Monday, February 1, 2016

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Today's Horoscope (Virgo): ERR script not loaded — contact administrator

Early Morning

Everybody walks to school together in one big group. We're all wearing heavy galoshes and slickers, because the streets still have standing water.

Morning

Everyone, students and teachers alike, are hung over from the last several days. Mr. Turner doesn't feel like teaching us anything this morning, so he puts on an episode of Trottingham Nobles Are Interesting and dozes off at his desk.

That title is a lie, by the way. There's not one interesting thing about this show.

About halfway through second period, Principal Celestia makes the morning announcements. One announcement in particular catches everyone's attention:

"Valentine's Day is in two weeks. As always, we are hosting our annual Valentine's Dance at CHS. The dance will be held on Saturday the thirteenth. The details will be made available on Canterbook as soon as the public notice boards stop giving me 'Invalid Account' errors."

We all laugh at that. Canterbook has developed some interesting bugs since the restart...

Looks like I'll need to pull out that suit again.

Afternoon

Halfway through English, I get a text from Cadance, telling me to report to the nurse's office immediately. The teacher apparently gets the same message. She looks up in concern. "Mr. Sentry? What's this message from Nurse Cadance about?"

"I'm not sure," I say. "Nurse Cadance wouldn't call me out of class without a good reason..."

The teacher nods. "Very well. You're excused."

Confused eyes follow me out of the room.

When I reach the nurse's office, a very worried-looking Cadance is waiting for me. A million possibilities run through my mind, all of them bad. "What's wrong?" I ask.

"Your friend Vinyl Scratch," she says. "She had an episode in the girls' bathroom at lunch. Another student just found her unconscious." She leads me inside.

Vinyl is lying on the cot in the nurse's office. She's out cold; her glasses are sitting on the counter next to her, and Cadance has bandaged her head.

"Octavia had to school from home today, or I'd have called her in too," Cadance says.

"Octavia isn't here?"

Cadance shakes her head. "Their house suffered flood damage. Her mother decided she was needed elsewhere today."

"Tavi's house flooded?"

We both look at Vinyl. Her eyes are open. "That sucks," she says. "I'd better...call her..." She groans.

"Vinyl? How are you feeling?"

"My head's killing me," Vinyl says. She sits up, putting a hand to her forehead. "Oh fuck," she says.

"Your glasses!" I grab Vinyl's glasses and hand them to her.

She takes them and fumbles with them for a minute before getting them on. "Thanks," she says. She looks in my direction. "Umm...problem," she says.

"What is it?" Cadance asks. "Where does it hurt? Do you need me to call someone?"

"Actually, I need to..." Vinyl pats herself down. "Crap, where's my phone?"

"Here it is," Cadance says. "It fell out of your pocket when you...well, tripped or hit your head or whatever happened to you."

Vinyl grimaces. It takes a few tries for Cadance to successfully press the phone into her hands. She runs her hand over the surface with a frown.

"Vinyl? That's the wrong side."

"Huh? Oh...thanks." Vinyl turns the phone over, then holds it up to her ear. "Call Mom."

"Calling 'Mom'," her phone says.

After several long seconds, Vinyl says, "Mom? I'm in the nurse's office at school. I can't see. At all." She takes a deep breath. "I think my eyes just died."

Oh my God...!

Cadance presses her hands to her mouth, eyes wide.

"Yeah. Okay, cool." Vinyl hangs up and turns her head in our direction. "Mom'll pick me up as soon as she can," she says.

"Vinyl?" Cadance asks quietly. "You...?"

I reach out and put a hand on Vinyl's shoulder. "Are you sure? This isn't just one of your greyouts?"

Vinyl sighs. "Y-yeah...I think this is it." She takes a deep breath. "Nurse Cadance? Can...can I have a minute alone with Flash-man?"

"Of-of course," Cadance says. "I'll be right outside..."

Cadance leaves, making sure to close the door loudly.

Vinyl takes off her glasses and toys with them. "Fuck," she says. "Fuck fuck FUCK."

"You'll be alright," I say. "You've been getting ready for this, right?"

"I guess," Vinyl says. "This isn't fair, though! I wanted..." She hangs her head. "I wanted the last thing I ever saw to be Tavi's face. Or...heh." She smirks. "Well...you know."

"I think I can guess, yeah."

"Instead, the last thing I saw was a toilet with a goddamn turd in it."

"Ouch." Also, gross...

Vinyl's shoulders shake. "I'm scared," she whispers.

I put my hands on her shoulders. "I would be too," I say. "I'd be freaking out."

"I am freaking out," she says. "Will...will you stay with me until my mom comes to get me? I know you probably ought to go back to class, but..."

"I'm not going anywhere."

"Thanks." She takes a deep breath. "I...I gotta call Tavi..."

"Calling 'Tavi'," her phone says.

"SHIT!" Vinyl looks like she's about to have a panic attack. I take the phone from her hand and hold it up to her ear.

After a moment, she says, "Uhh...hey, Tavi. What...what's up? Uh-huh. Damn. Yikes. How bad is it...? Holy shit."

I give Vinyl a sharp nudge.

"Okay okay!" she says. "Listen, Tavi? I just...I'm in the nurse's office at school, with Flash, waitin' on my mom. I uhh...I can't see. I think so, yeah. I know they said it'd be around April. Yeah, I know. I know! Tavi! Listen. I'll probably be in and out of the doctor's office and the hospital all week, but...this happened all at once in the bathroom here at school, okay? My eyes went, I panicked, I fell down, I hit my head, I blacked out, I woke up in the nurse's office totally blind. I'm pretty sure this is it. Yeah...okay. Listen, I...I'll talk to you later, okay? I think...I think I'm about to b-bre-break..."

Vinyl can't finish whatever she's saying, because she's started crying. Her phone slips out of her hand; I catch it. "Uhh...Octavia? It's Flash. Yeah. She's...yeah. Don't worry, I'm staying with her until her mom gets here. Will you be at school tomorrow? Okay. I'll talk to you tomorrow. Okay. Bye." I hang up, put Vinyl's phone on the counter, and move her around so I can sit next to her and hold her. She buries her face on my shoulder and cries for several minutes before passing out.

I'm not sure if she's fainted or fallen asleep, but I lay her back down on the cot, then go to get Cadance.

Cadance takes Vinyl's blood pressure and checks her pulse, then sighs. "Poor kid," she says. "God, what a fucked-up thing for a girl her age to have to go through..."

Principal Celestia walks in. "Cadance? I'm here. What's going on?"

"It's Vinyl Scratch," I say. "She's blind."

Celestia pales. "Poor girl..."

"We're waiting on her mom to come get her," I say.

"I'll wait with you."

Ten minutes later, Vinyl wakes up. I help her sit up and put her glasses back on.

"Vinyl?" Celestia asks. "It's Principal Celestia. How...how are you...?"

"My head's killing me, but that's mostly from hitting it on the bathroom floor," Vinyl says hollowly. "And I can't see, so there's that."

"I am so terribly sorry, Vinyl," Celestia says. "If...if there's anything I can do for you..."

"Just promise me I can still DJ the Valentine's Dance," Vinyl says. "I might need a little help, but I'll be damned if I miss out on that."

Celestia smiles. "Do you think you'll be up for it?"

"Her equipment is set up so she can run it by voice," I say. "She showed me how it all works months ago." I squeeze Vinyl's shoulder. "Besides, I'm sure Octavia will help her."

"Then by all means," Celestia says. "I'll inform your teachers. How long do you think you'll need to be out of school?"

Vinyl shrugs. "That's up to the doctor and my mom," she says. "I hope it's not too long. I hate not bein' around people."

Vinyl's mom walks in. She rushes over to Vinyl and sweeps her up in a hug. "Vi," she says. She's obviously been crying all the way here. "I've already called the doctor. He's meeting us at the hospital." She looks around at all of us. "Thank you for taking care of her," she says. She helps Vinyl to her feet.

Vinyl holds her head for a minute, then leans into her mother's side. "Guess I'll s—" she stops. "Umm...later," she says. "Hey, Flash-man? Thanks..."

We watch them leave.

"Flash?" Cadance says. "Why don't you go on back to the dorm? I don't think you'll be able to concentrate in class after all this anyway."

"I agree," Celestia says. "If you need to talk about this, I'll be at the dorm later this evening."

"Yeah..." I say. "I think I'll head back. Besides, it's not like anybody's actually teaching class today..."

Celestia grimaces. "So I've noticed. Luna's holed up in her office playing Pokemon Shuffle."

I can't help but laugh at that. I text Twilight to let her know what's going on, then head back to the dorm.

Evening

At dinner, I tell everyone what happened today.

"That poor dear!" Rarity says.

"That totally blows!" Rainbow says.

Sonata frowns. She holds up her tablet.

I can sympathize. I know exactly what she's going through.

After a moment, she smacks her face with her palm and pulls a pained grimace.

Dammit, I can't do anything to help her!

"Whyever not, darling?" Rarity asks.

Sonata gives her an 'are you kidding me?' look, then writes something else on her tablet.

I can't talk without this stupid tablet, and she can't SEE!

"Oh...oh yes..."

"Eh, we'll figure something out," Pinkie says. "She could use a friend like you right about now."

"Aren't there text-to-speech apps on those things?" Rainbow points out.

Oh yeah...! Man, I feel silly. I'll see if I can download one tonight.

"The one who really needs to help her through this is Octavia," I say. "I just...I just hope she's up to it." And that her mother doesn't cause any problems...

Celestia coughs delicately. "Vinyl is determined to DJ the Valentine's Dance if at all possible," she says. "You girls had better find dates. I don't want to see anybody going stag for this one."

"Ugh," Rainbow groans. "Pass."

Applejack gets a truly evil grin. "Oh, come on, Rainbow," she says. "We all know who you wanna ask..."

"Huh? What're you talkin'...about..." Rainbow's eyes wide. "Oh, FUCK YOU, Applejack."

"Rainbow Dash!" Celestia snaps.

"Uhh...sorry..."

"We're trying to break her of that," Twilight says. "This past week, Rainbow's potty mouth has gotten a lot worse."

"I'm learning a lot of new words!" Apple Bloom says with a bright smile.

"You most certainly are NOT!" Applejack says sternly.

Sweetie Belle rolls her eyes. "Please," she says. "Rainbow Dash hasn't said anything that isn't written all over the walls of the girls' bathroom at school."

"Ah didn't know what a queef was until Ah read it off th' bathroom wall," Apple Bloom says.

Celestia frowns. "I need to have a little talk with your school's principal," she says darkly. "His janitorial staff is not doing their job."

"Tell me about it," Sweetie Belle complains. "There's never any tampons in the machine when you really need one!"

Rarity clears her throat loudly.

Hey Flash, do you have any scary crazy bathroom stories?

"SONATA!" Twilight yells, face red.

I don't want to get dragged into this weird-ass conversation, but...

"Well, back in Seaddle, there was that one urinal that had the red tape all over it."

"Red tape?" Celestia asks.

"Out of service," I say.

"It was broken?" Twilight asks.

"No, it was condemned. Among other things, someone took a shit in it."

"Umm...isn't that what you're supposed to do in a bathroom?" Rainbow asks, tilting her head.

I stare at her. "Urinal, Rainbow. Not toilet. Urinal."

She gives me a blank look.

"You know, the thing only guys can use? That you stand up to pee in?"

"Wait...someone pooped in one of those?" Pinkie asks.

"Oh, that is so nasty!" Sweetie Belle says.

"HOW?" Apple Bloom wonders.

I shrug. "Hell if I know. There were pics of it all over the Internet and everything."

"EWWWW!"

Rarity pushes her plate away and stands up, then heads upstairs without a word. A moment later, Fluttershy does the same.

Celestia frowns. "Perhaps...we shouldn't talk about public restrooms at dinner," she says.

A little while after dinner, I'm in my room reading when I get a call from Vinyl.

"Hey Flash-man," she says weakly.

"Hey. How are you?"

"Tired," Vinyl says. "I'm in the hospital. I'm stayin' overnight for tests an' stuff." She sighs heavily. "It's the real deal," she says. "I'm blind. Doc says it was a sudden aggressive degenerative episode. I might get like, flashes of grey or flickers of blurry light, but..."

"I'm sorry," I say. I take a deep breath. "Listen...there's someone you need to meet, when you're able. I think she can help you. She's going through something a lot like what you're going through."

"Oh yeah? Who?"

"Sonata Dusk."

"The wheelchair girl?"

"She's only in the wheelchair until she finishes recovering from the car crash," I say. "Her throat got torn up in the crash. She can't even talk."

"Ouch." Vinyl pauses. "It's permanent?"

"Yeah. And she used to be a singer."

"Yeesh." Vinyl's quiet for a minute. "So if she can't talk and I can't see..."

"She's looking for a text-to-speech app for her tablet."

"Cool." Vinyl yawns. "I'll call you tomorrow, okay? Let you know how it's going."

"Okay. Goodnight, Vinyl. Hope you can sleep well."

Vinyl laughs. "Oh, I will. They're...giving me enough...stuff..." She trails off sleepily.

I disconnect the call, then read for a little while longer before bed.