Moving Beyond

Vinyl Scratch stared at that same wall that has been the most consistent backdrop to her life for the past few weeks. She was only partially aware of the gray coated unicorn stallion sitting on the chair to the side of her bed, who was shuffling some papers with his magic. She’d noticed him come in, of course, but wasn’t exactly feeling all that conversational at the moment thanks to her most recent physical therapy session. She could tell by his well kept dark green mane and black suit jacket that he was a businesspony, which wasn’t particularly helping her interest in talking to him, or lack thereof.

Vinyl wasn't fond of stereotypes, but being a DJ in the electronic wave of what became known most of canterlot as a Musical Revolution, she had dealt with more suit wearing lawyers and corporate goons than she could count. Very few had been pleasant to talk to, much less do business with, and judging by the briefcase full of papers in the seat next to him, he wouldn’t be leaving soon. Well.. it's not like I’ve got anything else to do..

“So,” Vinyl began, making no effort to hide disinterest in her voice “who are you then?”

“Ah, good, I was just about ready to start,” the stallion says, looking up with a friendly smile, “My name is Emerald Scroll. I was going to introduce myself sooner, but you seemed lost in thought. I’m here on behalf of the CDDR, the Crown Department of Disaster Relief, to help you sort out some things after what happened. Normally, we try to contact affected ponies sooner than this, but yours proved to be a special case.”

Vinyl felt a bitter chuckle in the back of her mind that didn’t quite reach her lips. Yeah, I got a lot to ‘sort out’ “What kind of things? I doubt you’ve got a new set of legs in that briefcase of yours.” she said with only a hint of sarcasm.

Emerald Scroll’s smile faltered slightly at that, his eyes flicking to where her hind legs used to be for just a moment. After a short pause, “Ah, unfortunately not.. Things like finances and your living situation are what I can help with though,” He pulled a few papers out of a folder before continuing, “As I mentioned, your situation is a bit different from what we usually work with. Standard procedure for an event like this would be to reach out to your emergency contacts, or, failing that, next of kin for temporary residence. Your file only had one name listed...” He trailed off as his smile completely disappeared and his gaze fell to the floor. “I’m... I’m sorry for your loss...”

Vinyl felt the fur of her cheek starting to get wet. Oh... crying again... She brought her forhoof up to wipe her face.“Yeah, Me too,” came, barely a whisper. Before the silence could become too heavy, she cleared her throat and sniffed once, wanting to move on “Well, what does that mean then?”

The stallion looked back up from the floor to his papers, taking a breath and focusing on the matter at hoof. “Right, for at least the short term, we’ve worked out a proposal for you to consider. An apartment has been secured in the city here, so you have somewhere to go when the doctors deem you fit to leave, and an assisted living caregiver will be assigned to help you as a sort of live-in maid. All costs will of course be fielded by the crown, and there are a number of candidates to choose from for the caregiver.” A folder is set on the edge of the bed, as another is lifted by green magic from the briefcase. “As for your financial situation, standard procedure again falls a bit short of your unique case. The crown will be covering your immediate medical costs and any subsequent medical issues that might arise from the Tirek Incident as well as compensation for what property damage is not covered by typical insurance. Normally that would be followed by a monthly stipend until a full recovery is made and you are able to return to employment..” He trails off again, eyes moving to the obvious problem.

Vinyl follows his shifting gaze, waiting for him to continue. After a few moments of waiting she clears her throat to get his attention. “*ehem*...Yeah, that might be a problem.”

Emerald’s eyes snap up to Vinyl’s face and then to back to his papers to avoid her annoyed leering, an embarrassed expression on his muzzle. He coughs into his hoof before speaking again, “Right, yes, well as such a time to recovery would be.. Indeterminable, we had to hash out an alternative timeline of about two years, after which another representative will contact you to reevaluate the situation.” Another folder joined the one sitting on the bed as the stallion looked up once more. “For now, that’s all I have to give you. I’ll give you a few days to decide which of the caregivers you’d like to go with and to sign the various forms there so we can get the paperwork squared away. Did you have any questions?”

Vinyl opened her mouth- Is that it? What am I supposed to do now? What about my house? My legs? My eye? My bucking horn?! ...Tavi... -to let out a defeated sigh and said “None you could answer.”

Green magic closed the briefcase as the stallion’s horn glowed the same hue “..Alright, I’ll see you in a few days then” he said as he stands up and walks to the door. As his hoof rests on the handle, he glances back to the clearly dejected white unicorn staring at her only hoof resting on the folders he’d left on her bed and hesitated. “Miss Scratch.. In my work, I’ve seen a lot of ponies at their worst. Time and again I see ponies who look lost, who believe their life is over... I know the words of some stranger don’t mean much to you right now, but I promise, it gets better.” He turned back to the door and pulled it open.

As he stepped into the hall, Vinyl spoke just loud enough to hear “Thank you.. I hope you’re right..” She didn’t look up, staring at the papers that supposedly held the next two years of her life, whatever that may be. I really hope you’re right. I don’t know what I’ll do if you’re wrong. I don’t want to know.