Staccato stumbled and tripped with every step he took. Walking on three legs instead of four proved to be much more difficult that he had originally anticipated. Nurse Purple Heart had put his foreleg in a sling for a while now, and he was trying to relearn how to walk. Having to hobble and limp around everywhere was not exactly his idea of efficient travel.
Every once and a while, Staccato found himself placing his injured hoof down to support the rest of his body like it should have, then immediately felt the consequence of his actions surge painfully back up his leg and then travel throughout his entire body. Often times causing him to tremble and collapse from shock. He had to make a mental note to never to that ever again. Ever.
Luckily, Staccato’s head was now free from any serious injury, although Nurse had advised to avoid strenuous thinking if possible. This meant he was free to do all those things he was scolded for in the hospital. Reading, writing, drawing, paperwork, okay maybe not paperwork because he was still banned from that thanks to a neon green pony. But above all else, music.
Staccato was giddy with joy, he could almost hop about like a small foal. But that would most likely result in unspeakable agonizing death. Of course Staccato was blowing this injury thing completely out of proportion. Immediately after his freedom from the hospital bed, he sought out his source of Gioia. It was only then when he remembered that his FiMPod was never returned to him, and was most likely lost while he was flung out of the carriage.
Staccato pouted, his heart and soul, his love and joy, gone forever most likely. If it had been tossed out of the carriage with him, it was probably too damaged to be salvaged. If it had managed to survive the fall then it was probably waterlogged from the heavy storm anyways.
That was a shame; Staccato loved that thing more than almost anything else. Never dared to leave the house without it tucked safely in his saddle bag. Purchasing another one was not an issue, he was CEO of Crescendo Studios after all, money was no object for something as small as that. If anything, if he had agreed to some sort of advertising contract with the company, he could probably get dozens for free. No, that was not the issue, the issue was all of the music he had carefully choose and selected over the course of five years was on that FiMPod, and was now lost, and he would have to replace all of it. A tremendous waste of time, if anything else.
Nurse Purple Heart was the one that helped Staccato down the stairs with his injured hoof. It was not that the hospital lacked elevators but rather, it was an exercise for injured patients to become familiar walking with their broken legs or hooves. Of course they were not forced to walk down the stairs after their injury; those who refused would be able to take the elevator without question. And of course, it’s not really exercise if one were bound to a wheel chair, nor is it at all safe.
Staccato took on the challenge by the horn and hobbled down the stairs, only managing to place his hoof down once when he lost his balance. Nurse Purple Heart was right beside him the whole time, guiding him and leading him carefully down the tall stairs, whispering words of encouragement to help him along, cracking a joke every once and a while to ease the pressure.
She was always there for him, from the very beginning, now to the end. Treating him softly and gently when he was in pain, and sternly and strict when he disobeyed her discretion. She did not seem bored or apathetic when she treated him, never speaking in the horrible monotone voice that a majority of the workforce did these days. She really did care for her patients, as Staccato could see when he peeked into the room next to his, finding nurse caring for a cranky old donkey, as he shouted profanities and other unspeakable things at the nurse as she attempted to guide the spoonful of syrup into his mouth.
The donkey just kept shouting and hollering, not giving an inch, but the nurse showed equal resilience, doing nothing more than slowly pushing the spoon towards her patient’s mouth, and then readjusting and trying again every time he moved away. After about an hour of yelling and screaming, the stubborn donkey finally accepted defeat with a grunt. Purple Heart gave a small smile as he opened his mouth and accepted the syrup, swallowing it disdainfully. In a flash, the donkey passed out and fell to the bed, snoring loudly.
Staccato could see other patients peeking out of their rooms at the mere sound of the noisy sleeping. Staccato looked at them with a smile, chuckling softly. He suddenly felt a sharp stinging sensation on the side of his good foreleg. At this he jumped and yelped suddenly in pain, landing by accident on his broken leg. He shouted out in agony, and then collapsed onto the ground.
He looked up and saw Nurse Purple Heart with a ruler in her mouth and a deadly glare on her face. Staccato smiled at her nervously, as he slowly tried to crawl back to his bed under the dagger eyes of the Nurse.
“Staccato.” She began with a stiff and stern tone.
“Get back in there before I break your other leg.”With that Staccato fled back to his bed as fast as a pony could with only three legs, which was never fast enough, and hopped back into bed.
Never before had Staccato seen a mare shift from such a gentle demeanor to a dead grim look in so fast except for…
His madre...
That’s who she reminded Staccato of, his mother. She had a motherly feeling about her, she was strict and commanding when she had to be, but loving and gentle when it called for it. It had felt so long since Staccato had felt what a mother felt like, he felt, cared for, indefinitely. From beginning to end, Nurse Purple Heart had been there with him, through every step of rehabilitation until he was fully healed.
It wasn’t a big deal, his injury, it wasn’t something to brag about or anything, but it mattered to him, and it seemed to matter equally to Nurse. It felt so good, to have a mother again, after Staccato’s parents both passed away in that carriage accident so many years ago, when he was so young.
Unintentionally dumping so much responsibility onto his shoulders when he still barely a stallion. Taking over an entire company soon after he had barely started college. He had no other real family, no support while he was in grief. He had ordered what little friends he had, away from him until he had fully recovered, and thankfully, they obliged.
Even after he had fully recovered, if he could really ever “fully recover” he never felt the same. Always felt an emptiness in his heart, a gap that needed to be filled, a mother’s love, and a father’s guidance. But now he experienced this familiar feeling again, it now he remembered what it truly felt like to have a loving mother again.
But now it was time to let her go, and Staccato would have to remember again what it felt like to lose a mother. Of course it was not nearly as horrific or bad, but it wouldn’t feel good nonetheless.
Staccato walked down to the lobby with Nurse Purple Heart at his side. To his surprise, an oddly familiar pile of suitcases and bags were stacked on top of each other, each marked with his name and cutie mark crest.
“Are those mine?” Staccato quizzed, wobbling towards the bag to inspect it more thoroughly.
“Yes, those stallions that drove you here felt extremely sorry for what happened, so they brought back your luggage and said that the ride would be free of charge.” Nurse Purple Heart said. Staccato scoffed.
“That would’ve been great if I didn’t already have to pay them half in advance...” Staccato fumbled through his bags until he found his coin purse at the bottom of the pile. It was notably heavier than he had last remembered.
“They paid you back for that as well.” Nurse said, noticing Staccato measuring the weight of the bag in his hooves. The unicorn smiled softly and chuckled.
“Well... My apologizes then, I suppose I was mistaken.” Staccato went back to shuffling through the bags, checking that everything was still in order.
Nurse suddenly heard Staccato squeal loudly, she had thought that Staccato managed to hit his fore hoof against something again. She rushed to his side and propped him up with her shoulder, hoping to ease the weight on his foreleg.
“Are you alright Staccato?” She asked, a look of concern on her face. She looked up to see Staccato’s eyes beaming and a wide grin on his face.
“They found it!” Nurse raised an eyebrow and looked towards his pointing hoof. It was his FiMPod, neatly placed on top of his saddlebag, the ear buds wrapped tightly around its length. Nurse rolled her eyes and quickly slipped out from underneath Staccato, allowing him to fall to the ground with a grunt.
“Don’t scare me like that!” Nurse was ready to pick Staccato back up if he was in pain but she found the Stallion still smiling, rubbing his face against his FiMPod with joy, spewing a mumble of endless, incoherent speech.
“OhmygoshI’msohappytoseeyouagainmyloveandjoyIwassoworriedthatyouwerelostwhenIwasflungoutofthatcarriageI’msohappythatyou’reokayIwassomiserablewithoutyou!”
Nurse looked to heaven and mumbled with a smile.
“He’ll be fine...”
Outside, a cab carriage was waiting for Staccato, ready to take him to the Tempo hotel as per his request. He had packed his bags into the cart and had already begun to put his ear buds back into his ears. He peeked at his FiMPod, checking the time.
“12:56... I probably should have eaten some lunch...” Staccato shrugged, disregarding the thought, he wasn’t that hungry anyways.
Nurse was there to see him off for the final time, Staccato glanced back to her, she returned with a small genuine smile. That’s what Staccato loved about Purple Heart; everything she did was genuine, no fake smiles or forced laughter just to humor a stubborn patient. She showed no favoritism, just like a mother among her children, and she was just as willing to punish a patient for disregarding her orders as a mother punishing a disobedient child. Although she would always feel a little guilty afterwards.
It would be very difficult to say goodbye.
Staccato trotted slowly up to Nurse with a small sad smile.
“Guess this is goodbye huh?” She started. Staccato nodded silently.
“Thank you so much for all your help Nurse.” The violet earth pony simply waved a dismissive hoof.
“It was no trouble at all, really.” Staccato shook his head.
“I can’t thank you enough.”
“It was fun Staccato. Now if you had only listened to my directions more often you maybe wouldn’t have hurt yourself so much.” The stallion beamed brightly.
“But it wouldn’t have been nearly as enjoyable now wouldn’t it have? I can tell you tried to hide a laugh every time I hurt myself.” The two shared a decent chuckle before an awkward silence was bestowed on them again. Staccato was never really good with goodbyes, he always hated them, and usually let the other pony handle the final words, and evidently, neither was Purple Heart. The Nurse pawed the ground softly with her hoof, trying to come up with something to say, and Staccato did much of the same.
“I... I guess I should be getting back to the hospital..”
“Yeah... I should probably be getting to my hotel...” The two didn’t budge for a while, simple gazing off into a random nonexistent sunset. Finally the two found each other in a light hug, obviously consisting of only one foreleg from each of them.
“Take care of yourself Staccato, as much as I’d like to see you again, I don’t want to ever find you unconscious in our hospital beds again. Understand?” The light brown pony chuckled.
“I’ll do my best Nurse.” The two finally released and smiled to one another. Staccato climbed into the carriage and closed the door behind him. He poked his head out the window and looked to the nurse again.
“I’ll see you around Purple Heart.”
“Bye Staccato.” The cab began to move and rumble on the road as he drove towards the Tempo Hotel. Staccato sat back down on the seats and gave a deep sigh. The cab driver looked back into the carriage at the unicorn.
“Marefriend of yours?” Staccato’s eyes suddenly widened in surprise and a deep blush formed on his snout.
“A-absolutely not! That hug was completely platonic!”
“Suuure...”
-Flashback-
The Manehattan Musical College was always a little quiet this time of year, when new students first arrived and seniors leave the younger fillies and colts behind to chase their own dreams of becoming rock stars or composing geniuses. There was always an air of awkwardness, as newer students try to find their social standing in the unspoken pecking order of the college.
Usually at the bottom as one could probably imagine. Older students had to find new friends to replace the ones that graduated a year prior or dropped out from the strenuous classes. With a mix of new students and older students looking for new friends, this resulted in many mixed ages in the small circles of friends located at the tables during lunch break.
Staccato and Glowstix sat alone together at a small circular table at the edge of the cafeteria.
“Anyone here you recognize?” Glowstix mumbled, shifting his fork though a plate full of alfalfa. Staccato looked around, taking a sip of milk that seemed to glow with radiation. He grimaced at the drink and tossed it in a nearby waste bucket.
“I think I can see Fredric Horseshoepin over there.” Staccato noted as Glowstix munched disdainfully on a small piece of a green carrot as he craned his neck, trying to spy the white maned earth pony from afar.
“Oh yeah, your mom told us he’d be going here didn’t she?” Staccato nodded in response.
“Do you think he’s better at piano than you are?” Staccato cocked his head and gave Glowstix a confused look.
“Of course he is, he strictly plays piano so he must get better practice. I play two instruments so I have divide my time with both of them.” Glowstix grinned.
“Excuses excuses, I bet you could beat him if you tried.” With that comment Staccato stole Glowstix’s milk from underneath his nose, wrapping it in his crimson red magic, although it wasn’t much better than the one he had thrown away before.
“Ke schifo... These lunches are horrible...”
“You’re just spoiled from all that gourmet food you Italians eat.”
“Ah but good food it is Il mio amico, good food it is.” Glowstix gazed off around the lunch room again, looking for any familiar faces.
“I think I see Philharmonica over there.” He said motioning towards a grey mare with a dark brown, well kept mane, sporting a light pink bow.
“Octavia’s here?” Staccato asked peeking over Glowstix’s shoulder.
“Yep, that’s her, snout up and everything.”
“Is she eating that meal one pea at a time?”
“She’s going to take forever to finish that...”
The two stallions continued to search the lunchroom with hawk eyes, spying multiple ponies that they were familiar with.
“So who do we have so far?” Glowstix said, craning his neck again to try to find more ponies.
“Let’s see...” Staccato mumbled, looking down to a small notepad where his radioactive lunch used to be.
“We’ve seen: Fredric Horseshoepin, Octavia Philharmonica, Harpo Parish Nadermane, Beauty Brass, still stuck in her sousaphone I should mention.” Glowstix snorted, trying to contain a laugh.
“Violina C. Sharp, Baritone, Noteworthy, Symphony D. Flat, and Jazz.” Staccato listed, checking off the names as he went down the notepad.
“That’s only nine ponies.” Glowstix muttered.
“Well what do you want to do? Go off and make some friends?” Staccato snapped. Glowstix suddenly flashed a devilish smile that made the light brown unicorn extremely uncomfortable.
“What are you thinking?” Glowstix smiled and rubbed his hooves together in an overly evil and theatrical way.
“Let’s play a game!”
“Wha- I don’t want t-”
“What mare would you do?”
“Oh my Celestia you are so immature...” Glowstix simply ignored Staccato’s comment and searched the cafeteria for “prey”.
“Let’s see here... That Octavia is actually quite a looker, now if only she pulled that stick out of her rump...”
“I can’t believe I’m friends with you...”
“How would you even manage with Beauty Brass?” Glowstix continued.
“I mean... that sousaphone would totally get in the way, how does she even lie down?” Staccato’s facehoof echoed loudly through the lunch room.
“Wait... who is that?” Staccato managed to peek out from underneath his hoof, which was now lodged into his face.
“Who?” Staccato gazed towards a mare in the distance, on the far side of the cafeteria. The fluorescent lights that lined the ceiling caused her coat to glow and shimmer from her pearlescent white fur. Her mane was an unusual unkempt style, as if she just woke up this morning and violently shook her head, and whatever resulted, served as her hairstyle for the day. Separated into stripes consisting of a shocking electric blue and a smooth cyan. But it was her massive shades that really caught Staccato’s attention.
Thick, contrasting, jet black rims, and intense violet lenses. They completely shielded the mare’s eyes from view, it gave her a mysterious feeling, but her wicked grin gave her an entirely different sense, spunk. Glowstix stared at the unusual figure, questioning almost every aspect of the pony.
“Are we even allowed to wear sunglasses in the building?” No response.
“Is she even a musical pony?” No response.
“Well her cutie mark is a musical note...” No response.
“A backwards eighth note I believe...” No response.
“Staccato?” Glowstix finally realized that Staccato had not been responding to anything he said. He turned to his friend to find him completely stunned and frozen, mouth hanging wide open, practically drooling, and his grey eyes shrunken down to the size of a pea.
“Staccato?” Glowstix repeated as he waved a hoof in front of his friend’s face, attempting to bring him back to Equestria. Unfortunately, it did nothing.
“What’s the matter with you?” Glowstix’s eyebrows furrowed in frustration and confusion. Finally he gave a sharp smack to the unicorn in the back of the head to wake him up.
“Oi! Wake up Staccato!” Staccato shook his head violently, pulling himself out of trance.
“Il mio dio.. Who is that mare?” Staccato mumbled shifting his head to the side, moving out of the way of Glowstix to look back at the pony. Glowstix raised an eyebrow in surprise.
“What? Staccato what’s wrong wit-” He stopped suddenly, then his expression abruptly shifted to that devilish look Staccato hated so much.
“Oooh! I see what’s going on here.” Glowstix bumped the unicorn in the shoulder playfully.
“Lil ol’ Staccato got himself a crush, doesn’t he?” He mocked stepping back in front of him purposely to obscure his view. Staccato complied by shoving him forcefully out of the way.
“Whoa! Hey now!” Stix shouted as he tumbled away. Staccato continued to stare at the mare as she walked around the lunchroom, floating a small tray of food in front of her with violet magic.
“Y’know...” Glowstix started as he popped up in front of Staccato’s vision, blocking his sight again.
“If you really want to know who she is, you could always go talk to her.” Staccato was taken aback by this statement. Immediately, his knees began to shake and his body began to tremble.
“N-no...” Staccato said nervously.
“I-I don’t even know her... I can’t talk to her yet...” Glowstix rolled his eyes.
“You’re never going to get to know her if you don’t talk to her you ‘idotia’” The earth pony mocked,
trying to imitate Staccato’s Italian tongue.
“It’s ‘Idiota’ you imbecille.” Staccato corrected. Glowstix simply shrugged, not really caring whether or not he pronounced it right.
“Point is, you need to go talk to her.” Staccato shook his head violently again.
“N-no it’s alright, she has the attention of all the other students as well, can’t you see?” He motioned around the whole room, now Stix could see that almost everypony was staring at the peculiar masked pony.
“I’m sure I can find out about her just by listening to the others.” Now it was Glowstix’s turn to shake his head.
“You do realize that if she has EVERYPONIES’ attention, that means she’s going to have every colt’s attention too. Right?” Staccato blushed deeply, and almost looked fearful.
“W-why would I care? I-it’s not like I...” he paused for a moment.
“L-like her or- or... anything...” He stuttered. By this point Glowstix was on the floor laughing, holding his gut tightly, and making quite a scene. After about ten minutes of uncontrollable laughing, and Staccato violently kicking his ribs while he was on the ground, Glowstix finally stood up and wiped a tear from his eye, still chuckling slightly.
“Staccato Fortissimo, you are the worst liar I have ever seen in my entire life.”