//------------------------------// // Ch 3.27 A Child's Dreams // Story: Our Girl Scootaloo 3 of 3 // by Cozy Mark IV //------------------------------// Our Girl Scootaloo Part 3 of 3 by Cozy Mark IV & Jan. McNeville Disclaimer: This is a non-profit fan-made work of prose. My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is the property of Hasbro. Please support the official release Chapter Three point Twenty Seven: A Child's Dreams The next hours were a mad dash as people and equipment were uprooted and packed off to the gate room facility to be sent over. After making her plan clear to her counterparts at the hospital, Ms. Scott made the jump with the fourth group and began coordinating the work with the local hospital. Through a set of happy circumstances they found a room big enough for their needs, and they has soon set up the equipment, plumbed the gas lines, and fueled the generator and backup generator. Things could have gone badly with the setup, but unlike any Earth hospital, hospitals in Equestria seemed to have a surplus of space, equipment and personnel, and the administrator was only too happy to help with their plan. By early afternoon in Equestria, one of Canterlot hospital's treatment rooms was configured and everyone had arrived who was needed, many of the Equestrian doctors and visitors trying not to stare as they went about their work. When Ms. Scott was satisfied that everything was in order she stepped out into the waiting room where Faith's parents were waiting with the crusaders and the other ponies. “What's happening in there?” Her father pleaded. “We don't know what's going on! We were just told to follow along, but no one has told us anything!” Her mother agreed, voicing the same concerns most of them were feeling. Ms. Scott took a deep breath. “I apologize for all this. We all know Faith doesn't have much time left, and when I heard the news I didn't think of anything but the job. Thanks to Pinkie's generous donation and the tireless work of researchers the world over, we now have a new version of the genetic treatment.” Several of their faces lit up with smiles as others looked confused. Ms. Scott just held her hands up for calm. “I need you to understand what this means. In a few months or years this cure will be properly tested and safe for use in humans, but what we have today is the very first version. I need everyone to understand that even with this, Faith's odds of survival are still less than one in five. But one in five is a hell of a lot better than zero.” “I don't understand... I thought if you had the cure...?” Rarity asked. “I know this can be confusing, but the cure isn't refined yet. We haven't had the chance to test it, so there is still a very good chance that the synthetic biology could fail to grow, or that it could attack her body and kill her. There is a chance this can work, and that's why we're here, but there is no guarantee.” Her father spoke up again from where he sat, holding his sleeping daughter's hand. “But why couldn't you have told us this earlier? And why here? Why couldn't we have done this in the hospital on earth?” Ms. Scott closed her eyes and sighed. “I do owe you an apology for the lack of communication. That was my fault, and I'm sorry. If you give us permission, we are going to treat your daughter here because I'm hoping it will help. Highly complex magic only seems to work right in Equestria; we all got our cutie marks when we arrived, and I'm praying that whatever this system is, it will help better the odds. Believe me when I say she will need every advantage she can get...” She trailed off as she stroked Faith's hair from her closed eyes. There was a long silence as her mother and father shared a worried look. “Please, do whatever you can.” … With everything finally in place and all the monitors recording Dr. Scott put the needle into Faith's arm and started the IV. Unlike similar situations before, most of the staff knew someone involved in this personally, and the usual medical detachment was harder to muster, especially with several worried looking ponies in medical attire hanging back to offer assistance if needed. As the minutes ticked by the saline solution containing the programmed synthetic biology flowed into her arm and the bag gradually emptied as everyone stood by in tense anticipation. “Is it working, doctor?” Dr. Scott barely looked up, her attention still focused on the data scrolling before her eyes. “So far so good. We should see an uptick in her metabolism and heart rate as the new cells begin to integrate and grow, but it looks like all the pain killers are slowing the process down...” Ten minutes later, they had the boost they hoped for. “Heart rate is 90 BPM. She took longer to get here than we expected, but so far she's doing well.” One of the Equestrian doctors ventured the obvious question. “When will we know if it's worked?” Dr. Scott sighed. “In a tested version this process normally takes place as an outpatient procedure. They administer the treatment, hang around for an hour or so to look for any obvious problems and then send the patient home. The new cells begin growing immediately, and in a few days have begun to make noticeable changes in the prognosis of most diseases. In a week or two all but the worst cases are usually cleared up as the synthetic immune system destroys any invading organisms. They recommend a diet with lots of yogurt and other foods with good bacteria because in those overzealous first weeks the synthetic biology frequently overreacts and kills off the helpful intestinal bacteria as well. In this case though... If its going to work, we should have a very tense couple of days before she gradually begins to heal. If...” There was a pause as her attention was drawn to several displays she had setup behind her eyes which had begun to flash yellow. “Damn it.” She muttered. “What's wrong?” “Her heart rate is still rising, and her body temperature is going up with it... If this keeps up...” The external monitors had begun to notice the change as well and the chirp of alarms from various monitors filled the room as her heart rate continued to climb. “Shit! One hundred fifty and climbing. Get me the sedatives.” The drugs made their way into the IV, but Faith's heart rate continued to climb past 160 into the 170's. Another doctor spoke up. “Damn it, her heart's going at a dead run, we have to bring this down, she can't keep this up for more than half an hour or so, tops.” “Obviously!” Dr. Scott answered, “But she's already on morphine, and if we give her too much we could slow her heart down to dangerous levels when she comes off this.” As her heart-rate passed 190 the first doctor passed more depressants to Dr. Scott who shook her head but put them in. There was no discernible effect. By now the alarms were sounding in earnest as her body strained to keep her metabolism going at the equivalent of a dead sprint and her heart and lungs began to tire. In under a minute her heart rate began to fall... and fall... and fall... “One fifty... One hundred...” Dr. Scott stood by with the best stimulants they had, praying that Faith would plateau out at a reasonable level. “Sixty... Forty...!” “Damn damn damn!” The stimulants and adrenaline went in. “Twenty beats per minute! Damn it, she's crashing!” There was a hard edge on Dr. Scotts voice as she addressed the surgeon. “Get ready with your equipment. Crash cart stand by, everyone else stand clear.” “Ten...” The crash team did their work and stood ready with the paddles, but their usual drugs were having little effect on Faith's failing heart. “Eight...” The beats of her little heart were now nearly ten seconds apart and falling. In any normal situation, the results of an unresponsive crash like this were depressingly predictable, but Dr. Scott wasn't done yet. “Dr. Marks, you may proceed.” She stated in a cold voice. “But what about-” One of the earth researcher ponies asked, only to be cut off sharply. “The crash cart can only shock a beating heart back into a working rhythm.” The elder Scootaloo spat. “She's not responding to the drugs, and if her heart stops altogether that cart will be as useful as a damn boat anchor! Dr. Marks, are you ready to go?” The surgeon nodded while his people put the last touches on their equipment. Faith's heart gave one last beat before the forlorn wail of the heart rate flat line filled the room. The surgeon needed no further prompting, and stepped in to work. ... Several hours later a very tired looking orange pony pushed the doors of the waiting room open with an open palm. Faith's parents leapt to their feet along with most of the ponies in the room as they waited tensely for the announcement. “She's alive, and she's awake.” Dr. Scott intoned carefully. After waiting a moment for everyone to calm down and listen again she continued. “Faith is in a very dangerous situation right now. Her heart failed during the first hour and hasn't restarted since. We have her hooked up to a heart-lung machine that's keeping her alive, but we don't know when her when her heart will be able to take over again.” Everyone looked stricken as she continued to explain for the benefit of the ponies to whom this technology was new. “Humans have been able to replace a failed heart or destroyed lungs with a machine for nearly eighty years now, but the problem has always been the difficulty of getting machinery and biology to work together. The early units would form a fatal blood clot within minutes or hours, but we've gotten a lot better with time. Faith is at serious risk as long as she's on the machine, but we have her hooked up to neural monitors so we can react if she has a stroke. She's still young and, besides the cancer, healthy, so if the synthetic biology takes as it seems to be doing, we can hope she'll be out of danger in a few days.” “Can we see her now?” her mother asked in a shaky voice. Dr. Scott allowed herself a smile. “Of course, she’s been asking for you.” … As they entered the room Faith's parents were already at her side hugging their daughter as they all shed fresh tears of relief. The crusaders hung back with the Twilight and the others as Ms. Scott put a hand on Pinkie’s withers. “Thank you, Pinkie. She wouldn't be here if it wasn't for you.” For the first time any of them could remember, Pinkie seemed to be at a loss for words, simply content to stand and watch as tears ran down her cheeks and a warm smile played across her face. After a few minutes, Faith asked her mother something and she gestured the ponies over to her bedside. Sweetie Belle made it there first and wrapped her hooves around her friend. “Oh! I’m so glad you’re okay!” “Don’t go scarin' us like that anymore!” Apple bloom amended. “Yeah!” Little Scootaloo agreed as she squeezed the little girl, “We were so worried about you!” Faith smiled as she returned their hug. “Well you don’t need to worry anymore. Now I get to stay and play with you forever just like I said.” Most of the ponies and humans looked confused, but it was her father who asked what she meant. “Well, I’m in heaven now.” Faith explained simply. “My heart stopped, and now I’m awake in heaven with all the people I love.” Dr. Scott had been inspecting the network of leads and electrodes attached to Faith's bald scalp, but this made her look up with a raised eyebrow, mirrored by many others in the room. After a lengthy and confusing explanation for everypony involved, Dr. Scott agreed with her parents to leave Faith’s world view unchallenged for the time being. The ponies and people spent most of the afternoon together, talking and laughing and just enjoying each others company, but as the evening came on a white nurse pony with a pink mane tied up in a bun reminded them that Faith needed her rest and began herding them from the room. As Sweetie Belle waved goodbye to Faith and her parents, Pinkie and the nurse exchanged a meaningful look, smiled, and the doors closed leaving her with her family and a single loving pony. “Well, I'd better write a letter to the princess explaining that everything's worked out.” Twilight sighed. “And I have a standing arrangement with the castle guard – anyone who wants to can stay the night in one of the castle's spare rooms, that way-” Dr Scott's brows were furrowed as she interrupted. “Twilight, I'm surprised at you! You of all people should know how precarious Faith's situation is!” Fluttershy spoke up hesitantly. “Well, I have cared for a few primates before,” She glanced apologetically at one of the human doctors, “Um... meaning no offense of course. But she seems healthy and happy. That usually means the adorable, hairy little thing- er – patient, is getting better...” Dr. Scott shook her head and crossed her arms in front of her. “Normally you would be right, and we can see from the blood samples that the synthetic biology derived from Pinkie is already starting to take, but her heart still isn't beating. Until we can get her off the heart-lung machine she is in danger. We're monitoring her brain activity for signs of a stroke, but we can only deal with so much; Our surgical team will be on call all night, but if things go badly we can't clear three or four simultaneous blood clots. She's doing fine right now, but I'm still worried for her...” Twilight shook herself. “Sorry, its just easy to forget how complicated medicine is on your world. I know she's not out of the woods yet, but she's in good hooves with you.” The others nodded as Twilight continued. “She wouldn't be here at all without all your hard work.” Rainbow hovered over and took the orange doctor in a hug. “I'm so proud of you Scoot.” … The wing rushed over her wings as Luna dived under a cloud and an orange streak followed close behind her, giggling with glee in the moonlight. “Come along, Snowdrop, let us grab that big fluffy one!” The two mares grabbed opposite sides of the large fluffy cloud and began hauling it back down to the castle below where an interesting sight was already taking shape. The castle roof looked much as it ever had to Luna, but to Snowdrop's new eyes this was still a sight of wonder. “It's so perfect!” She had said earlier that evening “I've never seen something so majestic!” Luna had cracked a wry smile and suggested that the two of them could do better. Now great ramps and flying buttresses of clouds clung to the upper levels of the castle, slides connected windows in one tower with those in another hundreds of feet away and below. The entire affair seemed reminiscent of a child's cardboard castle, and as they pulled the new cloud into place Snowdrop piped up with another idea. “Oh! I know! Let's make a big trampoline from up here to that poofy cloud down by Auntie Celestia's window!” Luna grinned mischievously and soon the two of them were laughing like foals as they rocketed past her window and bounced on to another part of their new play house. “Mom? Can we go see if Scootaloo wants to come out and play with us?” The little orange filly asked with a beaming smile. … A few hours later Luna reclined in the cool moonlight as the two orange foals laughed, flew and played beneath her. 'And to think, this whole time it was just a vitamin deficiency...' She mused. 'Trust those humans to know what 'celiac disease' is and what to do about it.' She had begged off a few minutes after rousting Scootaloo from her bed. The two orange foals had developed a habit of waking each other by hovering muzzle to muzzle with their sleeping counterpart until the other woke. While unnerving to spectators, the two of them seemed to think it was hilarious. As the two foals jousted with cloud lances below her, Luna closed her eyes, lay back and began to dream walk. The dreams of those in the capital had a unifying theme tonight, and by the fourth 'humans are coming to eat us' dream she was able to craft and turn loose a counter meme which she followed for a while as it spread out through the sleeping populace. This form of public relations wasn't something she advertised, but with one of her and millions of ponies there wasn't much choice in the matter. Given the addled state of a sleeping mind, most ponies never knew the difference. She watched appraisingly as her doppelganger assured another parent that the humans weren't coming for her foals, then smiled as it worked, the nightmares waned and the mare returned to a peaceful slumber. Her mind was drawn to the uneasy dreams from a particular human who had just drifted off, and as she poked gently at the edges of her consciousness the sound of gunshots and screaming made her recoil from Agent Tyler's mind. Steeling herself she pressed forward and tried to coax the agent into a deep dreamless sleep, keenly aware of what had happened the last time she had attempted to help more directly. The images that welled up were enough to cause nightmares of her own; starving children, the little Scootaloo's she had rescued from that awful lab, pulling the trigger and watching the life bleed out... With a supreme effort of will she forced the agent into a deep and dreamless sleep, while she woke to find herself still on the cloud, panting for breath and covered in sweat. As she stood up, a ball of clouds flew up from below her and hit a hovering orange form to her left, breaking up like a snowball to the sound of coughing and sputtering on Snowdrop's part. There was a pause, then the little orange foal fashioned the ball into a battering ram and dove straight at something out of sight below her that gave a startled squawk as she plowed into it with her poofy cloud ram. Luna smiled as her racing heart slowed a bit, and laying back she closed her eyes once more, slipping into the dream world as though lowing herself into a pool. The ripples of her doppelgangers were still spreading across the surface of the sleeping ponies, but as she looked more closely something seemed off. The doppelgangers relayed back simple information to her, in this case yellow for ponies in need of their calming words, green for those sleeping peacefully, and red for problems they were not programmed to deal with. Looking out from her vantage point high over the sleeping city, most of the homes glowed a pleasant green, the few patches of yellow gradually fading to green, but a small patch on the edge of town was not lit at all. Normally that would mean the area was uninhabited, but as Luna watched one of her doppelganger programs finished turning a yellow house green, ventured into the dark area and flashed brilliant red for a moment before disappearing altogether. Luna frowned. Over the years she had released many different versions of status reporting programs starting with crude ones in her youth that had grown in capability and sophistication as she became a more skilled dream walker. Even if the ponies in this dark patch had rejected one or two versions there should still be reports from older more primitive ones... the only explanation for a dark patch was that someone else was crippling her programs on purpose, and that seldom bode well for the ponies affected. Moving carefully, Luna began probing at the dreams of one stallion in a house on the edge of the affected area. His dream of doing... sexual things... with his mare friend was common enough for one his age, but there was an undercurrent of unease throughout that was not normal. Staying to the background, Luna searched for changes to the sleeping mind and soon spotted a small dark shadow in a disused corner of his mind steadily expanding itself and overwriting other memories. At this stage she knew it was too immature to pose a serious threat to her and with a deft blow from her hoof she stunned the thing and sat down to being pulling it apart for clues. The texture and feel of the thing were enough to make her suspicious at once, and as she sifted through the shattered files it didn't take long to find memories of the last pony infected – a young teen mare who worked with -! With a blanch she lashed out and smashed the last retirements of the darkness, shattering it into dust. The memories it had overwritten were mostly high school math that had not been used in years; whatever did not recover naturally would not be missed. Feeling the traces of fear and darkness fading from the stallion's mind, she quietly stepped back out of his dream and turned her attention to the blank spot ahead of her. She had dealt with this darkness before, but unlike most cases of mental illness she encountered, this strain was a particularly nasty one, both malignant and infectious. On her visit to Earth, Ms. Scott had explained a great deal to her, and it was her description of cancer that most closely approximated her current fight. If a nightmare could be crushed and completely banished from the mind, that was usually the end of it, and in most cases, a pony's own mind was strong enough to fight off the invader. When she did have to intervene, it usually took only a straightforward bit of counsel and working together to banish the darkness, but sometimes, her work took her to darker places. The worst cases were those brought on by trauma, and then hidden from the world, left to fester and grow slowly at the back of the mind. A major reason Luna had begun to work through doppelgangers had been to find and cure these cases before they became truly malignant. This nightmare was one of the worst. She had killed it twice already, and while she had no doubt that it was completely gone from the original host pony, a copy had apparently made it out undetected before the purge. By now, it had developed the very worst qualities one could find in a nightmare: It could hide from her, it could snuff out her doppelgangers, it had learned to spread through the night, and it could torment any pony it infected. With a shake of her head she steeled herself for the coming battle and reached out for the teen mare she had seen in the things shattered memory. It was worse than she feared. The mare writhed in her bed as the darkness tormented her with a horrible nightmare which her beloved pet did not survive. Worse yet, there were distinct signs of madness mixed into the narrative, and Luna couldn't help but cringe in sympathy as she conjured an ethereal ax and waded in. The thing put up a vicious fight, but against an Alicorn it was only a matter of time before it's defenses failed. When it had finally spasmed its last, Luna surveyed the damage in dismay; this was no minor infection. A significant percent of the mare's memories had been overwritten, and so much of her mind's resources had been hijacked that she had no doubt the effect would have shown in her school work. With a sigh, Luna spawned a repair doppelganger, custom-designed to help the high-schooler put her mind back together, a task that might take several nights of work to fully heal the damage done. As the sobbing teen hugged her clone, sobbing her heart out after what she had been through, Luna excused herself to track down the remaining infected ponies. Dr. Scott had given her such a strange look when she had asked how transmittable insanity was on earth... This was going to be a long night. … Several hours later, the infection was quelled, and Luna had resumed her normal dream walking, when a small voice in the chorus of dreams caught her attention and she plunged in, feeling the heat of the earth sun on her coat and the hot dry desert air blowing through her mane. A small human girl stood leaning on a railing looking over a massive chasm that spread out below her and nearly to the horizon on both sides. Luna took a cautious step forward and Faith looked up and smiled at the sound of hooves on the wooden platform. “I'd kind of hoped you would stop by tonight.” She said with a warm smile. “What is this place?” Faith turned back to the railing as Luna stepped up beside her. “It's the Grand Canyon. My parents took me here a few years ago, before I got sick...” Luna leaned down and nuzzled the girl. “I sometimes forget the beauty of your world.” A smile touched her lips and she added “Could you show me more of it?” Faith grinned widely and with a look of concentration, the world around them shifted to the view from the top of a modest rocky mountain peak. Humans milled around the snow-covered walking path that led back to the tram lift and admired the summer sun beating down on the city below. “This is were we went for vacation last year.” Faith explained as they admired the view. The contrast of warm summer sun on her back and snow under hoof was a delightful one, and Luna smiled. “What is the name of that city below us?” She asked with a gesture. Behind them the tourists began to dim and wink out of existence as Faith tried to remember. “I think it's Colorado Springs, but... I don't know...” Luna smiled and put a hoof over her shoulder as they watched a while longer. She looked to her left, about to suggest they take the tram lift down and see it for themselves, but a fog had begun to roll in and the tram station seemed to have faded into the mist. “Oh, I know! The boating trip!” Their world shifted once more and Luna found herself on the deck of a pitching sailing ship traveling at full speed across a brilliant ocean of blue water. The design looked unusually simple, just a flat triangular deck with a single mast and some kind of cabin, blurry and dimly visible in blindingly bright light of the sun. Ahead of them the sea and sky seemed to stretch on to the ends of the world, while behind them the sun shown through a rapidly advancing blanket of thick white fog that was rapidly closing on the small craft. “It is beautiful. Equestria's oceans are a sight I have not seen in many many years.” Luna added somewhat wistfully. “I know! It's so shiny!” Faith replied with a broad grin as she stared into the blinding reflection of the sun off the sea waves. Luna gave the little girl a questioning look as Faith stared directly into the blinding sunlight. The boat seemed to be slowing, the water below calming and growing still as they lingered a moment longer. “My room!” The view shifted again and came into focus as a child's room with simple green walls, a window, a bed and three lone toys scattered on the floor. It was the barest room Luna had ever seen outside of an orphanage. With great enthusiasm Faith swooped in and picked up a toy car and began making engine noises as she ran it back and forth over the floor, seemingly ignoring the princess who had begun to notice the unnatural silence of the place. “Faith... was your room always this quiet?” The little girl looked up at her with a silly, uncomprehending smile on her face. “Silly pony!” Luna raised an eyebrow in alarm, but Faith went right back to playing with her toy. A nagging suspicion was screaming at the back of her mind, but Luna found she just couldn't think clearly. She stepped up to the window and pulled back the curtain allowing daylight to stream into the room, and as she did the fog outside began to pour in through the window that suddenly had neither curtains or glass. She whipped around to see fog pouring in through the empty blackness of the hallway, a hallway suddenly visible due to the abrupt disappearance of the door. Faith looked up into the gaping doorway of pure blackness and dropped her toy car with a scream. “Faith! Faith! You need to wake up!” The fog pouring into the tiny room seemed to melt the little bed in the corner, tearing away at it in a rush of silence and darkness until the princess, Faith and her toy car were the only things left in a rapidly shrinking patch of floor. “Scared! Help! Scared!” Faith cried as she pulled at Luna's legs and the fog began to flow around her hooves. Luna frantically tried to figure out what was going on as she hoisted the terrified girl onto her back, but her mind refused to work properly All she could feel was terror of the blank white silence and fog as it began to cover her legs, numbing them and sending her crashing to the floor. “Mommy! Scared!” The little girl managed again as she began to cry in earnest. The numbness of the fog wrapped over them both in one final gust and Luna felt her whole body going numb as her sight winked out and the little child on her back managed one last cry before she too fell silent. … “Is she okay? Luna? Luna!” The two orange foals who stood over the princess where she lay on the cloud were getting rapidly more worried. “Snow, is this okay? She sounded like she was in trouble.” “I don't know...” Snowdrop answered as she prodded her adoptive mother with both hooves, “I've never seen her do this before but...” Spending the better part of a month in an earth hospital had taught them both a few things about basic medicine and vitals, and little Scootaloo noticed it first. “Snowdrop... She's not breathing!” “Oh no! No! Luna! Luna, wake up!” “I'll go get help!” Scootaloo was over the side of the cloud in a flash and streaking off towards their rooms. Snowdrop panted in terror as the tears formed in her eyes, but before she gave in, something Luna had told her jumped to the front of her mind. 'Snowdrop, you helped us to understand winter. Do not doubt yourself so; if you put your mind to it, you can be anypony you want to and nothing need ever be out of your reach.' Something snapped in the little orange foal and without really thinking she leapt into the air and landed on Luna's chest with all her might, driving the air from her lungs. Luna's eyes shot open as she gasped for breath and a very relieved Snowdrop clung to her tightly as she choked and sputtered. Moments later, Rainbow, Fluttershy and a disheveled looking Twilight and Dr. Scott shot over the edge of the cloud, followed closely by a panicked looking Scootaloo. “Here! She's up here!” Luna saw them all land and rush up to her as through a haze, her mind coughing and sputtering back to life as she struggled to process what had just happened. “Luna, are you okay?! What happened?!” The answer to that question flashed like a bolt of lightning and Luna's eyes shot wide open in terror as she understood. “FAITH!” She was over the edge of the cloud in a flash, racing for the hospital with everything she had as the others did their best to follow. Moments later she wrenched the third floor window from its frame with her magic, hurling it into the night as she dashed inside, demanding of the startled doctors, “What happened! What is wrong with her?!” The two doctors in the room wore baffled expressions as they looked from Luna to the sleeping girl and back again. “What are you talking about? Nothing has happened all night.” In quick sequence, Rainbow, Dr. Scott, Twilight and Fluttershy climbed through the window after the princess, Dr. Scott making straight for the monitoring equipment. For a long moment she stared at the electrical feedback from the probes distributed across Faith's skull, her frown only deepening as she stated, “She looks completely fine, these readings are all well within normal for a sleeping child.” Luna's tone left no doubt of her convictions as she spoke, “No, something is very wrong! Examine her again!” One of the other doctors had powered up second computer terminal as the second began a check of her vitals. Luna's panic rapidly began to spread. “Dr. Scott, her pupils aren't responding to light!” a short pause as he tried something else, “I can't get normal reflexes... she won't wake up!” Dr. Scott shook her head in denial and alarm, “Then get the team in here, now!” She turned back to the Philips EEG, scrutinizing the normal-looking readings with a feeling of sinking dread. It took almost thirty seconds of careful observation as the rest of the crash team came rushing into the room, but at last, she spied a tiny message at the bottom right corner of the screen: 'Recording timed out, press Alt F5 to stop playback' “FUCKING SHIT PILE!” Dr. Scott raged as she brought both prosthetic fists down on the rolling computer console with enough force to shatter the case and rip the first two shelves apart, sending a spray of plastic parts and broken electronics flying in all directions. The other ponies stared open mouthed at the wrecked console as she shouted, “The fucking thing was showing us a playback of her healthy brain waves! She's been going un-monitored for who knows how long! Get her into the CT/MRI scanner now!” In a rush, Faith's bed was wheeled under the machine, and the high resolution scanner lowered around her head. As the first pictures came in, several blood clots were clearly visible, blocking off the major vessels feeding her brain. A second later, the MRI image came back with a full color image of her brain activity. Most of it was a terrible, flat black. “Prep her for surgery.” Dr. Scott's tone was deadly flat as she barked orders at he other technicians and physicians, “Fetch the stint cables and CNC cauterizing drills.” As the rest of the team descended on the unresponsive girl, a nurse gently put a hand on Luna's shoulder. “They're going to do all they can, but we need you to wait outside please. You'll only be in the way here, and we need to give them room to work.” The four ponies allowed themselves to be led gently out to the waiting room, the distraught silence lasting until the nurse made to turn back. “Please... what's happening to her?” The nurse had seen the CT and MRI scans just as they had, but her training left her much less room for hope. “Faith has... had a several massive strokes. They're going to do everything they can to clear them, but... It may already be too late. At the very least, she's going to have to re-learn how to speak and walk, but that MRI...” She turned slowly to look steadily at the assembled ponies. “There is a very good chance she may be brain dead.” She turned sadly, the door swinging shut behind her with a soft 'thump' as one by one the mares began to cry, and across the hospital, a heart rate monitor stirred to life, announcing the restarting of Faith's heart, just a few hours too late.