To whomever is reading this journal entry:

Whether you are one of my friends, co-workers, or just some random person who found this journal, I want you to know something very important.

There’s a chance I might die tomorrow.

As I lay here on this hospital bed, I leave you with one last entry in the event that I am no longer amongst the living. I know this is sudden, but trust me on this: it’s even more sudden for me. There’s no way to feel what emotions I am going through right now unless you experience them yourself, so I don’t expect you to understand. Instead, keep this book and spread my story. Maybe, just maybe, you might find someone who has the same problem as me and they can use this book as a reminder. A reminder that lets them know that they aren’t alone.

Four days ago, I woke up to something I wasn’t used to: Pinkie Pie. I sat up in my bed, wiping my eyes to ensure it wasn’t my morning grogginess playing tricks on my brain. Sure enough, Pinkie stood before me, wearing a grin that stretched from ear to ear. There was something else I noticed that caused a bit of shock: the balloons that were allowing Pinkie to float.

“Good morning, Vinny!” she piped, baring her pearly whites.

“Good morning?” I murmured. I’d say I was concerned about why I was able to see the balloons on her back, but what Pinkie said afterwards bothered me further.

“You have such a neat room here!” Pinkie exclaimed, looking around the area. Kicking her legs in a swimming motion, she spun around and eyed everything within the vicinity. It seemed that Celestia was right; the closer we grew, the more we would experience each other’s worlds. Pinkie began spinning and spinning, her face growing a slight green.

“Oh… I don’t feel so good,” she groaned, holding her belly with her forelegs. I reached out and grabbed her by the withers, stopping her in place. There was no chance that I was about to experience whether her puke would go through the floor or not.

“Thanks,” Pinkie muttered, taking a deep breath afterwards. I stood up from my bed and inspected the balloons around Pinkie’s torso. To this day, I don’t know how she tied the knot, but I’m not really one for asking Pinkie how she does a lot of things. Pinkie wrapped her hooves around my neck, holding on to me for support.

“Mind untying these balloons for me?” she asked, giving me a cheesy smirk. I rolled my eyes and reached out to grab the knot, only to have my hand slip through it.

“Uh, that might be a problem,” I said, trying to grab the string again. Pinkie’s eyes widened as soon as she realized the situation. She frantically looked around the room, trying to find anything to assist her in the removal of the accursed trap she tied herself into. Latching her forelegs together, she held her grip around my neck.

“Vinny, I need to get down,” she nagged, gripping tighter. Looking around, I noticed something that wasn’t in my room before.

A giant tree.

Walking over to it, I grabbed Pinkie’s legs and wrapped them around a branch. Nothing came to mind as I looked at the balloons looming over her, practically mocking me. Crossing my arms, I looked around, trying to think of anything to maybe pop the balloons. Then, out of nowhere, a rainbow-colored blur flew right by my face, only to stop by Pinkie. A cyan pegasus with a rainbow mane chuckled as her eyes met with Pinkie.

“Rainbow Dash!” Pinkie exclaimed, her eyes shining with hope. “Thank Celestia you’re here!” The mare continued to laugh as Pinkie held on for dear life.

“What are you doing up here, Pinkie?” Rainbow asked, gnawing on the strings hanging off Pinkie’s back.

“I was giving my friend Vinny a wake up call!” Pinkie squeaked, pointing at me. Rainbow looked around, trying to find this ‘Vinny’ that Pinkie was talking about. She raised an eyebrow, but eventually shrugged it off. I can only assume that the mare thought of this as Pinkie’s usual behavior. As Rainbow continued to cut the balloons off Pinkie’s back, I took the time to get dressed and ready for the day ahead of me.

“Last one,” Rainbow grumbled, snapping the final balloon off. Walking over to Pinkie, I turned around and kneeled down, giving her the chance to jump on my back. I gave her a wink causing a devious smile to creep onto Pinkie’s face.

“Thanks, Dashie!” she exclaimed, jumping off the branch and onto my back. No words could describe that mare’s face as she watched her friend float in midair and slowly descend to the ground. Pinkie and I laughed our asses off when her jaw dropped. Rainbow stayed there for moment before shaking her head and flying off.

The walk to the bakery was like walking through a new world. Trees covered the parts that weren’t already taken by buildings. A sturdy path aligned the road leading to the bakery, small homes covering the empty lots that we passed by. I stared in awe at how clean and pristine the world of Equestria looked compared to the more rugged city I was in. As I continued down the street, I noticed the weird stares I was getting by the passing ponies. It was then I noticed that they were staring at Pinkie, who was still on my shoulders.

“Pinkie, don’t you think you should get down? You’re going to attract attention if you’re suspended in the air.” Pinkie’s eyes widen as if this was news to her. Dropping down from my shoulders, she gave me a cheap smile and walked alongside me. As I approached the bakery, I could see Marios outside, reading a book.

“Yo,” I grunted, giving him a blunt wave. He nodded before opening the door and making his way into the shop. Following not too far behind, I watched as Pinkie eyed every nook and cranny in the room, her neck craning in ways I thought unimaginable.

“Oh! It’s a macaroni thing!” she boomed, pointing at the wall phone. “Do telem—”

Pinkie covered her mouth with a hoof, cutting herself off from saying the ‘bad word’. Rolling my eyes, I walked into the kitchen as Pinkie continued to gaze at the gizmos in the storefront. I was kind of glad that she couldn’t touch anything; God knows what kind of destruction she could have caused in there without me watching over her.

“So, Mr. Offa told me you were having trouble making bread,” I mentioned as Marios put on his apron and hair net. With a slow nod, he entered the pantry and returned with a bag of flour in his arms. As he put it down on the counter to open it, I stopped him.

“That’s the wrong type of flour.” He eyed the side of colorful label, turning back to me.

“Type?” Pointing at the word ‘pastry’, I nodded.

“This is pastry flour, not all-purpose flour. If you put this kind into the mix, it’ll make the bread flaky and nasty.” I looked around to for the other essential dry ingredient. “Where’s the yeast?”

“W-What’s that?” Marios asked with a worried tone.

Why did Mr. Offa put this guy in charge of baking?

After a thorough explanation on how to make bread and four facepalms later, Marios and I had a good amount of dough made, ready to be baked into some decent bread. Kneading the last bit of dough, I pointed up at the tray on the shelve above us. There were thick, metal sheets that could hold up to twelve loaves at a time.

“Start putting the dough in the baking sheets,” I said, focusing on my kneading. “Make sur—”

“Twitch-a-twitch! Twitch-a-twitch!” Pinkie screamed from behind me. I turned around to see her tail vibrating like mad.

“Wh—” was the last thing I could get out before an immense pain surged over the top of my head.

Waking up in a hospital bed was one surprise. Being surrounded by people was another. As I opened my eyes and peered around the room, catching glances from friends and co-workers. Mr. Offa rose from his chair, breathing a sigh of relief.

“Thank the lord!” he proclaimed, lifting his hands into the air. Kibble, Eddie, Fernando, and Marios stood up, quickly surrounding my bed.

“What happened?” I groaned, feeling the bandages on top of my head. Marios guiltily refused to look me in the eye.

“You got knocked the fuck out, dude,” Fernando blurted, glaring at Marios. “This guy dropped six big-ass metal trays on your noggin.” Marios was already low on my list, but this little ‘incident’ put him on his own list.

“Oh, good. You’re finally awake,” said a voice from the doorway. Everyone in the room turned to see the doctor poking his head in, wearing a grimace. “I have to speak to the patient and run some tests, if you all don’t mind.”

It was apparent something was up, what with everyone being hesitant to leave, so I will admit I started to sweat a bit. With heavy feet, everyone slowly left the room and allowed the doctor to close the door behind them. He dragged a chair to my bedside before letting out an anxious sigh.

“My name is Doctor Red Herring. How are you feeling, Vincent?”

“I got a massive headache and feel like I got sucker punched, but other than that, I’m doing alright,” I joked, trying to relieve the tension between us. Unfortunately, it didn’t work.

“Yes, well, that usually comes with a concussion that has you out for a day.” My jaw dropped.

“I was knocked out for a full day?” He nodded, his frown still pursing his lips. Lightly patting the top of my head, I tried to remember anything that happened. It couldn’t be possible that I was out for a whole day…

“Vincent, I have something important to tell you.” I could feel my testicles shrivel up by the tone of his voice. “Since you have Mr. Offa’s as your contact for informed consent, we put you in a CT Scan to ensure that you didn’t have any kind internal bleeding or serious damage from the blow. Luckily, you didn’t have either.”

“Then what’s the problem?” I asked, dreading the answer soon to come. The doctor leaned forward, his face showing deep concern.

“Have you ever experienced any unusual symptoms? Maybe constant headaches, blurred or double vision, memory loss? Hallucinations even?” I slowly nodded, looking down at my hands.

“Well, we ran a few extra tests and found a tumor on the temporal lobe of your brain.” He opened the manilla folder in his hands and pulled out a few scans, pointing at a strange mark on the bottom of what I assumed was my brain. “I know this is sudden, but we’re lucky we found it at the stage it’s in. If we perform surgery immediately, we should be able to perform a craniotomy and remove it completely.”

Could it be that the ponies were…?

My heart rate could put any fifteen year old’s masturbation pace to shame at this point. Sweat began to pour from my brow, my hands shaking like mad.

“I-I never would have guessed.” I wiped the sweat from my face with my hospital gown. The doctor rubbed his chin, eyeing the ceiling while deep in thought.

“The problem isn’t just the tumor, though,” he commented, crossing his legs. “It’s the location. It’s dangerously close to your brainstem. I’m not going to sugarcoat it, but—”

“—there’s a chance I might die,” I finished. The doctor nodded.

“Well, in any case, with your permission, we can start the operation tomorrow.”

“What about the cost? I don’t have the money for something like that.” The doctor shook his head and pointed out the door.

“It’s all taken care of. Mr. Offa and Mr. Jennings are already taking care of the costs. If you want to go with the procedure, I just need you to sign this,” he stated, pulling out a thick packet of papers and a pen. “It just covers the standard legal issues.”

I ended up signing the papers without so much as looking at them. Dr. Herring left the room, allowing everyone back inside. Mr. Offa and Kibble both looked at me with pained expressions.

“You guys knew?” I asked, still looking down at my hands.

“Yes,” Mr. Offa grunted. “It kinda made sense that it’d be something like that, what with you always talking to yourself all the time.”

“Why did you both agree to pay for the operation?” I looked up to see Mr. Offa rubbing his arm and Kibble throwing Marios a glare.

“Well, you can’t afford such a surgery. And the initial incident was on the workplace,” said Mr. Offa.

“And if it weren’t for my idiot grandson,” snarled Kibble, “none us would be here.”

“I understand you guys feel responsible for my head getting bashed in, even though it’s neither of your fault.” I glanced at Marios, who was looking at the floor in shame. “But this tumor isn’t your fault.”

“Then how are you going to pay for it?” Eddie interjected. I stopped for a moment and thought about it. There was no way I’d be able to afford such a thing, even with my insurance.

“Vinny, man, don’t look a gift horse in the nose,” Fernando commented, cracking a retarded grin. Everyone in the room turned to him, giving him a stare that screamed, “You can’t be that stupid.”

“It’s ‘don’t look a gift horse in the mouth’, ya idiot!” Kibble growled, smacking him in the back of the head. Everyone in the room broke out into a simultaneous laughing fit. Once everyone calmed down, Mr. Offa placed his heavy mitt on my shoulder and cracked a smile.

“Vinny, don’t worry. Everything is going to be alright,” he assured. I nodded my head in agreement before turning to Marios.

“Marios, you’re an asshole, but I have to thank you as well.” I wish I could have taken a picture of his face and framed it; it was priceless. “If you hadn’t pummeled me with heavy objects, I wouldn’t have found out about this tumor until it was too late. But I need a favor from you. I have a journal in my room, it’s located in the drawer of my nightstand. Bring it to me, but don’t you dare open it.” I turned to Kibble who was still wearing a scowl. “Can you go with him and make sure he doesn’t?”

“Sure thing,” Kibble agreed as I handed him the key to my apartment. He leaned into my ear, dropping his voice down to a whisper. “You have one more visitor after we leave.”

After I said my final goodbyes and kicked everyone out, I stared at the door, waiting for my last visitor. Pinkie crept into the room, but something was off: her hair was straight and a smile was nowhere to be found on her face.

“Vinny?” she breathed, slowly making her way to my bedside. She leaned her forelegs across my lap and gave me puppydog-like eyes. “Are you okay? I was so scared. You didn’t move, no matter how much I shook you. I thought you… you...”

Tears rolled down her face as she bit her lip, trying her hardest to hold it in. I ran my hand through her hair to calm her down. It didn’t feel the same; her usual puffy mane was almost dead. My lip began to quiver as I looked into her eyes. How was I going to break it to her without crushing her spirit?

“Pinkie,” I uttered, my voice cracking. “I don’t know how to tell you this, but… I’m sick. There’s this little bump on my brain that messes with it. The doctors are going to try and remove it, but there’s a chance that I could die from it.”

“Well, at least your brain didn’t scramble from the from the hit,” she joked, cracking a half-smile. I knew she was trying to make me feel better with petty jokes, but even she knew that a joke wouldn’t help right now.

“Yeah,” I said, giving her a pity chuckle, running my hand through her mane again, “at least my hair didn’t turn to spaghetti like you.” She returned it with a more pathetic laugh.

I wanted to tell her. I wanted to tell her so bad that the tumor might be the reason I saw her and all these ponies. It was a long shot since Kibble could see them too, but for all I knew, Kibble could have a tumor as well. My eyes began to water up as I wrapped my arms around her neck, embracing her for what might be our one final hug.

“Pinkie. No matter what happens, I want you to know that you are and always will be my best friend.” Pinkie wrapped her hooves around my torso, her grip tightening by the second. Imaginary or not, Pinkie was possibly the best thing to ever happen to me.

And I will never forget her.

Author's Notes:

I can't into feels. I'm sorry.