The Everfree Forest.

Dark, dangerous, deadly. Forbidden territory for ponies, if you couldn't tell by the horrific howling of the wildlife creatures that screamed "evil". Crickets chirped, frogs croaked, owls hooted, birds cawed, wolves howled, and bats...made whatever sound they made. The only problem was that I couldn't tell what animal it was. They all screamed at me at the same time, the sound slowly building into a hideous cacophony as my heart raced faster and faster. I kept looking around, my head spinning like a record on a set as I tried to figure out where that vicious manticore was so that I didn't get mauled.

I shook my head, growling. I was just psyching myself out.

Each step on the dirt path took me deeper and deeper into the forest, thick underbrush snaking around my legs. I shook them off nervously. Somewhere along the path that I'd been walking on turned into something else. My hooves fell into something wet and slimy, and I didn't want to think, to know what I was trotting in.

Pretend it's ice cream. Chocolate ice cream that...moves?

I ran faster and faster, engulfing myself in the darkness. At least here, I could pretend that if I remained motionless, I would be invisible.

"If I can't see them they can't see me." I shivered, repeating the words like a mantra. "If I can't see them they can't see me."

Octavia must have been suicidal. She just walked in, for Luna's sake! Like she was taking a stroll, or something.

Whose great idea was this? Oh, right, mine.

I lit my horn.

Six months since we've moved in together, and she was still keeping secrets from me. Octavia was always taking these sporadic, one-day vacations at a random time every month. It was never the same day either! Who does that? Taking a one-day vacation is like cranking the bass up to ten and stopping just before eleven. It was like having a sandwich and eating the bread. It was like dumping somepony after first base after you figured out they were a bad kisser. Nopony does that.

At least, nopony like Octavia does.

I thought back to when we first met. To when I first harbored a crush for her. Something about music, something with lots of cider, something about moving in together because we were both poor mares living in Canterlot.

In the back of mind I considered that there had been a reasonable explanation for all this as I caught the midnight train to Ponyville. That Octavia was the kind of mare who took her vacation one day at a time. Maybe she was sneaking off to see a mysterious lover that I'd promptly beat the living snot out of because I had dibs on her first. All of that jumped out of a window once we headed into the Everfree.

My heart fluttered slightly as I thought of her, or maybe because I saw something shifting in the bushes. I don't know what made me so crazy about her; then I realized everything about her made me crazy. The way she bit her lip when she got all huffy, that superior smirk with her half-lidded mulberry eyes, her thick black silky hair that smelled like lavender (I don't smell her hair, you creeps. I snuck into her bathroom and stole her shampoo). Or maybe it was the accent. Her sexy, posh accent that made even my name sound sexy to my ears.

Definitely.

Or maybe it was the sheer confidence that radiated from her, in contrast to how...shy I was. DJ-Pon3 was just an act, the overinflated ego, I mean. It's all in good fun, but I'd like to think I'm a little more down-to-earth than that. I'd imagine that rowdy disc jockey act would get old after a while.

"O-Octy?"

I figured that if I called her using her nickname that she despised but secretly thought was endearing, she'd say something back.

"'Tavi?"

That was her second nickname, which she also hated but secretly liked.

I spotted a faint glow in the tunnel of darkness I'd been venturing through and ran forward, stumbling into a small clearing, the full moon in view and a particularly eerie statue of Nightmare Moon, of all things in the center of it, with Octavia beneath it.

I heard a howl. I scrambled away from the bushes I'd been hiding in, my heart skipping a beat. Where had that howl come from? I sidled up behind the statue, poking my head out from around the corner and watching Octavia from up close.

Suddenly, as if on cue as the fog and mist began to part in the sky, revealing Luna's full moon high in the sky. Octavia snorted, dipping her head low, as if she was basking in the moonlight.

What happened next, I'll never forget.

I saw Octavia's form...twist, the shadows almost swarming her body. Her hooves dug into the ground as her legs went stiff, quivering and shaking as she arched her body, growling, hissing, spitting, her voice growing more and more deep. She let loose another hair-raising howl as her coat grew longer and thicker, darkening until her soft gray coat had turned nearly black. She whipped her frazzled mane around, and my breath hitched. A set of vicious, long canines hung from her mouth, her eyes no longer a soft purple but now bloodshot, yellow, and feral. My blood chilled. I sweat bullets, trying to make myself as scarce as possible as I thought she'd seen me. Her transformation continued. Her snout grew more canine, narrower, and claws pricked at her hooves. Octavia—no, not Octavia—it let out a final roar, throwing its head back, its transformation complete.

No...No! That's not possible!

Part of me wanted to think that this was some elaborate Nightmare Night prank. But then I remembered that Nightmare Night was nearly six months ago, when we'd moved in together. Decorations were serious business. She'd put up decorations on the first and taken them off at the end of the month at exactly 12 o' clock midnight because she was so OCD.

Another part of me thought that I must have taken something at the nightclub, maybe something I shouldn't have that was making me hallucinate. Yeah, that makes sense. All of this was a hallucination!

If only things were that simple.

I panicked. I didn't know what to do. What the hay are you supposed to do? I began slowly backing away, until one of my hooves trampled upon a stick, snapping it. In that moment my heart stopped. A growl. Then I ran. I bolted. I made like a tree, and ran for so long, my terror blocking out of the sound of it yawning at my hooves, ready to rip me to pieces with its claws. Tears streamed from my eyes (because of the wind in my face). Not that I was crying, or anything. I was too tough to cry.

I was crying.

Because my roommate was a monster.

I wasn't stupid. I wasn't going to be the plucky heroine of some bad fanfiction holding the idiot ball, oh no. Not me. I knew better than to stay there at the apartment, because there's just something wrong about having a bloodthirsty supernatural creature as your roommate, don't you think? And I certainly wasn't having any ideas about saving the world from the forces of darkness or something stupid like that.

I'd practically begged Lyra to let me stay at her house until the morning, not particularly in the mood to answer the barrage of questions she had thrown at me, some of which included, "What are you even doing in Ponyville at this hour?"

Bless her minty soul.

I didn't sleep well for those seven brief hours. Every time I closed my eyes, I felt those warm blankets begin to tighten around me. I saw Octavia transforming, lunging at me with wild eyes, ready to tear into me. I wanted to scream. I wanted to tell somebody, anybody. Maybe that Twilight Sparkle, the Royal Guard, Equestria Daily, somepony who would listen. But no pony would believe me. Of that, I was sure of. What proof did I have?

The train hadn't even reached the station and I was already jumping off, practically teleporting myself back into our cozy studio apartment.

I bucked open the door and slammed it shut, locking it twice with a pant.

Cramped, smelly, cozy. Straight ahead was the balcony, where Octavia would spent her mornings outside practicing her cello. To the left was where Octavia made dinner and where I'd burn things and set stuff on fire. To the right was Octavia's room and my room, where sometimes at night I'd press my ear up against the wall and hear her snoring softly too.

I shook my head. No time to get all sentimental.

"Remember, Vinyl. Only the essentials," I said aloud, as if saying it would change the fact that I had the attention span of a goldfish. "I'll take that, and that, and that..."

By the time I'd packed everything I'd owned, I was ready to hit the streets. My duffel bag, my suitcase, everything. I hefted all three with my magic, a blue magical glow wrapping around it.

Just as I took that first step to salvation, the door opened and slammed into my muzzle. I fell back with a cry, my magic disrupted and dropping all of my bags. With dizzy eyes I looked up from my prone position, blowing my blue bangs from my face. I saw her, looking down at me, a scarf thrown around her neck and that smirk on her face.

"Hello, Vinyl." Next Chapter: The Part Where She Cries Estimated time remaining: 30 Minutes