Through the Doors

Chapter 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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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“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.