“It has been five days, I don’t think she will be getting better anytime soon.”
A strange figure is standing across the room, your vision blurred from the tears in your face, an overhead light behind the pony made it seem as though he was only a silhouette. You hated that shape at that moment, they hated themselves, too. Being the one to bring bad news was never a strong point for anyone, even doctors, but somepony had to do it, somepony had to tell you that your best friend may not live to see the next day.
“I wish...” your choking up was impeding your speech, not impossible, but hard. “I wish it it was me...” you knew from the moment you said those words that they were true, a speech from the heart, spoken a million times before, you didn’t believe anyone until you yourself actually used them.
“A million others as well,” the doctor said condescendingly, “she was a good mare, one of courage, a friend... one everyone looked up to,” even he was shaken by this dramatic turn of events. You couldn’t do anything, it made you feel so helpless to know that you may lose her at any moment. It was as if it happened yesterday, the memory eternally branded into the back of your mind, fading from the doctors office as you recall it.
An enormous crowd, thousands of cheering fans lined up to view the living spectacle, the wondrous musician, Vinyl Scratch, a revolutionary in the new age of modern music, she had carried the gauntlet from classic to electric seamlessly, years of experience and practice, the only one of her kind in their land. She was walking past the crowd to the stage, handing out hoof bumps, and generally being a good face to the crowd.
One bullet. It was a paralyzing shot, the kind nopony recovers from. She was rushed to the hospital immediately, the culprit was arrested, convicted, and eventually even sentenced to life in prison since then... but nothing made up for what happened to the once amazing star, whom had carried the art of music so far in the pony world, everypony was watching, waiting to hear from the hospital and its inhabitants, none more than her closest friend (whose name I won't make up because you ARE that character), shocked by the revealing news had been constantly visiting her for what had now been a year, every day she was getting worse, a smile hadn’t graced her for a while, happiness was now an idea, not an emotion, the only thing that existed anymore was the constant of a pulse monitor, beeping every time the heartbeat was sensed, and the dripping of an IV, full of some fluid that seemed to do nothing for her, even if the doctors said it helped, she was dying, and you could only watch.
That was all a while ago, your general sorrow still clung to you, but you were used to being sad by now. This was the mark of the first year, a year since the terrible day, the one where you lost a friend and gained a patient. The reports said it all, she wasn’t going to last much longer, you didn’t want to admit it, she was stronger than this, you said it every time you saw her, to yourself and aloud, until the nurse had to take you out of the room, with you screaming at the top of your lungs, crying out for what you once had, a friend, an ally, someone to lean on, now they needed you, but you weren’t sure you could take it, even if you had been through this a million times before, it is hard to look strong when the only person you ever held close may be lost, like a wisp, floating away on a warm breeze, into the vast wasteland that was nothing.
The doctor stood in front of you, his condescendence hadn’t evaded him since you had first met him, he wasn’t like the others in the way that he could connect with you, better than most at least, no one got you like vinyl did. He knew the drill as well as anyone else, you were here to visit her, like many others, weeping over the mare, the superstar, the friend, the hero. As this passed through your mind you cringed, holding back the flow of emotion that you had built up after so long. It was hard to deal with, but you had to, the cameras were watching, people looking for someone with a sign of strength, even vinyl seemed to feed off of your smile when you could show one.
You brushed past the doctor into the room, it has been about a week since you last visited because you have been dealing with some important matters, mostly talking with twilight at her library in ponyville, you two knew each other a bit, twilight had once lived in canterlot, talking occasionally but still enveloped in literature and other pieces of written work. There must have been some book out there to help her friend vinyl, and there was, that was why you were here now, to tell her about your discovery, hours pouring over text, taking notes, extracting samples from the everfree forest, you might just have a shot.
You approached vinyl at her bedside, the clip-clop of your hooves audible throughout the room. She was happy to see you again, like always, you were just surprised she hadn’t-BUH-BOOM-...she had.
“Ey, *cough* glad you’re here, I was just about to test my new setup!” she spoke confidently, she had “tested” this setup before, and by setup she meant 8 10” subwoofers underneath the bed pointed upwards, the boom was of her plugging in her mobile phone using her horn, this was going to be good... The subwoofers began to softly vibrate, the volume began to increase, at first slowly but now reaching a very loud volume very fast, vinyl was bouncing in the bed uncontrollably, you could barely hear anything accept for the loud roar of eight magnetic pistons shoving air into your face indirectly. Then it stopped, as quickly as it began.
“Works like a charm every time,” Vinyl had a smile on her face, the loud subwoofers were one of the only things keeping her mind at bay while trapped in a hospital bed.
“Perhaps you need some rest, from something like... that,” Vinyl smiled at your sarcastic remark.