The Show Begins
Tavi gaped at Vinyl for at least 10 seconds before finally snapping out of her stupor. She rose up, one hand on the neck of her cello, the other holding her bow up to the still strings. Taking a few deep breaths, she began to play, a loud, mournful tune, filled with enough emotion to wake up the crowd a bit from the previous performances. Octavia glanced up at the princesses to see Celestia and Luna smiling, regal as ever; Cadence sitting and listening with her eyes closed, one hoof on her pregnant belly, a smile smile playing on her lips; and Twilight, her hooves propped up on the banister, staring straight at her with wide eyes and a tiny grin that was growing steadily.
Filled with courage, Octavia began to play with renewed vigor, switching perfectly from her slow, sad hymn to a more upbeat, cheerful tune, which got most of the crowd hoof tapping and all of it grinning, glad to see a real performer, not one of the dreary old stallions they had been watching and listening to for the last hour or so.
Tavi was grinning as she played song after song, constantly being called for encore after encore, always looking at the Princesses to see if this was fine. Every time, Celestia would nod her on, a smile bright and clear as day resting on her lips.
But for most of the concert, Tavi had only eyes for Vinyl.
Vinyl was nodding her head sharply, back and forth to the beat of Octavia's music, her back right hoof tapping unconsciously to the rhythm of the music. She grinned up at Tavi as the earth mare played, putting her whole soul into her cello as her songs reverberated across the concert hall. She couldn't help but well up with pride for her friend every time she saw the Princesses sway and nod to the mare's music, Celestia and Luna trying to maintain their regal posture while Twilight simply forgot herself and danced and Cadence joined her, to the best of her ability. Her baby bump's getting pretty big, Vinyl noted absently before turning back to Octavia.
It hit Vinyl that Octavia had stopped playing. Ripples of concerned shout echoed from the crowd, but Tavi was staring, horrified, at the back of the audience, her bow hanging limply at her side, dangling from her hoof, her cello neck gripped tightly.
"What's going on?" Somepony yelled.
"C'mon, don't stop now!" Another hollered.
The audience was soon roaring with confusion, urging Octavia to continue to play, but Vinyl was scared. She'd never seen her friend look so horrified. She saw Tavi's mouth move, only slightly.
"What?" Somepony said, "What's she saying?"
The audience hushed, all eyes on Tavi, and that's when they heard it.
The moans.
Oh god, what was that?
Octavia finally came to her senses, and the first thing she did was scream.
Somepony in the back screamed too, but for a much different reason.
The large mahogany double doors to the concert hall burst open, and shuffling ponies flooded in. But these weren't normal ponies.
Some were missing eyes, ears, limbs, there were pegasi with only one wing and unicorns with broken horns, most had a sickly green tint to their fur that you could only see if you got past the blood caked on their bodies. But the worst part wasn't how they looked, it was what they did when they got in the hall.
The first one was a large stallion, a single piece of hay still dangling from his mouth, one of his ears missing, bitten off, and chunks of flesh torn from his hide. Big Mac reared up and collided his hoof into the nearest pony's skull, a certain Carrot Top, and the mare went down screaming before Big Mac bludgeoned her with his powerful hooves, splattering her blood and leaning his head down to tear pieces of flesh and muscle from the now dead mares neck.
The rest of the audience was suddenly up and screaming, colliding into the cannibalistic ponies and falling at said ponies hooves. The others were galloping through a steadily growing pool of blood, wailing and sobbing, trying to escape.
The Show had begun.