Through the Doorsby StahlChaptersChapter 3: Opening the DoorsChapter 1: Beginning to OpenChapter 2: Peeking Through the CracksChapter 3: Opening the DoorsChapter 3: Opening the Doors Over the week and a half I spent in Ponyville, I made quite a bit of friends. Out of all of them, Pinkie would have to be the best; it’s not just only because she was the only one who knew why I was really in Ponyville either. After I told her and she broke down, we started talking and talking and talking and... well… talking. I don’t even remember getting any sleep that night. She cheered me up in some of the times I felt my worst. Even after that night, her and me would talk quite a bit. I wish I had her here with me now. She’d cheer me up. Heck, I’m pretty sure she’d say something like, “Come on, Vortac! You’ll get through this!” I’m just a mess right now, and what would she do if I… died during this surgery? Especially if she said that before I went in. Maybe it’s best that I’m the only one here in the first place. ><><><><>< “Hey,” a voice said. I felt a hoof on my shoulder that was lightly shaking me. “You need to get off this cloud; we’re having clear skies today, so that means all clouds go.” I opened my eyes and dully stared at the pony in front of me. Her white coat gleamed in the sun, which made my eyes hurt a bit. I closed my eyes and rubbed them with my hooves. “What was that?” “I said that you need to get off the cloud. We need to bust it.” She mumbled something under her breath that I didn’t hear. “Oh, all right.” I guess I had to find another place to nap. I opened my wings and I jumped off the cloud, which caused it to bust. “Sorry about that,” I groggily said. “It’s all right. I’m just glad Cloud Kicker didn’t find you first… there’s no telling what she’d do to a sleeping pony.” Umm… what? “What do you mean‒” A fury of coughs interrupted me. They came as cough after cough, barely letting up and when they did it was only for a few seconds. Eventually, they began to slow down until I stopped for about a minute. My breaths became heavy and strained. “Ar-are you okay?” She held a hoof over her mouth. “Y-yeah… I think… I’ll be fine…” I let out a few more loud coughs. “I’m getting you to a hospital, you need help. Cloud Kicker! Get over here!” “What is it Blossomforth? Found a good place where we can bang?” Blossomforth’s face turned scarlet red. “W-what? No!” Cloud Kicker looked to me and grinned. “Oh, is it gonna be a threesome? ‘Cause that’d be really hot.” Even though I could barely breathe, I felt my face become rather hot. “No, Cloud Kicker! This pony needs help!” “What are you talking about, Blossom? He looks fine to me… really‒” More coughs forced their way out. Causing my wings to lock up, which led to me falling through the air as coughs barged their way out. I soon felt two pairs of hooves grab hold of me. My breathing started to get more ragged. “Come on, Cloud Kicker. We need to get him to a doctor,” Blossomforth said in desperation. Cloud Kicker blinked. “All right, I’ll get him a cloud so we’ll be able to carry him.” She flew off, and soon came back with a cloud. “Come on, get on the cloud,” Blossomforth urged as she pushed me onto it. Cloud Kicker positioned herself behind it with Blossomforth and they put their hooves on it. The cloud soon was flying through the air at a fast pace. It took them about thirty seconds to get me to the hospital. It also took me twenty seconds to have another fit of coughs. They rushed me, and the cloud, through the doors of the hospital and to the front desk. “He needs help!” Blossomforth exclaimed. The mare behind the front desk took one glance at me and let out a small gasp. She proceeded to gallop away, probably in search of a medical pony. My guess was correct since she came back with Nurse Redheart. Upon arriving, Nurse Redheart let out a small gasp as well. “You two!” She pointed a hoof at Cloud Kicker and Blossomforth. “Follow me and bring him with you!” Nurse Redheart galloped toward the back of the hospital. They nodded and followed behind her with me and the cloud. We entered the room that I went into for my first appointment. I felt some hooves lift me up and put me onto a metal table. “You two, please exit the room while I work here.” Cloud Kicker and Blossomforth exited the room, leaving me alone with Nurse Redheart. “Relax and close your eyes.” The table I was on moved and the world got darker. I opened my eyes and was met with a familiar white tube-like structure. I was taking another MRI. ><><><><>< The table moved out from the tube. I let out a few coughs. At that point, I was able to breathe normally, but whenever I coughed or swallowed my saliva I had to catch my breath. Nurse Redheart glanced at me and sighed. “Come over here, Vortac.” I slowly got up from the table and walked over to her. “W-what’s wrong?” “Your vagus nerve‒commonly known as the tenth cranial nerve‒has been crushed.” "What does that mean?" "It means that you will have a loss of function of several organs and some of your skeletal system. You will also not be able to sallow anything without choking." “Wait… are you saying that I’m already… d-dying?” She closed her eyes and looked down at the floor. “Yes. And now, your nerve will be crushed forever. There’s no way to return it to how it used to be.” I opened my mouth to say something, but nothing came out. “We’re going to have to hospitalize you until your surgery; only because we don’t want you to kill yourself by accident.” “No,” I stated. “You can’t hospitalize me… I-I still can do so much. A-and now you’re saying that I’m dying. There’s nothing… nothing that I can do to change this! What’s the point? I only have a few days to live anyway! It’s a ten percent chance! That’s hardly anything!” She sighed. “Listen, the fact that there is a chance means that there’s a possibility that you won’t‒” “A very slim possibility! And it’s one that’s basically saying that I have no chance of making it through! You think that you can tell me that I can make it through and make me believe you like that? You have to stand up and face reality! There’s basically no chance that I’ll make it through! None what-so-feathering-ever!” “Now, Vortac, without the surgery you’ll have no chance to live.” “So! I basically have no chance to live otherwise either! So what’s the bucking point‒?” “Listen Vortac!” I paused. “If you don’t take the surgery, you won’t have a chance in the first place. The surgery will give you a chance. With it you can have a normal lifespan. You don’t have to die!” “But there’s a good chance that I will die! There’s no changing that fact! What’s the point? Just for a chance, which happens to be so small that it’s barely there?” “Vortac, what would your friends say if they found out you don’t even want to try to live? What would your family say?” I… I had never really thought of that. What effect would I have on my friends and family if I were to simply not try and let death take me easily? If they were to find out that I had a chance to live… would they hate me for not taking it? I said nothing. I just stood there, thinking over what they would do if I didn’t try. With my mouth opening and closing, trying to form words. “They want you to at least to try, Vortac,” she soothed. “They don’t want you to just give up. They want you to push forward and try to conquer this tumor that appeared on your brain, and they believe you can make it through.” She smiled. “I believe you can make it through. “But it’s only a ten percent chance…” “It’s better than a zero percent chance of living.” She moved a hoof around my back to comfort me. “We need you to be strong and get through this. There’s no way you can make it through if you don’t think you can yourself.” If I were to look at the logical side of the things I would see that I probably wouldn’t be able to make it through, but the positive side, on the other hoof, was so tempting to believe. What pony doesn’t want to live? “I can do this. I can make it through.” I smiled. “That’s the way to think!” She gave me a small nuzzle. “I know you can make it through. Now, let’s go get your bed and I’ll notify your friends here that they can come see you.” “Th-thanks. For everything.” “It’s what I do.” ><><><><>< “So, uh, are you okay?” asked Cloud Kicker. Nurse Redheart had informed them two as well that I was in the hospital and resting since they basically saved my life and all. “Not really, but I’ll probably live.” It was a lie, but not much of one. “What exactly is wrong with you?” Blossomforth asked. “I have a brain tumor.” Blossomforth let out a small gasp and Cloud Kicker’s eyes widened a bit. “Oh Luna… are you okay?” Blossomforth asked in a concerned tone. “Okay as anypony else with a brain tumor that’s killing them,” I said with a straight face. Blossomforth flinched a little. “Sorry for snapping at you like that. I’ve just been under a lot of stress.” “Oh, it’s‒” A flash of pink filled the doorway and cut off Blossomforth as it pushed past her and Cloud Kicker. “Ohmygosh!” a high-pitched voice shouted. “Are you okay, Vortac? I came as soon as I could!” I looked up at Pinkie and smile. “Yeah, I’m‒” I cough and am forced to catch my breath “‒fine.” “You don’t look it! Or sound it for that matter!” That’s when I noticed how disoriented she looked. Her mane was messier than how it usually was for one thing. She even seemed to be trying to catch her breath from running all the way here. “Pinkie, I’ll be fine. I promise.” “Do you Pinkie Promise?” “Cross my heart, hope to fly. Stick a cupcake in my eye.” She leaned in close and glared at me. “You better not break it… or else,” she whispered. I gulped. “O-okay.” Pinkie can be scary when she needs to be… Chapter 1: Beginning to OpenChapter 1: Beginning to Open Nerves are some of weirdest things inside the bodies of all ponies. If one or two are damaged a pony could either die or become disabled. Nerves are even fragile things in the first place. I’ve only met one pony that has some sort of problem with their nerves in my lifetime, and he could barely walk, much less fly. If only I didn’t have nerve damage too. Then maybe they would’ve never found out about it and I wouldn’t have to see their heart broken when I go through the doors, well, only if I don’t make it out. What am I talking about? I wish this whole situation could have been avoided in the first place. But that’s something I can’t prevent. Nopony can. ><><><><>< A doctor stood in front of me holding a clipboard. His muzzle held a slight frown while he flipped through some papers. Soon, I would know. Soon, I would be given the worst news just about anypony could ask for. “Vortac,” the doctor said, “I’m afraid we have bad news.” “W-what is it?” I stammered. “Your tumor is going through your cranial nerves.” My what? I wondered. The confusion on my face told the doctor that he needed to go into more detail. “The cranial nerves that directly come off the brain and go to places of the body, and is a possibility that your cranial nerves can get crushed by your tumor and that would make this situation much worse than it already is.” “How much worse? Can this situation even get any worse?” “Of course it can. If certain cranial nerves are crushed, it will kill you. Cranial nerves are some of the most important nerves in the body.” “Is there any way to get it out?” I nearly shout. “No, but there is a way we might be able to prolong your lifespan.” “I’ll take it!” “First let me tell you about it,” he growled. “It’s a surgery where we’ll be taking out the part of the tumor that doesn’t have your cranial nerves running through it. If we’re lucky, extremely lucky, it will stop damaging them. Either one of two things will happen in the surgery; one: the tumor will stop damaging your cranial nerves, or two: it will continue to damage them and you will die. But‒” “I’ll take it!” I interrupted again. The doctor glared at me. “Oops, sorry for interrupting you.” “But you will only roughly have a ten percent chance of living through this surgery.” “Only ten…” My mouth opened in shock. I even paused for a second. “The only reason it’s so low is because a surgeon has a possibility to cut one of your cranial nerves and it either killing you or, at the very least, disabling you.” I gulped. It may kill me, but if I live I’ll have a possibility of living a longer life. It’s only a possibility though, but a chance is better than nothing. “I’ll take the surgery.” “I wish you luck, Vortac, but for the surgery, you will have to go down to Ponyville.” “Why Ponyville? Can’t we just do it here in Cloudsdale?” “We could, but I fear the chances might be a bit lower than what it would be there.” “Why?” “Equestria’s top neurologist lives there and Ponyville has amazing medical equipment, believe it or not.” “Why can’t the neurologist just come up here?” “She’s not a pegasus and a cloud-walking spell wouldn’t last long enough for her to be up here for the time it would take to do your surgery.” “Okay. When should I go down to Ponyville?” “Tomorrow would be best.” “T-tomorrow? I’m having it so soon?” I thought that I would have at least had to wait a couple of weeks for the surgery, but the doctor wanted me to go to Ponyville tomorrow. How could somepony have a surgery so soon? Especially one so risky. “No. Your surgery will most likely take place in a few weeks, but I want her to know as soon as possible so she will start planning for the surgery.” The doctor wrote something down on a piece of paper and hoofed it over to me. “Just give her that and she’ll understand why the surgery is so dire.” I took a small glance on the paper and put it in my saddlebag. “Now how would you like to get down to Ponyville? There’s either the hot air balloon or you could just fly down.” “A hot air balloon would be nice,” I mused. “All right, I will charter you one for tomorrow morning.” “You’ll charter me one? I can pay for it myself.” “I figured that, but think of this as a ‘see you later’ gift before you go to Ponyville. For as all I know, I could never see you again. You could choose to stay in Ponyville after your surgery is over.” “Thanks, Doc.” I smiled and shook the doctor’s hoof. “See you later.” “Hopefully, I will see you after your surgery, Vortac.” “Same here.” I exited the room and then proceeded to amble out of the hospital. I flared my white wings, and, with one large flap, I took off into the air. I flew through the air, free of the things beneath me. I always loved flying. It was amazing to fly through the air with no worries, but, this time, I had a worry. ><><><><>< Façades are truly amazing. I believe those are what helped me during the one and a half weeks I spent at Ponyville. Actually, my façade only lasted for one week, but that’s beside the point. I knew that I it would only last for a little while anyway. They had to find out sooner or later, and if they didn’t, they’d either find out after it was all over or when I disappeared for a day or two. It saddens me that if I don’t make it through this I’ll hurt them. And that’s something I don’t want to do. Maybe I should’ve kept my façade. ><><><><>< The hot air balloon hit the soft grass. Ponyville seemed a lot smaller in the air. I used to think that it was some backwater town that just about nopony lived in, but seeing it from the ground for the first time made me change that opinion. Ponyville looked quite large, just not as big as Cloudsdale. I exited the hot air balloon. “Thanks for the ride,” I call back to the mare who operated the balloon. It felt strange to be on the ground. After years of nothing but walking on clouds, the ground gets oddly hard. Even the air here felt more abundant than in the clouds. The strangest thing to me was all the beautiful smells. The aromas that came from the nature made me like the ground a little bit. Maybe this won’t be so bad. A pink mare zipped up to my face. She looked at me in the eye, nodded her head and zoomed off leaving a pink trail of color behind her. Or maybe I spoke too soon. That was quite… odd. Well, I should go find the hospital here. I wandered through Ponyville looking for the hospital, and, after I stopped for directions for at least three times, I found it. I entered the hospital and the lobby was just how I expected it to be. White, white and more white. Typical hospital. The mare at the front desk was the only thing in the lobby that wasn’t white. I approached the mare. “I have a message for somepony here.” “For who?” “Uh, I’m not really sure. It might be in the letter.” I hoofed over the letter to the mare so she could read it. “Okay, I’ll be right back.” The mare walked away from her desk and soon returned with a white earth pony mare. “Hello, Kolton Vortac, I’m Nurse Redheart.” The white mare offered a hoofshake, which I accepted. “Please follow me.” She walked towards an open door near the front desk and I followed her. “I’m guessing we’re here to discuss my surgery.” Nurse Redheart nodded. “How soon will it be?” “We are going to aim for eleven days from today.” “Eleven days?” Again, my mouth hung open at how soon it was. “We need to get this done as soon as possible. Otherwise, your tumor will crush your cranial nerves. It may not crush any for a while, but we want to get this done before it can crush any.” “If one is crushed, can it ever revert back to normal?” “No. If one is crushed, you will never be able to fix it.” With that said, I wanted to get the surgery as soon as possible. “Should I go back to Cloudsdale and come back down here on the day of the surgery?” “No, I would like you to stay down here for the next week and a half; mainly because we need to run a few tests before the surgery. The results Doctor Anatomy sent with you were good, but we need to run the tests down here to see for sure.” “Okay, could you suggest a place I can stay at?” “The Princess’ Blessing is a good hotel to stay at, well, according to my parents it is.” She smiled. “Anyway, I hear there’s going to be a party there tonight.” “For what?” “I’m… not sure. But Pinkie Pie probably has thought up a reason for it by now.” “Pinkie Pie?” I kept getting lost in that conversation. “Just a pony that loves to throw parties here in Ponyville.” “Oh, well, okay. Am I free to go now?” She nodded her head. “Okay, I’ll talk to you… um, when would you like to see me again?” “Oh, come back in two days, that’s when we’ll have the first test set up.” “Okay, see you then.” I walked out the door. Time to find a hotel. ><><><><>< “Your room will be Room 205,” the stallion at the desk said. I took the key in my mouth. “Thank you.” I climbed up the stairs to the second floor and quickly found my room. Unlocking the door and walking inside I find it to be pitch black. After a second of fumbling for a light switch, I find it and flip it on. Suddenly ponies sprung out from everywhere, all shouting, "Surprise!" “Ahh!” I turn around and cantered back down the stairs leaving the door open. I run to the stallion at the front desk. “There are ponies already in my room!” “Oh yes, Pinkie Pie told me to give that room to the next pony that came here. She said it was a surprise for a certain pony.” A pink pony rushed down the stairs and ran up to me. “I’m so so so so sorry for scaring you like that!” she exclaimed in a high-pitched voice. “At least we got the right pony!” “Right pony? I had no idea about any of this. And how did you know I’d be staying here if I am the pony that you wanted to do that for?” “Of course you had no idea, silly. It’s called a surprise party for a reason. And it’s easy to find out where ponies are staying at for a little bit! Now, let’s go and enjoy your party!” She grabbed me and dashed back upstairs with me to my party. Through half of the party she literally dragged me around introducing me to everypony at the party. The other half I was allowed to do just about whatever I wanted. Near the end of the party Pinkie approached me. “What brings you to Ponyville, Vortac?” she asked me. “Oh, um, I’m here to see the sights of Ponyville.” I put on a fake smile. “Oh, like Sugarcube Corner? And Golden Oaks Library?” I nodded my head. “Uh, yeah. Things like that.” She stood there for a moment squinting her eyes. “Hmmm… okay.” She bounced away, but soon stopped. It looked like she then began to talk to herself and soon hit one of hooves in the other one, like she just had an idea or something. “Wonder what’s up with her,” I wondered out loud. Before I could approach her, she bounced off again into the crowd and I lost her. “Eh, it’s probably nothing.” The party ended soon after my conversation with her, and she even cleaned everything up around my room. The rest of the night was quite peaceful. I wonder if the rest of the week is going to be as peaceful as tonight. Probably is. At that moment, I was somewhat right, but also quite wrong. Chapter 2: Peeking Through the CracksChapter 2: Peeking Through the Cracks Pinkie Pie was onto me on day one. She didn’t believe that I was at Ponyville to “see the sights”. I’m pretty sure she was the first pony to see through my façade, especially after the first day Nurse Redheart ran some tests on me. Pinkie was one of the best friends I could’ve asked for. She’s always there to cheer somepony up or make them happy in general. I wish I could return the favor; instead I’ve only made her sadder and sadder. Even though I only knew her for only about eleven days, she’s one of the best friends I could ever ask for. ><><><><>< I squinted at the bush behind me. I sworn I saw something in there or at least something jump into it at last minute. I pondered the idea of going over to the bush and inspecting it for a bit, eventually giving into my curiosity. The bush was strangely empty. I would’ve sworn I seen something jump into it. It must have been nothing. I walked a few hooves away and I heard rustling behind me. What the…? I wandered back to the bust to search it again, but, like before, I found absolutely nothing except what somepony would normally find in a bush. Giving the bush a weary glance back, I continued towards the hospital. I wonder what these tests are going to consist of. Probably just to make sure of where the tumor is and the position of the cranial nerves. I opened the hospital’s doors and approached the front desk. “I’m here for a test of some type.” “Are you the ten o’clock? Uh, are you Mr. Kolton Vortac?” “Yeah, that’s me.” The mare at the desk wrote a few things down on a piece of paper. “Please take a seat in the waiting room and I’ll get Nurse Redheart.” I did as the mare instructed me to do. The waiting room only had one other inside of it. I couldn’t figure out who the other pony exactly was, mainly because of the large, brown trench coat they wore. They also had a hat and some weird glasses on, but I could barely see those since they had an upside down newspaper in front of their face. I approach the strange pony. “Uh, are you‒” “Mr. Kolton Vortac, please come with us,” the voice of the mare who was at the front desk called out. I whipped around and saw her and Nurse Redheart, both had a serious expression. I hurried over to them. “Follow me,” Nurse Redheart told me walking towards the back of the hospital. I, of course, followed her. “What is the test gonna be?” “It’s going to be an MRI.” I slowly blinked. “A what?” “Magnetic resonance imaging,” she clarified. “...What?” Nurse Redheart sighed. “We put you in a tube and x-ray your brain.” “Oh… how is it a test?” “That’s not the test. I’m going to be giving you a vision test, a hearing test and a blood test.” “What’s with all the tests?” “Since your tumor is crushing your cranial nerves, we have to test you to see how much damage they have done.” We continue into a large and, of course, white room. It had various medical equipment inside of it. The one that stood out the most was the large tube that I would be using for the MRI. I also noticed an eye chart on a wall, but, other than that, everything else was a mystery to me. “We’re going to start with the MRI. Please lay on your stomach on that.” Nurse Redheart pointed a hoof at a big, white table-thing that looked like it connected to the tube. “Uh, okay.” I slowly climb onto the white slab and lay on it. I jumped in surprise at how cold the slab was. “Cold!” I nearly shout out. “Yes, it’s going to be cold. You’ll get used to it.” I lay my stomach back down onto it and bear through the cold. “Please tuck your wings in, lay your head down and close your eyes.” I followed her instructions, and the slab began to move into the machine. Things beeped and buzzed around me and above me and I saw flashes of light. Soon, the noise died down and the slab began to slide back out. I opened my eyes and all I could see was white for a few seconds. “Are you okay?” I heard Nurse Redheart ask me. I rapidly blinked. “I think so.” “Okay, onto the hearing test.” Nurse Redheart moved over to a pair of headphones. “Here, put these on.” I fumbled around for a minute, trying to get them over my ears, but, eventually it worked. The headphones let me barely hear anything outside of them. I couldn’t even hear Nurse Redheart the first time she spoke, so I lifted one speaker off of my ear. “Now, I’d like you to clap your hooves whenever you hear a sound play. Got it?” “Yeah.” A long beep played and I clapped my hooves together. The sound kept getting fainter and fainter, soon going to nothing at all. Even though the sound had disappeared, Nurse Redheart kept giving me weird looks. She wrote a few things down and then mouthed something, so I took the headphones off. “Okay, moving onto the vision test. Put one hoof over your left eye and tell me what each row says until you can’t read them anymore.” I nodded my head. With both eyes I could only get down to about the middle row, which was weird. Especially since I used to always get a lot farther than just the middle row. She scribbled something down onto the same piece of paper she wrote on earlier. “Please sit over there and I will commence with the blood test.” I plopped onto the ground and she came over, holding a needle in one hoof and a glove on the other. She began to feel around for a nerve on one of my forelegs and eventually moved onto the other one. After a few seconds of feeling around she found one and started rubbing something on it. The needle inched closer and eventually was stuck into my foreleg. I winced at the pain. It took about thirty seconds to draw all of the blood out that was needed to be taken out. Oddly enough, the needle hurt more going out than going in. “Okay. Please take this to the receptionist and you’ll be free to go.” Nurse Redheart gave me a piece of paper. “All right. When should I come back?” “In about six days. By then we’ll need to make sure of a few things before the surgery.” “All right. See you then.” I turned and dizzily walked away. I would’ve sworn I heard her sigh at something before I left. Did she sigh? It was probably nothing except my imagination playing tricks on me, like it did this morning. “Here you go,” I say to the receptionist, giving her the paper. “Thank you, I hope you have a nice day.” “You too.” I stumbled out of the waiting room and onto the street. I sauntered the rest of the way back to my hotel and crashed on the bed. “Dang, that blood test took a lot out of me…” I closed my eyes and fell into sleep. ><><><><>< A bright light glowed through my eyelids. Slowly, I opened my eyes to a lamp that was above me and directed straight at my face. “Ah, turn off the light,” I said in discomfort. That’s when I realized that I was sitting up in my bed. “What the…?” “I see that you’re awake,” a high pitched voice said seriously. “Uh, what?” That’s when I saw her. It was that mare who threw me a party two nights before and with her was a small lizard with a little hat one that said ‘security’ on it. “P-Pinkie Pie? What are you doing?” She leaned in real close and looked me straight in the eye. “Getting some answers.” "Answers for what?" "You've been hiding something. I know it!" The pink pony leaned in slowly, causing me to shift back until my spine was pressed against the bed frame. Her blue eyes were narrowed with intensity, and snout scrunched up. A serious of rapid, slightly angry breaths bombarded my face. At that point, I wasn't sure if I should have been scared for my life or not. “It says it all over you face.” “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I honestly said. “You came to Ponyville to‒” she made air quotations with her hooves, “‒‘see the sights’? Yeah right.” Oh, she wants to know why I’m here. “I-I’m telling the truth. That’s why I came to Ponyville to... see its sights.” “Then why were you in the hospital for over an hour today?” “Uh, I was visiting a friend.” Please don’t ask more… please don’t ask more. “If you were visiting a friend, then why did you walk out of the hospital all woozy?” Pinkie stumbled around; acting like she was dizzy. “Uh…” My mind was blank. “You don’t have an answer for that one, do you? So what were you really doing there today?” Her face moved closer to mine. I give up. If she’s this persistent to know the truth, I might as well tell her. My head lowered. “I was there for some tests.” Her face backed away from mine and, from seemingly nowhere, she pulled up a bunch of papers. Most of which had big letters in red on them. “Like this kind of test?” “Uh… where did you… never mind. And, no, not that type of test.” “Then what type?” “I was there for tests on my hearing, vision and blood.” “Why’d you have to take all of those?” “I’m going into a surgery next week. It’s a, uh, it’s a big one.” Pinkie paused. “What’s it for?” “Well, I have this tumor on my brain, and‒” I take a deep breath in and exhaled “‒it’s killing me. The surgery is the only chance of survival I have, and it’s a slim one.” I looked back up at Pinkie. She had backed away and her mouth hung wide open. I could see water forming in her eyes. We just sat there in silence, she was taking it all in and I… well, I just observed. A tear trickled down her cheek, which was followed by another and another until she was crying at full force. “There’s no need to cry. You’re not the one going into the surgery and you don’t know me very well.” She sniffed. “Y-yes there is. A new friend of mine is in a bad situation.” Did she just consider me as a friend? “Who is?” “It’s you.” “M-me? But you’ve only just met me.” “You’re a new one, but you’re still my friend.” Never before had I made a friend so quickly. “T-thank you.” She wiped her face of tears, but more came down in their place. “For what?” “For being a friend, even though you know basically nothing about me and for remaining one even though that I’ve lied to you.” She gave me a hug. “It’s no problem. Everypony needs a friend, don’t they?” “Yeah. Yeah they do.” I smiled. Ponyville was turning out for the better. And with Pinkie as a friend, it was becoming better by the second.
Chapter 3: Opening the DoorsChapter 3: Opening the Doors Over the week and a half I spent in Ponyville, I made quite a bit of friends. Out of all of them, Pinkie would have to be the best; it’s not just only because she was the only one who knew why I was really in Ponyville either. After I told her and she broke down, we started talking and talking and talking and... well… talking. I don’t even remember getting any sleep that night. She cheered me up in some of the times I felt my worst. Even after that night, her and me would talk quite a bit. I wish I had her here with me now. She’d cheer me up. Heck, I’m pretty sure she’d say something like, “Come on, Vortac! You’ll get through this!” I’m just a mess right now, and what would she do if I… died during this surgery? Especially if she said that before I went in. Maybe it’s best that I’m the only one here in the first place. ><><><><>< “Hey,” a voice said. I felt a hoof on my shoulder that was lightly shaking me. “You need to get off this cloud; we’re having clear skies today, so that means all clouds go.” I opened my eyes and dully stared at the pony in front of me. Her white coat gleamed in the sun, which made my eyes hurt a bit. I closed my eyes and rubbed them with my hooves. “What was that?” “I said that you need to get off the cloud. We need to bust it.” She mumbled something under her breath that I didn’t hear. “Oh, all right.” I guess I had to find another place to nap. I opened my wings and I jumped off the cloud, which caused it to bust. “Sorry about that,” I groggily said. “It’s all right. I’m just glad Cloud Kicker didn’t find you first… there’s no telling what she’d do to a sleeping pony.” Umm… what? “What do you mean‒” A fury of coughs interrupted me. They came as cough after cough, barely letting up and when they did it was only for a few seconds. Eventually, they began to slow down until I stopped for about a minute. My breaths became heavy and strained. “Ar-are you okay?” She held a hoof over her mouth. “Y-yeah… I think… I’ll be fine…” I let out a few more loud coughs. “I’m getting you to a hospital, you need help. Cloud Kicker! Get over here!” “What is it Blossomforth? Found a good place where we can bang?” Blossomforth’s face turned scarlet red. “W-what? No!” Cloud Kicker looked to me and grinned. “Oh, is it gonna be a threesome? ‘Cause that’d be really hot.” Even though I could barely breathe, I felt my face become rather hot. “No, Cloud Kicker! This pony needs help!” “What are you talking about, Blossom? He looks fine to me… really‒” More coughs forced their way out. Causing my wings to lock up, which led to me falling through the air as coughs barged their way out. I soon felt two pairs of hooves grab hold of me. My breathing started to get more ragged. “Come on, Cloud Kicker. We need to get him to a doctor,” Blossomforth said in desperation. Cloud Kicker blinked. “All right, I’ll get him a cloud so we’ll be able to carry him.” She flew off, and soon came back with a cloud. “Come on, get on the cloud,” Blossomforth urged as she pushed me onto it. Cloud Kicker positioned herself behind it with Blossomforth and they put their hooves on it. The cloud soon was flying through the air at a fast pace. It took them about thirty seconds to get me to the hospital. It also took me twenty seconds to have another fit of coughs. They rushed me, and the cloud, through the doors of the hospital and to the front desk. “He needs help!” Blossomforth exclaimed. The mare behind the front desk took one glance at me and let out a small gasp. She proceeded to gallop away, probably in search of a medical pony. My guess was correct since she came back with Nurse Redheart. Upon arriving, Nurse Redheart let out a small gasp as well. “You two!” She pointed a hoof at Cloud Kicker and Blossomforth. “Follow me and bring him with you!” Nurse Redheart galloped toward the back of the hospital. They nodded and followed behind her with me and the cloud. We entered the room that I went into for my first appointment. I felt some hooves lift me up and put me onto a metal table. “You two, please exit the room while I work here.” Cloud Kicker and Blossomforth exited the room, leaving me alone with Nurse Redheart. “Relax and close your eyes.” The table I was on moved and the world got darker. I opened my eyes and was met with a familiar white tube-like structure. I was taking another MRI. ><><><><>< The table moved out from the tube. I let out a few coughs. At that point, I was able to breathe normally, but whenever I coughed or swallowed my saliva I had to catch my breath. Nurse Redheart glanced at me and sighed. “Come over here, Vortac.” I slowly got up from the table and walked over to her. “W-what’s wrong?” “Your vagus nerve‒commonly known as the tenth cranial nerve‒has been crushed.” "What does that mean?" "It means that you will have a loss of function of several organs and some of your skeletal system. You will also not be able to sallow anything without choking." “Wait… are you saying that I’m already… d-dying?” She closed her eyes and looked down at the floor. “Yes. And now, your nerve will be crushed forever. There’s no way to return it to how it used to be.” I opened my mouth to say something, but nothing came out. “We’re going to have to hospitalize you until your surgery; only because we don’t want you to kill yourself by accident.” “No,” I stated. “You can’t hospitalize me… I-I still can do so much. A-and now you’re saying that I’m dying. There’s nothing… nothing that I can do to change this! What’s the point? I only have a few days to live anyway! It’s a ten percent chance! That’s hardly anything!” She sighed. “Listen, the fact that there is a chance means that there’s a possibility that you won’t‒” “A very slim possibility! And it’s one that’s basically saying that I have no chance of making it through! You think that you can tell me that I can make it through and make me believe you like that? You have to stand up and face reality! There’s basically no chance that I’ll make it through! None what-so-feathering-ever!” “Now, Vortac, without the surgery you’ll have no chance to live.” “So! I basically have no chance to live otherwise either! So what’s the bucking point‒?” “Listen Vortac!” I paused. “If you don’t take the surgery, you won’t have a chance in the first place. The surgery will give you a chance. With it you can have a normal lifespan. You don’t have to die!” “But there’s a good chance that I will die! There’s no changing that fact! What’s the point? Just for a chance, which happens to be so small that it’s barely there?” “Vortac, what would your friends say if they found out you don’t even want to try to live? What would your family say?” I… I had never really thought of that. What effect would I have on my friends and family if I were to simply not try and let death take me easily? If they were to find out that I had a chance to live… would they hate me for not taking it? I said nothing. I just stood there, thinking over what they would do if I didn’t try. With my mouth opening and closing, trying to form words. “They want you to at least to try, Vortac,” she soothed. “They don’t want you to just give up. They want you to push forward and try to conquer this tumor that appeared on your brain, and they believe you can make it through.” She smiled. “I believe you can make it through. “But it’s only a ten percent chance…” “It’s better than a zero percent chance of living.” She moved a hoof around my back to comfort me. “We need you to be strong and get through this. There’s no way you can make it through if you don’t think you can yourself.” If I were to look at the logical side of the things I would see that I probably wouldn’t be able to make it through, but the positive side, on the other hoof, was so tempting to believe. What pony doesn’t want to live? “I can do this. I can make it through.” I smiled. “That’s the way to think!” She gave me a small nuzzle. “I know you can make it through. Now, let’s go get your bed and I’ll notify your friends here that they can come see you.” “Th-thanks. For everything.” “It’s what I do.” ><><><><>< “So, uh, are you okay?” asked Cloud Kicker. Nurse Redheart had informed them two as well that I was in the hospital and resting since they basically saved my life and all. “Not really, but I’ll probably live.” It was a lie, but not much of one. “What exactly is wrong with you?” Blossomforth asked. “I have a brain tumor.” Blossomforth let out a small gasp and Cloud Kicker’s eyes widened a bit. “Oh Luna… are you okay?” Blossomforth asked in a concerned tone. “Okay as anypony else with a brain tumor that’s killing them,” I said with a straight face. Blossomforth flinched a little. “Sorry for snapping at you like that. I’ve just been under a lot of stress.” “Oh, it’s‒” A flash of pink filled the doorway and cut off Blossomforth as it pushed past her and Cloud Kicker. “Ohmygosh!” a high-pitched voice shouted. “Are you okay, Vortac? I came as soon as I could!” I looked up at Pinkie and smile. “Yeah, I’m‒” I cough and am forced to catch my breath “‒fine.” “You don’t look it! Or sound it for that matter!” That’s when I noticed how disoriented she looked. Her mane was messier than how it usually was for one thing. She even seemed to be trying to catch her breath from running all the way here. “Pinkie, I’ll be fine. I promise.” “Do you Pinkie Promise?” “Cross my heart, hope to fly. Stick a cupcake in my eye.” She leaned in close and glared at me. “You better not break it… or else,” she whispered. I gulped. “O-okay.” Pinkie can be scary when she needs to be…
Chapter 1: Beginning to OpenChapter 1: Beginning to Open Nerves are some of weirdest things inside the bodies of all ponies. If one or two are damaged a pony could either die or become disabled. Nerves are even fragile things in the first place. I’ve only met one pony that has some sort of problem with their nerves in my lifetime, and he could barely walk, much less fly. If only I didn’t have nerve damage too. Then maybe they would’ve never found out about it and I wouldn’t have to see their heart broken when I go through the doors, well, only if I don’t make it out. What am I talking about? I wish this whole situation could have been avoided in the first place. But that’s something I can’t prevent. Nopony can. ><><><><>< A doctor stood in front of me holding a clipboard. His muzzle held a slight frown while he flipped through some papers. Soon, I would know. Soon, I would be given the worst news just about anypony could ask for. “Vortac,” the doctor said, “I’m afraid we have bad news.” “W-what is it?” I stammered. “Your tumor is going through your cranial nerves.” My what? I wondered. The confusion on my face told the doctor that he needed to go into more detail. “The cranial nerves that directly come off the brain and go to places of the body, and is a possibility that your cranial nerves can get crushed by your tumor and that would make this situation much worse than it already is.” “How much worse? Can this situation even get any worse?” “Of course it can. If certain cranial nerves are crushed, it will kill you. Cranial nerves are some of the most important nerves in the body.” “Is there any way to get it out?” I nearly shout. “No, but there is a way we might be able to prolong your lifespan.” “I’ll take it!” “First let me tell you about it,” he growled. “It’s a surgery where we’ll be taking out the part of the tumor that doesn’t have your cranial nerves running through it. If we’re lucky, extremely lucky, it will stop damaging them. Either one of two things will happen in the surgery; one: the tumor will stop damaging your cranial nerves, or two: it will continue to damage them and you will die. But‒” “I’ll take it!” I interrupted again. The doctor glared at me. “Oops, sorry for interrupting you.” “But you will only roughly have a ten percent chance of living through this surgery.” “Only ten…” My mouth opened in shock. I even paused for a second. “The only reason it’s so low is because a surgeon has a possibility to cut one of your cranial nerves and it either killing you or, at the very least, disabling you.” I gulped. It may kill me, but if I live I’ll have a possibility of living a longer life. It’s only a possibility though, but a chance is better than nothing. “I’ll take the surgery.” “I wish you luck, Vortac, but for the surgery, you will have to go down to Ponyville.” “Why Ponyville? Can’t we just do it here in Cloudsdale?” “We could, but I fear the chances might be a bit lower than what it would be there.” “Why?” “Equestria’s top neurologist lives there and Ponyville has amazing medical equipment, believe it or not.” “Why can’t the neurologist just come up here?” “She’s not a pegasus and a cloud-walking spell wouldn’t last long enough for her to be up here for the time it would take to do your surgery.” “Okay. When should I go down to Ponyville?” “Tomorrow would be best.” “T-tomorrow? I’m having it so soon?” I thought that I would have at least had to wait a couple of weeks for the surgery, but the doctor wanted me to go to Ponyville tomorrow. How could somepony have a surgery so soon? Especially one so risky. “No. Your surgery will most likely take place in a few weeks, but I want her to know as soon as possible so she will start planning for the surgery.” The doctor wrote something down on a piece of paper and hoofed it over to me. “Just give her that and she’ll understand why the surgery is so dire.” I took a small glance on the paper and put it in my saddlebag. “Now how would you like to get down to Ponyville? There’s either the hot air balloon or you could just fly down.” “A hot air balloon would be nice,” I mused. “All right, I will charter you one for tomorrow morning.” “You’ll charter me one? I can pay for it myself.” “I figured that, but think of this as a ‘see you later’ gift before you go to Ponyville. For as all I know, I could never see you again. You could choose to stay in Ponyville after your surgery is over.” “Thanks, Doc.” I smiled and shook the doctor’s hoof. “See you later.” “Hopefully, I will see you after your surgery, Vortac.” “Same here.” I exited the room and then proceeded to amble out of the hospital. I flared my white wings, and, with one large flap, I took off into the air. I flew through the air, free of the things beneath me. I always loved flying. It was amazing to fly through the air with no worries, but, this time, I had a worry. ><><><><>< Façades are truly amazing. I believe those are what helped me during the one and a half weeks I spent at Ponyville. Actually, my façade only lasted for one week, but that’s beside the point. I knew that I it would only last for a little while anyway. They had to find out sooner or later, and if they didn’t, they’d either find out after it was all over or when I disappeared for a day or two. It saddens me that if I don’t make it through this I’ll hurt them. And that’s something I don’t want to do. Maybe I should’ve kept my façade. ><><><><>< The hot air balloon hit the soft grass. Ponyville seemed a lot smaller in the air. I used to think that it was some backwater town that just about nopony lived in, but seeing it from the ground for the first time made me change that opinion. Ponyville looked quite large, just not as big as Cloudsdale. I exited the hot air balloon. “Thanks for the ride,” I call back to the mare who operated the balloon. It felt strange to be on the ground. After years of nothing but walking on clouds, the ground gets oddly hard. Even the air here felt more abundant than in the clouds. The strangest thing to me was all the beautiful smells. The aromas that came from the nature made me like the ground a little bit. Maybe this won’t be so bad. A pink mare zipped up to my face. She looked at me in the eye, nodded her head and zoomed off leaving a pink trail of color behind her. Or maybe I spoke too soon. That was quite… odd. Well, I should go find the hospital here. I wandered through Ponyville looking for the hospital, and, after I stopped for directions for at least three times, I found it. I entered the hospital and the lobby was just how I expected it to be. White, white and more white. Typical hospital. The mare at the front desk was the only thing in the lobby that wasn’t white. I approached the mare. “I have a message for somepony here.” “For who?” “Uh, I’m not really sure. It might be in the letter.” I hoofed over the letter to the mare so she could read it. “Okay, I’ll be right back.” The mare walked away from her desk and soon returned with a white earth pony mare. “Hello, Kolton Vortac, I’m Nurse Redheart.” The white mare offered a hoofshake, which I accepted. “Please follow me.” She walked towards an open door near the front desk and I followed her. “I’m guessing we’re here to discuss my surgery.” Nurse Redheart nodded. “How soon will it be?” “We are going to aim for eleven days from today.” “Eleven days?” Again, my mouth hung open at how soon it was. “We need to get this done as soon as possible. Otherwise, your tumor will crush your cranial nerves. It may not crush any for a while, but we want to get this done before it can crush any.” “If one is crushed, can it ever revert back to normal?” “No. If one is crushed, you will never be able to fix it.” With that said, I wanted to get the surgery as soon as possible. “Should I go back to Cloudsdale and come back down here on the day of the surgery?” “No, I would like you to stay down here for the next week and a half; mainly because we need to run a few tests before the surgery. The results Doctor Anatomy sent with you were good, but we need to run the tests down here to see for sure.” “Okay, could you suggest a place I can stay at?” “The Princess’ Blessing is a good hotel to stay at, well, according to my parents it is.” She smiled. “Anyway, I hear there’s going to be a party there tonight.” “For what?” “I’m… not sure. But Pinkie Pie probably has thought up a reason for it by now.” “Pinkie Pie?” I kept getting lost in that conversation. “Just a pony that loves to throw parties here in Ponyville.” “Oh, well, okay. Am I free to go now?” She nodded her head. “Okay, I’ll talk to you… um, when would you like to see me again?” “Oh, come back in two days, that’s when we’ll have the first test set up.” “Okay, see you then.” I walked out the door. Time to find a hotel. ><><><><>< “Your room will be Room 205,” the stallion at the desk said. I took the key in my mouth. “Thank you.” I climbed up the stairs to the second floor and quickly found my room. Unlocking the door and walking inside I find it to be pitch black. After a second of fumbling for a light switch, I find it and flip it on. Suddenly ponies sprung out from everywhere, all shouting, "Surprise!" “Ahh!” I turn around and cantered back down the stairs leaving the door open. I run to the stallion at the front desk. “There are ponies already in my room!” “Oh yes, Pinkie Pie told me to give that room to the next pony that came here. She said it was a surprise for a certain pony.” A pink pony rushed down the stairs and ran up to me. “I’m so so so so sorry for scaring you like that!” she exclaimed in a high-pitched voice. “At least we got the right pony!” “Right pony? I had no idea about any of this. And how did you know I’d be staying here if I am the pony that you wanted to do that for?” “Of course you had no idea, silly. It’s called a surprise party for a reason. And it’s easy to find out where ponies are staying at for a little bit! Now, let’s go and enjoy your party!” She grabbed me and dashed back upstairs with me to my party. Through half of the party she literally dragged me around introducing me to everypony at the party. The other half I was allowed to do just about whatever I wanted. Near the end of the party Pinkie approached me. “What brings you to Ponyville, Vortac?” she asked me. “Oh, um, I’m here to see the sights of Ponyville.” I put on a fake smile. “Oh, like Sugarcube Corner? And Golden Oaks Library?” I nodded my head. “Uh, yeah. Things like that.” She stood there for a moment squinting her eyes. “Hmmm… okay.” She bounced away, but soon stopped. It looked like she then began to talk to herself and soon hit one of hooves in the other one, like she just had an idea or something. “Wonder what’s up with her,” I wondered out loud. Before I could approach her, she bounced off again into the crowd and I lost her. “Eh, it’s probably nothing.” The party ended soon after my conversation with her, and she even cleaned everything up around my room. The rest of the night was quite peaceful. I wonder if the rest of the week is going to be as peaceful as tonight. Probably is. At that moment, I was somewhat right, but also quite wrong.
Chapter 2: Peeking Through the CracksChapter 2: Peeking Through the Cracks Pinkie Pie was onto me on day one. She didn’t believe that I was at Ponyville to “see the sights”. I’m pretty sure she was the first pony to see through my façade, especially after the first day Nurse Redheart ran some tests on me. Pinkie was one of the best friends I could’ve asked for. She’s always there to cheer somepony up or make them happy in general. I wish I could return the favor; instead I’ve only made her sadder and sadder. Even though I only knew her for only about eleven days, she’s one of the best friends I could ever ask for. ><><><><>< I squinted at the bush behind me. I sworn I saw something in there or at least something jump into it at last minute. I pondered the idea of going over to the bush and inspecting it for a bit, eventually giving into my curiosity. The bush was strangely empty. I would’ve sworn I seen something jump into it. It must have been nothing. I walked a few hooves away and I heard rustling behind me. What the…? I wandered back to the bust to search it again, but, like before, I found absolutely nothing except what somepony would normally find in a bush. Giving the bush a weary glance back, I continued towards the hospital. I wonder what these tests are going to consist of. Probably just to make sure of where the tumor is and the position of the cranial nerves. I opened the hospital’s doors and approached the front desk. “I’m here for a test of some type.” “Are you the ten o’clock? Uh, are you Mr. Kolton Vortac?” “Yeah, that’s me.” The mare at the desk wrote a few things down on a piece of paper. “Please take a seat in the waiting room and I’ll get Nurse Redheart.” I did as the mare instructed me to do. The waiting room only had one other inside of it. I couldn’t figure out who the other pony exactly was, mainly because of the large, brown trench coat they wore. They also had a hat and some weird glasses on, but I could barely see those since they had an upside down newspaper in front of their face. I approach the strange pony. “Uh, are you‒” “Mr. Kolton Vortac, please come with us,” the voice of the mare who was at the front desk called out. I whipped around and saw her and Nurse Redheart, both had a serious expression. I hurried over to them. “Follow me,” Nurse Redheart told me walking towards the back of the hospital. I, of course, followed her. “What is the test gonna be?” “It’s going to be an MRI.” I slowly blinked. “A what?” “Magnetic resonance imaging,” she clarified. “...What?” Nurse Redheart sighed. “We put you in a tube and x-ray your brain.” “Oh… how is it a test?” “That’s not the test. I’m going to be giving you a vision test, a hearing test and a blood test.” “What’s with all the tests?” “Since your tumor is crushing your cranial nerves, we have to test you to see how much damage they have done.” We continue into a large and, of course, white room. It had various medical equipment inside of it. The one that stood out the most was the large tube that I would be using for the MRI. I also noticed an eye chart on a wall, but, other than that, everything else was a mystery to me. “We’re going to start with the MRI. Please lay on your stomach on that.” Nurse Redheart pointed a hoof at a big, white table-thing that looked like it connected to the tube. “Uh, okay.” I slowly climb onto the white slab and lay on it. I jumped in surprise at how cold the slab was. “Cold!” I nearly shout out. “Yes, it’s going to be cold. You’ll get used to it.” I lay my stomach back down onto it and bear through the cold. “Please tuck your wings in, lay your head down and close your eyes.” I followed her instructions, and the slab began to move into the machine. Things beeped and buzzed around me and above me and I saw flashes of light. Soon, the noise died down and the slab began to slide back out. I opened my eyes and all I could see was white for a few seconds. “Are you okay?” I heard Nurse Redheart ask me. I rapidly blinked. “I think so.” “Okay, onto the hearing test.” Nurse Redheart moved over to a pair of headphones. “Here, put these on.” I fumbled around for a minute, trying to get them over my ears, but, eventually it worked. The headphones let me barely hear anything outside of them. I couldn’t even hear Nurse Redheart the first time she spoke, so I lifted one speaker off of my ear. “Now, I’d like you to clap your hooves whenever you hear a sound play. Got it?” “Yeah.” A long beep played and I clapped my hooves together. The sound kept getting fainter and fainter, soon going to nothing at all. Even though the sound had disappeared, Nurse Redheart kept giving me weird looks. She wrote a few things down and then mouthed something, so I took the headphones off. “Okay, moving onto the vision test. Put one hoof over your left eye and tell me what each row says until you can’t read them anymore.” I nodded my head. With both eyes I could only get down to about the middle row, which was weird. Especially since I used to always get a lot farther than just the middle row. She scribbled something down onto the same piece of paper she wrote on earlier. “Please sit over there and I will commence with the blood test.” I plopped onto the ground and she came over, holding a needle in one hoof and a glove on the other. She began to feel around for a nerve on one of my forelegs and eventually moved onto the other one. After a few seconds of feeling around she found one and started rubbing something on it. The needle inched closer and eventually was stuck into my foreleg. I winced at the pain. It took about thirty seconds to draw all of the blood out that was needed to be taken out. Oddly enough, the needle hurt more going out than going in. “Okay. Please take this to the receptionist and you’ll be free to go.” Nurse Redheart gave me a piece of paper. “All right. When should I come back?” “In about six days. By then we’ll need to make sure of a few things before the surgery.” “All right. See you then.” I turned and dizzily walked away. I would’ve sworn I heard her sigh at something before I left. Did she sigh? It was probably nothing except my imagination playing tricks on me, like it did this morning. “Here you go,” I say to the receptionist, giving her the paper. “Thank you, I hope you have a nice day.” “You too.” I stumbled out of the waiting room and onto the street. I sauntered the rest of the way back to my hotel and crashed on the bed. “Dang, that blood test took a lot out of me…” I closed my eyes and fell into sleep. ><><><><>< A bright light glowed through my eyelids. Slowly, I opened my eyes to a lamp that was above me and directed straight at my face. “Ah, turn off the light,” I said in discomfort. That’s when I realized that I was sitting up in my bed. “What the…?” “I see that you’re awake,” a high pitched voice said seriously. “Uh, what?” That’s when I saw her. It was that mare who threw me a party two nights before and with her was a small lizard with a little hat one that said ‘security’ on it. “P-Pinkie Pie? What are you doing?” She leaned in real close and looked me straight in the eye. “Getting some answers.” "Answers for what?" "You've been hiding something. I know it!" The pink pony leaned in slowly, causing me to shift back until my spine was pressed against the bed frame. Her blue eyes were narrowed with intensity, and snout scrunched up. A serious of rapid, slightly angry breaths bombarded my face. At that point, I wasn't sure if I should have been scared for my life or not. “It says it all over you face.” “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I honestly said. “You came to Ponyville to‒” she made air quotations with her hooves, “‒‘see the sights’? Yeah right.” Oh, she wants to know why I’m here. “I-I’m telling the truth. That’s why I came to Ponyville to... see its sights.” “Then why were you in the hospital for over an hour today?” “Uh, I was visiting a friend.” Please don’t ask more… please don’t ask more. “If you were visiting a friend, then why did you walk out of the hospital all woozy?” Pinkie stumbled around; acting like she was dizzy. “Uh…” My mind was blank. “You don’t have an answer for that one, do you? So what were you really doing there today?” Her face moved closer to mine. I give up. If she’s this persistent to know the truth, I might as well tell her. My head lowered. “I was there for some tests.” Her face backed away from mine and, from seemingly nowhere, she pulled up a bunch of papers. Most of which had big letters in red on them. “Like this kind of test?” “Uh… where did you… never mind. And, no, not that type of test.” “Then what type?” “I was there for tests on my hearing, vision and blood.” “Why’d you have to take all of those?” “I’m going into a surgery next week. It’s a, uh, it’s a big one.” Pinkie paused. “What’s it for?” “Well, I have this tumor on my brain, and‒” I take a deep breath in and exhaled “‒it’s killing me. The surgery is the only chance of survival I have, and it’s a slim one.” I looked back up at Pinkie. She had backed away and her mouth hung wide open. I could see water forming in her eyes. We just sat there in silence, she was taking it all in and I… well, I just observed. A tear trickled down her cheek, which was followed by another and another until she was crying at full force. “There’s no need to cry. You’re not the one going into the surgery and you don’t know me very well.” She sniffed. “Y-yes there is. A new friend of mine is in a bad situation.” Did she just consider me as a friend? “Who is?” “It’s you.” “M-me? But you’ve only just met me.” “You’re a new one, but you’re still my friend.” Never before had I made a friend so quickly. “T-thank you.” She wiped her face of tears, but more came down in their place. “For what?” “For being a friend, even though you know basically nothing about me and for remaining one even though that I’ve lied to you.” She gave me a hug. “It’s no problem. Everypony needs a friend, don’t they?” “Yeah. Yeah they do.” I smiled. Ponyville was turning out for the better. And with Pinkie as a friend, it was becoming better by the second.
