Rockette and Sticks scarfed down a few more cubes of cheddar before making their way to the set. It had been a roller coaster week for Unstable. They had been on every morning, daytime, and late night talk show talking about their experience and it had finally started sinking in that this was really about to happen. They could hear Crimson talking from where they were but still couldn't quite make out what she was saying.
"Your positive that it happened?" Crimson responded to one of the studio workers, clearly annoyed about what's happened. The music video foundations were set up and the theme was complete, tailored to Unstable's liking. A younger mare, possibly not much younger than Crimson actually was, looked around in concern and worry. "Camera 7 has malfunctioned and doesn't seem to work at all. I can't even turn it on. The camera isn't working because of an electrical fault that I must have caused somehow, I just have no" The mare tried to respond, almost panicking before being stopped. Crimson sighed deeply before looking at the mare directly in the eyes, who was almost in tears and out of nowhere, hugged her to make her feel better. This completely took the mare in shock before she ultimately burst into tears and buried her head into Crimsons shoulder. "It's alright, it's not your fault. Camera 7 has been....'jumpy' for a while." Crimson said before looking at her again while she lifted her head up. "You should relax for a while, go get something to eat or drink.Everything is going to be alright." The mare looked upwards, tears still in her eyes. This time, she weakly nodded and smiled before hugging him tighter, this time out of happiness before trotting away to the food area.
"What was that all about?" asked Sticks as they arrived back at the set. "Some kind of camera snafu," said Ged, "and that gal was just'a bawlin'." Rockette looked around at the set and couldn't believe his eyes. It was a perfect replica of the ruins of the Two Sisters' Castle.
"Oh...hey, one of our Cameras broke. We have a new girl on the set, she thought that it was her fault. I just went to cheer her up, she's fairly young and has been wanting to work in this industry for her whole life. She's had a bad first day, just wanted to remind her that somepony cared." Crimson said as he looked onto the stage before him, looking towards the castle. "Impressive, isn't it? Took a team of around eight about a week or so to make." Crimson looked onto the stage, it was going to be another day at work. However, things were going to unfortunately take a turn for the worst.....
"Eight weeks? So they were building this before the competition?" Rockette wasn't sure if he heard crimson right.
"We've constructed small pieces at a time, it only took a week to do this. Most of it was left over from a theater play, so it was already done. It took us a week to get everything fixed up." Crimson replied. "Everything has already been set up, so I hope you enjoy it. When you guys feel like that you're ready, just head up onto the stage."
The guys and gal all looked at each other and decided they were ready. They picked up their instruments and got into position. The lighting shifted and, as Crimson gave the command for 'action' the playback for Sell My Soul, an original by Unstable, thundered from the sound system. Intoxicated fever, strung out in a daze From the corner of my eye, out through the midnight haze She wanders dressed of shadow from Earthen domicile This gypsy dragon woman with red lips and a smile And I can't believe it's true And I can tell she wants it too And I can tell she wants it too She took me to her dwelling, a fiery bloody grave Whispered to me softly as I fell into her cave And with the words she spoke to me, it was plain that I could see Said, "I can give you what you want but you gotta give something to me" And I hear those words so true Can I sell my soul to you? Sell my soul to you (Guitar Solos) Slip into her coffin, ride the devil's train She takes me up to heaven and then back to hell again Damned to an eternity but I just can't say no When she slips out of her smokey dress and she's standin' there ready to go And there's nothing I can do When I know she wants it too My salvation's ripped in two And I've sold my soul to you Sold my soul to you SOLD MY SOUL TO YOU!
(Think it's time for a plot twist) Once the song ended and the recording of the film clip finished, cheering was sounded across the studio. Crimson had really put her all into making this video as visually impressive as possible, and she simply knew that this was going to be an absolute showstopper when it finally premieres. Some extra work would need to be added in, some effects involving CGI and some other techniques. However, the castle in the back was going to signal something disastrous. Crimson was at the bottom of the stage as she was heading up to meet Unstable, when she noticed something strange occurring with the castle. It was falling. Crimson's face turned to absolute horror as a loud sound occurred across the studio, something happened backstage which destroyed one of the vital supports for the castle. As it fell, Crimson moved as fast as she could onto the stage and quickly alerted Unstable. The tower fell at a rapid speed and would had ultimately crushed all of the ponies of Unstable on the stage, had Crimson frantically used her unicorn magic to pick up and throw as many ponies off the stage as she could. Of course, her magic wasn't powerful enough to lift everybody off the stage. Just as the tower would had ultimately crushed the band below, Crimson ended up jumping towards Rockette and pushing her with all of her strength to get her just in safety's range before the tower ultimately fell onto her and the stage, causing an explosion of splinters and dust billowing into the air. When it settled, Crimson was nowhere to be seen.
Bone Vox was the first to collect himself and started digging through the pile of plaster and scaffold. Sticks, Strato, and Ged soon joined in and Rockette finally got to his hooves. He attempted to help but the scaffold frames were far too heavy to lift with his female strength. He dug through the plaster and saw a pair of red hooves sticking out from under a fallen platform. "Guys, she's over here!" Sticks eased Rockette to the side as the 4 stallions hoisted up the twisted scaffolding. Crimson was obviously hurt but was still conscious. By this time Rockette had already sprinted off to find the nearest phone and call 911.
Crimson was dragged out of the rubble, her vision being extremely blurry while being on the verge of slipping into unconsciousness. She could barely make out the blobs of colour that she could tell was Strato and Ged. Her entire body felt numb and she couldn't feel anything. It should had killed her, but she couldn't fight the urge to keep awake anymore and fell quietly into a deep sleep.
A day passed. The waiting room of the hospital looked like a homeless shelter filled with Crimson's family and friends. Among these friends were the members of Unstable. Rockette had gone into the room to see Crimson quite a bit, always ending his visit by thanking him for saving his life. Sticks had accompanied Rockette this particular time. They stood at crimson's bedside and spoke to their newest friend. "Hey, buddy," Rockette said gently, "It's Rockette again. I know I'm probably buggin' the piss out of you by now. I brought Sticks with me to see you." Sticks spoke timidly, "Yeah, we're all pullin' for you Miss Crim. You're a true..." Before sticks could finish, he and Rockette could make out the faintest twitch of Crimson's eye. The twitches quickly became more frequent as his eyes started to open. "Nurse! I think she's waking up!"
The nurse quickly ran into the room as Crimson began to show some signs of life, although it didn't particularly happen all at once. Awareness came at some point while he was unconscious, but he was now showing signs of waking up. His eyes began to flutter until they decided to open ever so slightly. He could only open them half way as he began to recognize the ponies in the room. It wasn't much, but it a sign.
Over the course of an hour, Crimson showed more and more signs of life until he was fully conscious and alert. "You saved our lives up there, Miss Crim."
Crimson just looked at the ponies in the room and nodded, still in a daze from what has happened. "I...just did what I thought wa.....was right. What anybody else would do." "Anybody else would had gotten themselves killed, Ms. Lionheart." The Nurse told the red unicorn mare. "You were incredibly brave save your friends here from death, we almost lost you."
"Her body has healed at an incredible rate, even more so than when she was brought here. It's already been a few days but she has already seen some amazing improvements. Given that her fatigue from the induced coma wears off, she could possibly leave before sundown tonight." Crimson breathed a sigh of relief as he looked at the others, still tired and dizzy from the medicine. She just watched the others speak, not really wanting to talk due to the drugs, laying on her side and curled up in a ball, unexpectedly doing puppy eyes in the process. If she wasn't on drugs, this would had been cute.
As the day wore on, the nurses gradually took Crimson off the IVs. "Now just take it easy for a few days, Ms. Lionheart. I'll fax your prescriptions over to the pharmacy in Ponyville. Unstable were still in the waiting room when they wheeled Crimson by to be discharged. They got up and followed and Bone Vox, Strato, and Ged expressed their thanks for what he had one for them.
Crimson, at least for a few days, was in a wheelchair. Plenty of news about Crimson saving the lives of Unstable were likely to surface, either overwhelmingly positive or even negative. He pushed himself out of the hospital and after a while, was on the bottom floor where preparations were made for him to leave. Despite that he was happy to be alive, Crimson didn't like wheelchairs. The first attempt to move almost made him fall over, and he didn't even want to picture what would happen if he went downhill. By the time Crimson was on the bottom floor, he took the elevator.
A couple days later, the members of Unstable made the trek up to Ponyville to see how Crimson was doing. As the door opened, they noticed Crimson was still in a wheelchair but in high spirits nonetheless. "How ya been, Ms. Crim?" Sticks asked.
