//------------------------------// // Chapter Eighteen: Coming Through In Waves // Story: Bricks in the Wall // by _NAME_ //------------------------------// Chapter Eighteen Coming Through In Waves I blinked. “Oh Celestia… Oh fuck…” whispered a voice in quiet shock. “Jus’ look at this room… The fuck is all over the floor? Are all these his guitars? Fuck, what did ya do, Pinky…? What the fuck happened…?” Something grabbed me, shaking me. The voice spoke again. “Come on, Pinky, wake up! Come on!” I was released. “Fuck…” “My goodness!” said another voice from behind me. “Look at all this! Do you have any idea how much this room is going to cost to repair? This is a travesty! In all my years here at this hotel, I’ve never seen anything like this!” “Yeah, yeah. Listen, mate, I’ve got me some more pressin’ matters than your precious room. My best friend, and the stallion who’s supposed to be onstage in an hour, is lyin’ here, an’ I have no clue wha’ to do!” The sky out past the broken window was filled with both stars and city lights. It was hard to distinguish the two different points of light from the other. It looked as if the sky was both above and below the horizon, filling the entire vista, filling up the entire world. It was full of stars. “But the room! The damages in here probably number in the thousands of bits and I haven’t even seen bedroom at all. Look, he even broke the window! That’s probably where that bloody television came from! You’re lucky he didn’t kill somepony with that! I could sue!” “Okay! We’ll pay it all back, with a little extra on the side, a’ight? I promise. He’s an artist. Give him some slack, will ya? Now could you kindly stop breathin’ down my neck? I have an emergency here!” There was silence and then a slam of a door. “Finally,” muttered the first voice. “I thought he’d never leave. “ A pause. “Now, Doc, do ya think ya can take a look at him? Make sure he’s okay?” “Can do,” said a new, third voice. A bespectacled dark-blue stallion appeared in front of the television and window. He smiled at me and pressed something cold and round against my chest. “Hey, is there anypony in there? Hello?” He shone a bright light into my eyes. The static on the television screen in behind the stallion seemed to fill the room with its dull humming. Its white light illuminated the stallion’s face, turning his coat stark white and almost skeleton-like. Dark shadows painted the walls, creating monstrous shapes and figures where there weren’t any. The stallion looked away, his wings fluttering against his back. “He’s not responding. His heartbeat is abnormally slow. We may need something strong to snap him out of it, get him energized again.” He looked back. “Alright, son, just nod if you can hear me, okay? Can you do that for me?” I stared past him. The stallion sighed and gently pried open my mouth, sticking a flat stick onto my tongue. “He’s really out of it. I can only imagine what must be going on inside that head of his. I mean, just look at what he did to this room. I honestly don’t even want to know what drugs are in his system right now…” The first voice spoke up again. “I know. I mean, he even shaved his fuckin’ head—an’ his tail! How am I gonna explain that, huh?! This is bad, even for him. Fuck!” He screamed, and there was a loud crash as something fell to the floor. “You never did like me at all, did you, you bastard! After all we’ve done, you go and nearly kill yourself! Fuck you, Pink! You were like my brother, an’ I’ve had ta sit by all these years an’ watch you slowly kill yourself! An’ for what?! Fame? Money? Is all this really worth it?! Fuck!” The curtains fluttered in the cold wind, only partially covering the shattered, broken edges of the window. The glass glinted in the moonlight, throwing strange lights onto the walls and floor. One particular shard of glass was stained a deep red. “I’m sorry,” he resumed. “I—I didn’t mean ta…ta get tha’ upset. I jus’… Sorry, Doc. I jus’ don’t want him to die, ya know? We’ve known each other for so long. He’s like family, you know?” A sigh. “It’s all my fault anyways. I got him hooked on those drugs. If he dies, it’s on me…” “He’s not going to die, Short. I’ll sort him out. Don’t worry.” The stallion in front of me returned his attention to me, noticing something on my hooves and picked one up, inspecting it. “Now, what did you do here? This is quite a nasty cut, you know? Looks like you lost a lot of blood.” He wrapped my hoof in some sort of bandage. “There,” he cooed, “that’s better now, isn’t it? It shouldn’t get infected, if we’re lucky.” I stared at him. The stallion nodded. “Come now,” he said with a soft smile, “I know you’re feeling down. But don’t worry, I can ease all that pain you’re feeling, and get you back on your hooves again, just in time for tonight. Doesn’t that sound like it’d be good?” “Just do whatever’s necessary, okay, a'ight, Doc? We need him awake and alert for the show. We can’t have the concert withou’ the singer. I mean, the bloody princess will be there. We cannot cancel this. He needs to be there.” “I know. I know.” He pushed me down into the cushion of the chair. “Just relax, Pink. I’m here to help.” He turned away, speaking to the other voice. “I’ll just need some information first.” He looked back. “Just the basic facts, of course.” The stallion pressed a hoof against my head, smiling at me all the while. “Now, can you show me where it hurts?” “Can you show me where it hurts?” The doctor smiled wide at me and pressed his stethoscope to my chest. “What’s wrong?” I whimpered and clutched at the bed sheets, glancing up at my mother who was hovering worryingly at the side of the bed. The stallion smiled again and followed my gaze. “Miss, what’s wrong with your boy?” he asked my mother. She flinched at his words and took a moment before answering. “He… Where to start… He hasn’t had the energy to even get out of bed for the past few days, his hooves are all numb and swollen, his temperature is in the hundreds, he has violent coughing fits, and he has a hard time speaking. I don’t know what’s wrong with him. I’ve tried everything I know.” The doctor nodded and looked back at me. He floated a small, flat stick out of his bag. “Pink, can you stick out your tongue and say ‘Ahhhhhh’ for me?” I pressed my lips together and shook my head, drawing the covers over my head. “Pink.” My mother’s voice was stern. “Listen to the nice doctor, okay? He’s here to help you.” I peeked an eye out from under the blanket. The old doctor was still in front of me, still smiling, still waiting. I looked at my mother, whose warm and sympathetic, yet serious expression persuaded me to come out from my shelter. Glancing between the doctor and my mother, I slowly opened my jaw. The doctor pressed the stick on my tongue and peered into my mouth. “Hmm.” he grunted. “Interesting…” My mother leaned forward. “What? What is it?” The doctor shot her a look and she grew quiet. He turned his attention back towards me. “Now, I’m going to touch your hoof. Tell me if you feel anything, alright?” He pressed his hoof into mine. “Anything?” Slowly, I shook my head and licked my lips. “I—don’t feel anything…” The doctor nodded again. “There’s no pain? No feeling at all?” I shook my head again. “Hmm…” He sat back and rummaged around in his bag. After a moment, he brought out a small machine. “I’m going to take your blood pressure, alright?” Without waiting for an answer, he wrapped the band around my foreleg and it began to tighten uncomfortably for a few seconds. He stared at a small screen and then the band hissed and lessened its grip. I let out a small breath of relief. “Well, your blood pressure seems normal.” He looked back at my mother. “I’d like to talk to you out in the hall for a minute, if you don’t mind.” My mother held a hoof to her mouth and nodded silently. She led him out of my room, but the door was still ajar. When she spoke, her voice was strained. “W-what do you think’s wrong, doctor?” There was a slight pause as the doctor coughed. I leaned forward as best I could and tried to focus on what they were saying. “To be truthful, Miss, I’m not entirely sure… His symptoms are nothing unusual when alone, but I’ve never encountered them all together… It’s mystifying.” My mother’s normally steadfast voice wavered slightly. “Please help him, sir. I’ve already lost my husband, and I… I don’t think I can lose my little boy as well…” “I’ll do my best ma’am. Mother was silent for a moment. “What do you recommend?” “Well, I’d like to do some more tests to determ—” My mother interrupted him. “Excuse me.” She suddenly appeared around my doorframe. I sunk down into my pillow, trying to appear as if I hadn’t been listening, but I wasn’t sure it worked. My mother smiled sweetly at me and grabbed the door handle. “It’s alright, Pink. Just try and go to sleep, alright? Everything will be fine. Trust me.” She shut the door, leaving me alone in the dark. The door behind me shut. “Come on, Doc. Hurry up, we’re runnin’ out of time here. You got everythin’ you need now?” “I do. This is my own blend of medicines and drugs. One shot of this should get him up and running again in no time.” “Is it safe? Won’t hurt him or anythin’, right?” “No, no. He should be fine. He may have a bit of a reaction to it, but nothing that won’t resolve itself over time. You should know it doesn’t come cheap though.” “Of course. Of course. Just do it.” The floor was littered with trash and all sorts of broken objects. Shards of wood, guitar pieces, shattered records, lamps shades, and bits of food were all arranged in neat rows, like somepony had spent time organizing the debris for some strange purpose. The dark-blue pegasus walked in front of me again. He smiled at me, gripping my foreleg with one of his hooves and held up a small syringe with the other. “Okay, Pink, this’ll just be a little pinprick. Nothing too bad. It shouldn’t hurt.” He pressed the tip of the needle against the crook of my foreleg. “This should work.” He pushed down, puncturing my skin with the cold, metal point. “There’ll be no more—” “AAAAAAAAHHH!” My body convulsed as the medication rushed through my veins, igniting a fire in my head. My body stiffened in pain, and I kicked out, nearly knocking the stallion back, my scream echoing around the room all the while. And just like that, it was over, and I collapsed back into a slump, my mouth still half open. Everything in front of me went in and out of focus as my eyes stared blankly ahead, unable to concentrate on any one thing. My forelegs twitched once and then didn’t move again. “Fuck,” said the voice from behind me. A tan pony entered my field of vision, putting the voice to a body. “Is he alright, Doc?” The dark-blue pegasus gave the tan one a small smile and cleared his throat. “He should be fine. He may feel a little sick for a few minutes, disoriented as he adjusts, but fine.” He circled around to the arm of the chair, smacking me gently on the cheek. “You back with us, Pink?” I turned my head toward the stallion, looking at him through bleary eyes. The stallion smiled, clasping his hooves together. His glasses shone in the television’s light. “Ah, wonderful! He acknowledged me. Everything seems to be working as expected.” He gripped me by my forelegs and heaved me to my hooves. “Can you stand up?” he asked, hovering by my side. I stood there for a few seconds, my knees trembling as they struggled to support my weight. I looked around the room, noticing just how utterly devastated it was, and then my legs gave out. The stallion was on me in an instant, catching me before I hit the floor. “Not so much then, huh?” He pulled me off the floor, propping me up as he led me away from the chair, and television, and window, and floor, and outside. “No matter,” he continued. “I do believe it’s working. You should feel good in a little bit. It’ll keep you going through the show, regardless.” He brought me over to two new, identical stallions who were waiting by the door. The tan pegasus anxiously lingered on the edges of my vision. I stared past the two stallions, swaying back and forth as the pegasus doctor steadied me. He patted my head reassuringly. “Everything’s going to be fine, Pink. Trust me.” He handed me over to the other two stallions who took me violently. I looked up at them, and, as their bodies and faces merged and separated and shifted around, I couldn’t tell if there were two of them or only one. The short pegasus moved over and the identical stallion dragged me out into the hallway. A lone vacuum cleaner sat unattended in the middle of the hall. The doctor walked next to me, smiling, and draped his stethoscope around his neck. “Come on, it’s time to go.” “Come on, it’s time to go!” Short shouted from the doorway. “We’re already runnin’ late as it is! We can’t miss this train!” I gently patted his shoulder and nodded, looking at the hallway. “I know, I know. Just a minute, alright?” I turned away from him and walked into the other room, still nodding. “Just a minute…” I walked into the living room and saw her lounging on the couch, lazily flipping through some sort of magazine. I nervously knocked on the doorframe and she looked up at me. “What?” she asked. “I…” I tapped my hoof on the floor. “I just wanted to let you know that I love you, Rêves…” My wife stared at me for a few seconds before returning her attention to the magazine. “I know you do, Pink.” A small sigh escaped her mouth. I toyed with the straps of my saddlebags. “I really do, you know…” Rêves looked at me again. “I know.” The smile on her face looked strained and… nervous. “You should go before you’re late.” I gulped and backed out from the room, my head bobbing as I went. “You’re right. Right… I’ll go…” I went back to the front door where Short was waiting impatiently. “You good now, Pinky? The cabbie’s been waitin’ for five minutes now. Let’s go! Come on!” We exited my house, trotting toward the taxi waiting for us on the street. I kept my head down as we walked; it seemed so heavy all of a sudden. Short must have noticed something, because he wrapped a wing around my side as we walked through the yard. “Hey, is everythin’ alright? ‘Cause if it ain’t, I…” “It’s fine.” I snapped. “Everything is just fine.” I unclipped my sunglasses from the strap of my saddlebags and shoved them on my face. “You don’ look fine. What happened in there?” he asked, gesturing back at the house, at my wife. I shook my head. “Nothing.” We clambered into the backseat of the taxi and the driver immediately took off, mumbling something under his breath about his aching hooves. Short stared at me for a few seconds. “Pink, what’s going on? You can tell me. I’m your best friend.” He laid a hoof on my shoulder. I stiffened at his touch and pointedly looked out the window. “Come on, Pinky. Whatever’s botherin’ you is killin’ you. What—” I sighed and looked back at him. “It’s nothing. I just… I’m tired, I think. It’s nothing…” Short looked as if he was going to say something, but thought different. Thankfully, he dropped the subject. We rode in silence for a while. I stared out the window and watched as the high-end mansions of the rich and famous turned into small, family homes and eventually into commercial buildings. From behind my sunglasses, I watched other ponies going about their lives. There was a well-dressed stallion frantically reading through a packet of papers as he hurried through the streets. A mare and her three screaming foals walked by him and the youngest nearly tripped him up. The stallion angrily glared back at the family and walked right into another pony, scattering his papers through the street. One of the papers drifted near the window but floated away, never to be seen again. “How long has it been, Short?” I spoke up, still looking out the window. “How long has what been?” I shrugged. “Since all of this. Since we first came up with the crazy idea to start a band?” Short hesitated before answering. “I don’t know. Must be going on thirteen, fourteen years, huh? Why?” I looked back at him. “I don’t know. It seems so long ago that we were just starting out. We had a dream, Short. I had a dream.” “Well, we achieved that dream, didn’t we? I mean, look at where we are now. We’re going to play for the Princess Celestia herself and all of Canterlot in two days. What more could you want?” The taxi cab ran through a small dip in the road, throwing me forwards slightly. The driver yelled out an apology. I took a deep breath, pressing a hoof to the window, feeling the life, the movement, outside. “I don’t know, Short. What are you supposed to do when you achieve your dreams? When there’s nothing left to strive towards…?” Short scoffed. “Whoa now. That’s gettin’ too philosophical for me. You better leave that stuff for song lyrics, a’ight?” He shifted in the seat. “Now, we’re about there, so get your head on right. You gotta look good in case any reporters see us, or somethin’.” I nodded sullenly and turned my head to look out the window again. The outside world slowly moved by and we passed through a gate signifying where the train station began. There were all sorts of ponies and other carriages moving towards the entrance, pressed up together, like one continuous entity. I hefted my bags onto my lap as we began to come to a halt. Short smacked his lips. “Well, here we are, Pinky. Let’s go.” He opened the door, and we exited the cab. There was a shrill chime as the clock tower down the street struck noon. There was a shrill chime and a hiss. I blinked and found myself staring at tiled floors. “Thank Celestia the elevator’s here. Took its time.” “We got twenty minutes to get him there, okay? I don’t care if you break the speed limit, just get us there before the damn show starts!” I coughed and tried to move my neck to see where I was, but my head was too heavy. Hooves gripped at my forelegs, dragging me forward. My backhooves scrapped across the floor. There was another beep and the ground shuddered and groaned and began to descend. I let out a low groan and I felt a pair of hooves grip my face. The owner of those hooves stared at me, but their features were blurry. “Hey, he’s awake again. He alright?” Another voice spoke. “It’s perfectly normal for him to be fading in and out of consciousness. Don’t worry, by the time he gets to the stadium, the drugs will have kicked in full force and he’ll be an entirely different stallion.” “He better or there’ll be serious hell to pay. We can’t have this concert without him.” The hooves left my face and my head fell again, unable to stay up. There was silence for some time, and then something spoke up. “We should get his outfit on so he’ll be ready when we get there.” “Good thinkin’.” Hooves lifted me up further off the ground and yanked my legs wider apart. Something soft was put over my back and over my forelegs. It was constricting, squeezing, embracing, smothering, cocooning me. I didn’t want it; I wanted out. My breath caught in my throat and the air grew heavy around me. “Ohh shit! He’s fading again!” My face stung as something slapped across my cheek. “Come on, Pinky! Don’t go again! Come on! Wake up!” “Wake up!” There was a loud slap as Sir hit my desk with his ruler. He glared at me over his glasses. “There’ll be no sleepin’ in mah class, laddie. School is for learnin’, an’ nothin’ else!” He waved the ruler threateningly in my face. “If ya do it again, I’ll have to extract some pun’shment from ya, ya hear?” I gulped and nodded earnestly. Sir looked at me and then stalked back to the front of the room, where he began lecturing the class again. I sighed and propped my head on my hoof and tried not to fall asleep again. I glanced to my right, at the colt who sat next to me. I couldn’t remember his name, but he sat at attention, writing diligently in his notebook as Sir taught us about some sort of math. The mare to my left seemed to be similar to the colt, though obviously less interested. Her pencil glided over the paper, but wasn’t writing anything pertaining to the lesson. Her other hoof was twirling a lock of her mane. I looked down at my own notebook and the few formulas and random notes that I had jotted down. It didn’t mean anything to me. I knew that I would never use any of it past this class. I sighed and refocused my eyes at the board, but I wasn’t really paying any attention. Before I knew it, the lunch bell was ringing and the rest of the class was flowing out of the door before I could even react. Seeing that I was soon to be left behind, I stood up and scampered out after them, relieved to be over with Sir’s class. I managed to find Short in the crowded hallways, and together we made our way out of the main building and toward the cafeteria for lunch, meeting up with Ox and a few others as we went. We pushed through the crowd of students, all clamoring and trying to get to the same place as everyone else. We had almost gotten into the lunchroom when I realized I didn’t feel the familiar weight of my saddlebags on my back. I had left them in Sir’s classroom in my rush to leave. I had to get them back before too much time passed. Telling Short where I was going, I returned to my teacher’s room, half dragging my hooves and half hurrying along, hoping that Sir wouldn’t punish me for disturbing him outside of class time. What felt like an eternity later, I stood outside his door, feeling a wave of apprehension wash over me. I really didn’t want to go in there, but I really needed my saddlebags, or I would just get in trouble in all my other classes for not having my materials. Taking a deep breath, I pushed on the door and glanced in. Sir was sitting at his desk, a small, brown-colored bottle clenched in his talons. I swallowed and tapped on the doorframe. Sir jerked at the sound and looked at me. “Wha’ d’ya want?” he grunted. I pursed my lips and stepped into the class. “I-I just forgot my bag, S-Sir. I’ll just be a mo-moment…” I stood nervously at attention, waiting for his permission. The griffon frowned at me and took a long swig from his bottle. He motioned at the desks before turning his attention to the bank of windows that took up an entire wall of the room. “Guh-go ahead and ge’ ou-out…” I nodded quickly and trotted over to my desk. My bags were lying just where I had left them. I grabbed them and made for the door, but stopped at Sir’s desk. My gaze lingered on him for a second, at his disheveled state, at the drink in his grip, at his bloodshot eyes, at his cane leaning against the wall behind him. Glancing back over from the windows, he noticed me. “Wha’ d’ya want, boy?” I tightened the strap of my bag. “N-nothing, Sir, I—” He hiccupped and took a drink from his bottle. “T-then ge’ outta ‘ere, ‘fore I wallop ya…” I nodded again and hurried from the room. The door slammed shut behind me with a loud bang. There was a loud bang and I was being dragged over rough cobblestone. We were moving faster than before. I had just enough energy to lift my head slightly, just to see where I was, but had no luck. Everything was blurry and vibrant. Indistinct lights and colors shifted past my eyes. I couldn’t focus on anything for more than a second before having to look away. I let my head fall limp. “He’s awake again.” “Good. Maybe he’ll stay that way this time. Now where’s that carriage?” My hoof hit a loose stone and I hissed in pain. One of the voices responded in kind. “Lift him higher, will ya? We can’t have him injured before his show!” “He’s already pretty injured, if you ask me.” “You’ll shut up if you know what’s good for you.” “There’s the carriage. Come on.” I glanced up again and saw a large, dark blob swimming in my vision. The scene shifted and churned as shapes and colors mixed and separated. A tan spot moved in front of the black one as we approached it. The blob stopped and came closer to me, until I could just make out its worried eyes before they too were swept away in the churning mass of colors. The tan blob stared at me and pulled toward the black shape, a loud bang resounding in my ears as a door of some sort seemed to open in the black structure. The hooves holding me lifted me higher and higher and threw me into the blackness. The word carriage floated across my mind. The entire chamber shifted as something else climbed in after me. “Are we ready to go?” it asked. Another voice responded. “Almost. Just wait one second.” “Just wait one second.” The voice on the other side of the door said. “But sir, we have to—” “No. I’m going to say goodbye to my son before I leave. Equestria can wait.” The door creaked open and the stallion peeked his head in. He flicked on the light as he entered the room. He approached my crib and smiled at me. I looked up at him and reached my hooves toward him, cooing softly. “Hey, Pink,” he said. “How’re you doing?” He bent down and scooped me up. “You shouldn’t be up this late, but I guess it’s hard to fall asleep with all that commotion, huh? I’m sorry.” He kissed me gently on the forehead. I giggled and shot him a toothy smile and he stroked the fuzz on my head in response. “I love you, Pink. So much that I can’t even tell you. I’m so, so proud to be your father…” I looked up at him and squirmed in his grasp, wondering what was going on. The stallion let out a shuddering gasp and wiped at his eyes. “Pink, Daddy’s going away for a little while, okay? But I’ll be back, I promise… I promise I’ll be back… I won’t leave you all alone.” He sat down on the rocking chair in the corner of the room and cradled me in his forelegs. “I don’t want to miss you grow up, Pink, but I have to, for a while. I have to go, but I don’t want to, and it’s just killing me to leave you and your mother so soon…” Babbling something, I clambered onto his shoulders and began pulling at his wings, marveling at their downy feel. The stallion chuckled and pulled me off him, despite my voiced protests. “I love you, Pink.” Tears shone on his glasses. “But I have to go now…” He kissed me again and brought me back over to my crib. He set me down and pulled the blanket over me. I smiled up at him, happy to just be in his presence. The stallion stood there and stared at me, holding back quiet sobs. He reached down and caressed my face. His eyes darted toward the door for a second, but then looked back at me. Pressing his lips together, he rubbed at his eyes with a free hoof. He walked towards the door and turned off the lights. “Good night, Pink. I love you.” he whispered. And then he shut the door and was gone. I was alone. My eyes shot open as the stagecoach began to roll forward.