"Cheer up, Vinyl!" Bon Bon chirps, her amber voice practically assaulting my ears. "If you ask us, some sunshine will be good for you!"
I fold my forelimbs.
I frown.
I do not want to be here.
I never asked to be brought out here.
And yet, here I am, being rolled across town in a wheelchair. Bon Bon and Lyra gently push me towards home. My head aches, trying to catch my bearings through the brightness beyond my shades. All I want to do is be turned around so that I can face the hospital again. Maybe if I concentrate hard enough, I can still detect the fine ripples of indigo and—
"Honestly. You were only taking up unnecessary space at Ponyville Central," Bon Bon adds. "Octavia's fine. We all know she's fine! The doctors have told us a gazillion times that she's making a healthy recovery in record time! It... simply isn't healthy for you to sit around in that sterilized environment, watching paint dry as you wait for her to be moved to another unit!" She looks aside. "Isn't that right, Lyra?"
"Uhhhhhhhh..." Lyra mutters. Judging by the pitch in her voice, I suspect she's dreaming up another instrumental in that creative skull of hers. "...huh?"
"Eughhh..." Bon Bon groans. "Lyra, a little help here."
"Hey. Vinyl. Octavia's totally not dead. Stop getting so freakypressed about it, kay?"
A brief burst of magenta.
Did I just laugh?
Weird...
"Hah!" Lyra beams, her voice more golden than ever. "Told you I was here for moral support?"
"Fine... fine..." Bon Bon sighs. "How about this, Vinyl?" I sense her face leaning in through my peripheral vision. "Humor us by spending one day out in the open air. One day. We'll run by your apartment so you can grab some stuff. Y'know... Tavi's things. Necessities... comfort items. Things that'll make her really happy once she fully wakes up from the first wave of magic stabilization treatment. Then, we'll swing by Sugarcube Corner! The Princess and her friends asked specifically that we make a stop there so that they could visit you... at least... visit and socialize outside of a cramped hospital room. Wouldn't that be nifty?"
"Yeah, Vine!" Lyra grins. "They've been really dying to see you!"
"Lyra!"
"Yeesh! What now?!"
"Don't use the 'd' word?"
"Why not?" Lyra shrugs. "Everypony's fine! Tavi's fit as a fiddle! We're... like... in the Fit Fiddle Zone!"
"Ugh... you can be so impossible at times..."
"B-Squared, will you just lighten up? We're supposed to be relaxing! Letting Vinyl let loose!"
"Yes, but there are... st-standards to uphold!"
"Oh good grief. Hey, Vinyl. What's the color of stuck-up?"
Another magenta burst.
"See?!" Lyra points. "I got her rolling!"
"Lyra, I swear, if you make her faint again..."
"Hah. We could swing by our place and park her outside the bathroom door. That would make her faint."
"Gaaaaie! Lyra!"
"Haha! What, Bon Bon?! Come on! Vine's our friend!"
"But... b-but we're out in the open! Goddess..."
"You are sooooooo red right now."
"Grrrr..."
"Shouda called you 'Beet-Beet' after foaling. Friggin' priceless..."
I sigh, hugging myself.
A tiny smile hangs off my muzzle.
I truly am lucky to have such idiotic friends...
Aww. Short and sweet chapter. I'm gald Vinyl is doing ok.
2 in one day?!
Plutonic friendship is plutonic.
6663948 Yeah which probably means no chapter tomorrow.
"Beet-Beet"? I love this little chapter, short, sweet, and overall funny! Thanks Skirts
6663973 don't say such things!
Every time I see this, it makes me think of a Kraftwerk album cover for some reason.
Yes you are, Vinyl. Don't you forget it.
derpicdn.net/img/2014/3/16/576312/large.png
6663973 I didn't think of that.
It's good to see Vinyl lightening up a little, especially after the brouhaha.
6664085 Hm. Apparently I've been spelling that wrong all this time.
Well. I've learned something on top of all the enjoyment I've gotten from this story.
I haven't read this, but the fact that it's been in the Featured box for so long must mean something. If so, good job making a story people enjoy.
Vinyl laughed without reeling? She's doing better.
6664128 it hasn't been in the box for a long time. Skirts just updates it daily so it pops back in for a bit every day. The three bottom spots are for updates stories.
I feel like that whole business might have bumped some of Vinyl's leylines back into alignment. Interesting...
I hope someone was feeding the cat while they were out.
6664163
Yeah, I'm wondering if channelling into the healing crystal thing for Tavi untwisted her lay lines or whatever and if not cured her, certainly did her some good.
I got briefly paranoid at B² and Lyra's forced demeanor suggesting that Tavi might be less fine than everybody's saying, and they're trying not to stress Vinyl.
Their repeated emphasis that Octavia's fine and totally not dead or dying, and Bon Bon's weird insistence that Lyra not "use the 'd' word" just sound a bit disturbing. (Not to mention it would be one hell of a tragic ending if Vinyl ended up getting her voice back and then lost the one pony she needed to speak to more than anyone. Worse even, if the attempt to save Tavi is what cures her voice.)
I'm wrong though, of course. Of course. Skirts wouldn't do that to us.
*bites nails until the next update*
Congrats Lyra, you saved the happy mood!
I don't know if someone already had the same idea.
Do deafening spells work with Vynil, to remove her sense of hearing? If they do, would she be able to sing again while deafened? I believe that if she manages to sing again, it would be the keystone to her recovery.
Heehee... Lyra is just incorrigible!
6664390
SS&E wrote in the previous chapter that Vinyl saw Tavi's indigo breath getting stronger.
Tavi's ok.
6664598
Whew, you're right! I managed to really scare myself there.
Hehe, the best of friends indeed.
Hahahaa xD
You know they're good friends when they act like idiots around you
Nice job!
6664616 http://youtu.be/LijTNluceSA
6665434 How dare I what? Have an opinion? Suspect something other than what I'm being spoon-fed? Be open to the possibility of a fictional character's possible demise?
6665443 (I meant it in a joke kind of way btw)
6665501 Ah. Sorry for the overreaction.
6665526 I's ok. I should of said it was a joke.
Wait... Vinyl laughed? Since when can she do that without blowing her rainbow-colored brain out through her ears?
6665925 Maybe she's getting better?
6664000
6663973 and I think you are right.
6667254 :/ one of the times I would've preferred being wrong.
Vinyl being 'cured' is also a bad thing. Her handicap defines her now. She let Cyan Sings go, she's a whole new pony built on top of the old one. If she gets her voice back and loses her colors... who is she? Stuck between something she doesn't want to be anymore and something she can't be anymore. The whole romantic idea of "Oh you can be someone NEW in this situation!" is practically pure crap. I wonder how this is going to play out.
6663952
A Plutonic friendship is one that has so little romance the International Astronomical Union reclassified it as a dwarf-relationship?
6669291 I am really genuinely sorry to be this guy, but the word is Platonic
I came her directly after reading Background Pony. I'm not complaining in the slightest.