//------------------------------// // Something Better // Story: Addiction // by FlashFoward //------------------------------// A surge of pain ran along your hind legs. With a painful groan, you turn over on your bed and start searching for your pain killers on the nightstand. After popping one pill, the pain finally ebbed away. However, you knew that the pain in your legs would return soon and another pain killer would need to be taken. The pills let you go through your daily life at least. You notice that the bottle of pain killers looked a little on the empty side. Hopefully today was the day Red Heart would drop by with your monthly supply. However, when she came, you figured that she would scrutinize you for relying to heavily on the pain killers. Did you care about that? Not really. As long as you could feel less pain, the better. Now, you could never tell Red that. She would cut off your supply of painkillers and you would be forced to deal with your pain without anything to lean on. You stomach let out a sudden growl and you figured it was lunch time by now. You limp down to the kitchen and fix yourself a nice sandwich. Just as you settled yourself down on the table and grabbed the sandwich from its plate, there was a knock at the front door. At first, you ignore it. The knocking persisted and you eventually caved in. You ditch your meal and limp your way to the front door. Once you opened the door, you find a familiar gray Pegasus floating before you. If memory served correctly, her name was Derpy. It’s kind of hard to forget a pony with eyes like hers. “Here’s your mail!” Derpy chirped, handing you a wad of letters. “Thanks Derpy.” You reply, handing her some bits as a tip. “Oh wow! I can go buy some muffins now!” Derpy squealed before flying off, probably to go fetch her fresh muffins right away. You could never figure out why Derpy enjoyed muffins so much. In a way, it was like your complicated relationship with your pills. They offered you some form of comfort when you needed it. Derpy probably didn’t depend on muffins to at least get up in the morning like you had to. An addiction is an addiction nonetheless. You trot back to the dinner table and scatter your mail all over it. The time to read them would be for later. The sandwich won’t finish its self! You grab the sandwich again but one of the stray letters catches your eye. It looked rather fancy and you could see Ace’s signature on it. Abandoning your sandwich yet again, you grab Ace’s letter and tear it open to see what’s inside. Surprisingly, there was a pass in there that had Exotica written on it. The sounds of the place didn’t tickle your fancy but you figure Ace had a reason for this, like everything else he did. Might not have been a good reason, but there was one at least. You sort through the remaining mail, mostly junk, until you find another letter addressed by Ace. This time, the letter looked much more casual. I have some business to attend to at the club Exotica. I figure I’d send you a pass to tag along with me. No, I don’t need you to watch over me. Just thought it would be a nice chance for you to have fun. See you then! Well, staying home for the rest of the day was pretty much your only plan. Maybe there was some fun to be found at that club. As you read over the letter a few more times, your eyes run over the sandwich again. Just as you clench the sandwich again, there was another knock at the door. You impatiently throw the sandwich back on the plate and clench Ace’s letter in your teeth. As you open the door, Nurse Red Heart was impatiently standing there. You can tell right away she wasn’t in the mood to be joking around with, the look on her face was just all to serious. “I brought your monthly supply of pills.” Red Heart muttered, removing a bad from her saddle. “Thanks Red, I owe you one!” You make a grab for the bag, but Red pulls it out of your reach. Thinking this was a practical joke of hers you make another grab for the bad, to no avail. “That you do. Show me that letter.” Red demanded, gesturing to the letter in your mouth. “This?” You asked, spitting out the letter onto your extended hoof. “Yes. I’ll give you the pills for the letter.” Red offered, holding out the bag coaxingly. “Seems like a fair trade. Hand it over.” You reply, handing her the letter and taking the bag. “When are you coming back? You can’t possibly plan to stay here forever.” Red Heart asked suddenly, looking at you with a frown. “That’s probably true. Anyway, have a nice day Red.” You gave Red a fleeting wave before slamming the door closed. You can only imagine the look on Red’s face when she figured out that Ace invited you to head out to a club, with him nonetheless. Red was all too aware of Ace’s antics and she really wasn’t a big fan of his, that’s being nice as well. Safe to say if Red had to throw Ace under the bus, she would gladly. Ace has always been a fair friend to you. Maybe it’s because you were usually the one who kept him at of trouble. In a way, you’re the guy’s baby sitter. There have been times though when your roles would switch. The sandwich you left on the dinner table was still there. You leave the bag on the table and look at the sandwich for a moment or two. After so much delay of eating the darn thing, now you had no appetite for it. You just growl at your unfortunate luck and decide to nap on your bed until the afternoon rolls over. Then you’ll drop by Ace’s place and he’ll guide you to the club from there. The familiar jolt of pain ran across your legs again. You roll over and fumble around for your pain killers that are on the night stand. After popping your pills, you notice that somepony had been staring at you for a bit. “What in the world are you doing here Ace?” You ask, bewildered by Ace’s sudden presence. “I figured to drop over and say hi. You usually take naps and I didn’t want you sleeping when it time to go to Exotica.” Ace explained, stifling a snicker as you let out a yawn. “Lead the way!” You mutter, extravagantly gesturing to nothing in particular. Ace just chuckles and starts walking to the front door. It wasn’t long before Ace was leading you through the pavement streets of Manehatten. You didn’t live in the projects or the really luxurious part of town, even if you could. The simpler life was more up your alley. You mind wandered off to the days when you didn’t rely on pain killers like a crutch. The doctors offered braces for your legs, but you refused. It was bad enough you could have barely walked when you got hurt. Now they wanted to reduce you to walking around like a robot? That was a big no-no. As you’re minded wandered off, you failed to notice that Ace had stopped in his tracks. You promptly bumped into him and noticed you guys finally made it to Exotica. The place seemed fairly busy but you couldn’t shake off the feeling that there was something else going on. Ace trotted his way up to the front door, only to be stopped by a huge stallion bouncer. This guy looked like he could have eaten other stallions for lunch. “Passes?” The bouncer asked in a thick voice. “Here ya go big guy!” Ace replied, flashing the bouncer two passes he pulled from his bag. “He’s with you?” The bouncer asked, pointing a large hoof at you. “That he is!” He needs time to loosen up!” Ace joked happily, grabbing you in a one armed hug. The bouncer just grunted and opened the doors to allow the both of you in. Ace zipped into the club right away. Just as you were about to follow Ace, a mare’s voice broke your concentration. “Hey you!” the voice called out. You turn around and notice a white unicorn mare with an electric blue mane waving at you energetically. To avoid any confusion, you point at yourself to make sure you’re the one she’s asking for. “Yes you! Mind helping me out?” She called out. You shrug and trot over to her. Just as you stand by her side, she starts stacking amps and turntables on your back before you even realize it. Screams of agony and pain erupted from your legs and back from all the weight suddenly placed on you. Looks like you’d probably end up popping that whole month’s supply of pain killers red gave just to live through this nightmare. “Thanks for the help! Names Vinyl Scratch by the way!” Vinyl held out her hoof for you to shake. “I would gladly shake hooves if I didn’t chance the risk of all this stuff falling on me.” You reply, barley being able to offer a smile. “Oh! I’m sorry!” Vinyl levitates a few turntables in the air. You sigh in relief from some of the weight being lifted off. Vinyl giggled a little, but you didn’t say anything about it. Last thing you wanted was for her to drop the turntables on you again. After you and Vinyl walk into the club, she asks you to help her out with setting up her equipment. Things only got complicated when you tried to keep the cords from getting tangles. Before long, you were tangled yourself. “Mind helping me out Vinyl?” You call out. “Sure!” Vinyl giggled once she saw you all tangled up. It wasn’t long before you joined in on the laughter. You had to admit, this was just a funny situation you were in. As Vinyl made her ways towards you, she tripped over a few cords. Vinyl landed right on top of you and once she realized this, she started to blush a little. You could feel the heat coming into your checks and started having a hard time suppressing a grin. After moments of awkward silence, Vinyl slowly got up and started to untangle you while not saying a word. “Thanks for getting me out of that mess Vinyl!” You happily rub your sore hooves. It took a few moments for you to realize that Vinyl pretty much disappeared. For some reason, you felt a lack of pain for once after getting hurt awhile back. However, once it really started to sink in that Vinyl was nowhere in sight is when pain started to creep back into your legs again. Like everything, your meeting was short-lived. Ace popped by your side without you noticing. “I see that you found a nice mare to talk to.” Ace teased, trying hard not to laugh. “Yeah, shame she kind of just disappeared.” You mutter sadly. “What are you talking about? She’s the DJ for the night. You’ll have plenty of chances to talk with her again!” Ace explained. It was a faint ray of hope that made you feel hopeful. Ace took notice of the look of excitement on your face since he just snickered at you. “Until then, just hang around. Come along with me.” Ace gestured you to follow him to the bar. As you followed Ace, the feeling of hope was really starting to uplift your mood. It was like someone gave you laughing gas or something, a smile was spreading so wide across your face at this point. Ace looked back and saw your rather merry smile. He just shook his head and rolled his eyes. “Mares.” Ace muttered more to himself.