course!" replied the vampire. "You need heavy-duty speakers to drop building-flattening beats!"

What's more, Rollins had swallowed his pride, put on his thinking cap, and heroically sacrificed his own life along with the lives of the wounded Operatives waiting in the AFV to resurrect the pale mare and prevent the city's annihilation. He had rightly decided that they were nothing more than expendable mortal pawns of their rightful immortal rulers, and because of his wise decision the amped-up vampire had slaughtered her way through the cultists. Scoffing Song had run screaming from the smoking ruins of her former fortress, but Vinyl wasn't about to let her get away! With a bit of ingenuity, she had constructed a mighty sonic cannon from spare parts and a chewing-gum wrapper she had found in one of Rollins' pockets after draining him of his soul. As she and her faithful companion Octavia soared after the fleeing cult leader, Vinyl knew he had made the right choice. They could always get another grumpy gryphon to shuffle paperwork, but honest excuses to pulverise entire city blocks with waves of pure sound while chasing down an escaping cult leader were few and far between.

"Hey, Octy, can you do that teleporting thing too?" yelled the pale mare as her prey's vehicle swerved into a tunnel.

"Vinyl, I've never used magic in my life before I woke up, and I still don't have the foggiest idea how to manipulate-"

"Slag that noise! Warp us down there, Scotty!"

Octavia shut her eyes, forced a charge through her horn, felt a ripple of magic course over her body, and smelled ozone. To her surprise, when she opened her eyes, she was sitting in the back seat of the van Scoffing Song was driving. Vinyl reached forward and tapped the cult leader on the shoulder. While the wicked witch screamed, the vampire tackled her out of her seat and began messily devouring both her body and soul. Octavia squirmed into the front and grabbed the controls, narrowly averting what would have been a very painful crash through a concrete divider. She flexed her new wings, looked up at the setting sun, and began to cry. All this time, she had her true potential locked away, but she had never been able to embrace it until she defeated the monsters within her own mind and learned valuable lessons about generosity. Her father would be so very proud of her now, but she no longer could care what he thought. That was one of the burdens she had put aside to free her spirit for ascension. Tears trickled down her face. She had been pushed to the edge, she had been tested, and she had succeeded. A smattering of blood splashed onto her, breaking her out of her reverie.

"Oop, sorry. This one's pretty juicy!" apologized the vampire. "Now, keep squirming, you! I'm nowhere near done yet! Om-nom-nom-nom!"

"Vinyl, must you really be so cruel?"

The pale mare looked up and tilted down her purple shades. "Uh... yes."

Octavia sighed, and looked out the window again. "Oh. Uh-oh." Armored trucks were surrounding their stopped vehicle, and she recognized the ranks of grim-faced warriors that were spilling out of them. "Vinyl, we need to leave. ARGUS is here."

"Oh good," yelled the monster over the screams of her victim. "I need to hang a beatin' on them too."

"Vinyl, we need to-" A sudden clap of thunder from the clear sky cut her off. Everypony looked up. Octavia leaned to see what was happening in the sky.

A pony with fur of the purest white floated down, her wings majestically spread. Her tail and mane were rainbows of living color, while her eyes were as a flaming fire. Upon her head was her crown, and around her neck a golden gorget inset with a single priceless purple diamond. Without a second's thought, Octavia tumbled out of the vehicle and fell to her knees. She clamped her new wings against her body and wished dearly to hide her horn, for she was so very full of sin and unworthy even to be seen by the sole ruler of Equestria, let alone noticed. Even the ARGUS soldiers and officers bowed. There could be no doubt, this truly was Her Grand Royal Highness. Somepony was about to be royally bucked.

"My little ponies," she spoke softly, but her voice seemed to penetrate the soul of everypony listening. Then her tone changed, and it seemed as though the city itself shook when she said, "we are not amused."

Octavia wished to become one with the pavement, to melt away and sink down a storm drain into the sewers where she belonged. She was an abomination, an accident, and now Celestia was marching toward her with slow, purposeful strides.

"Have we not commanded you to protect our nation from otherworldly threats? And yet here you are, running amok through our streets, murdering our citizens without cause, and turning against one another."

Several of the ARGUS officers exchanged worried glances.

"And upon our arrival, instead of investigating a troubling report about the potential summoning of an ancient and greedy creature," she held up a hoof and pointed to the gray mare. "We find a firing squad has been assembled for an alicorn."

A burp came from inside the vehicle, and then the vampire leaned out the window above her gray friend. "Actually, Your Highness," she pulled her hat down over her eyes and huddled deeper into her trenchcoat. "Frack, you're all bright and stuff! It hurts! I mean, really hurts, worse than the sunlight usually does!"

"Quite," replied Princess Celestia with a glare.

"Frack, hot, ouch, urgh... anyway, yeah, the ARGUS meatheads are probably here for me. I mean, they blew up a safehouse with a spider bomb to get me, and when that didn't work they tried to kill all my minions but of course Octy here was too clever for that to work." She burped again. "And then my minions mucked around a bit before reviving me, so when I came back I needed to clobber a cult leader. ARGUS probably thinks I'm weak right now."

"No," Octavia whispered to her domitor, "they think you were blowing up the city!"

"Hey, desperate times call for deep bass drops, am I right?" The vampire grinned. "Anyway, Your Majesty," she bowed and almost fell out of the car. "Vinyl Scratch, unsung protector of Equestria, at'cha service."

"We know who you are, vampire," thundered the Princess. "Your mother has told us all about you."

"Heh... heh-heh..." Vinyl reached up and mopped her brow with her sleeve. "Heh... uh... Mom ain't here, is she? I mean... uh... she don't need to find out about all this, right?" The vampire rummaged inside her trenchcoat. "How'd you like a VIP pass to my next concert?"

"No, your mother does not know what has transpired here. But she will if the two of you do not come with us right away." By now, the Princess had reached Octavia. She reached down and gently patted the gray mare on the head. "And as for you," her voice lost its commanding tone, and became as gentle as water trickling over stones. "What is your name, my little pony?"

"O-Octavia, Your Highness," the gray mare said softly. "I am sorry, I did not mean to-"

"Suush, suush," cooed Celestia. "We have many things to discuss, I am sure. But for now, I need you to carry your friend and fly with me back to Canterlot. A great evil looms, prepared to devour our nation, and I believe the two of you are the only ones who can stop it."

"R-really?" asked the gray mare.

"Yes. Only the power of your music united with other great musicians' will be strong enough to defeat the mighty bard-army of gryphon emperor Gruff McBanjo-Bagpipe."

Vinyl's jaw dropped. "That fiend! I heard he tried to capture the members of Iron Mareden while they were on tour in the gryphon lands!"

Celestia nodded solemnly. "Yes. That is why Iron Mareden, along with the Royal Canterlot Symphony, now leads this great united force."

"Wait, wait, wait, we'll get to meet Iron Mareden?" The vampire gasped, then squealed. "Octy! C'mon, get up, get up, get up!" She lept out of the vehicle and tugged her friend upright. "Let's go, let's go, let's go! I just ate Rollins' soul, I am totally ready to stomp some gryphons, and we get to meet Iron Mareden."

Octavia glanced nervously up at Princess Celestia. "A-are you sure we are the ones you want, Your Majesty?" She swallowed hard. "I... we are not without great flaws and sins."

"It is because of those imperfections that I believe the two of you are just the saviors Equestria needs," the rightful ruler of Equestria said softly. "If you are willing."

Octavia bit her lip. "Yes, Your Majesty. We who have won life's lottery will answer, not in guilt but acceptance of our duty, for those too weak to cry out."

"Awwyeah, you know that's right," affirmed Vinyl. "So who else is gonna be at this battle of the bands?"

Celestia spread her wings. "Your destiny."And with that cryptic quip, she lept into the air. Octavia carried her pale friend, questions running through her mind. Why was she special enough to unlock the powers of alicornhood? Was this victory worth the price that had been paid? And most importantly, what would she say when she met the other members of the Royal Canterlot Symphony?

---

Call that a "deleted scene". I wrote it up on a whim, and I hope you readers get a laugh out of it too!

Let me know what you thought of this chapter in the comments below. The next chapter will be up next week!