There was something different about whatever was going on. What exactly it was that was different, Vinyl didn’t know yet. She couldn’t move. That was certainly unsettling but not her chief concern. Her chief concern was that she was dead, or at least she figured that she was dead. That’s usually what happened to most ponies when they took a bullet to the chest. She had certainly seen it more than a few times herself. So as far as her logic was concerned, she was dead.
It was dark. That seemed to make sense to her. She didn’t buy into many of the afterlife theories that were around. Her dad had told her once when she was younger about a place called “The Infinite Plains” where all ponies that left this world went to rest. You could see all of your family again and there was no problems. She had always considered that idea a nice thought but nothing more, and if it were true she should have seen him and her mom by now.
She remembered once hearing from some pony who was yelling on the street corner about a place where all who did wrong went. “The Void” is what he called it. He said something about it being a place devoid of all of the wonderful goddess’ light where the evil mare in the moon would torture you for eternity or some such nonsense. Maybe that’s where she was. Although since the previous Summer Sun Celebration had let the world know that the mare in the moon was none other than the newly reformed Princess Luna that theory now had a few holes in it.
Then something changed, it wasn’t dark anymore. It was actually really bright, too bright in fact. As she looked around she saw a blur of ponies surrounding her. As their faces came into focus she realized that she was most likely not dead. Everyone who she cared about was there, even the new girl. She wasn’t dead, that was a plus at least. So if she wasn’t dead, she couldn’t move, and she was surrounded by the ponies that she cared about then there were only a limited number of places that she could be.
As everything came back she started hearing the beeping of the machines around her. She was in a hospital. That was probably a good thing. While she wasn’t a fan of hospitals she knew that if she was there then at least she was most likely being taken care of, so that was good. Now that she thought about it, everything was going pretty good right now. Maybe it was just the drugs, then again today could have just been a great day.
While things were working their way back into focus she noticed that most of the ponies around her were crying or at least had been crying recently, especially the new girl, which she thought was a little strange. They were all staring at her now. She figured she should probably say something. For some reason she was having a hard time thinking of something cool to fit the situation, let alone something that was even coherent. Her thoughts were still a bit fuzzy.
She decided to settle on an old standby. “Sup?” She said groggily as she tried to blink the sleep out of her eyes. That seemed to do the trick though because they were all still smiling, Sunset even more so. Things were really looking up, she wasn’t dead and she was making her friends smile. She decided it was time to try out some more words. “What happened?” That was an easy one that was always a good choice in situations like these.
They all stood still for a second and their smiles seemed to falter. That wasn’t a good sign. Here she was thinking this was all going so well and she had already managed to mess it up with just two words. Sunset took a step towards her. “It doesn’t matter now. All that matters is that you’re okay. We thought we were going to lose you.” Her voice cracked at the end and Vinyl winced. She had only seen her aunt anywhere near sad a few times since her parent’s funeral and always hated it. She was so strong that it seemed almost unreal to see her falter in any way. It was almost like watching Celestia break down and cry or something like that.
She wanted to put her hoof over her aunt but was finding it extremely difficult to move so she tried talking some more. “It’s okay Auntie. Really, I’m fine.” She expected some kind of witty quip from Octavia at that point. It was usually about then that something like that would always come and she had then down to a science. Nothing came though, which threw her off. Then she realized that Octavia wasn’t there.
Some ponies would spend countless amounts of time fretting to themselves about this sudden revelation, thinking so fast and so much to themselves that they would drive them crazy. Not Vinyl though, if there was something going on that she didn’t understand or was upset by she didn’t hesitate to let any and all around her general vicinity know about it.
“Where’s Tavi?” She asked as she continued to look around. Maybe she was hiding somewhere, waiting for the right moment to pop out and say something droll and witty. It wasn’t really something that she would have seen coming, but for reasons unknown to her she didn’t put it past her foalhood friend to do something like that. She was nowhere to be seen though.
Sunset moved forward and put her hoof around Vinyl’s and stared at her for a few seconds, seemingly contemplating what to say. Usually that was never a good sign. The last time Sunset had done something like this was just before she told her that favorite dog had been run over. A saga which ended in Vinyl stalking the pony who she had believed had done it and openly and loudly threatening their life in the middle of the street.
Relief came though. “She’s doing just fine Vinnie. She got you here just in time but had a little accident in the car. She saved your life.” Sunset said, giving her a warm smile. Another good sign, things were continuing to look up. Tavi was alive and she had saved her life, something that Vinyl would have to make up to her sometime. Maybe it was time to give her the roll in the hay that she had so desperately wanted but refused to actually acknowledge for so many years. Maybe the new girl could even join too, that would be pretty awesome.
She then realized that while she had been vividly imagining that scenario and how she could get it to work for her (everyone loves ponies who are hurt and have a hard time saying no, right?) the others were staring at her, no doubt expecting some kind of response. She had to think of something and fast. “Oh…Um” She started. “That’s great. Can I see her? I want to thank her.”
The nurse, who she hadn’t even really noticed until then, stepped in to answer her. “Not yet, I’m afraid. Currently you are both very much incapacitated. She has an injured shoulder and can’t walk right now and you can’t do anything at all for at least the next week. We wouldn’t want you to open up and stitches.”
Well that just wasn’t going to happen, she couldn’t just not walk, especially for a week. She had things to do. She was a busy mare, a drug kingpin (queenpin?) in the making and her up and coming empire wasn’t going to ruthlessly establish itself after all. Aside from that, what if Sunset had another problem that she needed handled? She couldn’t exactly carry out something like that from the confines of a wheelchair. Well, she probably could actually but it would certainly take a lot of the fun out of it.
“Sorry doc.” She said, turning her head slightly to focus on the nurse. “That doesn’t really work for me. I need to get out of here pronto. I’ve got things to do and all of that.”
The nurse just gave her a slightly annoyed look. “First of all,” She said after a deep sigh. “I’m a nurse, not a doctor. Secondly, your aunt wasn’t exaggerating, you are lucky to be alive. We had you in surgery off and on for two days and you still almost didn’t pull through. The bullet struck quite a few of your internal organs and if you start moving around and tear one of those stitches you will most likely die from sepsis before we even have a chance to do anything about it. So I apologize for any inconvenience being shot in the chest has caused you but you really can’t do anything for at least the next week and more likely for the next few months.”
Vinyl was annoyed. That was actually putting it lightly. She was angry. The day had been going so well too. Now she had just learned that not only could she essentially not move for at least the next week but that it would takes months to recover. She considered just attempting to get up and walk away then and there just to prove a point, but she decided that it maybe wouldn’t be the smartest thing that she had ever done.
She decided in the end to just let out a very annoyed grunt that would hopefully signify to the nurse that she understood but was certainly not happy about it. It was something that she had learned to mirror almost perfectly over spending years with Octavia, who was a master of it. It seemed to do the trick though as the nurse just nodded and excused herself shortly afterwards.
Then after a few soft hugs from her brother, who had most certainly been crying even if he didn’t want to show it, and the others they left her and Sunset with the room to themselves. “You really have no idea how close we were to losing you there Vinnie.” Sunset said softly as she embraced her dear niece. “You really need to thank Tavi when you get a chance to see her.”
Vinyl scoffed a little at that. Of course she would thank her, and then proceed to throw an off-color joke in there somewhere. What it would be yet she didn’t know, but she knew she had at least a week to think of something good. In the meantime though there was something that she needed to discuss with her auntie.
“So,” Sunset started after their embrace ended. “What exactly happened? Just tell me what you remember and we can go from there. I already talked to Tavi but she took a really bad hit on the head on the way in here and she was a bit fuzzy on the details.”
Vinyl thought back to the night in question and began to ramble off the events that unfolded. The last thing she remembered clearly before things got crazy was taking shots with that cute couple who just got out of the founders play and thinking about what she could convince them to do with her later that night after the alcohol had fully set in. The next thing she knew it was a madhouse. There was screaming and then the gunshots started. She remembered grabbing the shotgun from underneath the bar and shooting at them, and was pretty sure she had hit at least one of them.
Then she remembered hearing that her precious stash was the target and she knew that she had to protect it. She did what she had almost always done in serious and life threateningly deadly situations and decided to wing it. Most of the time it had worked out pretty well, that time not as much. Her general plan was to rush at them with guns blazing and lock the office down before they had a chance to get in. She then realized as she was barreling towards them that she wasn’t holding the gun anymore and then things went downhill. Before she really had a chance to react she felt a pressure on her chest and her legs fell out from under her.
She remembered remarking to Tavi about how much it had hurt and how she never fully realized that she had been doing that to other ponies. When she did it, it was usually quick. They maybe choked a little bit or struggled around but usually it was a pretty quick death, when she wanted it to be that is, but that’s another story.
Then the last thing she remembered was looking up at Lyra as she held her and thinking about how funny the whole situation with Lyra was. Not “ha ha” funny but more of a really fucked up and manipulative ironic version of funny. She enjoyed that type of funny and at least she thought that it was a good note to die on if there was any. Then she woke up and here they were.
Apparently according to Sunset, Octavia had drug her out into the car and had driven them here. She miscalculated how long it would take to stop on the ice and they crashed, which had also almost killed Octavia. Sunset had even mentioned that the doctors told her that if she had come a minute or two later she would have most likely bled out.
That was a trip for sure. She usually liked to make light of things like this, especially since she had dealt with enough violence and death on a daily basis that it wasn’t really a big deal to her. This time though it was different. She was literally one minute away from death, and Tavi had saved her. The roll in the hay was overdue indeed as far as she was concerned. She owed her longtime best friend a lot more than that but it was certainly a start.
Then before she knew it she was fantasizing again instead of paying attention to her conversation. It had been a major theme in her life, almost something out of that really terrible TV show that Lyra watched about doctors trying to be funny a few years ago. She would just sort of fade in and out of full conversations sometimes when she thought of something interesting. Her aunt once called it an “internal tangent episode” and would always give Vinyl a disapproving look when she was having one, much like she was doing right now.
She lightened her gaze though and smiled. “And here I was thinking that this experience would have somehow changed you.” She said with a chuckle. “I’m really glad you're okay Vinnie. I don’t know what any of us would do without you.”
Vinyl smiled, it was always nice to be told how awesome you were, even if it wasn’t in so many words. Then she started thinking about everything again and realized that it was time to be serious. As the potential severity of the situation set in she started unleashing a fury of questions. “What about all of the stuff in the office? Did they get it? Do you know who did it? What are we going to do?”
She was eventually silenced by her aunt lightly placing a hoof over her lips. “Don’t worry.” She said looking deep into Vinyl’s eyes. “They got most of it and most of the bits that were in there too. They didn’t get the briefcase, thank Celestia, but they took just about everything else. It doesn’t matter though, all of that is replaceable and will be fixed, you aren’t. We got a name though and as soon as you are all better we are going to follow up on it.”
The answer had seemed to calm her. Sunset hadn’t held them personally responsible in any way for what had happened and would be replacing whatever was lost, something that was relatively easy for a mare with her influence. They knew who did it too and she couldn’t wait until she could walk around again so she could personally take every single liter of blood that she had lost back from them. She still had one question though, for now at least. “How’s the club?” She asked, expecting the worst.
Sunset then passed her over a newspaper that had been sitting on the table with her club on the front page. She read it over and had even laughed a little bit. This was certainly one way to get your name out there if nothing else. “The Hearth’s Warming Eve Massacre?” She said, putting the paper down. “Seems a bit absurd to me, but whatever.”
Sunset chuckled. “The whole thing is pretty absurd, but at least we are all here to tell the story. I have to get back to the club though and start doing damage assessment stuff for insurance. I need LP and Velvet with me but Rose offered to stay behind and stay with you. Should I send her in?”
The new girl wanted to stay with her? That was something she didn’t expect. She must have really worked wonders over her the night before everything went down for her to want to stick around like that. She felt a certain sense of odd pride at that and then nodded slightly. They hugged and said their goodbyes and soon afterwards Rose came in.
They started talking about everything that had happened with Rose asserting more than once that she was just happy that Vinyl was alive and didn’t know what she would do without her, which seemed a little strange to Vinyl but she didn’t mind. Rose was there most of the days and even at night, it’s not like she had a job to go back to yet so she didn’t mind. As they talked more and more each day Vinyl found herself really enjoying her company and eventually they shared a kiss after talking about how she had almost died. It was a nice kiss, not normally the ones she preferred. She was more into rough and angry kisses that usually came with a slap or bite, but soft and sweet ones could be good too, she figured that she could get used to them.
As time went by the kisses became more and more frequent, which Vinyl didn’t mind at all. She had never really felt like this before. She had really come to like the new girl, not just for her body (which was pretty amazing according to Vinyl) but for her. She had known almost everything about Rose after the first few days and the more she knew the more she liked her. She had a dream and followed through and even though things didn’t work out she was willing to go out of her element and do whatever it took to make it a reality. It was something Vinyl really respected and admired.
That was the way things went for the next eight days. By the time it came to be released she had even heard that she could finally see Tavi. She couldn’t wait. She had to thank her for saving her life, although now with her new found affection towards Rose the roll in the hay may need to wait for a little bit, unless she could convince them all that it would be a good bonding experience for the three of them or something like that. She figured she could come up with something, but that wasn’t what they needed to talk about. It was time to get back at whoever had done this to them. They would regret ever setting foot in this city by the time they were done with them. They would be made into an example for anyone else who thought it was okay to fuck around with Sunset Shimmer and her friends, she would make sure of that, even if it killed her.