In The Night

“Huuuaahhh… uuggghhh, these chairs make awful beds, I’m sleeping on the floor next time. Let’s just stretch a little bi- AHHHH! What the heck? Oh great, my legs are asleep, uhhhhh, defiantly not sleeping in a chair again. Guess I’ll just lay here until I get felling back… what time is it? Let’s see here… 2:26 PM. Hmmm, I wonder if they’re done operating…”

As I started looking around I noticed a bed was near the window of the room, with a mare looking out the window.

Oh crap, I think I woke her up. Well she’s not looking at me; maybe she didn’t hear me fall.

“Ummm, hello?” She didn’t move a muscle.

Maybe she’s still sleeping

As a couple minutes pass by, I began to regain the feeling in my legs.

“Static… why do they always feel like static? Time get back up, let’s see here… hmmmmuuuugh. There we go, nice and stable.”

I looked over to the mare, she was still sleeping; her hair scattered and lying all about her face, and her breathing, so slow it was barely noticeable.

For about an hour I just stared at her, watching her rest quietly, it was so peaceful and calm in her room; I liked it. It was a good place, away from all the commotion of the outside life; no noise, no yelling, no screaming, no stupid arrogant ponies walking around and bumping into you. No, a place where tranquility reigns, that is, until the doctor comes in.

“Ahh, I see you’re awake now, Ms. Octavia. I’m Dr. Hoofdini, the one who operated on your friend here, and I must say it was quite the operation. Luckily, we were able to get all the bullets out without having to do too much damage to her.”

“Well that’s good, but knowing hospitals, there is always bad news. Is there any bad news?”

“Sadly, yes, there is bad news. Due to the amount of collateral damage done to her ankle, we’re not able to fully restore it, as well as the broken ligaments and joints. So I’m afraid from now on she will walk with a limp, as well as not being able to trot or run for very long. And because of the way and position of the bullet, we had to remove the cartilage from her joints, which will mostly likely cause severe aching after a while of walking. As a result, she will have to take some medicine which will, with time, help restore most of the lost cartilage. Other than that, everything else seems to be just fine. Thankfully, there weren’t too many lacerations, so her intestines and flesh were able to be sewed up quite nicely. She is quite the lucky one, not too many ponies who receive such trauma make it, least of all even make it to the hospital.”

“Well that’s… relieving. I must ask, though, when will she wake up?”

“I would say a couple more hours, but from the looks of it, she’s waking up right now.”

I turned around and saw her eyes slowly opening; hair dangling in front of them.

“Hey there, I’m Doctor Hoofdini, move your hoof if you understand me.”

She twitched her right hoof.

“Good. Blink your eyes once for yes, and twice for no. Do you remember what happened to you?”

She blinked twice and the looked at me. Her eyes widened.

“Do you remember your friend here?”

She blinked once, and started trying to move her entire body, as if trying to escape from the bed. She started muttering words, but they only sounded like gibberish.

“Whoa there, I need you to stay still; your injuries haven’t healed enough for you to be active, you might open a laceration.”

The doctor tried to put her down back onto the bed, but she only struggled harder and eventually kicked him in the face in an attempt to shove him off.

“GAH! You there, call the nurse, she needs to be sedated, if not, her wounds will open back up, and right now, that is something we really don’t want!”

“Okay!”

As I began to walk away to the door, Vinyl started screeching at me, as if trying to stop me from leaving almost, and once again kicked the doctor in the face, this time he fell on the floor. Vinyl then ripped the equipment off of her body and face, and, with her right hoof, dragged herself out of the bed, causing her to fall onto the floor and scream in pain as a result.

“UUUUUUGGGGHHHhhuhhhuhhh… Oct- o- ocatavi- Octa- Wa- WAAAIIIIITTTTT! Ahhhhhhuhhhuhhh, hwai- k-kco- come buh- buhack- come bahhhaacck…

“NURSE! WE NEED HELP, ANYPONY, NURSE! HELP US!

As soon as I finished yelling, almost a dozen nurses and doctors started rushing toward the room; a nurse carrying a needle in her mouth.

“HOLY CELESTIA, SOMEPONY, GET HER BACK ON THE BED! WHERE IS THE SEDATIVE?”, “SHE WON’T HOLD STILL! THE NEEDLE WILL BREAK!”, “CALL THE BOUNCERS! THEY NEED TO HOLD HER DOWN!”, “HER WOUNDS ARE GOING TO BURST! QUICKLY, DAMMIT!”

As soon as they called for the bouncers, they arrived, two hefty looking ponies, about twice my size, came running in. The quickly held her down, and allowed the nurse to inject her with the sedative.

“NOOOOOooooo! ST-TOP! NOOHOOHOOooo! OC- OCTAVIA!!! HELLLPPPPP!!! OCTAVIA!!! I’M SOOooorryyy…”

Slowly, Vinyl started to calm down, tears running down her face; her eyes slowly opening, then closing again, desperately trying not to fall under the effects of the drug. Sadly, she inevitable fell under its influence and drifted away.

“Gahh, dear Luna, somepony check her vital and make sure she didn’t lacerate anything important, if she did, put her back in the operating room so we can fix that up. And will somepony check my face for me? I think she kicked my nose out of place.”

The doctor then looked at me.

“I’m sorry, but you’re going to have to go into the waiting room. I don’t want this to happen again. I’ll tell you when you can see her, but if she goes haywire again, you’re going to have to tell us IMMEDIATELY, got it?”

I nodded to the doctor, and one of the bouncers came up to me.

“I need to leave, right?”

“YYYEEEAAHHHH!”

“Alright… cya around then.”

“YYYEEEAAHHHH!”

With that, the massive pony shut the door and I walked to the waiting room, meeting with a bunch of other sad and scared looking ponies; probably waiting to see a loved one, or hear of what’s happened to them.

I conversed with them for hours, each one having a sad tale. One mare’s filly got hit by a firework and ended up getting a burn scar across his entire left side. Another’s Wife ended up falling out of a 7 story office party. A fillies mom, shot before his eyes because of some stupid brawl with ‘who gets the last beer.’ It was awful hearing the doctors tell ponies that one of their beloved has died. Mostly due to some sort of tragic accident that could have been avoided. Each one of their expressions was that of horror and disbelief; their cries could be heard by Everypony, only making the ones waiting for some pony all the more anxious and nervous; it was indeed frightening. Yeah, hospitals, the most feared place to everypony.

The time is now 8:52 PM; the doctor finally said I could see Vinyl now. He was skeptical, though. In result, he had one of the bouncers stand outside the door in case Vinyl went haywire again.

“Remember to tell us immediately if she starts acting up again. She got lucky this time, but I have a feeling her luck is running out. So try not to excite her, okay?”

“I’ll do my best.”

With that, he led me to the door.

“You’re going to keep watch?”

“YEEEAHHH!”

“Okay, have fun.” Why is he yelling?

As I entered her room, I found her staring out the window, looking upon the glowing city of Manehattan.

“Ummm, hey.”

She turned immediately and looked at me with beaming eyes. She mover her entire body, as if a reflex had just gone off, but she just stayed in her bed this time, probably knowing what will happen if she got a little ‘crazy.’

“Um, I’m here now and… I brought your glasses. I wasn’t sure if you wanted me to have them, and… I heard you were looking for me, too, so I came down here to visit you.”

“Th- the- there yuh- your gll- glasses.”

“What do you mean?”

“Cutie high… member..?”

Instantly I froze, adrenaline shooting into every last part of my body.

“You- you mean… your that mare who… who-”

“Yes... and.. I- I’m sorry…”

I was shocked out of belief.

“You kept them all this time? Why? I thought you hated me.”

“Please, k- come closer.”

I walked over to her, she was so cold, and her body, it was so fragile.

“I- I didn’t hate you. I liked you… a lot, but I- I couldn’t express my feels without looking like a total idiot.”

“But why did you say those things to me?”

“I wanted to tell you, but, what I said, it was what popped into my head… I-I didn’t mean any of it. I wasn’t able to express myself, that’s why I was such an ass to you back then. I guess it was just my way of expressing how I felt. I was young back then, I didn’t know what I was doing, I didn’t know how to express it without being a complete jerk.”

“Why didn’t you apologize then? Why didn’t you just tell me what you meant the next day?”

“I was too discouraged; I thought you hated me after that; that you never wanted to see me again. After that day, I would always cry at night, knowing that I messed up more than I could even imagine. I took your glasses to always remember you, and I never forgot you, even to this day. I wore them because it would make me feel like you were there; like you were with me all the time.”

“I- I’m sorry, I didn’t know. I completely forgot who you were, even at the concert. I didn’t even recognize you, you look so different.”

“I thought you still didn’t want to see me again when you left. I thought you still hated me, and the next thing I know I get shot by some idiot loser.”

“Believe me; I didn’t want anything like that to happen to you.”

“But why didn’t you recognize me? I was right in front of you; I looked right into your eyes and you looked into mine. I thought you knew.”

“After that day, I pushed everything about you into the back of my mind. I never wanted to remember you, and eventually, that’s exactly what happened.”

“Oh I’m so sorry, Octavia. I never meant to hurt you.”

Vinyl began to cry.

“It’s okay, Vinyl. I understand. I just wish this never happened to you.”

“I deserve it anyways; I was such a jerk to you. You didn’t deserve the crap you got. You were too precious. Your name is beautiful, you’re beautiful. Not matter how hard I tried, I could never get over you. You were everything to me then, and you still are to this very day.”

“Is that what you wanted to tell me?”

“No.”

“What did you want to tell me then?”

“Well, I meant to tell you that, too, but more importantly something else.”

“What is that?”

“I.. I think I love you.”

“Wuh- what?!”

“You heard me; I think I love you. After all these years, all this time, I haven’t been able to forget about you, not matter what I did. Drugs didn’t work. Alcohol didn’t work. Banging my head against every wall I came in contact with didn’t help. Nothing did, I couldn’t forget you. You’re special to me, and even if you don’t feel the same, I just wanted to tell you that; I just wanted to let you know. Numerous Days without sleep; the countless hours of staring at the ceiling. Gallons of tears almost every night; hoping that maybe one day I’d see you again.”

“I.. I don’t know what to say.”

“Do you forgive me?”

“Yes, Vinyl, I forgive you.”

“Thanks, it means a lot, to know that you do. But do you feel the same?”

“After all these years, Vinyl, I’m sorry, but I never developed feelings for you, at least not how you feel for me.”

She was silent for a bit; she just looked back out the window.

“I guess that was to be expected.”

“I’m so sorry, Vinyl.”

“Could you do one thing for me?”

“What?”

“Could you hold me?”

“Yeah…”

She slowly scooted to the side, allowing me to room to join her bed. As I got in, she just put herself into my hooves; her head on my chest; her fur, so soft.

We laid there for a couple of minutes until she said something that left a tear in my eye.

“Octavia, you’re my very best friend.”

I didn’t want to hurt her; I didn’t want her to be hurt any longer. She’s been through enough.

“You’re mine, too, Vinyl.”

“We’ll always be friends forever, won’t we?”

“Yeah, forever.”

And… and then her pulse stopped. The monitor went monotone. She died.

It is never Love that kills… It’s the memories. Sadly, nothing is ever as it seems, and so I woke up. I… Vinyl.