I rubbed my cheek against the plush pillow underneath my head. I turned on my back and let in a deep relaxing breath.

“What the…?!” I exclaimed as I shot straight up. The air stank of must and…. pizza crusts? “Where the hay am I?” I looked to the other end of the couch to see a white lovely mare sleeping.

I closed my eyes to try to get myself to remember what happened last night. Okay, so I went into the club… I’m hungry. What sounds good for breakfast? Cheerilee-Os, waffles, pancakes, oh and then there’s that…

I shook my head furiously. I bonked myself in the temple to try to get my mind to cooperate. Clearly, my mind did not want me to think this early in the morning. And then I ordered a margarita… That was a good drink, much fresher than that Manzanilla Rose gave me… speaking of Rose…

I sighed. My mind just refused to concentrate on one topic. I stretched my legs and sat back against the couch. On a normal day, I would have gotten myself ready for the day, but considering this wasn’t my home, it would be more courteous to wait for my host to wake up.

Half an hour passed before the white unicorn finally stirred. Her normally messy mane was even more disheveled in the morning. She rubbed her eyes and squinted when she looked at me.

“Oh hey Night Rave,” Vinyl said, “how did you sleep?”

“Umm… it was fine,” I answered. “And how exactly did I get here?”

“Well I was talking to you last night about a job offer when you just went off and fainted. So, I brought you over here to crash for the night.”

“Well, I’m sorry if I caused you any trouble,” I responded.

“It was no problem. Besides, we had plenty of fun last night,” Vinyl said with a seductive look.

A sharp gasp escaped my mouth. Horsefeathers, not again! Dam you, alcohol, dam you! I hope this doesn’t get me a reputation…

Vinyl proceeded to laugh at me. “Haha, you should have seen the look on your face! You were all like…” The unicorn let out a gasp accompanied with a surprised face. She continued to laugh as I facehoofed. Still, better than the alternative.

Vinyl let out the rest of giggles and wiped a tear from her eye. “Sorry about that, I just had to do it. Wakes me up in the morning.”

I rolled my eyes and nodded. “Well, thanks anyways, but I should really be heading back home.”

“Aren’t you going to stay for brunch?” Vinyl asked. “And what about my job offer?”

“I got plenty of food at home,” I lied. “And what job offer?”

“Weren’t you listening at all when I talking to you last night?” Vinyl asked irritably.

“I told you… I was looking at your beautiful red eyes!”

“Oh…” Vinyl said. A clear shade of pink appeared on her white cheeks.

I facehoofed. I could feel my own cheeks beginning to burn from the words that just escaped my mouth. Two strikes in one morning, not a good way to start off a day. “I meant to say, you’re beautiful red chairs.”

“But you said floor last night…”

Facehoof. Three strikes, I’m out. “So what exactly was the job offer again?” I inquired, trying to change the topic of the conversation.

“Right… so I was wondering if you wanted to come over to the club some nights and do that stuff you do with the glowsticks. Your raving actually brought in a lot more people when you started doing that… so what do think?”

Well I do need another way to make bits other than Princess Celestia. And being paid to rave is fun enough in itself.

“Sure,” I beamed.

“Great! How about twenty bits a night, and you can do it whenever you want?”

“Sounds fine with me,” I answered. And of course I get to spend more time with Vinyl… I mean… get into the club without having to pay Big Macintosh all the time.

“Awesome! See you around Rave!” I waved a hoof good-bye to my new boss and trotted out the door.

A pair of bright eyes met mine as I opened the door. Apparently it’s not a good idea for me to open doors in the morning when I sleep over somepony else’s house. But this was the perfect opportunity.

“Ditzy! Please, we need to talk,” I pleaded.

Ditzy shook her head as she threw me a look of disgust. “We need to talk? What’s wrong? Decided to cheat on Rose too, so you took it up with Vinyl?” If looks could kill, I would have died on the spot.

“Ditzy, please! If you just hear me out…. I promise I can make everything better.

Ditzy turned around, and the next thing I knew, two cold hooves slam my jaw closed. I winced as I heard the cracking of my teeth, and the warm sticky fluid that filled my mouth soon afterwards. My vision began to blur and the world was spinning. I spit out on the ground, but soon regretted it. A dark red puddle showed where I spa. I closed my eyes, and felt the cold floor slam against my body.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Beep. I opened my eyes a slit. Beep. There was some commotion outside of the room I was laying in. Sounded like somepony was arguing. I looked over to the corner of my eye to see a machine monitoring my heartbeat. It seemed pretty useless, since I wasn’t injured. Beep. I looked to the other corner of my eye to see sunshine pouring in through an open window. Now that I realized it, all of the lights in the room were off. My cheeks felt numb. Beep.

I slowly lifted a hoof to inspect the numbness. As soon as I made contact with my head, I began to writhe in pain. It was as though somepony was drilling screws into every corner of my mouth. I couldn’t even scream out, since there was a brace over my mouth. All I could do was endure the unimaginable pain silently until it went away. Beep. That took a lot more energy than I thought. I drifted back into my slumber.

I opened my eyes again. My cheeks didn’t feel quite so numb, but they definitely ached. I turned my head towards the window to see what time of day it was. Unfortunately, my view was blocked by a white unicorn. She was sitting in a chair facing me with headphones covering her ears. The lights in the room were turned back on.

I looked around to see an aquamarine wallpaper decorated with vines. The ceiling was filled with the same wallpaper, only in olive green. On the side of my bed stood a lone drawer with a desk lamp on top. I turned my gaze back towards Vinyl and waved a hoof up. The mare didn’t respond at all. I waved my hoof faster. Still no reaction. What the buck?!

I tried to say something, but the jaw brace restricted me to a mere “Mmmph!” There was no way she would hear something like that with those headphones in. I sighed and relaxed back on the bed.

Well this was not how I wanted my day to turn out. For all I knew, the day was already over and it was nighttime. I couldn’t tell, there was no clock in the room. Who would’ve thought a mare like Ditzy would have such a forceful buck. I lightly grazed my jawline with my hoof and winced ever so slightly.

Just when I thought things were beginning to turn my way with the new jobs, this happens.

“Huh? Oh, Night Rave, you’re awake.” I turned to see Vinyl take off her glasses and rub her eyes. I nodded to myself in comprehension. She wasn’t ignoring me, she was sleeping, and I couldn’t tell because of those shades.

“Can you talk?” Vinyl asked. I just barely managed to shake my head.

“Oh, okay. I’ll just fill you in on the details and you nod every once in a while, okay?”

I nodded.

“Well this is what happened. I heard a crash downstairs, so I went down to check it out. I found you lying on the floor and a Pegasus flying away, but I couldn’t tell who it was. You were bleeding all over the floor, so I called you to the hospital. That’s where you are now, follow?”

I nodded.

“It turns out that several of your teeth were cracked. Nothing too serious, no broken jaw or anything.” Nothing too serious? What the hay is this annoying pain I’m feeling then? “The doctors said you can check out of here in a few days. Until then, you’re going to have to wear that brace in your mouth. They’re going to stick this tube thing into your arm every time you have to eat and you can’t talk for a while.”

I nodded again. Even after all of this, it still wasn’t as bad as it could have turned out. Back on Earth, it would probably have taken at least a week before I could talk again and another month before I could eat hard foods. With a world full of magic, the possibilities were endless. A few days couldn’t hurt.

“After that, everything should be fine. But the doctor said you should stay away from apples or anything like that for at least a week. And you don’t have any insurance so…”

Wait…. they have insurance in Equestria?

“so…. your medical bill is going to be pretty high,” Vinyl stated.

“Mmmph mph mmph!” I muttered. It hurt just to make those sounds.

“I’m going to assume that means ‘How high?’. The nurses told me anywhere between… umm…. 500 to 800 bits.”

If I could have risked it, I would have facehoofed right then and there. 800 bits!?! I don’t have that kind of money! Even if Twilight didn’t use any of my money, I would still be short.

“Miss Scratch?” A nurse called as she entered the room. “Oh, there you are. Visiting hours are just about over.”

“Thanks Nurse Redheart. I’ll be about in just a bit,” Vinyl replied. Nurse Redheart nodded and walked out of the room.

“Well that’s my cue. I’ll see you tomorrow, k Rave?” Vinyl said with an assuring smile.

I nodded and waved a hoof good-bye. Vinyl waved back and left the room.

I sighed. How the hay am I supposed to pay 800 bits?! I don’t have anywhere near that kind of money. I hope I don’t have to sell my new house…. And it’s all because of…

My jaw tensened. My heart began to race as my anger rose. This is all Ditzy’s fault. I used to feel bad about cheating on her, but now this… This is all HER fault! If she had just listened to me on that morning with Rose, or even this morning, I wouldn’t have to be in this mess. I was going to apologize to her, but this…. this is taking it too far.

And Vinyl. What was she doing here? I wanted to ask her why, but I didn’t have any way to ask. She’s the only pony in town that actually gave me a second chance. Not only that, she even gave me a job. And those gorgeous, gorgeous eyes of hers…

I sighed. Might as well head off to bed, nothing to do for now… or the next few days either.

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