//------------------------------//
// This curve is your smile 
// Story: TCB: The Red Shoes 
// by Madrigal Baroque 
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Of course, something had to ruin things. It was how the Earth worked; nothing good ever lasted.

On her third morning as a pony, Featherfall was walking between Lilac and Chip down the main hallway when a tall, green-clad human barreled into them, making them scatter. Lilac hit the wall, Chip staggered sideways, and Feather had to go flap her wings in the confined space to keep from falling. She nearly bumped her head on the ceiling. "Hey, watch where the hay you're going!" she shouted after the running figure, who didn't even pause.

Lilac started running after whoever it was, and Chip clambered to his hooves, wide-eyed. "That was Tib!" He galloped after Lilac.

Featherfall folded her wings and followed after, frowning. Tib was never the most graceful at the best of times. She was the last person who should be running full tilt down a corridor full of humans and ponies.

She'd almost reached the door of the lobby when she heard Tib's wail. "She daid!"

Feather skidded to a halt beside Chip. She saw Tib standing at the reception desk, her hands slammed flat on the plaswood surface. "Eun-sook, she be layin' back dere in her bunk stone col' daid! She passed in de night an' I never knew not'in', me!"

"No!" Chip stood frozen, wide-eyed. Lilac began quietly sobbing. Featherfall tried to push past the two earth ponies, but they were blocking the doorway. She saw Beth escorting Tib, who was now wailing in mangled French, down the other corridor, towards the medical wing.

"She was fine yesterday!" Lilac cried out. "She went up to the roof with us! We went to watch you fly, Feather. She was fine then! How could she just…just…like that?!" She buried her face against Chip's shoulder and bawled.

"She…she was just…old." Chip's brown eyes were streaming tears. "Poor Eun-sook. Poor Tib." He hitched a sob. "Poor us."

It was only when she felt her cheeks getting wet that Feather realized she was crying, too. The selfishness that had allowed her to flourish for almost a decade in professional ballet was completely gone. She wept for herself, yes, but she was far sadder for Eun-sook, who would never see Equestria now. If the unicorns were right, the little old lady who was so compassionate and wise beneath her gruff manner was gone. Gone forever.

A gurney was rattling across the lobby towards them. Pastern was pushing it at a full run,  her face set in a deep scowl of determination. "MOVE!!!" she bellowed, and the three ponies scattered out of her way into the lobby as she flew past with the gurney, Lynn on her heels.

Featherfall stared after them. "Why are they in such a hurry if Eun-sook is…isn't alive anymore?"

"Maybe Tib was wrong." There was desperate hope in Chip's voice. "Tib isn't a doctor. Maybe Doctor Pastern can help her." He nuzzled Lilac and Featherfall in turn. "I bet she can."

The gurney came rattling back, with Pastern at the front, pulling it behind her while Lynn pushed at the back. The trio of ponies parted again to let them pass–Lilac and Chip to the left, Featherfall to the right. So only Feather saw Eun-sook's face, which was turned towards her side. The old woman's skin was bluish white, her lips parted, her half-lidded eyes dull gray marbles. 

She couldn't possibly have been any more dead.

All unaware, or perhaps in deep denial, Chip and Lilac trotted after the gurney, halting only when Lynn turned and held up a hand to forestall them as she and the doctor guided the gurney with its small burden through the open steel door, which shut and locked behond them.

Featherfall moved to stand with the yellow stallion and the lavender mare. They all watched as a purple light flickered on above the door.  It bore the symbol for thaumatic radiation, warning off the unwary.

"They took her to the Pony Room," Chip told them. "See? They wouldn't do that if she was…if they couldn't save her."

Sniffling, Lilac nodded. "She's just sick, that's all. Really sick. They're going to ponify her and make her all better. She's going to be okay…" She tried so hard to smile. She couldn't quite manage. "She's really going to be okay. Right, Feather?"

Featherfall couldn't meet those hopelessly hopeful eyes. She just stared at the closed door to the Pony Room.

She wished she still prayed. There was no one to pray to, though. Except…

Celestia. No, Luna–you're the one who escorts the dead. Don't take Eun-sook away. Don't let her slip into the nothing that waits for all humans who don't Convert. Please, Luna, let Eun-sook live.

Let her be a pony.

The three of them waited at the head of the hallway. No more words were exchanged. Minutes passed, minutes that seemed like hours. The average transformation took about fifteen minutes, twenty at most. Roslyn Pastern ran an extremely tight schedule; if they'd actually managed to save her, Eun-sook would be trotting out on four hooves by now.

Don't be stupid. They couldn't save her. She was…she was dead. There's no coming back from that. Not for an unconverted huma–

The door opened, and all three of them tensed, staring. Chip and Lilac looked hopeful.  Featherfall looked grim, awaiting the inevitable.

Tib came out, hunched over. Her long arms encircled and supported a tiny blue-green unicorn with a mane and tail of variegated silken fire.

Lilac squealed and galloped down the hall. Tib halted and held up her hand. Lilac skidded to a stop so hard she sat down on the tile. "Careful," Tib warned, one arm still supporting the unicorn. "She's a bit unsteady on her hooves."

"There you go again," Eun-sook's gravelly voice muttered from the unicorn's mouth. "Giving out too much information."

Lilac was bouncing up and down with glee. Chip was either laughing or crying with relief.

Featherfall silently thanked the Princess of the Moon.

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