This Can't Be Happening...
Kitty popped open the bottle of painkillers she kept in her medicine cabinet. Probably not the smartest thing after a few mugs of Apple family cider, but oh well. She poured a couple of the pills into her open hoof and popped them into her mouth. Down the hatch. She aimlessly wandered around her Ponyville home, waiting for the drugs to take effect. She knew deep down that she had a problem, but wasn't about to accept it for what it was. As long as she could stay in denial she had nothing to worry about. At least that's what she thought before a sharp pain in her chest caused her to stop in her tracks. Her legs went numb and gave out from under her. As she collapsed onto the floor, she thought she heard somepony knocking at the door.
Scootaloo and Lightning woke to a furious knocking at their door. Scootaloo looked at the clock.
"Who is here at two in the bucking morning?" she grunted.
"You know we don't have to answer the door. Come on, let's go back to sleep." Lightning pulled her close. Nothing irritated him more than disturbances this late into the night, and he ALWAYS ignored them. The knocking picked up again. This time it didn't stop.
"This had better be important..." Scootaloo grunted as she got up. She pushed the door open and was surprised to see Sweetie Belle and Pinkie Pie in Pinkie's hot air balloon. She noticed that Pinkie's mane hung flat against her face and the usually perky mare held an odd air of sadness about her. Sweetie Belle's eyes were red and puffy, and her muzzle was wet from crying. Scootaloo instantly woke.
"Sweets, what's going on?"
"It's Kat... she... I don't know if she's gonna make it through this one Scoot." All the color drained from Scootaloo's face.
"What happened?
"She... took way too many of them. After she was drinking with us... Scoot, it's bad."
"Oh no... Where is she?"
"The hospital. Pinkie Pie had a twitch and got to her house as soon as she passed out."
"What are we waiting for? Let's go." Scootaloo instantly took to the sky and rocketed toward the hospital. Lightning had managed to hear half of the conversation, and tossed a rope to Sweetie Belle. The other end was tied to his waist.
"Tie it down. I can get you guys there faster than you can on your own."
Lightning kept his wing around Scootaloo as the two stared at the pony in the hospital bed. Kitty was alive... barely. Nurse Redheart said that if Pinkie Pie hadn't gotten there when she did then the young mare would not have made it to the hospital. Pinkie sat in the corner of the room. Her mane and tail were completely deflated. Nothing broke the party pony's heart more than seeing another pony in a situation like the one Kitty was in. Sweetie Belle put her hoof on Scootaloo's shoulder and motioned for her to join the rest of the band, save Jimmy. They decided it would be best to let him stay by his sister's side. Everypony had regained control of their emotions and they needed to talk about what their next step would be after their friend woke... IF their friend woke.
"This has to stop. We've turned the other way for too long," Scootaloo started.
"Yeah. She needs rehab," Sweetie Belle added.
"She's not going to take well to that," Shepard interjected. "We need her to go willingly."
"We all know she's not gonna go willingly. Either you help me drag her sorry ass into rehab or I'll do it myself," Scootaloo said. Anger was evident in her voice.
"What about the next tour we have planned? She won't be out by then. We could probably-" Shepard was quickly cut off by Scootaloo.
"To the moon with our next tour! We all know she's too good at hiding that stuff for us to keep her in check!" Scootaloo lowered her voice after receiving an angry glare from Nurse Redheart. "She's getting professional help. No more arguing." Shepard inched away from Scootaloo. He wanted the best for Kitty just like anypony else, but he wanted to get her the help she needed with as little confrontation as possible. Unlike Scootaloo, he was not very willing to drag his friend into a rehabilitation center against her will.
"What are we going to do when she wakes up?" Sweetie Belle asked.
"Tell her exactly what our intentions are and act on them. In the meantime, we need to make ourselves available for Jimmy," Scootaloo responded. The three ponies made their way to Jimmy's side. Jimmy was still in shock at the situation. He didn't cry simply because he couldn't believe that everything that was happening was in fact happening. He knew his sister had a problem and had tried to help her with it many times in the past, though it was to little avail.
His attempts to help her almost always ended in a fight between them. After a while he gave up out of anger. His eyes welled with tears as the situation finally began to sink in. As soon as he felt Sweetie Belle's hoof around his shoulder he broke down into sobs. Scootaloo and Shepard put their forelegs around him as well. They all turned their heads when they heard a sad giggle from the corner of the room. Scootaloo smiled and took comfort in the fact that Lightning was able to get a giggle out of Pinkie Pie after the night's events. It wasn't long until the room fell silent.
Scootaloo woke to a series of loud, repetitive beeps. Immediately recognizing it as Lightning's alarm clock, she reached to shut it off. Only when she went to hit the alarm, it wasn't there. She then dimly remembered that she hadn't fallen asleep in Lightning's house that night. And that she hadn't fallen asleep at her own either. She remembered that she was in a hospital, and the noise was coming from a monitor that was supposed to be humming quietly and showing that her friend had a stable heartbeat. Her eyes shot open as Nurse Redheart and several assistants rushed into the room and quickly ushered the observing ponies out of it.
"Get those paddles ready!"
"Yes ma'am."
"And get some adrenaline over here!"
"Are you sure ma'am? That seems-"
"DO IT!"
"Yes ma'am!" Scootaloo and the rest of the ponies that had been in the room only moments ago watched fearfully as the nurse and her assistants worked.
"Heart rate is dropping. Get me the adrenaline, now!" ordered Redheart.
"Yes ma'am. Here." Nurse Redheart pulled the cap off the syringe she had been given and pushed it into Kitty's chest. As she pushed the fluid into Kitty's chest, the monitor above Kitty's head showed an increase in her heart rate. Nurse Redheart sighed. She walked out of the room to explain the situation to her patient's friends.
"How's she doing?" Jimmy asked nervously.
Nurse Redheart sighed. This was the worst part of her job. "Not good. All we can hope for is that by the time that adrenaline wears off her system will have enough of the drugs flushed out that her heart will be able to beat on its own," she explained.
"And if the drugs don't leave her system by then?" Sweetie Belle asked nervously. Nurse Redheart sighed again.
"Then you likely won't get a chance to say goodbye." After hearing those words, Jimmy broke down again. Sweetie Belle wrapped her forelegs around him and brought him into a loving embrace. She looked up at Scootaloo. Scootaloo noticed the tears forming in Sweetie Belle's eyes as well. And in Shepard's. And in her own. Where's Lightning at times like this? Wait, where's Lightning? Scootaloo was barely able to finish her thought before Applebloom bucked the hallway doors open. Lightning trailed behind her, making sure to keep his distance.
"Why in th' HAY did nopony tell me about this until now?!" Applebloom's eyes began to well with tears. "Y'all think she means any less ta me jus' 'cause Ah ain't a part o' yer band?!" Everypony watching Kitty felt a pang of regret for forgetting Applebloom.
"I'm sorry Applebloom. I guess we just kinda forgot," Jimmy managed to say. Applebloom gave him a warm hug.
"Don't y'all worry none, she's yer sister. Ah wouldn't expect ya to be runnin' to th' farm ta let me know." Applebloom looked around the room. "Sorry y'all. Ah guess Ah lost mah temper a little. How's she doin'?" No words were needed for Applebloom to know that she was forgiven.
Scootaloo sighed. She was going to have to be the one to tell Applebloom. Lightning wrapped a wing around her and she gladly accepted the comforting gesture. "It doesn't look good, Applebloom. She really overdid it this time. Just before you got here her heart almost stopped. Nurse Redheart gave her some adrenaline, but after that wears off we can only hope her heart will be able to run on its own."
"So what yer sayin' is we have to be ready ta lose her?" Applebloom's eyes welled with tears.
"Yeah..." Scootaloo mumbled. She buried her face in Lightning's chest and let the sobs come. Pinkie Pie wrapped her forelegs around Applebloom as she began to cry as well.
Two hours had passed since Kitty had been given the adrenaline. Scootaloo looked up at the clock. It was six thirty. Nopony had gotten any sleep since Kitty's near-death, and nopony had been allowed in her room since then that wasn't hospital staff. Celestia's sun had begun to creep up on the horizon and was beginning to flood natural light into the hospital's hallway. The rest of the band had decided to take a break from touring and recording. "A Hiatus" is what it would be called. They also agreed to take every effort to ensure the media didn't get a hold of any information regarding to the real reason for the hiatus. They had decided to stick with the "Scootaloo is getting married and needs some time away from work" story.
After they had established how they would handle the situation they were in, they stopped talking. It had been almost an hour since anypony spoke at all, which is why the alarm from Kitty's room was especially startling for the ponies waiting in the hallway. And why Nurse Redheart was able to get into her room to again attempt to save her patient's life much faster than she had before.
"Get those paddles ready. If her heart stops we'll need to act quickly if there's going to be any hope of starting it again."
"Yes ma'am. You want to try more adrenaline?"
"No, not so soon. That could kill her just as easily as the drugs she took earlier can."
"So we wait?"
"We prepare."
Everypony in the hallway watched in fear as the hospital staff prepared for the worst. Scootaloo's eyes were glued to the monitor that was showing a rapidly slowing heart rate. The beeps began to grow louder and more frequent. And then they stopped, replaced by one long, dull tone. A long, flat line adorned the screen of the monitor.