A knock on the door rouses Vinyl from her drug-induced sleep. Though her mind is still cloudy from the sleeping pills, they have mostly worn off, leaving a dull throb in her head.
Groaning, she opens the door with her magic, causing the throb in her head to explode into a supernova from the effort.
“Hay, Vinyl, are… you alright?” comes a very soft voice.
Vinyl slowly turns her head towards the voice. “Hay, Fluttershy,” she says weakly. “What brings you here?”
“We're worried about you. Nopony has seen you in weeks. The only time you're outside is when you go to the drugstore – you don't even bother getting groceries anymore!” Fluttershy suddenly gets stern. “This isn't healthy, Vinyl. I don't what you've been doing, but it needs to stop.”
Vinyl winces, and not just from the strengthening headache. “You don't understand.”
“I do understand. Rainbow told me everything. You have no right to act this way, not compared to her. She's always been a tool in her relationships, merely a means to an end.” Fluttershy sighs, then continues more tenderly. “Look, she doesn't want anything to do with love right now, okay? Just… let her have her space for the time being. She needs it.”
Vinyl stares blankly in Fluttershy's general direction, her headache now a borderline migraine.
Finally, she sighs. “It's more than just a rejection, okay? You know how many times I've been turned down? Eight times, now, Fluttershy. Eight times. Nopony wants me, that much is clear.”
Fluttershy looks at her empathetically, once her shock wears off. “That isn't true, and you know it. You just need to keep looking.”
Vinyl snorts self-derisively. “Thanks for the advice, but it hasn't worked yet.”
Fluttershy heaves a frustrated groan. “Fine! Be that way!” She storms out the door, not quite slamming it behind her. A moment later, she returns to say, “I'll be back tomorrow!” before leaving for good.
Vinyl's head falls back on her pillow, an act that finally catalyses the burgeoning migraine, with sickening results.
Vinyl ends up staying in bed for the rest of the day, uncaring and unfeeling. Only once does she get up, merely to use the toilet, intending to return to her inert state on the bed.
A glint of light off the mirror catches her eye on her way out. She suddenly finds herself gazing at a stranger she barely recognises, too apathetic to really give a damn.
She has become an empty shell, a mere shadow of her former self – and she couldn't care less.
The front door creaks open, and a voice calls out, “Vinyl! Can I talk to ya?”
Vinyl plods absently over to the door, looking up at her visitor. “Hay, AJ,” she says flatly.
Applejack stares agape at her emaciated form. “Woah, Vinyl, you look worse than a rotten apple.”
“I feel terrible, AJ. Please, just go away.” Vinyl turns around to leave, but Applejack steps out in front of her.
“Ah'm mighty sorry, Vinyl, but this ain't normal. Ah'm taking you straight to the hospital.”
“I'M FINE!” Vinyl snaps at her, rudely shoving her outside, then slamming the door and locking it.
Once her shock at this turn of events wears off, Applejack becomes livid. “Now wait just a darn minute, Vinyl! You get your plot back over here right this instant, before I buck your dang door down!”
Receiving no answer, Applejack makes good on her threat. “Alright, I warned ya!”
So saying, she turns around, and bucks the door with all her might…
…only to be flung onto her back as the door repels her blow.
Brushing herself off and feeling humiliated, Applejack shouts angrily at the mare somewhere on the other side of the door: “Fine! You just keep wallowing around in your self-pity, Vinyl! I don't feel sorry for ya one bit!” And with that, Applejack storms off.
It is often said that the condition of one's most prized possession reflects the condition of one's own mind. As Vinyl stares blankly at her DJ set, she feels the first stirs of emotion in three weeks.
Anger.
At first, it's merely a whisper, but soon it roars to life.
No, not anger.
Fury.
Rage.
Her vision, a sea of blood.
A primal scream. Throat raw. Objects flying, dust scattering, glass shattering….
…silence.
Rage gives way to sorrow.
Despair.
Her weeping is the only sound, audible even to her neighbours.
She is utterly alone.
Vinyl simply lies there on the floor, surrounded by her destroyed house. The only thing left unscathed is her DJ set – still covered in dust. Even the walls have holes in them, every window broken from some object that went flying through it.
She lies there, crying herself to sleep.
She dreams of a rainbow-maned pegasus. The mare of her dreams.
She replays the scene that sparked her downhill spiral.
“What do you mean, ‘that's it?’ It doesn't bother you that I'm seriously hot for you?”
“Why should it? I'm so awesome, I wouldn't be surprised if Celestia herself wants a piece of me.”
Vinyl shakes her head in puzzled amusement. “You're shameless.”
“Only because it's true.”
Vinyl rolls her eyes. “Right. So, you wanna go out?”
Rainbow suddenly sighs, all pretence of nonchalance now abandoned. “I dunno. My heart has been broken too many times… I don't want it to happen again.”
Vinyl puts a hoof on Rainbow's shoulder. “It won't happen again, I Pinkie promise. I love you too much.”
Rainbow smiles wanly. “Thanks for the offer, but… I don't think I'm quite ready for anypony yet. I'm… sorry. You… understand, right?”
Vinyl's face falls. “Yeah, I understand.” Mercurian tears stream down her face. “Well, I guess I'll see ya later, th – "
Rainbow surprises her with a tender peck on the lips.
“I'll always be here.”
Over and over again she replays it, trying to figure out what went wrong, and where.
On about the seventh replay, something unusual happens where Rainbow would turn her down. She grows a horn, turns dark blue, and grows about four hooves taller.
Vinyl realises who now visits her – after all, she did this once before.
“Luna? What are you doing here?”
Luna sits down next to her on the grass. “All your friends are worried about you, and I can see why. You look like you haven't eaten in weeks.”
“I haven't.”
Luna blinks at her in shock. “Her denial upset you this much?”
Vinyl merely nods.
Luna sighs. “Listen, I know rejection hurts. But you have to learn to get past it. You can't let it consume you.”
Vinyl suddenly springs upon Luna, embracing her with a desperate hug as she bawls against her fur. Luna awkwardly wraps the broken DJ in a wing, waiting for her to calm down.
When her sobbing finally subsides, it is Vinyl who talks first.
“I'm… I feel so… lonely, Luna. You know what that feels like, right?”
“I know all too well what that's like, yes.” Memories of her time as Nightmare Moon surface unbidden, but she noneless manages to push them aside.
“Luna, is… is anypony meant to spend her life alone? Without a… a special somepony?”
“No, Vinyl. Everypony has someone they are meant to be with. Sometimes it just takes a while.”
“I… I'm just so sick of seeing others together, and… leaving me with nopony. I'm jealous, Luna. I want what they have. I want to love, and be loved back. I want somepony to spend my life with, who won't leave me no matter what. I want to be told I'm beautiful just the way I am. I want to be able to show her off as mine, and I want to be the one she shows off as hers. I want her wings wrapped around me as we sit by a Hearth's Warming Eve fire. I want to cheer her on, not just as a fan, but as a lover. I want to be the shoulder she cries upon. I want to show her what it really means to love somepony for who they are. I want – ”
“You want to show her the love you've never had.”
Vinyl falls silent before whispering into Luna's ear.
“Yes.”
Vinyl awakens to knock on her door. Luna's visit came not a moment too soon. The moment she exposed her feelings, she realised she felt immensely more at peace. With newfound purpose, she waltzes up to the door and opens it.
“Hay, Vinyl?” says the pony nervously.
“Rainbow? Is that you?” Vinyl asks, noticing for the first time how dark it is.
“Uh, *ahem*, yeah, it's me. What happened here?”
“Oh, just a little… episode.”
“Can… I come in?”
“Sure.”
Vinyl motions her inside. After clearing up a spot on the floor and fixing a couple chairs and a table, the two are seated comfortably, and Vinyl clears her throat. “So, what brings you over here?”
“Luna visited me.”
Vinyl's eyes widen at her statement. “Really? Cause she just got done visiting me.”
“She… said as much. Said you told her some stuff, and that I should stop by and see you as soon as I had the time. So I chose right now.”
“Speaking of which, what time is it?”
“Almost eleven-thirty.”
“No wonder it's so dark. So… can I… get you anything?”
“As if there's anything still in one piece in this mess.”
Vinyl snickers. “Yeah, true.”
A moment of silence passes before either of them talk again. Rainbow is the first to break the ice. “So… did you have anything to say?”
“Actually… yes. Luna helped me realise some things. First, she helped me realise that my feelings for you aren't going anywhere, but that that's okay. I'll get over it. I know my… hermetic behaviour… seemed a little unfair… ”
“A little?” Rainbow deadpans.
“Okay, a lot. But to me, it was more than a rejection. I felt I was being denied the one thing I've never had – love.”
Realisation dawns on her face. “That's right. You were neglected as a filly, weren't you,” Rainbow says guiltily.
“It's not your fault, RD. I'm past that, now. I've come to terms with my past – now I just need to look at the present, live for the moment.”
Rainbow looks at her, and decides it's been long enough.
She looks Vinyl right in the eye before pulling her into a kiss.
Vinyl's eyes shoot open, then slowly close as she accepts the kiss. The two sit there like that, enjoying each other's taste, until they remember they have to breathe.
Panting, Rainbow asks, “So, you still want to go out with me?”
Vinyl grins. “What do you think?”