Nurse Redheart collapsed in her triage booth. A lot of ponies had come through the hospital tonight, and she was exhausted. Most of them were pretty much fine, with one or two exceptions, but the riot had kept everyone in the hospital busy all night. It seemed half the town had been injured on one way or another.
She stole a glance at the clock. Damn it, time to make my rounds again. And to think I actually thought I'd get a moment to myself tonight. Oh well, duty calls. With that thought she put on a smile and left the waiting area to check on the patients.
Walking through the hospital at night was always unsettling for the nurse. It was usually so quiet and eerie, even though it looked the same as it did during the day. During the day there was noise and movement everywhere, but during the night she felt alone. Like there should be something there that wasn't. It wasn't as bad as normal due to the riot, but it was still off putting.
She arrived at her first patient's room, a familiar face. She'd been brought in unconscious after the riot but seemed mostly uninjured. They seemed to be awake.
"Hello Rainbow Dash, back again so soon? No broken wing this time I see." Redheart smirked.
"Well I see you're as nurturing as ever, " Rainbow stated sarcastically. "Got your hooves full with that riot I started?" Then nurse's smirk briefly disappeared, but she quickly had a response.
"I don't see how you crazy ponies can start stuff like this. Lunar, Solar, you're all despicable." Nurse Redheart stopped herself from spitting. This was after all supposed to be a relatively sterile environment.
"Oh, are we the crazy ones?" Dash chuckled. " I'd have to disagree. We have to pick sides."
"Why? So you can beat the crap out of the other side and make my job harder?"
"We take sides to make your job easier Redheart. I may not be the brightest Pegasi, but I know that much?" Redheart didn't believe her for a second.
"How the hell does you going and starting fights make my job easier?"
"What do you think happens if we don't? How do you think the princesses are gonna settle this if we don't settle it for them?"
"Well, uh-"
"They'll do the fighting themselves. You think that's gonna be pretty? The leaders of our nation duking it out? We'll have a war on our hooves."
"You don't think they can resolve it on their own?"
"You think they can? Last time they tried to Luna ended up on the moon. Now get out of here and go check on someone who cares." Nurse Redheart left. She's even more cynical then I am. Maybe the next pony will be more amicable. She went down the hallway again to the next patients room. This pony was a bit of a regular at the hospital, and always friendly. Thank Celestia, Ditzy's here. THis ought to cheer me up.
She opened the door and her hopes quickly fell. Unfortunately the mail mare was sleeping, so the Nurse just checked her charts and left. Damn it. Oh well, at least there's only one more patient to bug me before I call it a night.
One last time she entered the dark corridor to make her way to the final room on her rounds. She hated going to the last room, it might have been that it was around a corner or that it was at the end of the hallway rather than set into the side, but it just made her feel so isolated. Like she was alone, at any time something could come and change her. She arrived at the third and final room, and entered.
Inside was a room with a bed, a window, some medical equipment and a pony with a purple coat. The pony, a unicorn, was sitting on the provided bed and sobbing, tears darkening the sheets as they fell from her face. Nurse Redheart hesitated, but immediately knew what to do. After all, there was a reason nursing was her special talent, and cynical as she could be, she did care about her patients.
"Hey Twilight." Redheart was careful to use a soothing tone rather than her more biting standard. "What's wrong?" Twilight sniffled and looked the nurse in the face, only just now realizing she was here. She choked back a sob before speaking.
"Everything is wrong. Everything about this whole damn debacle." Twilight took a surprisingly agressive tone. "Everything, everypony, every single numbskull who decided we needed to fight." It wasn't what Redheart expected, but she kept up her supportive facade.
"Well we've all had out issues with this Twilight, but some might argue that we have to pick sides." Damn it, that rainbow-maned idiot is getting to me. "I mean, what would happen if we let the princesses figure it out on their own?"
"I never said we shouldn't pick sides, I said this violence was pointless. The townsponies were idiots and my friends were idiots and I'm an idiot for letting this happen. There was a riot Nurse Redheart, he have nothing to look forward to right now."
"Hey now, cheer up. Things don't look so great in the big scale, but surely there's something for you to look forward to in the next few days? Even the little things can be really helpful." Don't look great in the big scale. Understatement of the freaking century there.
"I suppose you may be right. There is that party Pinkie was throwing, so I guess that's something."
"See, you're feeling better already. Anything else you need?"
"Oh no, you've done plenty nurse. That'll be all." For the first time that night the nurse genuinely smiled. Sometimes she forgot why she took this job, but it was always worth it. She returned to triage to rest for the rest of the night.
A few hours later the sun began to rise, and it was finally time for the nurse to leave for home. The town was bathed in the light of dawn, casting everything in a soft golden light. Redheart stopped to admire the view, and for a brief moment she left herself. She forgot about all of the the crap that'd been going on in the past few days, the riots and debates and pointless violence, about lunar and solar and picking sides, and the events that brought about all of it. For one blussful moment she forgot the world around her and saw night and day intertwined as a thing of beauty.
After all she'd heard from the patients tonight trying to bring her around to their way of thinking and failing, she found herself utterly defeated by a daily event. Maybe if every pony saw this they might realize the futility of the entire thing. Maybe they'd just get together and watch the cosmic ballet.
The nurse arrived home to see a newspaper on her doorstep, and read the headline. Shit.
If the ponies were going to get together, it wouldn't happen anytime soon.