The party rocked Ponyville town hall, and almost everypony was having fun. DJ P0N-3 dropped the bass in the central ballroom, and adults and foals danced in the light of Pinkie's strobes. Pegasi air-danced above, two of them in a fashion foals shouldn't see, and ponies filled plates from the buffet. In a side room, where the music was quieter and flashing lights were toned down, Princess Twilight Sparkle and Fluttershy played a game of Canterlopoly with two foals who found the main room's chaos and sensory overload overwhelming. Everypony was having the best time of the season, and everypony agreed this was Pinkie's best 'first day of winter' party ever.
Outside, the Cutie Mark Crusaders sat on the town hall's portico, shivering in the rainy night, watching the rain, and Scootaloo's body shook with the effort it required not to burst into tears. Applebloom and Sweetie Belle hugged her, but had no clue what to do or say. Every few minutes, a single sob would escape Scootaloo's self-discipline.
Rainbow Dash dropped out of the rainy night and landed in front of the Crusaders. A huge puddle collected at her hooves. She flapped her wings and shook like a dog, soaking Sweetie Belle. ("Ack! Rainbow Dash!")
"Hi... hi, Rainbow Dash," Scootaloo said. Her voice was thick. Rainbow Dash pounced and grabbed her up in a hug. Scootaloo said, "So you heard, then?"
"Little buddy, I'm so sorry." Rainbow Dash's voice was thick, too.
Applebloom and Sweetie Belle looked at each other. Sweetie Belle wrung some water from her mane and said, "we're gonna go check on our sisters, and let you two have some privacy," and they disappeared.
Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo sat down on the bench. "Where have you been all day, Rainbow Dash? Right after... after, I went to your cloud house to talk and you weren't there."
Rainbow wrapped a wing around her. Scootaloo snuggled close and buried her face into Rainbow's wet flank. Rainbow said, "I flew to Canterlot and spoke to Princess Celestia. She owes me a favor or seven, from all of my radical awesomeness. I asked to cash the favors in, and see if she could...."
Scootaloo hugged Rainbow tighter. "You did that for... for me? What did she say?" There was hope in her voice.
Rainbow cleared her throat a few times. "She said, well, she said, 'Rainbow Dash, your loyalty to your friend is admirable. If there was anything in this world I could do for her, I would. But many of my little ponies have illnesses or injuries I cannot heal. I am a Princess, but not a goddess.'"
Scootaloo gasped and started shaking.
"Aw, jeez, Scootaloo. I'm not good at this talking stuff, but, do you want to talk about it anyway?"
The Crusader sat up and looked into the cold rain, but remained leaned up against Rainbow's flank. She sniffed twice to fight the tears back down. "It's just not fair, Rainbow Dash. The doctor — she said about a half-dozen pegasus foals every year, across all of Equestria, get told they'll never fly. A half dozen, out of how many thousands, or millions? It's bad enough being one of the only foals in Ponyville who lives in... in... in an orphanage, and I can't fly, either? What's up with that! What did I do wrong, Rainbow Dash? Why am I being punished? Does the universe hate me?" She had fought it all day, ever since she left the doctor's office, but the tears finally came.
Rainbow Dash held her as she cried, and Rainbow glared at the rainy night.
"Scoots...." Rainbow Dash said. "I talked to Mayor Mare again today."
Scootaloo stopped crying and looked up, a wary frown on her face. "Did she change her mind?"
"No. I offered to sell my cloudominium and buy a ground house. I offered to quit the Wonderbolts and get a job in town so I'm not always traveling. Starlight Glimmer came with, and said she would make sure you had supervision when map missions sent me off. That you could stay in the Friendship School's dorm."
"But.....?"
"But, Mayor Mare said I'm still too immature and irresponsible to adopt. That you need structure and regularity." Rainbow flicked her tail angrily. "And that I attract too many monster attacks and unnatural disasters to have a filly in the house." Rainbow flicked her ears. "I want to hate her, but she's probably got a point. I do attract monsters, until I'm done paying the town back for the repairs from that whole whoopee cushion incident, I can't really make a good argument about immaturity."
"You would quit the Wonderbolts... for me?"
"In ten seconds flat, kid."
"After today... I realize how important dreams are. I couldn't ask you to give up your dream..."
Rainbow Dash mussed her hair. "Ponies matter more than jobs, Scoots. Scoots... what can I do? What do you need?"
"This hug is helping."
The door opened, and the booming party music escaped onto the Town Hall's portico for a moment. Applejack came out and sat on Scootaloo's other side. "Hi, Scootaloo," Applejack said.
Scootaloo gave Applejack a brief hug, then moved back to hug Rainbow Dash. "I guess you heard, too?" Scootaloo said.
"Yup. For what it's worth, Ah'm sorry."
Scootaloo nodded and sniffed. "Thanks."
Applejack leaned against her, making a Scootaloo sandwich with Rainbow Dash. "Rainbow and I, we can't know how you're a-feeling, exactly. We'd be lying if we said we did."
"And lying's not AJ's thing," Rainbow Dash said.
"And there ain't any other pegasus ponies in town with this same, er, medical condition for you to talk at," Applejack said. "But I did ask one of my unicorn friends to come talk to you, anyhows. She's got a story you could, well, relate to. Hopefully."
"Who, Rarity?" Scootaloo asked. "I talked to her earlier today. Sweetie Belle said I looked like horse apples and dragged me to the boutique. Rarity gave me a hug and a chocolate chip cookie. ...Several cookies. ...Well, all her cookies."
"No," Applejack said. "Vinyl Scratch."
Scootaloo rubbed her chin. "You mean DJ P0N-3?"
The door opened and Vinyl walked out of the party onto the porch. The tunes were still thumping and the bass still dropping, so Pinkie was probably spinning the disks as substitute DJ.
Vinyl walked over to the other three. Rainbow stood up and motioned for her to sit next to Scootaloo. Rainbow sat on the portico floor, back to the rain, facing the others. Applejack said, "Scootaloo, meet DJ P0N-3, known to her friends as Vinyl, or as Scratchy."
She and Scootaloo shook hooves. "Nice to meet you, Miss Vinyl."
Vinyl levitated her sunglasses up behind her horn, and made a shooing motion. Applejack said, "I think she doesn't like the 'miss' part."
"Oh... sorry. It's nice to meet you, Vinyl."
Vinyl clapped her hooves once, and made a small bow.
Scootaloo said, "Did Applejack tell you about... my stuff today?"
Vinyl nodded, and gave Scootaloo a light hug.
Applejack said, "Vinyl has a story I think you'll... well, I think you need to hear it yourself, then you'll understand."
Scootaloo nodded, and turned to look at Vinyl. There were several seconds of silence. Scootaloo eventually said. "Ummm, please tell me the story?"
"I'll handle the story-tellin' bit, Scootaloo," Applejack said. "Vinyl, Miss Cheerilee, Rarity, Miss Derpy, and I, all grew up together here in Ponyville. We were pretty tight as fillies. You see Vinyl's musical cutie mark?"
Scootaloo said, "Well, yeah! She's one of the best DJs in Equestria."
Vinyl made a frowny face and put her hooves on her hips, and then smiled.
"I meant the best DJ in Equestria," Scootaloo said, with what was almost, but not quite, a laugh.
Vinyl bowed slightly and hoofbumped Scootaloo.
Applejack said, "This is the story of how one of the best singers of her age in all Equestria lost her voice."
Scootaloo sat, dumbfounded, for a few seconds, then looked at Vinyl. "'Lost her voice?' Like, literally?"
Vinyl's red eyes had a hint of moisture. Rainbow reached a wing out and laid it on Vinyl's hoof. Vinyl opened her mouth several times, and only a weak wheezing sound came out.
"We were maybe a year younger than you and the other Crusaders," Applejack said, "It was a few days before summer break off a' school. And Vinyl here had just gotten her cutie mark, and would be a-goin' to the fanciest arts conservatory in Manehattan, Ponniard, for school the next year, with a full scholarship. The Princess would be coming to Ponyville in a week for the harvest festival, and Ol' Miss Wormwood, the school marm..."
"This is so cool!" Vinyl said, bouncing in her seat. "Princess Celestia!"
Miss Wormwood, a decrepit brown unicorn with gray spots, a curly white mane, and thick glasses, levitated a ruler and smacked it down on Vinyl's desk. "Focus, Ms. Scratch. We will not all be participating in the music for the harvest festival if we can't all pay attention! And no sunglasses indoors!"
"Yes, ma'am." She levitated the glasses to sit behind her horn.
After school broke for the day, Vinyl, Applejack, Rarity, and Cheerilee ran for the town square to check out the preparations, Derpy flying alongside them. Construction ponies were building a stage for the show and a reviewing stand for the Princess. A squad of five guard ponies, the advance security detail, sat off the edge of the town square, drinking coffee or tea at a café table.
"Let's get our instruments and practice in the open air," Vinyl said. "Meet back here in thirty minutes."
Derpy was hopeless with music, so she wished them "Good luck!" and flew off to find some other pegasus foals to fly with. Of course, the other pegasus foals tended to avoid Derpy, which was one reason she often hung out with the other four.
The others set up their band in the town square, at the base of the half-built stage. Cheerilee had a drum kit (long on kick drums, she being an earth pony). Applejack had an acoustic guitar, and Rarity both an electric guitar and a keyboard.
They started with an instrumental number, Vinyl covering keyboards while Rarity played her guitar. The construction ponies and the Guard squad's sergeant, a huge unicorn stallion, had gathered around during the brief performance, and all stomped on the ground in applause.
Rarity winked to Vinyl. "Go get 'em, daaaah-ling."
Rarity put her guitar on its stand and moved to the keyboard. Vinyl levitated up her microphone, untangled its cord (she was hoping to get a wireless one for her next birthday), and zapped the amplifier with enough magic to get it going.
The instrumental lead-in was over a minute long. Vinyl spun the microphone on its cord, levitating it, getting herself pumped up for the first verse, flipping the microphone into figure-8s above her head. She tossed the microphone twenty feet up, caught it on the way down, and belted out the first verse: "Equestria, the land I looove..." The crowd was growing, and everypony began to stomp and applaud when they heard Vinyl nail the high notes and timbre changes.
By the fourth song, Vinyl was pumped. She loved the songs, the crowd, and the crowd loved her. She was in her element, in the groove, doing what her cutie mark told her she had to do, to do or die. It was almost an out of body experience. She was dancing, prancing, even standing on her hind legs and belting into the microphone while holding it between her front hooves. And she hit. Every. Single. Note. Perfectly.
"Wow," Scootaloo said, looking from Applejack to Vinyl. "You — you must have been an amazing singer."
"She's as good as any I've ever heard," Applejack said. "Probably better than Coloratura, and I say that as both their friends."
Vinyl wiped a tear from her eye, and dropped the sunglasses back down, even though it was full dark out.
It seemed half the town had turned out for the impromptu rehearsal-turned-show. Big Mac stood at the edge of the crowd, hauling his wagon, Granny Smith holding a diaper-clad Applebloom on her back. Pegasi, including Derpy, hovered or swooped for a better view.
They switched to a call-and-response number for what would, it turned out, be their last song, ever. The instrumentalists pounded out the heaviest beat they could for thirty or forty seconds, Rarity's precise telekinesis allowing her to play guitar and keyboards simultaneously (although for rhythm only, not melody, while splitting her concentration), and then the band dropped to silence with two bangs of the cow bell on Cheerilee's drum kit, and Vinyl scream-sang her verse into the silence: "Can't help it..."
After her verse, she had another minute or minute and a half while the band rocked, before her second acapella response.
She lost herself in the music, and climbed the stairs to the half-built stage, dragging the microphone and its cord along with her. The construction ponies were yelling at her, but Rarity's electric guitar and Cheerilee hitting the bass drum as hard as she ever had in her life overwhelmed their warnings.
Vinyl danced left to right to left, swinging the microphone above her in a centripetal arc. The instruments cut off and the feedback hum of Rarity's last chord droned. Vinyl popped up to her back legs, grabbed the microphone, "When I prayed to Celestia I hoped— eeep!"
As she took a step, her back hoof, now wrapped in the microphone's cable, caught. She overbalanced and fell forward, off the edge of the fifteen-foot high stage that would not have its safety railings built for another few hours.
She threw magic wildly, trying to catch herself, but she didn't have the raw power to levitate herself. Her magic glowed around her back hoof, it snapped upward and her knee dislocated with a pop everypony heard, the cable was caught on a pile of lumber and arrested the remainder of her forward momentum, and she swung down like a pendulum. Her sunglasses fell off, flying on their own parabolic arc away, away and under the stage and she turned her head slightly to watch them go and she saw the superstructure of the stage coming towards her and she saw she was going to hit face first and the smash to the nose would hurt, might kill, she really didn't want to break her face and taking it on the chest would hurt like Tartarus but wouldn't kill, and she was upside down so she cut her spell and let herself fall an extra few inches but the microphone cable caught her and arrested her fall and a four-by-four wooden crossbar, part of the stage's support structure, was coming to meet her and it was going to miss her nose if she tilted her nose up an extra inch and a broken jaw might hurt and might cost her a semester of voice lessons at the conservatory but nopony died from a broken jaw and——
The crunch, Rarity would later say, sounded just like the sound of a hoofball smashing a plate glass window, but the worst part had been how Vinyl's scream had cut off with the suddenness of a match plunged into water.
Vinyl bounced away from the wooden beam, pawing crazily. Half a dozen unicorns slapped spells on her and stopped her pendulum motion before she could hit the stage a second time. The Guard sergeant levitated his sword up, and sliced the microphone cable free. The unicorns worked together to lower the filly to the dirt at the base of the stage.
Her muzzle was covered in blood that gravity had pulled from her mouth while she was upside down. Vinyl pawed at her throat and she was already turning blue around her muzzle. Her eyes were red all through, from ruptured blood vessels.
The unicorn sergeant turned to yell at the guard ponies at the café, but they were already there. Three pegasus stallions in silver armor landed around him, and a white earth pony mare was only a few steps behind them, running hard.
"Make a hole!" the mare bellowed in a very military voice. "Make way! Bucking move!"
Everypony in the crowd glared at her, and then they saw the red crosses painted on her white armor and helmet, and made way.
She tossed off her helmet, revealing a crew-cut pink mane, slid to a stop next to Vinyl, and the pegasi guards pushed the crowd back with their wings.
The medic pony wiped the blood off Vinyl's muzzle and then held her ear to Vinyl's mouth. "Oh holy Celestia and the saints in heaven she crushed her larynx."
The sergeant cursed, then said, "Can you do it?"
The medic mare bit her lip. "Yes. Hold her down." She scanned the crowd and pointed at Big Mac, who even then stood half a head above everypony else. "Giagantor! Help, now!"
"Eeeyup!" Big Mac said, and came at a run. Vinyl was Applejack's friend, and Big Mac had always liked her. Vinyl's eyes were wild, panicked, and starting to glaze over. Two pegasi guard ponies pulled her forhooves away from her throat.
The medic looked at the other guard ponies. "Each of you hold down a limb. Watch that knee. Red," she looked at Big Mac, "hold her head still!" They all leaned down on the tiny, struggling filly, smashing her into the bloody dirt of town square to force her still.
Rarity, Cheerilee, and Applejack stood about two paces off, pawing the dirt, flicking their ears and tails, impotent and helpless. Derpy landed next to them. They stood silently, knowing Vinyl didn't need to hear their panic. Besides, plenty of the adults were screaming and yelling in panic, already.
The medic mare looked into Vinyl's eyes and said, "Sweetheart, listen. I can help you. This will hurt bad, sweetheart. If you squirm too much, you'll die. Be a brave filly for me and hold still. Can you do that?"
With what she thought was the last of her strength, Vinyl nodded. Big Mac grabbed her head between his knees and the other guards bore down on her limbs.
The medic pony kneeled on her chest and pulled a combat knife from the inside of her armor and held it in her teeth, then took a deep breath, and slid the knife across Vinyl's throat, and then dug its tip in and back out. The filly spasmed and struggled and her face added a red flush to the blue tinge. She strained all four limbs against the guards holding her down, and Big Mac grunted with the effort of holding her head straight for the knife. Suddenly, blood burst into a loud spray across the medic's muzzle and into her eyes and pink mane.
With a ragged gasp, Vinyl breathed in through the fresh hole. The medic spit out the knife, nicking the sergeant, and used her hoof to pull open her first aid kit, and found a small metal ring with flared lip. She used her hooves to push the ring into the knife wound, and Vinyl spewed atomized blood across the medic's face again, into her mouth and nose and eyes, with the next exhalation.
The sergeant said, "Smartly done, Private!"
"Not even close. Her larynx is hemorrhaging." She looked at Big Mac. "Red, is that your wagon?"
"Eeeyup!"
The medic looked around. "Red, where's the hospital?"
"'Round that corner, down Main Street, outskirts a'town," Big Mac said.
"Let's go," said the medic. Two of the pegasi guards picked up Vinyl and carried her to the cart. Granny Smith hopped out, still holding Applebloom, who was screaming her head off the way only an infant can.
"The medic pony?" Scootaloo asked. "She sounds like..."
Applejack nodded. "Nurse Redheart, although she didn't go to nursing college and move to Ponyville until after her guard stint. Ponyville Hospital remembered this story and recruited her special. She got a medal from the guard and a certificate from the Mayor."
Applebloom and Sweetie Belle were sitting at the edge of the small clutch of ponies now. Rarity sat down, too, and leaned against her sister. Sweetie Belle said, "What did you all do? You, and Rarity, and Miss Cheerilee and Derpy?"
The other fillies tried to climb into the wagon as the guard pegasi laid Vinyl in it. The third guard held Vinyl's hips up, so the blood would run toward her head and away from her lungs. "No way, kids," Medic Redheart said, and bucked them down as they tried to climb. They landed on their rumps. Big Mac started hauling the wagon, as fast as he safely could, and angled for the turn that would lead to the hospital. Rarity and Cheerilee were left behind but Applejack kept pace with Big Mac easily. Derpy flapped above them.
The sergeant hopped in, next to Vinyl and Medic Redheart. The other two pegasi guards flapped behind. Vinyl was gasping through the tracheotomy, but her face had lost its blue tinge. Medic Redheart used a squeeze bulb to suction blood out of the hole in Vinyl's trachea, and Vinyl's every breath spattered Redheart's muzzle and eyes with more blood. Redheart's white face and pink mane dripped red, and Vinyl's neck and chest and face were covered in gore. It ran into Vinyl's eyes, and she blinked continuously.
The sergeant whispered, "You saved her. You saved a filly's life."
Redheart said, "Oh Celestia I've never done that before except on a training dummy and that was training and this was a real pony and not just a pony, a little filly, oh oh Celestia I'm gonna— " and leaned over the edge of the wagon and puked across Big Mac's back.
"It's all right, eeyup."
Redheart wiped her face, and stared at Vinyl's blood, now smeared on the back of her foreleg. "Red! How far to the hospital?"
"Four minutes!"
"Faster!" Redheart looked down at Applejack, who was easily pacing the heavy wagon. "You — filly. Can you run ahead to the hospital?"
"Sure as sunrise!"
"Repeat after me: 'filly, age about ten, two minutes out. Crushed larynx. Field tracheotomy in place. Laryngeal hemorrhage. Trauma surgery team on deck, stat.'"
"Filly, age twelve, two minutes out, crushed larynx. Field tracheotomy in place. Laryngeal hemorrhage. Trauma surgery team on deck, stat."
Redheart nodded. "Go!"
Applejack ran, mane and tail flying, faster and harder than at any rodeo or Running of the Leaves in her life, and disappeared around a bend in the road in a spray of dust.
Derpy was gliding just above the wagon. She looked down at Redheart with crossed eyes.
"Filly — you know her parents?"
"Yes ma'am!"
"Lead those two troopers. Get her folks to the hospital."
Derpy flapped hard, straight up, and the rolled and dove in the opposite direction. The two guards followed.
It was the longest four minutes in the history of Equestria. The huge sergeant stroked Vinyl's electric blue hair and her ears, all now soaked in blood, and murmured reassurances into the terrified filly's ear. Redheart kept going into the wound with her suction bulb, and the floor of the wagon was turning gory from the discarded blood.
Vinyl's face was getting the blue tinge again. "Not good," Redheart muttered. The sergeant quirked an eyebrow. "The larynx is bleeding faster than I can suction the blood out."
She looked up, and saw the hospital was less than a thousand feet away. Big Mac was pulling as hard as he could, soaked with sweat, panting, gasping, but maintaining the exact same pace without stumble or falter.
Applejack stood off to the side of the emergency entrance, hat clutched to her chest and ears flat against her skull, and half a dozen medical ponies waited with a stretcher and two crash carts.
Redheart closed her eyes in thanks. She hadn't been to Ponyville Hospital yet — that was scheduled for the next day of her visit — but it looked like they had a trauma team on standby and ready.
Applejack trailed off, and looked out into the rain. A gray earth pony mare in a bow tie was now sitting next to Vinyl, and she wrapped her tail around the DJ. A few tears were running out from under Vinyl's sunglasses.
Scootaloo said, "What happened then?"
Applejack cleared her throat twice. "The doctors grabbed her out of Big Mac's wagon and dragged her straight into surgery. I was told, later, they were so rushed for time they had no choice but to open her up before the anesthesia hit, if they wanted to save her."
Vinyl made a single gasp, and the gray bow-tied mare hugged her tighter.
Applejack paced outside the hospital, and was the first pony to speak to Vinyl's parents when they arrived.
"She's in surgery," Applejack blurted. "That's all Ah know!"
Rarity and Cheerilee arrived a few moments later, panting and sweaty, and then Derpy landed next to them. She flapped her wings in anger and kicked a rock. "Applejack! I'm sorry! I tried to catch her but I was perched on the top of town hall to watch you practice and so that by the time I got my dive started she was already on the ground!"
"It's okay, let's go inside and see if they know anything."
Nopony knew anything. Vinyl's parents were gone, probably dragged off by the hospital's psychologist or family relations pony. The pink-maned guard medic mare sat in one corner of the waiting room, shivering violently and dry heaving into a trashcan. Her sergeant sat next to her, one hoof on her shoulder. The pegasus guard who had held Vinyl's lower body during the wagon ride sat glumly, head in his wings and helmet on the seat next to him.
Applejack looked at the others. All three fillies nodded, and approached the guard ponies.
Applejack elected herself spokesfilly. "You... ma'am, you saved our friend's life. We, well, thank you. All y'all."
The medic heaved again, but she was so spent that only a few thin green strings came out of her muzzle into the trash can. Her sergeant spoke. "The first time is the worst. You'll be okay... eventually." He patted the medic again.
"You've... done this sort of thing before?" Rarity asked.
He shook his head. "I've been in combat. After we got the last wounded pony bandaged and handed off to the doctors... I puked for two hours, and shook for three."
Medic Redheart, who was still caked in Vinyl's blood from head to mid-chest, asked, "Really, boss?"
"I peed my armor, too. You didn't even do that. You did good, Private. You saved that filly's life."
Cheerilee sniffed and said, "Will she be okay?"
Medic Redheart looked at the crowded waiting room, pawed at the drying blood on her face, and said, "C'mon, girls. I need to clean up. We'll talk in the mare's room."
The pegasus flipped his helmet on. "I'll see that nopony disturbs you."
Redheart, Rarity, Cheerilee, Applejack, and Derpy went into the mare's room, and the pegasus stallion stood outside of the door so that nopony could enter.
Redheart puked into the sink once more, dropped her armor onto the floor, and began washing herself in the sink.
Rarity said, "Your cutie mark is a red cross. You must have been born for today."
Redheart sank to the floor and began to shake again. "It... doesn't feel that way. Girls, I bought your friend five or ten minutes, but I don't know if the surgeons will save her or not. That was a bad injury. I've never even seen that in a book! Her voice box was... mush. She was bleeding down her throat. I'm afraid..." Redheart held herself with her forelegs as a particularly bad shiver hit her. "I'm afraid she might drown in her own blood."
Redheart whispered, "Guards are supposed to keep the danger away from fillies."
The fillies took a tentative step towards her, then jumped on her with hugs. Derpy tripped over the discarded armor and sent it scattering with a cacophony.
Redheart continued shivering. "I — if — if she dies what will I say to her parents? I did my best but I'm just a combat medic and I've never even been in combat and I've only been out of boot camp six months and I only joined the guard to pay for college!"
"Sugarcube, ma'am, you did great," Applejack said. "You got her to the hospital and the rest is up to..." Applejack trailed off, and then sank down and started shaking, too. "Oh Celestia, my friend is in surgery and she might live or die."
They all hugged, Derpy's feathery wings making an outer blanket that seemed to provide an extra layer of comfort for them all. Eventually, Redheart stood, washed out her mouth, put her armor back on, and looked in the mirror. She was still covered in gore, and nothing but a few hours in a shower with a stiff brush would fix that.
She put her hooves on the edges of the sink and said, "how can such a tiny filly have so much blood in her?"
Scootaloo put a hoof on Vinyl's thigh, and looked into the sunglasses. Vinyl raised them, and her eyes were wet and bloodshot. "She obviously lived," Scootaloo said.
Rarity said, "But is was a close thing, darling. She was in surgery over twelve hours, and the mayor put out a call for unicorn A-positive blood. They usually don't let fillies donate, but given how rare — no pun intended — our blood type is, they had no choice but to let me give a pint. My mother gave two pints, and they ended up sending a pegasus to Canterlot to pick up ten more."
Applejack said, "She didn't wake up for three days, and we weren't allowed to see her until two days after that."
Applejack knocked on the door. After fifteen seconds without a response, she knocked again and entered.
Vinyl was sitting up on the hospital bed, one knee tucked up to make a bookstand. When she saw Applejack, she waved her in and used her hooves to close a Daring Do hardcover. Her entire throat, jaw, and chest were wrapped in bandages, and IVs ran into both forelegs. Blood flecks were still in her hair and ears. A patch behind her left ear was shaved.
"Howya doin', Scratchy?"
Vinyl shrugged her shoulders and tilted her hoof in a so-so motion.
"So I reckon you're too sore to talk? The doctors wouldn't let but one of us in, and Rarity and Derpy and Cheerilee said I should visit first."
Vinyl closed her eyes for a second, and then levitated a small chalkboard, eraser, and a piece of yellow chalk from her bedside stand.
"Well, ain't that clever," Applejack said.
I'm glad they came to visit too, I want to see them all, Vinyl scribbled on the chalkboard, holding it in her hooves for Applejack to read.
"How're you doing?"
Knee dislocated, but will heal. Wear brace for sports rest of life, but not day to day.
"Well, that ain't as bad as it coulda been. How's your... neck?"
Vinyl erased and scribbled, and held up a drawing of a frowny unicorn face with Xs for eyes and its tongue sticking out.
Applejack frowned, trying to understand. "Will you still make Ponniard in the autumn, or will you have to wait a semester?"
And Vinyl burst into deathly silent, full-body sobs.
The gray earth pony that was hugging Vinyl spoke with an accent Scootaloo didn't recognize, but Scootaloo did recognize the pony as one of the local musicians. "The doctors had to take Scratchy's larynx to stop the bleeding. A pony can't sing, nor speak, without a larynx."
Vinyl lifted her head up, leaned close, and motioned to Scootaloo. Scootaloo felt a touch sick, but leaned in close, touched Vinyl with the tip of a flight feather. Vinyl's off-white fur hid it well, but there were some scars, and the usual lump of a pony's voicebox was just smooth skin.
"That's sad," Scootaloo said, and then started shaking again, trying not to cry. She looked around, and it seemed everypony was here. Rainbow and her five friends (how was Pinkie spinning the disks without being in the DJ booth? Never mind, there was no understanding Pinkie). Sweetie Belle and Applebloom. Derpy and the gray earth pony hugging Vinyl. And Vinyl, obviously. Miss Cheerilee was in the shadows, listening quietly. Starlight Glimmer was the only one not there, probably chaperoning the School of Friendship while the others were at the party.
"Are you trying to show me someone who has it worse, so I stop feeling sorry for myself? No offense, but that's kinda crappy of a bunch of adults to pile on me the very day I got the news. Shouldn't I get one day of self-pity?"
The gray earth pony spoke. "We want to show you that... it gets better. My name's Octavia, by the way."
"Scootaloo."
"Charmed."
Rarity said, "Vinyl didn't go to Ponniard that year, or the year after. She was probably the saddest little filly in Ponyville. To get a cutie mark while singing a song, and then losing your voice so violently and publically?"
"That... that would be awful," Scootaloo said with a glance at her own flank and a flap of her wings.
Octavia said, "Vinyl spent several years in counseling. Which is something that you need to do, young mare."
Princess Twilight nodded. "I've spoken to your guardians at the Foal's Home already."
"After the accident," Octavia continued, "she spent time with her friends. She did the things she used to love to do, like hoofball and playing the keyboards. After two years, Ponniard accepted her to their piano and organ program, instead of voice. Living in Manehattan, she discovered DJ music. Most of those, ahem, wicked awesome synthesizer disks she spins are her own work on keyboards, you know."
"You must have worked hard," Scootaloo said. Vinyl held two hooves up, about two inches apart, and shrugged.
"Because she was two years behind, she and I were in the same class. We might not have known each other, in such a big school, if she'd been on schedule, and now we're engaged to be married... as soon as Princess Twilight can find time in her schedule to officiate!"
("Talk to the dragon with my calendar!")
Applejack lifted up Scootaloo's chin and looked into her eyes. "The point is, sugarcube... Scootaloo... we can't control the past. Just the future. And we're here, all of us, all your friends, to help you through it. And somehow, things always work out."
Rainbow Dash came up to her, and stood next to Applejack. "Little buddy, you're all kinds of awesome, whether you're flying or not. And we're all your friends. And we're here for you."
Applebloom said, "And we've still got all of Equestria's cutie mark problems to solve!"
Sweetie Belle said, "And the map might send us outside Equestria again!"
Scootaloo looked down at her hooves. She flapped her wings once. After a few seconds, she looked at Vinyl. "I'm sorry to have heard your story. It's awful. But... thanks. I don't know what my 'DJing' will be, but I'll... I'll find something. Hey!" She looked from Vinyl to Octavia and back. "You two are getting married? Congratulations, ever thought of adopting....?"
The crowd was flabbergasted into silence, and then Scootaloo laughed, and then Octavia. Vinyl followed, her laugh sounding like a coughing wheeze that would have been horrible, except for the fact that everypony there knew her and loved her for who she was.
Octavia wrapped her tail tighter around Vinyl, and Vinyl rested her head against Octavia's shoulder. "You precocious scamp! No, we're not ready for that at this point in our life, alas. But marks for effort!"
Rainbow Dash flapped her wings. "I've got dibs, anyway, once I convince the mayor and the foal services committee I'm mature."
Everypony laughed. Rainbow's face turned red. "That wasn't a joke!" Everypony laughed harder.
Vinyl stood and levitated Scootaloo onto her back. Vinyl was a smallish mare, and Scootaloo needed to hold on tight with her knees and flap her wings once for balance. Octavia said, "Are you ready for the party? I think you've been invited to the DJ booth."
Scootaloo thought about it. "I'm still sad. I will be for a long time."
Vinyl touched a hoof to her own heart, then reached up to touch Scootaloo's heart.
"I think she's saying you'll be sad forever," Octavia translated, "but that it will become more bearable as time goes on. Especially if you work on it, and let your friends help you."
"I'm still sad, but I've been sad enough... for today. Let's go to the party," Scootaloo said.
Author's Note
2018.12.05: a few typos corrected.
2019.01.27: residual typo correction
2020.05.13: changed Redheart from "corporal" to "private."
