Replay

by Scootaloose

Amends

I admit my night wasn't the most peaceful of all nights. Although Applejack helped me sort out my thoughts and make me worry less, I still felt bad for putting down Twilight like that. I eventually fell asleep out of exhaustion sometime late into the night. This was one of the reasons why I woke up so late that the nurse had to wake me up to eat something. It was almost noon.

"Sorry, Nurse Redheart. I didn't get a decent sleep last night..." I groaned as she rolled in a tray of food from the door.

"Don't worry too much, you were going to wake up hungry sooner or later." She smiled softly.

"Thank you for taking care of me." I smiled. "Was it really that bad when I got here?" I asked.

"You had quite a rash on your muzzle when you arrived." She answered worryingly. "But that was easily the smallest of things, the back of your head was badly injured and we had to use magic to patch you up on that region, or else you wouldn't make it." Shit. THAT close, wasn't it? I winced, rubbing my head just over the bandages, which had stung lightly when I touched it.

"Spare me the nasty details, but I'm kind of curious as how you patched me up with... magic." I asked. I was intrigued by Twilight's ability with levitating objects, flinging living beings such as myself in the air, and even modifying my mane's colour. The nurse's mention of magic to save me caught my attention, not to mention leaving me confused because I still had no idea how their "magic" even worked. Note to self: Find out how this "magic" works before it makes me crazy. I should ask Tw- My thought instantly stopped and I let out a silent sigh and shrugged off my anxiety just enough to keep a conversation with the nurse.

"Oh, I'm no expert on magic, Mr Crown." She laughed, removing her nurse hat from her head, revealing that she was just a regular pony; no wings, no horn. "I wasn't the one who performed your operation. My job is to simply make sure you're healthy while you recover. I have a full first-aid certificate, but magic is out of my expertise."

"But you gotta have an idea of what was done to me, right? No stitches or needles involved or anything?" I insisted, trying to keep Twilight off my mind for the time being.

"If you really want to know, you have to understand your condition when you arrived in some degree of detail, Mr Crown. Are you sure you want to know?" She sighed. I felt my ear flick itself idly. Well, that spoke for itself...

"Very well... Do not blame me for giving too much information. You asked for it. Got it?" She looked at me, sternly. I nodded quietly. "I suggest you eat your breakfast now before you lose your appetite. Just a warning..."

"I can handle it, Nurse Redheart. Just take it easy with the technical stuff."

Nurse Redheart took a deep breath, and started explaining the events that took place while I was out cold. It was rather... detailed, and I swore she was going to bring a whiteboard to try and draw a diagram of what happened. Although I had guts to handle graphical events, the fact that it all happened to ME while I was completely unconscious scared me enough to almost shit bricks. The rash on my muzzle was the least of my worries after her explanation. My head had actually split open partially at the back because of the hard landing, in which surgeons had to mend back together! Not to mention the wound could have seriously gotten infected from being exposed and sitting on dirt for a couple of minutes. "Your friends were smart to get you here quickly. You could've had an internal bleeding going on and nopony would've caught it until it was too late." The nurse finished.

"Well then..." I shook my head, slightly shaking. "Looks like I was given a third chance in life... That was... messy... That was TOO close..." I shuddered.

"Hopefully you will appreciate life a bit more before you do anything next time..." A new voice came from the door. "If you're not going to think about me, that is..." Twilight Sparkle showed up around the door. Her mane was still messy from waking up, and she looked tired. I did not like the look that she had on, and that only made me feel even worse.

"Twilight..." It was all I could muster, too distressed to say anything else. I felt a tear start to form on the corner of my eye, and it seemed that she noticed it from the door, because the next thing I knew Twilight had walked next to my bed and nuzzled me softly behind my ear.

"I'm sorry for last night..." I managed to speak, looking into her eyes which were at the brink of tears. She was going to say something but I stopped her as soon as she opened her mouth to speak "I... I was a jerk for acting like that..." Surprisingly she didn't press on and did not respond. I had half-expected her to start a small speech about her feelings, but apparently she gave me the turn to speak first. "I had no right to accuse you... You were worried, and I completely understand. But what I did was completely rude and unforgivable..." She continued looking at me, silently. "I know I have a tendency to panic and say things I don't mean, but I should have known better than to just shun you like that..." I finished, trying to hold back tears. Twilight stood silent in front of me for a second or two, before backing away and walking towards Nurse Redheart and briefly whispered something to her. She then walked out of the room, and my heart sank, not knowing what she was thinking or what she was planning on doing.

"Johnny?" Nurse Redheart spoke up. I stopped looking at the empty doorway and paid attention to her. "Like I said last night, we had to keep you here for one night in the event of something happening." I nodded in agreement, silently, trying to keep my mind from freaking out any more than it already was.

"I'll be letting you go as soon as you finish your breakfast." She continued. "Speak to me after you're done. Just call me over." She pointed a hoof to a red button that was embedded into my bed. "I won't be too far away. I just have a few things to talk to you before you leave."

"Okay..." I spoke. Which was the only thing I could say at that moment. I had almost bawled in front of Twilight and all she did was walk away. My mind could not comprehend what the hell was going on. Did she tried to imply that she forgave me? Did she just freak out? Did I not say enough to convince her I was sorry? I wanted to scream from frustration, but I still had a bit of sanity left and pulled the food tray next to me. I anxiously ate my breakfast trying not to over-think things too much and called Nurse Redheart. She entered the room a few seconds later. She walked to the machines that were monitoring my vitals and turned them off. To speed things up, I removed the equipment that were stuck onto my chest.

"I appreciate the help, Johnny. But please don't do that." She spoke sternly. "You could've hurt yourself badly if you had, for example, a needle still stuck into you." Oh... fuck...

"I'm just a bit anxious, sorry." I replied shyly.

"It's Miss Sparkle, isn't it?" She smiled compassionately. I nodded in response as she turned off the last machine. She motioned me to follow her out of the room. I got off the bed and followed her back to the reception counter.

"Don't worry. She just had to leave in a hurry." She spoke, reading one of files on the counter. "She only wanted to check up on you for a quick second, and she wants to talk more in the library."

"Oh, thank you." I said, slightly relieved. At least I knew she wasn't just running off scared. "So am I ok to go now?" She nodded in response.

"Just hold on a minute." She called me just as I turned around. "I haven't finished with you just yet."

"Yeah?"

"Because of your concussion, I recommend not trying to fly for a few days" She continued. Lovely... "Do not risk it as the quick accelerations that can come with it may cause some minor dizziness until you're fully recovered. The rest is self-explanatory, I hope."

"Alright, Nurse." I said, slightly disappointed. "Can I finally go now?"

"Yes. And be safe." I nodded, and I carefully walked out of the hospital.

---

After anxiously finding my way back to Ponyville Library, I approached the door and stopped, hesitantly. I had no idea what I was going to face after I went in. I didn't know if I was going to get scolded, forgiven, or a book to the back of the head. I couldn't focus at the moment and I wasn't getting anywhere by staring at a door doing nothing. I looked up at the giant tree, took a deep breath and looked back at the door, trying to build up some courage. Curiously enough I finally saw the real name of the place: Golden Oaks Library. "Ponyville Library" seemed to be easier to remember, so I didn't bother much with it. I knocked on the door and Spike opened it a few moments later.

"Oh, hi Johnny." He spoke. He seemed a little down. "Quite a day it's been for you yesterday, huh?"

"Or what little I could remember." I joked lightheartedly, trying to liven up the mood.

"Fair enough." Spike shrugged. "Twilight wants to talk to you." He opened the door fully and made way for me to walk inside. "She's in the kitchen." He continued.

"Thanks, Spike." I forced a light smile. I wasn't looking very forward to know what Twilight had to say.

I walked into the kitchen. Twilight looked a bit better and was levitating a cup of tea, stirring it a bit while looking inside. She heard me walk in and looked up. "Look... about last night..." I began.

"I heard you on the hospital..." She interrupted me. "And I think I need to apologize to you as well."

"Huh?"

"I shouldn't have jumped to conclusions and imply you were irresponsible and inconsiderate of others." She continued. "Not to mention yelling at you when you woke up."

"No, Twilight..." I spoke up, "I didn't pay attention to what I was doing. I got distracted and I paid for it. Don't take the blame to yourself. It was all me. And I took it out on you."

"You don't get it, Johnny." She put down the cup. "When Applejack came to the library saying that you were being taken to the hospital, the first thing that I thought was that you were trying to play with death. EXACTLY like you said last night: 'A suicidal maniac'."

"But... you didn't mean that, did you?" I asked. I saw the regret in her eyes, just like I had when she left the hospital room last night. Twilight shook her head softly.

"I thought I was going to lose you when the doctors told me your condition." She spoke, trembling. "It was SO close..." She controlled herself, trying to hold back tears. "Do you have ANY idea how bad your condition was!?" She started sobbing. I silently walked over to her seat, wrapped my wing around her and pulled her close. We sat in silence like that for a short while. No talking, just sitting next to each other, Twilight Sparkle letting out her angst in tears while I hugged her with my wing, at least until Spike walked into the kitchen and saw us.

"Uh..." He spoke up awkwardly. Twilight positioned herself back to her own seat and rubbed some tears off her eyes - my coat got somewhat soaked where her head was leaned against - "You two okay?"

"Yes, Spike." Twilight spoke up, sniffling softly. "We're fine."

"Didn't you have somepony in here before Johnny?" Spike asked her. " You know... The one you left upstairs?"

"Oh!" She squealed in shock. She got out of her seat and started pulling me by the leg with her magic. "Johnny! The other reason why I wanted to talk to you here!" She said nervously.

"Yeah? What is it?" I asked confused as she dragged me out of the kitchen and towards the stairs. "You're freaking me out a bit here, Twi."

"Sorry!" She let me go. "I'm just anxious... It's about Pinkie Pie. She still thinks you're-"

"Gone, I know..." I interrupted her. "So my guess is that she's upstairs waiting for me or something?"

"How did you know?" She tilted her head curiously.

"Just a hunch. What other reason is there for you to drag me upstairs?" I asked. "I mean, 'somepony' must mean something right? Unless you're taking me to your bedroom, then my guess was wrong..." I snickered.

"UGH you're terrible!" She scowled at me, frustrated.

"Hey, you're the one who thought about it!" I retorted with a smug. Twilight grunted loudly and resumed pulling me by the leg upstairs.

"You're absolutely relentless... At least you seem to be back to your normal self." She continued. "Come on. You need to go talk to Pinkie and prove her yourself that you're still alive."

"She didn't believe you or Rainbow Dash last night?" I asked, trying to pull away from her telekinetic grip. "Come on, you can stop pulling me now. I'm going to trip on these stairs!" She instantly let go of my leg.

"She wasn't letting anypony into her room last night. It took us a lot of effort to get her to leave and stop by here but we finally did it." She replied. "And she STILL didn't want to listen to us." We reached the top of the stairs and walked towards the corridor with the two doors; one leading to Twilight's bedroom, the other to the guest bedroom. Twilight uncomfortably walked past the guest bedroom and opened her bedroom door.

"You're kidding... right?" I said, trying not to laugh. "OW! Not the ear!" I hissed in pain as she pulled me into the room. Pinkie Pie was lying still on Twilight's bed. She twitched an ear when she heard us walk in but didn't turn around. Her mane looked flat and dull, making her look grim and sad. It was oddly creepy.

"Go." Twilight whispered. "I'll wait here." I nodded and walked up the staircase leading to the bed.

"Pinkie?" I asked quietly behind her. She perked up her ears and looked out the window.

"Johnny?" She asked anxiously. "Is that you?"

"Umm.... yes? I'm... here?" I replied, confused. Pinkie got up on top of the bed and put her head out the window.

"JOHNNY! WHEREVER YOU ARE! I AM SO SO SORRY FOR YESTERDAY!" She cried in angst. Wait, is she... oh god she is...

"No... Pinkie..." I replied, awkwardly. "I'm alive... in this room..."

"A PONYGEIST!??" She screamed. "AAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

"No! No! I'm alive in flesh! Just look at me!" I extended a leg towards her to turn her around but it wasn't necessary. "Right here!"

She turned around, slowly, and our eyes met. Mine were calm. Hers... not so much...

"Z-z-z-ombie Johnny?" She stuttered, panic imminent.

"What?" I asked, cautiously, and confused. The hell is she on abo- oh... the bandages...

"ZOMBIE JOHNNY! TWILIGHT! HEEELP!" She jumped off the bed platform and bolted towards the door. Twilight quickly grabbed Pinkie by the tail with her telekinesis and pulled her back to the middle of the room.

"Pinkie! Calm down!" Twilight spoke. "He's not a zombie! He just got out of the hospital!"

"After eating all the pony brains in there, of course!" She screamed, trying to run for the door, but Twilight's magic kept her in check, and all it did was cause Pinkie to run in place, her hooves being utterly useless in her state.

"Look, just grab my hoof. Just feel it." I approached her. She shook her head furiously, eyes closed. "Come on, just get it over with! I'm alive!" I insisted.

Pinkie Pie stopped struggling and Twilight let go of her tail. She extended a hoof, and I set my hoof on top of hers. Wincing, she wrapped her leg on it, tugged it, tapped it a few times, bounced it up and down a bit, then finally opened her eyes. She stared me down for a few seconds before finally tackling me and giving me a hug that knocked the wind out of me.

"Good to see you too, Pinkie." I chuckled as Pinkie Pie cried her eyes out onto my shoulders. Not of distress, but out of happiness and a ton of relief. "Too early to say "Party"?" I silently mouthed to Twilight, who shot me a "You gotta be kidding me" glare. I nudged Pinkie with a hoof to grab her attention. She broke out of the hug and wiped the tears off her bloodshot eyes. "How about a little get-together. Just between us?" I asked Pinkie. She was still too emotionally stressed to give a proper response and just gave me a soft nod.

"I'm pretty sure we're still taking up that offer Rainbow Dash suggested before we left to Canterlot, remember?" Twilight said as she approached us and gave Pinkie a comforting hug.

"Yeah, a sleep-over would be interesting." I nodded. "Actually, it was wasn't Dash who suggested it. She just wanted to go head-to-head with me on horror stories. YOU suggested the sleep-over."

"It'd come up eventually... The library is really the only place we have available with enough space for everypony to stay for these occasions." Twilight replied meekly before looking at Pinkie, who was still a bit sad but recovering. Her mane was somehow getting slightly back to its "poofy" state. "Do you want to do something special for the sleep-over night, Pinkie?"

"I could bake some cupcakes for us." She replied in a monotone voice, but with a hint of joy. I felt a small relief take over me knowing that she wasn't going to be depressed like that for too long. "I'll go get them started." She walked out of the bedroom and left Twilight and I in silence.

"Wow... I feel really bad now..." I sighed. "She took it just as hard as you did, didn't she?"

"If not more." She said. "Pinkie Pie considers all her new friends like family, all of them, no exceptions."

"I'm glad she'll be okay by evening... I hope?"

"She will." Twilight nodded. "We should get some things set up if we want to have that sleep-over tonight." She motioned me to follow her out of the room, and as we approached the stairs, I stopped and turned back to the guest bedroom.

"Sorry, I'm just getting that letter I got that I haven't read yet." I said, quickly. "I'll meet you downstairs."

"Sure."

I approached the study table with the letter, and after some effort, a few awkward bites on paper and saliva, I managed to get the letter out of the envelope intact.

From: Amy Winter

To: Johnathan Crown, Ponyville

Tuesday, August 25th, 2 ANMM

"Well then, let's see what news she has from Canterlot." I said out loud, anxiously.

"You're readin- ...SORRY!" I heard Twilight yell from downstairs.

"You're getting there!" I yelled back with a light chuckle, and continued reading the letter.

Hi Johnny,

I'll try to keep this brief, since the mail team kinda has a schedule to meet.

As soon as the doctors came back with the results from the scans, we all had a minor freak attack - It's not about the tumor, don't worry. It's something completely different - I'm still a bit shocked by it and it's best I explain it to you in person. I'd take more time to write this when I had calmed down but the mail team (flying ponies delivering mail. Mind = blown) is leaving shortly and I want to get this out to you as soon as possible.

I am also getting my operation done tomorrow, and I should be good to go in the same day! That's pretty impressive! I don't know what funky shenanigans they have over here to get things done so quickly but I'm not going to complain about it! In fact, one of the reasons why my operation is so quick is one of the things that the docs discovered out of my scans.

Daring Do also came back with a crapton of equipment from the lab, too. Must be the server mainframes that were kept in there. Most of them seem intact, if not all of them. I offered help to the research team but they seemed to know what they were doing.

Anyways, I might be able to get the train to Ponyville on the same day I leave the hospital (is that how it's spelled?) I'll explain everything else to you when I get there. Train should arrive at around 5PM on the next day.

I'll see you soon *hugs*

Amy

"It will be a pretty interesting day when she gets here..." I smirked, and walked out of the bedroom. "Wait... Twilight!?" I called out.

"Yes, Johnny?" She showed up at the bottom of the stairs. "What is it?"

"What day did this letter arrive?"

"Wednesday. Why?"

"And today is..." I let her complete the sentence as I walked downstairs while I tried to hold the letter with my closed wing. I'm kinda starting to get the hang of this...

"Thursday?" She said, confused. "Context, Johnny. Give me context. I can't help you like this."

"What time is it?"

"Can you just tell me what's going on!?" She stomped a hoof, annoyed. "It's eleven in the morning, now tell me what's going on!"

"Yeah, I'm getting kinda curious too, Johnny." Said Spike, who was walking out of the kitchen, helping himself to a bowl of ice cream.

"Spike, I thought I said not to eat ice cream before lunch!" Twilight hissed. She was getting worked up enough that I swore I saw her coat start to glow faintly.

"But lunch is not until an hour from now!" He protested, "Don't worry, I'll be fine."

"No you won't, remember the last time I let you eat ice cream on your own before?" She scowled at him, yanking the ice cream from his grasp with her telekinesis.

"Ok, sure. It was a really bad tummy ache but only because you forced yourself not to move..." He couldn't help but giggle a bit. I was completely out of the loop and watched them argue over ice cream. Of all things...

"Listen, Spike." She interrupted him, she looked like she just got out of a sauna at that point. Her whole body seemed to be covered in ...purple steam. Even Spike noticed it and took a step back. "Don't make me stop buying ice cream for the rest of month."

"Okay..." He peeped, and slowly made his way towards the door. "I'll go tell the girls about the sleep-over for you..." He said, shakily.

"Good." Twilight's "steam" aura started to wear off, then turned towards me. "Now you."

"Yes, Twiley?" I answered. She looked like she was going to protest over something, but stopped, and continued.

"What's this about the letter and why were you asking for the time?"

"Oh, right..." I laughed nervously. "Amy's arriving in Ponyville in... 6 hours..." Her eyes widened. "Looks like we have one more guest for that sleep-ov-" A loud bang coming from the door interrupted our conversation. When we looked at the door, it was split open. The crack that Ditzy Doo had done the day before gave in and the door was no more. Pinkie Pie was standing by the entrance, with a chef's hat on her head. Spike was a few metres away from the door when it got taken down, his face was of pure terror.

"MY EYELIDS TWICTHED!" She screamed, beaming with glee.

"I-I'll go get somepony to fix the door!" Spike ran out of the library and simply vanished within seconds.

"Context, please?" I asked, and Twilight shot a mean glare at me, and her body started to somehow bend light around her and I swore I heard a low humming noise coming from her direction, in addition to her scary purple aura. "On second thought I think I'll just go for a walk!" I ran out the door towards nowhere. I did NOT want to see how she was going to snap with all the crap that got thrown at her in less than a minute.

Comments

[Distrance]

Touring around the world as one of the best DJs on Earth can be stressful

Pretentious af

[Zman537]

"MY EYELIDS TWITCHED!"

That is one of the best references to the Pinkie Sense I have ever read.

[yrfoxtaur]

gee, who trimmed down Twilight's fuse?

also, what does that particular combo mean, Pinkie?

[Deadinlight]

4051655 Yes Pinkie, It Means You Blinked.

[Scootaloose]

4050877 he's not a steve aoki, so he's OK on that. :P