Vinyl's tour had gotten off to a fantastic start. After being picked up by a label a few years ago, she was producing under the name of DJ PON-3, and had begun to make a name for herself. Her unique style of music, and her even more unique look and performances made her an instant hit. Now, she was on her first Equestrian tour, getting near the final performances, and she couldn't be more excited, not to mention nervous, about her next show. Admittedly, she was becoming tired from all of this, but her fans had been expecting this show to be a big one, and she was not in any sort of mood to disappoint them.
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The 9:00 sky was filled with the usual assortment of beautiful stars and planets, and Luna seemed to have user plenty of extra care when raising the full moon that night. However, nopony really was paying attention to it in Ponyville Square, which was packed for a huge party. The roar of the crowd was already deafening, and Vinyl hadn't even stepped onto the stage. Her announcer was doing an excellent job of getting everypony ramped up about the performance though. Vinyl was nervous, having only played in Ponyville once before, not to mention tired from this first tour.
'Chill out, Vinyl. You got this.' the unicorn thought to herself. She focused on the world around her again, just in time to hear the announcer's shouts,
"Fillies and Gentlecolts, I give you...DJ PON-3!" The lights throughout the building dimmed, and Vinyl made her way onto the stage in the darkness. Acting quickly, she fired up her first track and the crowd went silent. The song built up slowly, but after a short while grew rapidly in intensity as the digital equalizer panel on the front of her stand lit up in response. The crowd was stomping their hooves to the beats of the track, while Vinyl remained hidden in the dark. Finally, the big moment came as the bass dropped. Lights flared up throughout the building, illuminating everything around the stage, not to mention the multicolored array of flashing lights which spread across the crowd. It was easily enough to induce seizures.
Vinyl was already waving her hoof in synchronization with each beat, and much of the crowd had started to do the same. A beach ball shot out of the crowd, flying high into the air; it was tossed around as the party raged on below. Vinyl Scratch made an effort to live up to her name, offering up some scratches on the second deck, and modifying the beats of her track. Her nervousness had left her by this stage, as she readied her second track of the night. The crowd was already going wild, and they showed no signs of slowing down. As the first track wound down, Scratch switched over to the next one, featuring a heavier drop, which she could use as an excuse for even more lights. The fog machines off to the side began to warm up for the next song. DJ PON-3 settled down from pumping up the crowd as the next track spun into existence, whilst the other faded out.
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Halfway through Vinyl's hour long performance, the crowd still had just as much enthusiasm and energy as they had at the start. Her current hit, "Spin that Record" was blasting through the speakers, and lighting was in full swing for the main portion of the song, featuring more strobes than she had used in any other song so far. Vinyl, on the other hand, was starting to wear down. Sweat was pouring from her brow as she continued to perform for everypony, but she was losing energy at an alarming rate.
'Don't give up! You can't disappoint your fans!' she mentally chided herself. But the physical strain was getting to her now. She was trying to stay awake, to finish this performance. She didn’t want to blow it, especially not on tour! She began to blink more heavily, slowly succumbing to the utter exhaustion. She blinked for a final time and blacked out, landing on her turntables. The crowd's attitude quickly shifted from party to shock. They watched in silence as DJ PON-3 slid off of her table and fell out of sight, unconscious. The lights went out on stage, leaving the crowd to bathe in moonlight. After a few seconds, a pony began to push through the crowd, asking that others got out of his way. They obliged and created a clear path for the pony to come through, as Vinyl's stage medics rushed to her aid. Her manager called frantically for the emergency services. The pony from the crowd got up on to the stage, and bent down to look at Vinyl Scratch.
"Exhaustion; possible dehydration." He muttered as the stage medics approached him.
"Excuse me sir," One of them started, "would you mind stepping back? We're professionals; we'll take it from here." The brown pony didn't think for a second before offering his response.
"Same here," he said, briefly flashing his hospital id badge, "and I’ll assist you however I can."
"Alright then. Help us get her off the stage." The second medic came rolling onto the stage with a stretcher, followed closely by the announcer. The stretcher rolled up beside the two ponies, and they prepared to life Vinyl onto it and get her out of there. "On three. Ready?"
"Ready." he replied.
"One. Two. Three." The two ponies gently lifted Vinyl off the ground, placing her onto the stretcher.
"Everypony, please remain calm." The announcer began to say to the still shocked crowd. "Rest assured, DJ PON-3 will be fine, but unfortunately, the rest of the show is cancelled." Confused looks spread across the crowd as Vinyl was pulled off the stage in the stretcher. "Refunds will not be issued for this concert. Thank you very much for coming out tonight..."
Backstage, the brown earth pony who had been assisting was running the show.
"Listen up everypony, I'm going to need some water, and we're going to need to get emergency personnel here on the double. Has anypony already gone for them?"
"Her manager went to get them." One of the roadies replied.
"Good. Now, let's get some water over here!"
"Catch!" A shout came from behind him. He turned around to see a flying water bottle, which he deftly caught.
"Can I get one of the medics to hold her mouth open a little?"
"Right away sir." A medic replied, moving to open Scratch’s mouth a little bit. The earth pony poured a small amount of water into Vinyl's mouth, noting it's dryness. Vinyl's eyes fluttered slightly and opened, observing the brown pony giving her water. She could barely make out the shape of him; everything was too hazy for her to see, let alone understand, anything.
"You’re gonna be all right. Just stay calm, and relax." The pony said before Vinyl fell back into the depths of unconsciousness. "How far away are the emergency ponies from here?"
"I can't see them anywhere!" One of the medics said, looking out the door.
"Alright then, we're taking her to them."
Vinyl opened her eyes again, and unleashed a stream of vomit off to the side of the stretcher, missing the pony who had been helping her by mere inches. "And somepony clean that up." He said, as he moved the stretcher and the pony on it towards the door. After gently lowering the pony to the ground, he and one of Vinyl's travelling medics began to move her off to Ponyville hospital. The medic spoke up as they raced towards the hospital.
"Thank you so much. Can I get your name?""
"At the moment, my name doesn't really matter. I'm a fan of hers, and I'm willing to help. That's all that matters." Vinyl's medic couldn't help but acknowledge this. Looking ahead, she could see Vinyl's manager, Flat Note, racing towards them, medical ponies in tow. "About buckin' time!" The earth pony shouted at him.
"Well, I beg your pardon!" the cream colored unicorn shouted back. "How's she holding up?"
"Severely dehydrated and exhausted, but other than that, not too bad." The two groups caught up with each other, and Flat Note's group took over control of the rolling stretcher.
"Thank you very much, but we'll take it from here." Flat Note said. The brown earth pony began to slow, and eventually stopped. He smiled, knowing he was able to help one of his idols out. He made his way back to see the medic who had also pulled away from the stretcher.
"Thank you for letting me to help." he said.
"You're welcome. Thank you for helping in the first place." she said to him. He nodded, and walked back towards his home on the other side of Ponyville. It was a long walk now, but he would get there soon enough. The medic simply continued onwards to the hospital, determined to help out Vinyl as much as they would let her.
Vinyl woke up the next morning in a hospital bed. The sunlight streaming in from the windows burned her retinas at first, but she slowly managed to adjust to it. The unicorn quietly sat up in her bed, observing her surroundings a little more.
'What the hay happened? Why am I here?' She thought, trying to recollect what had happened to her. She remembered going out on stage, and playing half of one song; everything beyond that was fuzzy. As she continued to think about this, a light blue nurse pony entered the room.
"Good morning Ms. Scratch." She said, formally. "How are you feeling today?"
"Head hurts a little," She replied as she stumbled out of bed, "and I can't remember anything about last night, but good otherwise."
"I wouldn't recommend getting out of bed yet." The nurse said. "I have to bring in the doctor to have a look at you, and we also need to get in contact with your manager." She began walking out of the room, "After all, he'll want to see you."
Vinyl reluctantly went back onto her bed, after being left alone again in the hospital room. As she went to lay back down, she looked at her small side table, and noticed a glass of water there, along with a note. Bringing the small yellow note into her hoof, she began reading aloud.
"Vinyl," The note started, "Last night was an amazing show. That is, until you collapsed on stage..." She read the last few words in shock. 'I collapsed? On stage? Flat Note is not going to be happy.' She brought the note back up to her eyes, continuing to read. "Drink this glass of water, and many more. You need them. Signed, Spark."
The letter confused her. Why should she drink a lot of water? Who was this 'Spark'? Her first question was answered for her as she realized just how dry her throat was. Without thinking twice about it, she grabbed the water, and gulped it down. It relieved her a little bit, and made her feel just a little better. The soreness in her throat returned quickly though. Right as she was about to ask herself why, the nurse from earlier returned, and with her a brown earth pony, who Scratch could only assume was the doctor.
"Ms. Scratch I presume? Nice to finally see you awake. Last night was," he paused, "interesting, to say the least."
"Do I know you from somewhere?"
"Yes, you do. We ran into each other last night, just not as I ever would have guessed." He laughed a little at this, as did Vinyl, letting out some small chuckles.
"Seriously though, you seem sort of familiar. Where do I know ya from?"
"I was at your concert last night, and assisted the stage medics when you collapsed. I thought I was going there to take a break from the hospital work, but apparently not." Scratch became a little depressed at this remark. The doctor was quick to notice this though. "Hey, chin up. You did an awesome job up until that collapse!"
"Heh, thanks. I guess..."
"Now, let's deal with proper introductions. My name is Spark Impulse." He said as he gestured towards Scratch for a hoofshake. The name rung a loud bell in Scratch's head.
"Spark? You're the one who left me that note?"
"Yep, and judging by the empty glass," He observed. Scratch smiled at him sheepishly. "I'd say you found it all right." He now turned towards the nurse who had entered the room with him. "Can you go get a little more water please?"
"Right away!" She replied, grabbing the empty glass before leaving the room. It was time now for Scratch to ask a couple of questions, before Flat Note showed up.
"So, what exactly happened to me?"
"You collapsed on stage. I figured was from exhaustion and dehydration, judging by how dry your mouth was, and how tired you appeared up there."
"How dry my mouth was? What, did ya kiss me or something?" Vinyl accused.
"Of course not! I would never do that!" He responded defensively. "Ponies don't just collapse for no reason, and I've seen a fair share of ponies who collapse because of dehydration. It's one of the easiest things to check for, and one of the most common causes of collapses like yours."
"All right, fine." she replied. Vinyl hated to admit this to herself, but she had been working too hard lately; she had even gone as far as skipping out on sleeping and keeping hydrated in favor of near constant practice. This tour meant a lot to her, and she wanted it to be perfect. As Vinyl was about to ask another question, another voice came into the room.
"Vinyl!" The somewhat deep voice shouted.
"Oh no..." She muttered to herself, as Flat Note rounded the corner and entered the room.
"My goodness! That was quite the event last night, wasn't it?"
"I don't know, was it?"
"What do you mean, 'you don't know'?" The cream colored pony asked.
"I mean what I said, Flat." She paused briefly, turning her head away from him slightly. "I don't remember much of anything about last night. I remember starting the set, and that's about it."
Flat Note stopped talking, look of slight shock on his face. The silence in the room was broken as the nurse who had entered with Spark earlier returned with more water. She quietly placed it back on the side table, and left the room again, leaving the three ponies in silence again.
"You really worked yourself that hard, eh?" Flat said quietly.
"I guess so."
"In other news though," Flat Note started, cheerfully, "you're everywhere! You can't find a paper without you on the front page!"
"Flat. That's because I collapsed. I wouldn't be there if it wasn't for that!"
"Ah, that's where you are wrong! Inside the articles, they are raving about your performance!"
"The only reason they were written is because I collapsed though!" She shouted back at him. "If that hadn't happened, the reviews would be in the entertainment section, like they always are!"
"But they're on the front page! So much publicity!" Vinyl sighed.
"Not good publicity though." She mumbled. She turned away from Flat, and chugged down another glass of water. "Anyway, we should probably get going. We got a show in Canterlot to get to. Lots of setup and stuff."
"I was worried that you would say that." Flat said monotonously. "About your next shows..."
"Oh no. You didn't..."
"Vinyl. I needed t-"
"I sincerely hope you're joking!" Vinyl shouted angrily. "You better not have cancelled the rest of the tour!"
"Vinyl," Spark interjected, "If it's any consolation, I told him to."
"Well, you need to stay out of what I do! For goodness sakes, I have no clue who you are!"
"Can you calm down and think about this rationally for a second?" Spark asked. Vinyl stopped with her rage.
"Alright, fine. What would you like me to think about?"
"Think about what happened last night. You collapsed on stage. At the moment, you are very dehydrated, and exhausted. If you go and do another show, chances are," he paused. "you'll just collapse again, and you may or may not wake up."
That final sentence shook Vinyl. Had she really worked herself that hard? What she had previously thought to be insignificant and unneeded had just been altered into a necessity, and a potentially life-saving move.
"It's for your own good Vinyl." Flat said solemnly. "You're our star right now. We can't just have you fall out of the sky now."
Vinyl knew that as little as she liked to think Flat knew, he was right about this. She couldn't bring herself to another show, and put herself at risk like that. That would be a massive disappointment to her fans, even bigger than this cancellation.
"Fine. We can reschedule the shows though, right?"
"They sold out, so I think we can arrange a rescheduling. And make their current tickets valid for admission."
"Sounds good to me. But, now what? I mean, what am I supposed to do?"
"Nothing. Go home, rest, drink lots of water. And by lots, I mean at least one glass every hour." Spark suggested. "We need to make sure you're in good condition before you leave here though, so you'll need to be here for at least another day so we can keep an eye on you."
"As much as I hate the hospital overall, I'm not left with much choice, am I?" Spark laughed at this remark.
"Not exactly!" More laughter out of him. Vinyl was not amused, but smiled a little. "We'll leave you alone for now. Get some more rest."
"Alright. Thanks Spark, and Flat."
"You're welcome." Spark replied as he left the room, Flat Note following shortly behind him. Vinyl turned around and closed the curtains, stopping the sunlight's flow into her room, darkening it significantly. She placed her head upon the small, slightly uncomfortable hospital pillow, and closed her eyes. Spark was right, she needed to rest, and she was going to do exactly that.
