//------------------------------// // Part 25 // Story: Silent Ponyville: Reunion // by Chapter 17 //------------------------------// Silent Ponyville: Reunion Sickness unto foolish death. Part 25 ------ Lance stepped out of the entryway having just gotten home from a long, long first shift at Cloudsdale General. Being the first qualified pegasus at a hospital that had been starved for residential surgeons for so long was about as demanding as he had thought it would be. Still, the warm welcome he had received had more than made up for it, and really there wasn't even anything to make up for in the first place. He was living his dream, and now he got to come home to their newly purchased Cloudsdale home to see his wife sitting on the couch in the living room with a sleeping foal in her hooves. She turned as she she heard him come through the door, and smiled at him as he stepped into view. They both looked tired as the dead. "About time," Posey teased quietly. "What happened to 'two day shift'?" "Between a couple emergency patients and telling the administrator what proper equipment looks like it turned into just shy of a three day shift," he replied in a soft whisper as he walked over and gave her a soft kiss, then looked down to admire his peacefully sleeping daughter. "Was she good?" "About as good as an infant foal can be." "That bad huh?" "Yep," she confirmed with a nod. "I figured you would be home sometime tonight, so we just camped out here after she finally fell asleep." She ever so gently elevated Fluttershy, offering her to her father who then, exercising the utmost caution, took the sleeping filly in his hooves. There was a hushed gasp as she fidgeted about and made a soft whining noise in her sleep, but she did not wake up as her parents had feared. They both sighed in relief, then Lance lifted off the ground in a gentle hover toward the stairs and up to Fluttershy's room. Once she was tucked into her crib and still resting quietly, they retreated back to the hallway and silently closed the door behind them before heading back down to the couch in the living room. "So how was your...days?" she asked once they had settled down next to one another. His first reply was a beleaguered sigh. "Remember when I said Cloudsdale General was just a glorified waiting room for Canterlot Medical Center?" She nodded. "I was exaggerating even less than I thought I was," he said while bringing a hoof up to his forehead. "With their set up, the best they can do is stabilize a patient and arrange transportation. There wasn't enough staff, the training they had was bare bones, their equipment was outdated-I mean, the oxygen masks they had weren't even up to snuff. I had to explain to somepony why they started making them with more exhalation vents and clear plastic. Why did I have to explain that to somepony in a hospital?" Posey placed a hoof on his to snap him out of it. "Other than that though?" "Other than that..." he began, lowering his hoof. "It was...great...I got to operate, and nopony asked me to move a single cloud or anything. The administrator thinks he can solve the funding issues by pressing the whole 'pride of Cloudsdale' angle with the city council, especially considering all the attention that was given to my graduation. Everything's really looking up from here Posey." He ended the explanation with another tired, yet genuine smile. "Good, it's been a long three days and I didn't want you coming home grumpy on top of it," she replied with a half lidded grin before giving him a proper welcome home kiss now that young eyes were comfortably tucked into their crib. He quickly set to more actively participating, and neither of them kept track of time until they parted lips to catch their breath, leaning nuzzled against one another as they did. "I'm sorry I haven't been here to help more. How about I take over tomorrow, hrm? Let you get a little 'you' time and catch up on some sleep?" he offered. "Mmm that sounds lovely...but right now I'm more concerned with getting a little 'us' time," she whispered before placing a nip on his neck that was quite difficult to misinterpret. "Seriously?" he said in disbelief before coming to his senses and stammering a clarification. "I mean...yeah, I'm not going to turn you down...but you look exhausted Posey," he pointed out with a bit of concern. "I know, I really am, and you don't look much better off either," she started, a soft blush on her cheeks as she backed away from her advances a little. "But...we're both here, we're both awake, Fluttershy's asleep...and it's been months Lance...months upon months. I don't know when we're going to get another chance like this. We might just have to take what we can get even if we're both run ragged." It was true. First Fluttershy had been born. Then Lance had been busy with the internship at Manehatten General. Then they'd had to go house hunting in Cloudsdale. Then there was the big move back home and all the settling of accounts and moving of objects it entailed. Now Lance was having to put in even more time trying to whip Cloudsdale General into shape. Throughout all of it, every single thing they did, they did while also taking diligent care of their much beloved daughter. Life as of late had simply set the treadmill speed to maximum, torn off the dial, and left them to try and not fall off. "That's a good poi-" "But if you're too tired I'll understand," Posey said with faux disappointment as she stepped past him, letting her tail brush against the underside of his jaw. "Guess I'll just get something to drink and go to bed then," she continued teasingly as she started walking toward their kitchen. Half a moment later a smirking stallion had dashed beneath her and lifted her off of her hooves on his back, eliciting a pleasantly surprised squeal from her before climbing the staircase. "Oh no, somepony help me, I'm being ponynapped by this brilliant, handsome stud!" she said in feigned distress as she hugged him tightly from her spot atop of him. "Wait what? Why can't I be rescuing from something instead of ponynapping you?" he asked, briefly dropping his confident smirk from moments prior. "I called you brilliant and handsome, what more do you want?" she replied in playful derision, the married couple sharing a quiet chuckle before Lance stepped into their bedroom and closed the door. To their credit they managed to get within a yard of their bed before they heard the splitting cry of a foal whose world was absolutely shattering around her from having woken up hungry and alone in the dark because that was seriously the worst thing. They both sighed as Posey hopped down. "I got it, get comfy," Lance said as he turned toward the door. "Thanks sweetheart." Though some of the enthusiasm had left her voice she was sure to at least give his rump an assuring pat on the way out. Lance was still learning when it came to being a father, but at that point months into Fluttershy's life he was at least getting the basics down. He managed to get her fed, check her diaper, and gently rock her back into a deep enough sleep that he could tuck her back into her crib inside of fifty minutes. After taking a moment to confirm that she was sleeping comfortably and soundly, he flicked the light back off and returned to the master bedroom. Posey lay there with her limbs stretched out every which way, making a soft snoring noise as her unconscious body tried to claim as much bed space as it possibly could. He sighed in an odd mix of amusement and disappointment before he pulled a blanket over her that she immediately pulled around herself in her sleep. Lance leaned in and kissed her cheek, being careful not to wake her and figuring he could bear sleeping on the couch that night if it meant she was able to get a full night's rest. ------ Screaming. Flesh tearing. Bone cracking. Disturbingly enthralled, bestial moans. He'd been in the hallway hadn't he? Why was he suddenly back in front of the steel door looking at a note that had been spiked to it?! You know, something occurred to me. You really didn't keep up your half of this friendship like I did. Buck the note. He didn't have time for the notes. He had to get back to the door before it was too late! He ran around the corner to his left again, trying to keep his eyes focused to the right so he wouldn't be able to see when door 303 lit up at the far side. But as soon as he rounded the corner he came face to face with it, the blasted door seemingly having read his mind before shifting to the exact spot he would be looking. ------ "Posey!" "BEH!" she cried out as she rolled right off the bed in her waking alarm and took the blankets with her. She soon became conscious of a familiar high pitched wailing that had kept her awake many a night. When she managed to disentangle herself from the blankets she looked up to see her husband standing there with a look of complete helplessness on his face, a pediatric medical book tucked under one wing, and Fluttershy bawling her eyes out while looking up at him from her spot on the floor beside him with a bit of gauze wrapped to her knee. "I'm sorry, I know you were napping but I just can't get her to stop!" he lamented in as apologetic a manner as he could. She maintained a deadpan stare while she slowly looked from him, to Fluttershy, and back again. "You're serious?" "Uh..." he stammered, shades of inadequacy somewhat diluting his alarm. When he wasn't immediately forthcoming with anything else to say, Posey grumbled and stood up, stepping out into the hallway and heading downstairs with her husband and daughter following behind. "She um, she was chasing me around in the living room right? Then she accidentally tripped over her doll and scraped her knee." "I do not need this right now," Posey mumbled as her husband continued to talk with such volume that he was audible over the keening cries of their daughter. "So I took her into the bathroom, cleaned the scrape off, then put some disinfectant balm on it and bandaged it. It said 'pain relief' on the label. They can't put that on there unless it relieves pain right?" He was still a bit paranoid about medicinal goods that weren't passed over a pharmacy counter, especially when they were used on his daughter. She said nothing as they entered the living room. Still all but ignoring Lance's ramblings, she looked about at the mess of toys and pillows that Fluttershy had made of the place in her play time, and set about to grouping a few of said pillows together. "I mean I understand it doesn't take effect instantly or something like that but it's been twenty straight minutes and she's still crying her lungs out! She's not hungry, her diaper's clean, and I've spent the last ten minutes flipping through this book looking for congenital nerve disorders that might cause this sort of thing!" he continued unabated, now freely pursuing whatever horrid scenarios his mind could conjure without a second's thought as to their validity. Satisfied with her work, she looked back to her husband and pointed a hoof at the few assembled pillows. "What are you...honey this could be serious, and it could get more serious if we don't diagno-" "On. The. Pillows." she said through her teeth, her deadpan stare having not gotten any friendlier as she continued pointing at them. Lance decided to do the reasonable thing and just go ahead and lie down on the pillows before the scary mare he'd married got any scarier. No sooner had he done this than Fluttershy crawled into his hooves, snuggled against his chest, and let her eardrum piercing sobs simmer down to a mere whimper. He looked down at the little bundle of foal in his embrace with a stunned look on his face, followed by a prompt droop of his ears and an examination of the floor next to him, so struck was he with the distinct sensation of being the stupidest sentient organism on the entire planet. "Oh." "How do you rock her to sleep at night and then not instantly think of that?" she scolded wearily as she flopped down on the floor by his side and leaned against him in spite of her irritation. "I don't know...I...guess I sort of ran away with-" "I mean...yeah," she interrupted, "I know you're a doctor, with this whole knowledge base I'm blessed to never have to worry about, and I know I might not have a lot of room to talk after the way I acted when I was pregnant, but didn't your parents ever just hold you when you hurt yourself as a kid?" "No," he replied matter of factly. ... "Wait...really?" Posey asked in sad disbelief, her ears lowering much the same as her husband's. "Do you...do you just mean you never got hurt as a kid?" He sighed and gave Fluttershy a soft pat on the back after one of her whimpers was interrupted by a hiccup. "No, I got hurt as a kid same as everypony else. My parents just weren't the...parenting sort of ponies I guess." "You never did really talk about them..." she pondered aloud. "You'd think I would've started needling you about it a long time ago this far along into our relationship." "Heh. I think after how 'fun' it was to deal with your mother you might've just felt it wiser to leave well enough alone," he replied, raising a hoof to make the appropriate air quote gesture. "Maybe so, but now I don't. You're kind of the father of my kid now. This is the sort of thing we need to know about each other...and I need to know you trust me as much as I trusted you when I told you all about my mother, alright?" As she spoke she lowered her head down to the little foal in Lance's hooves and gave her forehead a gentle peck. Fluttershy looked up at her, and though her eyes were still a bit red from crying, she none the less returned the gesture by briefly touching noses with her mother. Although she hadn't grasped the specifics of such actions she apparently had already caught on to the affection behind them. Posey had once again managed to trap Lance in a position of not having a single valid argument with which to counter her point. There was a brief period of mental resistance but in the end he had to just take solace in the fact that there wasn't much to sift through and just get it over with. "Okay honey, what do you want to know?" he relented, briefly distracted as he felt Fluttershy snuggle back against him. "Whatever you're comfortable telling me." She placed her hoof atop of his. "No rush." "There's...not much to tell really. I'm not quite sure what they did exactly, probably accountants of some sort. They were always, always busy. I guess they must have had some really demanding clients. I honestly don't know why they had me, I mean thinking back there were no signs that I was...a surprise," he began, careful to avoid the use of the word 'accident' around his surprise daughter. "I've kind of concluded that having a kid was something on their to do list. Except they didn't raise me so much as just cross me off. "Don't get me wrong, I never went hungry or anything. They were excellent providers but...that's practically all they were. I didn't get bed time stories, I got audio recordings to listen to as I fell asleep. After I learned to read I didn't get advice so much as I got books to read about anything I was curious about. I got passed from sitter to sitter to sitter, and then when I was old enough to stay home alone, I did that most of the time when I wasn't at school. They had pictures of us all on the wall, everypony who came to our house thought they were so proud of me...and on an intellectual level I know that was true. I had a hard time feeling it though. "Between a home life like that and the way the other foals treated me like some kind of nerd plague at school, I got overly comfortable with the prospect of just being by myself my whole life. So after I graduated, I told the folks I would send for help if I really needed it, then took off for Manehatten because I heard their university had turned out a lot of prestigious doctors in the past. Then after a couple years of getting nowhere...I almost crashed into your garden." He couldn't help but smile at the memory of the last bit. It had always struck him as odd that he, as a pegasus, had wound up with a wing injuring crash being one of the most cherished events of his life. "Crashed into my life more like it," she added with reassuring nuzzle. "So does...this thing with your parents still bother you?" "Yeah...it does a little bit." He paused for a moment, considering his words. "It makes me feel...behind the curve I guess, like everypony else got at least some semblance of a socializing and parenting class while they were growing up, and I missed it." Despite her sleep deprivation she couldn't help but chuckle, though she was interrupted by a large yawn that took a while before it allowed her to speak again. "Look around Lance. Think back before we first met and compare it to what you have now. I think you're learning for yourself just fine Doctory Strongshy." He sighed and looked down at Fluttershy, clearly not buying into Posey's assurances. "Right, learning so well that I don't even think to just-" She gently cut him off with a hoof briefly placed over his mouth. "Life isn't surgery Lance. You can afford to mess up, and you're going to, so you just need to get comfortable with the idea and roll with the punches alright? Besides, you just took the extreme risk of waking me up from a nap, and with how little I've gotten to sleep this week," she started before a yawn cut her off and took some of the menace from her words, "you may as well have poked a dragon in the eye. Only good fathers poke dragons in the eye for their daughters. Case closed, now stop implying my husband is a bad father." Lance still didn't particularly feel like smiling, but he put one on for her. "Alright Posey...and might I say you are the most patient and understanding dragon I've ever met...plus you still have beautiful bedmane," he added, the fake smile turning into a genuine smirk. "Shush, pillows don't talk," she replied as she shifted position to lie perpendicular with him and rest her head on his back just behind his wings. "Wait, you're actually going to sleep right here?" "Yep, you woke me up so you get to help me finish my nap," she reasoned before yawning for a third time and letting her eyes close. "S'only fair." He was about to offer some form of protest but then after a small movement in his forelegs he looked down again to see Fluttershy nodding off herself. He didn't need to fake his smile that time, leaning his head down to brush a stray strand of pink mane from her face with his nose. There wasn't any pressing matter he had to attend to anyway, he could manage to help his family get some sleep. "Night you two." "Mmm, night," Posey murmured. "You know, not to be mean, but I'm glad your parents were just the neglectful sort." "What?" he asked with a raised eyebrow, not quite sure how to take the sentiment. "Just..from the way you were acting I half expected that they had beaten you or something." ------ The distressed gurgling noise that first reached his ears was something awful that he instantly recognized. Somepony was in the most extreme of pain but had become far too damaged to express it. But he didn't know the specifics. He could not know the specifics because he could not see through the steel door and note in front of him. So it only made sense that I not keep my half up either. You can have these back. Another sickening crack behind the door accompanied the horrible jolt down his spine as he realized what was happening. He could hear every slice of skin, every tear of muscle fiber, every spatter of blood, every exhaled breath both tortured and thrilled, as though the door weren't even there. "Not now, not now!" he plead in desperation as he rounded the corner and made another attempt at the door that would lead him back to Posey. Lance moved his right hoof along the wall and kept his eyes focused on the floor, because if he couldn't see any doors he wouldn't be able to see that door. Unless it were in the floor...like it was. Lance heard a large mare sighing in contentment in time with another crack of bone as he stared dumbstruck at the door 303 on which he had somehow come to stand. ------ "Happy Anniversary, Lance," Posey offered as she held up her glass of champagne for a toast. "Happy Anniversary, Posey," Lance reciprocated, the no longer newly wedded couple clinking their glasses together before enjoying a sip of their drinks. They had elected to limit themselves to one glass that evening despite the special occasion. Fluttershy's first birthday had taken place about a month ago, and although her sleep pattern had become more predictable with age, and she was sleeping soundly at that very moment, there was still no guarantee it would remain that way. Still, this anniversary was already far better than their first. They had been so busy with a newborn Fluttershy at the time that the date had come and gone without their being any the wiser until a month after the fact. It was not a fancy affair, just like the wedding it commemorated. This time the lack of extravagance wasn't due to a lack of funds so much as a lack of assistance. Despite their best efforts, they couldn't find a baby sitter, which had ruled out an evening at a nice restaurant or something of the sort. Instead they had opted for a quiet dinner together on the back balcony, where they could peacefully enjoy one another's company and watch the sunset like they had been unable to do since the move to Cloudsdale. There was also the matter of gifts to exchange, and since they had already partaken of dinner before moving on to their one drink of the evening, it seemed a proper time to open them. "So, I hope you don't mind that I skipped ahead about a decade for this one," Posey said with a smile as she set down her glass and pushed a small packaged wrapped in white paper with silver ribbons over to him. "Skipped a...what?" Lance asked, ignorant of whatever traditions she was referencing. "You know, you're supposed to wait until the fifteenth to...oh, just open it!" Her smile grew as she gave it another nudge toward him with her snout. "Okay okay," he relented with a chuckle. The wrapping paper was easily torn through, leaving him to just pluck the top off the box to reveal what was inside. It was a silver pocket watch...but not just any silver pocket watch. "Wow...is this...this was your father's wasn't it?" he asked, holding up the timepiece for the both of them to admire. "There's something different though...I don't remember this rod and serpent on the cover at my graduation." "You shouldn't! I couldn't just dig my father's watch out of the closet and give it to you as an anniversary gift, so I had it customized with something a little more 'you'," she said as she pointed to the newly etched engraving with her hoof. "You're lucky the jeweler knew his symbols. The first design I asked for was the cane with the wings, but when he heard it was for a doctor he pointed out that the rod and serpent was a better match." "Wow...are you...really sure you want me to have this?" Impressed as he was, he was still holding what amounted to an heirloom that had been rightfully passed down Posey. But her only response to maintain her smile and nod enthusiastically. "Yes, I'm sure. My father gave it to me, so it's mine, and I can give it to whomever I want, and I want you to have it. It'll do Equestria a lot more good in the hooves of a doctor than a business owner," she replied with the utmost certainty. "Well...thank you Posey. I love it," he said gratefully as he replaced the watch in its box. "I'll keep it in my coat pocket at work. I can't wear it during surgery, but if I have it close at hoof at all other times the good luck should have a chance to concentrate enough." He could still scarcely believe himself capable of saying such sappy things and meaning them...but he took it as just being proof that Posey had changed him for the better. Now, with lucky watch safely in his possession, it was time to fulfill his half of the gift exchange. "Your turn," he said as he pushed a notably larger present wrapped in light green paper and a purple bow. "Hrm, doesn't look like fine china," she pondered curiously as she examined the box. Lance laughed quietly and shook his head. "Posey you're seriously going to have to fill me in on whatever it is you're talking about later, because I have no idea." "Will do!" she said with another nod before promptly obliterating the wrapping paper separating her and her present. One pop of a box top later and her eyes grew large and sparkling. "Oh my gosh Lance!" she gushed as she pulled a music box that she had recently grown quite acquainted with through the window of a local store. It was structurally simple, but the various engravings along the side of the box were of exquisite artistry, depicting a pattern of some of Posey's favorite types of flowers. Carefully opening the hinged top, she proceeded to wind the little crank inside and then let it begin playing the song she had before only been able to hear through glass. "You skipped over two decades for this one," she proclaimed happily. He wasn't going to bother asking what she meant that time, instead choosing to just bask in the joy she was radiating. "So...you like it then?" he asked as though it weren't already abundantly clear, bearing a telltale smirk. "No it's awful," she replied sarcastically with a knowing giggle. "How did you know?" "See, I used my super husband powers to deduce that you wanted this music box when I saw you doing this number at the mall," he explained before feigning an absolute trance in the direction of the music box. "Oh shut up!" she faux scolded with a playful sock to his shoulder before pulling him into a tight hug. "Thank you so much Lance, this is wonderful." "You're welcome Posey. Sounds like a bit of a sad tune though," Lance observed, having never heard it for himself until that point. "I like it. It can be sad, or soothing, or bittersweet. It's a very versatile song to me," she clarified as she continued cuddling up against him. "Hrm...I don't hear it, but I guess I'll see what you mean if I just keep listening." He returned the gesture, and they spent a blissful few minutes listening to the melody together as the internal spring inside the music box wound down. ------ There was no sound behind the door anymore. Why wasn't there any sound?! He was back where he started again, there in front of the steel door, reading another note in silence broken up only by the soft buzzing of his watch. This isn't a bad time...is it? A single mote of anger suddenly surged past his horror and panic, prompting Lance to tear the note off the wall in a useless display of contempt before leaving it to glide to the floor as he made another attempt to get to his beloved. He wouldn't make it though. He could not make it. As though the complete silence did not speak sufficiently enough to that end, the hallway packed to the brim with copies of door 303 filled in the gaps. Every door was now the white, numbered abomination. There were doors on the wall space between doors. There were doors in the floor. There were doors in the ceiling. The corridor had been transformed into a procession of white painted, hinged wooden panels, and for the first time he wanted desperately to be looking at the nightmarish assemblies of flesh, blood, rust, and metal instead. Clear as day, as though right next to him, he heard a single, weak, exhaled breath of somepony completely giving up...on everything. He tried to scream but never got the chance. ------ Lance squinted at his house in the distance as he neared the end of his trip home following another long shift at the hospital. Something was wrong. It wasn't just the usual paranoia he expected of himself either; something was observably, seriously wrong. There was a small speck of yellow and pink in the front yard without a cream and purple colored dot to go with it. The weariness of the last couple days swiftly forgotten, he put on another burst of speed to cut through the air even faster and land in front of his family's abode all the sooner. Fluttershy was lying there in a miserable heap, sobbing softly to herself...alone and unattended in their front yard. "What are you doing out here sweetie? You know you're not supposed to be out front alone," he asked as he approached, folding his wings back against his body. Fluttershy looked up with reddened, tear laden eyes then scrambled to her hooves and ran over to him. "I'm...I'm sorry Daddy..." she managed to choke out as she hugged one of his forelegs, clearly believing she was now in trouble in addition to whatever terrible thing had just happened to her. "Shh, it's okay, I'm not mad," he assured her before gently picking her up so she could get on his back. He felt a little pair of hooves take hold of the back of his neck, followed by his daughter burying her face in her father's coat as her body shook with another tiny sob. "Just tell me what happened, okay?" He stood there waiting patiently until Fluttershy could manage to form words through her weeping. "M-momma she...she was yelling at me and...and then...then..." she started before being briefly cut off by a hiccup, "then she pushed me out here and...and closed the door and...and I tried going back inside like you and momma told me to daddy...but the door was stuck and...and she yelled at me to go away!" Lance's looked at her in disbelief that had already started turning into all out anxiety by the time he opened his mouth to reply. "You remember the talk we had about telling the truth and fibbing?" "Uh huh," she answered with a nod, wiping her eyes to try and see more clearly. "You're not fibbing are you?" he asked with a critically raised eyebrow. "No daddy! I'm not fibbing!" she said with an emphatic shake of her head. He didn't say anything, simply looking briefly at the cloudy ground before looking back up to their front door with worry. They would certainly find out one way or another wouldn't they? Lance gave their front door a few solid knocks. "Posey, I'm home, can you hear me?" Hoof steps quickly approached the door, followed by a series of clicks as the lock and dead bolt were undone, followed by the door opening to reveal a perfectly normal looking Posey standing there before him. He briefly felt relief as he looked into his wife's smiling face. "Welcome back honey, you wouldn't not believe the day I've had-" she started before she spotted the little filly sitting on her husband's back. Her smile quickly morphed to an alarming scowl of annoyance. "I told you to go home little girl! Didn't your parents every teach you to not sneak into other pony's houses?!" she scolded, her voice laden with genuine anger. Fluttershy whimpered and made her best attempt to hide herself in her father's mane. Lance stood there gobsmacked with mouth agape, still scarcely believing what was happening even though it was indeed happening right in front of his face. "What?" Posey asked incredulously as she spotted his expression. "I go to the kitchen to make myself a sandwich and when I get back to the living room she's just sitting there on our couch acting like she lives here. What else was I supposed to do besides shoo her out?" ... "Lance?" she prodded again, starting to look a bit worried at his continued lack of response and sustained look of complete shock. "Posey...this is Fluttershy..." he said finally, moving his head aside so that she could get a better look at their offspring. "Oh, good, you found out her name, maybe we can find her parents so I can give them a piece of my mi-" "She's our daughter!" Of all the corrections he had ever anticipated having to make for her...this had never been one of them. "Is this a joke or something? Because it's not funny!" "What? That's...that's impossible, we don't...have a...daughter...?" Her words progressed quickly from confidence to confusion. By the time she had descended back into silence she wasn't looking at Lance so much as just gazing at nothing in his general direction, her eyes moving slightly at intervals as though struggling mightily with something she didn't understand. "Yes we do, she's right here, do you seriously not remember her? Her room is right upstairs Posey, she does live here, she has lived here, for years now. She just decided last month to name her doll Ashley after that filly from her favorite bed time story that you read for her at least three nights out of the week? Uh...she was helping you in your garden four days ago and accidentally stepped on one of your flowers, then felt so bad that she wouldn't let you do anything else until you showed her how to plant another one?" he said, throwing any specific memories that came to mind to try and making something, anything stick. Now Posey was the one being silent and bewildered. She sank back to a sitting position, staring down toward Lance's hooves, still lost in thoughts that just weren't adding up. Slowly, her gaze rose to look at the two of them, unable to think of anything to say, eyes pleading for some kind of answer to present itself. ... "Mommy?" Fluttershy squeaked before hiccuping a second time. He could swear he saw the exact moment when the right spark went to the right place in her head. Posey's nebulous expression solidified into a tearful, mortified grimace as everything lined up again and she realized what she had just done. "Oh my gosh I'm so sorry angel!" she sobbed as she plucked her daughter off Lance's back and trapped her in a tight hug. "Mommy you remembered!" the little filly said, overjoyed to be in the warm embrace of her mother's hooves again. The bliss of her youthful ignorance spared her from realizing the implications of what had just happened. As far as she was concerned all was right with the world once more. "Yes, I remembered...I'm sorry I did that sweetie, mommy's never going to do that again okay?" Posey apologized, fighting the urge to break down and cry from the overwhelming guilt now jabbing at her chest. "Okay Mommy," Fluttershy replied. She was trying to return the hug but such small fore legs as hers could only do so much in reciprocating. After one last squeeze, her mother gently set her back down on the floor and gave her a quick kiss on the forehead after pausing to wipe her eyes. "Go uh...go play with Ashley baby, I want to...hear about how Daddy's day went," she suggested. "Okay!" Their daughter proceed to scamper off to find her best friend in the next room, leaving the two parents alone with one another. .... .... "So um...that... that just happened," Posey finally said, wringing her hooves with concern. "Have you been feeling alright?" Lance asked as he brought a hoof up to her forehead. "I guess?" She brushed his hoof away. While neither of them knew exactly what was going on, she knew for a fact she didn't have a fever of any sort. "I was...sort of walking a bit off kilter for an hour or two the other day for no reason...but that stopped, so I shrugged it off as being tired or something. That's nothing to worry about right? I mean how does that jump all the way to forgetting who my daughter is and...and..." She couldn't complete the sentence. Instead she shifted topics a bit so that the sound of the crying she so desperately wanted to do right then wouldn't draw Fluttershy back into the room. "We need to see who's available to babysit. I don't want her stuck in a hospital waiting room for hours and hours." "I'll take care of everything honey. Go get some tea and try to relax in the meantime okay? It's...probably not something worth worrying too much over...maybe you just get really weird migraines," he lied quite blatantly. His words very much contradicted the thoughts blazing unbidden through his head, but he'd learned that sometimes the last thing somepony needed to hear were his actual thoughts. This qualified as a 'sometime', several times over. Posey nodded, managing to force a small smile for him. She knew he wasn't telling her what he really thought, and he knew he wasn't fooling anypony. But that was alright. Sometimes a deception that was both obvious and accepted by everypony was the only way to move ahead while keeping chins held upward. "Please hurry Lance...I never want to do that to her again...ever." ------ There was still no sound behind the steel door. There was no new note there to greet him either. The only thing that had changed was the copious flow of blood seeping from beneath the door and dripping through the grating into the blackness below. His breath wanted to come faster but he felt like he couldn't breathe. There were a million things he wanted to say but found himself without any words to say them. He wanted to scream but couldn't make a single sound. All he could do was move. He ran back to the corridor again. It had returned to the expected rusted, bloody architecture. There was no door 303 to stop him. Finally he was able to reach the right door, able to twist the nob, and able to get into the room at long last. The floor was cracked, mold riddled concrete with exposed, rusted segments of rebar instead of more grating. There seemed no other reason for this sudden change than to let him get a good look at the large bloody hoof prints leading off to his left. Lance traced them back to the source, off to his right, and just like that he felt like the contents of his chest cavity had disappeared into a black void that was trying to make his ribcage collapse inward. He moved slowly, step by painful step, toward the steel door, stunned but somehow still able to will himself to motion. Just in front of the door, there was a sheet that was almost solid red for all the blood that had stained it. It hid six lumps beneath it, none of which seemed to be connected to one another in the least. The center lump was the largest, about the size of an average pony's torso. It was surrounded by the other five, four of which resembled limbs...with the fifth in front unmistakably being a head. There was so much blood splattered everywhere...the floor...the walls...the door...the ceiling. As he moved closed he felt his hoof tap something and his gaze jerked downward in surprise. It was a copy of 'The Mastery of Sewing' with a spool of thread and a needle sitting atop of it. His face contorted in a brief spike of rage as he batted the book aside, before the short lived flame was snuffed out by the mental static that was making him feel everything and nothing all at once. He could swear he even heard buzzing in his ears even though his watch wasn't making a peep. Lance's brain felt utterly broken and useless, leaving his body no other choice than to act on impulse, and what else could one so completely destroyed as he do in a room where a sheet was covering something of potentially intense interest...assuming it was real? It could be a trick...it could be another hallucination...maybe it was a dream he was having without any memory of going to sleep. Those things had happened already. They could happen again, right? There was a chance that none of this was real...or at least he needed there to be one. Lance stood there trapped inside his head as his hoof moved without his permission, taking hold of the sheet. He spent what felt to be a very long while like that, unmoving, like his body was giving his brain a chance to interject. When no objection was forthcoming his hoof started to raise up, taking the sheet with it. It didn't get very far. When he saw the single lock of blood encrusted purple hair his brain started working again, and the tides turned completely. Everything the mental buzzing had been holding back suddenly came crashing into him all at once. He stumbled backward and collapsed to lie on his stomach as his legs became useless, closed his eyes tightly as the sudden flood of tears made it impossible to see anything, and covered his head with his hooves as the wail of pain once restrained came tearing out of his throat. So consumed was he that he didn't notice the accompanying blaring of a siren in the distance. The lantern...her lantern...that had been his last source of light, finally flickered out and died. ------ "Why didn't you get me sooner?!" Lance retorted as he flew through the air next to a light green coated pegasus mare that lived in the house next to theirs. "I tried, they told me you were in surgery and couldn't be interrupted for anything!" she explained, ignoring the irate tone behind the words just tossed at her. "Well you...I...augh!" he relented with great frustration. There was nopony to blame, or yell at, it had all been down to bad luck and he hated it. The Strongshy house came into view as they banked past another large cloud then put more speed into the home stretch. He hit the ground at a gallop and barely slowed down to open the door, practically ramming through it and sprinting past the entryway into his living room. Posey was lying on the floor, covered in a blanket with her head resting on a pillow. Fluttershy was sitting next to her, the two of them apparently having been passing the time reading through one of her beginners reading books while waiting for help to arrive. Posey had collapsed and been unable to get back to her hooves despite her best efforts. She had told Fluttershy to go get the neighboring mare she knew was trustworthy, and had then asked her to send word to her husband. With how much time had passed since then, she had been lying there helpless for upwards of four hours or more. In spite of this she was smiling, talking her daughter through sounding out the new words and keeping her calm in the midst of the crisis she was going through out of nowhere. But as she noticed Lance entered and looked up toward him, she could still see the fear in her eyes. "Hello dear," she greeted him. She shifted beneath the blanket in an apparent attempt to at least sit up, but her legs still weren't cooperating. Fortunately Fluttershy was already faced away and moving toward her father, missing the helpless sadness that briefly flashed across her mother's face. "Hi daddy," their daughter said, holding her hooves up for a hug that her father happily provided. "Hey kiddo...you and momma holding the fort okay?" he asked in as calmly a manner as he could fake. "Mhm, she's helping me read the book you bought me," she replied. Posey had managed to keep her calm but...beneath the usual childish contentment was a note of uncertainty. "Well, you did good angel," he said, setting her back down on the floor. "Um, Fluttershy sweetie? Can you go...keep an eye on mommy's flowers for a while?" Posey asked. "Okay mommy," Fluttershy said with a dutiful nod before moving to the back of the house and out into the back yard. Neither of them felt very at ease letting her out of sight but they knew she was safe out there at least. "I'm...I'm going to go, alright? I'll still be next door if I can help with anything," their neighbor chimed in as she likewise moved toward the front door. "Thank you so, so much for helping us," Lance said in parting, wanting to make up for having yelled at her in his distress. "Hey, what are neighbors for, right?" she replied with a bittersweet smile before taking her leave. He was at Posey's side in an instant, a hoof place on top of hers. "What happened?" he asked with all due concern. "I uh...I started having another...episode of not being able to quite walk straight. It started getting worse this time though...and kept getting worse until...this," she said before blinking away the encroaching water in her eyes. Lance didn't reply at first, sparing a moment to take a deep breath and push the panic he felt as a husband aside. He needed to be a doctor now. "Okay so...you've been on the medication for about two weeks now and this is still happening...and getting worse. Posey I know you hate the idea of it, but we can't look for a babysitter this time, we need to get you back the hospital now, I...they can't do much for you here. Fluttershy will be just fine at the daycare," he said, pausing briefly to correct himself. As a family member he wasn't allowed to work directly on Posey's case...though, in his case, the rest of the Cloudsdale General staff was quite open to suggestion. "Okay...but could you carry me to the bathroom first? I...I couldn't ask the neighbor before she left to get you...I was too embarrassed," she asked, her voice cracking before she brushed off more tears against her pillow. Lance nodded, pulling the blanket off of her and hoisting her up on his back before carrying her down the ground floor hallway. She started openly weeping then, overwhelmed by suddenly being so helpless that she couldn't even do this for herself anymore. "Honey listen...this'll wear off like the other episodes in a bit, alright? We just have to hang in there for a while longer and be patient." "...I'll try." "Posey...you're going to be okay."