Vinyl woke up the next morning in a hospital bed. The sunlight streaming in from the windows burned her retinas at first, but she slowly managed to adjust to it.  The unicorn quietly sat up in her bed, observing her surroundings a little more.

'What the hay happened? Why am I here?' She thought, trying to recollect what had happened to her.  She remembered going out on stage, and playing half of one song; everything beyond that was fuzzy.  As she continued to think about this, a light blue nurse pony entered the room.

"Good morning Ms. Scratch." She said, formally. "How are you feeling today?"

"Head hurts a little," She replied as she stumbled out of bed, "and I can't remember anything about last night, but good otherwise."

"I wouldn't recommend getting out of bed yet." The nurse said. "I have to bring in the doctor to have a look at you, and we also need to get in contact with your manager." She began walking out of the room, "After all, he'll want to see you."

Vinyl reluctantly went back onto her bed, after being left alone again in the hospital room.  As she went to lay back down, she looked at her small side table, and noticed a glass of water there, along with a note.  Bringing the small yellow note into her hoof, she began reading aloud.

"Vinyl," The note started, "Last night was an amazing show.  That is, until you collapsed on stage..." She read the last few words in shock. 'I collapsed? On stage? Flat Note is not going to be happy.' She brought the note back up to her eyes, continuing to read. "Drink this glass of water, and many more.  You need them. Signed, Spark."

The letter confused her.  Why should she drink a lot of water? Who was this 'Spark'? Her first question was answered for her as she realized just how dry her throat was.  Without thinking twice about it, she grabbed the water, and gulped it down.  It relieved her a little bit, and made her feel just a little better.  The soreness in her throat returned quickly though.  Right as she was about to ask herself why, the nurse from earlier returned, and with her a brown earth pony, who Scratch could only assume was the doctor.

"Ms. Scratch I presume?  Nice to finally see you awake.  Last night was," he paused, "interesting, to say the least."

"Do I know you from somewhere?"

"Yes, you do.  We ran into each other last night, just not as I ever would have guessed." He laughed a little at this, as did Vinyl, letting out some small chuckles.

"Seriously though, you seem sort of familiar.  Where do I know ya from?"

"I was at your concert last night, and assisted the stage medics when you collapsed.  I thought I was going there to take a break from the hospital work, but apparently not." Scratch became a little depressed at this remark. The doctor was  quick to notice this though. "Hey, chin up.  You did an awesome job up until that collapse!"

"Heh, thanks. I guess..."

"Now, let's deal with proper introductions.  My name is Spark Impulse." He said as he gestured towards Scratch for a hoofshake. The name rung a loud bell in Scratch's head.

"Spark? You're the one who left me that note?"

"Yep, and judging by the empty glass," He observed. Scratch smiled at him sheepishly. "I'd say you found it all right."  He now turned towards the nurse who had entered the room with him. "Can you go get a little more water please?"

"Right away!" She replied, grabbing the empty glass before leaving the room.  It was time now for Scratch to ask a couple of questions, before Flat Note showed up.

"So, what exactly happened to me?"

"You collapsed on stage.  I figured was from exhaustion and dehydration,  judging by how dry your mouth was, and how tired you appeared up there."

"How dry my mouth was? What, did ya kiss me or something?" Vinyl accused.

"Of course not!  I would never do that!" He responded defensively.  "Ponies don't just collapse for no reason, and I've seen a fair share of ponies who collapse because of dehydration.  It's one of the easiest things to check for, and one of the most common causes of collapses like yours."

"All right, fine." she replied.  Vinyl hated to admit this to herself, but she had been working too hard lately; she had even gone as far as skipping out on sleeping and keeping hydrated in favor of near constant practice.  This tour meant a lot to her, and she wanted it to be perfect.  As Vinyl was about to ask another question, another voice came into the room.

"Vinyl!" The somewhat deep voice shouted.

"Oh no..." She muttered to herself, as Flat Note rounded the corner and entered the room.

"My goodness!  That was quite the event last night, wasn't it?"

"I don't know, was it?"

"What do you mean, 'you don't know'?" The cream colored pony asked.

"I mean what I said, Flat." She paused briefly, turning her head away from him slightly. "I don't remember much of anything about last night.  I remember starting the set, and that's about it."

Flat Note stopped talking, look of slight shock on his face. The silence in the room was broken as the nurse who had entered with Spark earlier returned with more water.  She quietly placed it back on the side table, and left the room again, leaving the three ponies in silence again.

"You really worked yourself that hard, eh?" Flat said quietly.

"I guess so."

"In other news though," Flat Note started, cheerfully, "you're everywhere!  You can't find a paper without you on the front page!"

"Flat.  That's because I collapsed.  I wouldn't be there if it wasn't for that!"

"Ah, that's where you are wrong!  Inside the articles, they are raving about your performance!"

"The only reason they were written is because I collapsed though!" She shouted back at him.  "If that hadn't happened, the reviews would be in the entertainment section, like they always are!"

"But they're on the front page!  So much publicity!" Vinyl sighed.

"Not good publicity though." She mumbled.  She turned away from Flat, and chugged down another glass of water. "Anyway, we should probably get going.  We got a show in Canterlot to get to.  Lots of setup and stuff."

"I was worried that you would say that." Flat said monotonously. "About your next  shows..."

"Oh no. You didn't..."

"Vinyl. I needed t-"

"I sincerely hope you're joking!" Vinyl shouted angrily. "You better not have cancelled the rest of the tour!"

"Vinyl," Spark interjected, "If it's any consolation, I told him to."

"Well, you need to stay out of what I do!  For goodness sakes, I have no clue who you are!"

"Can you calm down and think about this rationally for a second?" Spark asked. Vinyl stopped with her rage.

"Alright, fine.  What would you like me to think about?"

"Think about what happened last night.  You collapsed on stage.  At the moment, you are very dehydrated, and exhausted.  If you go and do another show, chances are," he paused. "you'll just collapse again, and you may or may not wake up."

That final sentence shook Vinyl.  Had she really worked herself that hard? What she had previously thought to be insignificant and unneeded had just been altered into a necessity, and a potentially life-saving move.

"It's for your own good Vinyl." Flat said solemnly.  "You're our star right now.  We can't just have you fall out of the sky now."

Vinyl knew that as little as she liked to think Flat knew, he was right about this.  She couldn't bring herself to another show, and put herself at risk like that.  That would be a massive disappointment to her fans, even bigger than this cancellation.

"Fine.  We can reschedule the shows though, right?"

"They sold out, so I think we can arrange a rescheduling.  And make their current tickets valid for admission."

"Sounds good to me. But, now what?  I mean, what am I supposed to do?"

"Nothing.  Go home, rest, drink lots of water.  And by lots, I mean at least one glass every hour." Spark suggested. "We need to make sure you're in good condition before you leave here though, so you'll need to be here for at least another day so we can keep an eye on you."

"As much as I hate the hospital overall, I'm not left with much choice, am I?" Spark laughed at this remark.

"Not exactly!" More laughter out of him.  Vinyl was not amused, but smiled a little. "We'll leave you alone for now.  Get some more rest."

"Alright. Thanks Spark, and Flat."

"You're welcome." Spark replied as he left the room, Flat Note following shortly behind him.  Vinyl turned around and closed the curtains, stopping the sunlight's flow into her room, darkening it significantly.  She placed her head upon the small, slightly uncomfortable hospital pillow, and closed her eyes.  Spark was right, she needed to rest, and she was going to do exactly that.