//------------------------------//
// 12 Hours 
// Story: A Heart as Red as Love 
// by sharkray24 
//------------------------------//

	Typical work day, I get up at around midnight, brush my teeth, take a shower and shampoo, make my bed, check the calendar, today is October 15. “Oh great,” I mutter to myself, “Pinkie is having the costume party tomorrow. No sleep for me it seems.” I walk downstairs look at the clock. “Darn, I knew I needed to fix my alarm clock.” Now my alarm clock may only be slow by two minutes, but in my line of work, every second could mean life or death.
I make my typical breakfast which is toast and if I’m lucky enough to be ahead of time, buttered toast. I grab my coat and lanyard for work. I grab my toast as it pops out of the toaster and inhale it in one swift movement.
I walk down the dark streets that are lonely and bare. I don’t need to wonder why Luna became angry, I knew, I had known from the first day of work. The night was beautiful, but ignored.
I guess you’re wondering who I am, my name is Reeda Heartly, though most ponies call me Red Heart. I work as a nurse at Ponyville General Hospital.
I walk through the automatic doors up to the main desk and sign in. Turn left through the employee entrance. As I’m putting my thing in my locker a deep but feminine voice says to me, “Hey-a Red!” I didn't need to turn to see who it was; anypony could recognize that voice a mile away.
“Hey Sugar Spoon” (no relation to Silver Spoon) I grumble. I didn't like Sugar Spoon, she was loud and obnoxious and anything but what her name implied. She was a yellow unicorn with a blue mane which was always fish-tail braided despite our dress code of mane in a bun. Her cutie mark was a bottle of medicine and not the good tasting kind.
“Cutting it a little close today.” She says with her condescending smirk.
“My alarm clock is still a little slow.” I reply, grabbing my uniform hat from its hook.
“Just get the damn thing fixed.” That’s another thing; she has a vocabulary that a sailor would be offended by. “I mean Time Turner is great with clocks.”
“I haven’t had time.” I reply checking a mirror to see if my hat was straight.
“Yeah, or maybe you just don’t want to get too friendly with him.” She squints at me with her dark green irises and one eyebrow raised.
“You know I’m not dating anymore.” I say “After what happened with Lucky Clover.”
“Oh yeah, because one stallion cheats on you you’re going to stop dating, stallions I mean.”
“What are you insinuating?”
“Nothing at all. But I don’t judge you. It’s very popular these days. Lyra and BonBon, Berry Punch and Colgate, even celebrities; DJ-Pon3 just proposed to her marefriend Octavia last week.”
“Stop talking. I don’t tend to go in that direction of affection anyway.” I growl. I check myself in the mirror to see if my hat was straight.
“I’m just saying the way you’re always blushing when you come out of that certain patient’s room.”
“What are you talking about?” I ask.
“Don’t worry,” she says wrapping her hoof around my shoulder, making my hat go crooked, “your secret is safe with me.” She winks at me, and sloppily puts on her uniform and goes through the door that led to the main hospital.
I sat there puzzled and decided it was just Sugar being herself. I straighten my hat again and follow her.

First thing we do in the morning is rounds for meds. Most of the patients take their medicine with no complaint, but a few of them are more difficult.
Being the Head Nurse of the entire hospital can be hectic. Like for instance when you are in the middle of giving a patient a bath and you get called down to the Nursery, or if you are filling out paperwork and there is a patient refusing to take his medicine, or when you are in surgery and you are needed in the ER. 
The reason that I am the head nurse for the whole hospital is because we are short on staff, being that Ponyville doesn't have a medical school. I myself am from Manehatten and was re-located here because they needed more help. The closest teacher of medicine is Zecora and the head doctor is what you might call, skeptical. In fact most of the doctors and nurses and other medical staff are from Canterlot, Manehatten, or Cloudsdale. Most of us have to double up on jobs, if we’re lucky there will be somepony trained in medicine that passes through Ponyville.
All the workers work 12 hour shifts every-other day, half the staff on one day, the other half the next day. It’s not bad once you get used to it, it’s better than being a weather pony who might need to be called to work out of the blue at any given moment. Thank Celestia I’m not a Pegasus. But I do admit my work hours have made me sort of a, recluse.

On this particular day I was sitting at the nurse’s station when I was called down to the nursery. A little foal had just been born, and he was a little, well little, which meant we needed to run some tests and let the parents know. I walked into the room where the mother was still having her fluids removed and waited until the other nurses were done. I walk to the foot of the bed and look down at the mother; she was a dark green Pegasus with an orange mane and tail. I couldn't see her cutie mark so I couldn't tell you what it was. I grab the clipboard hanging on her bed, “Mrs. Mary May” I start.
“Um…Just Ms. May.” she says timidly
“OK understood. You’re foal was born underweight so we are running standard procedures. During that time I will have to ask you a few routine questions.” 
“Is there any family history of trouble at childbirth?”
“No.”
“Was there any problems during pregnancy?”
“No.”
“This next question is for the father, where is he?”
“He is away.”
“For work?”
“Yes.”
“Do you have contact information like hotel number?”
“He’s not staying in a hotel…”
“What about the city.”
“It’s not exactly in a city.”
“Any contact information at all.”
“No.”
“What exactly does the father do for a living?”
“He’s in the military.”
I hadn't been keeping up with news recently because I had canceled my newspaper subscription. Between work, sleep, and personal issues, I didn't have time to read it. But I had heard snippets of conversations that our allies the Saddle Arabian’s had requested military assistance. I didn't want to sound stupid or be rude so I continued with my lining of questions. “Maybe you can answer for him. Does he have any testicular issues?”
“No.”
“What is his species?”
“Unicorn.”
“Name?”
“Martin Marcher.”
“Whose name will the foal be taking?”
“Both.”
“What name do you give your offspring?”
“You haven’t told me the gender.”
“Male.”
“Michael.”
“That is all.”
“I’m just so nervous.”
“About being a mom?”
“That, and what my parents will think. You see I’m only fifteen and my parents are not home a lot so Martin came over and, well things happen. But I haven’t told my parents yet and they’re coming to visit next week.”
“Well being a Nurse I can’t help you with that,” I look in both direction and take off my hat, “but you could always have a friend over for moral support. And you didn't hear it from me.”
“OK. Also, what kind of pony is my baby?”
“Earth” I reply.
“Wonderful.” She says with a sincere grin.

“Hey Red!” I hear a stallion’s voice from behind to see Dr. Hugh Bris, a light brown unicorn with glasses and a white mane, come running down the hall after me. “I need you to go help in the patient cafeteria.”
“Why, did somepony get sick?”
“Yes and I need you to clean up the mess.”
“Ask a janitor, I’m busy.”
“Well now don’t get your hooves in a knot, I just meant I thought it would be more, your area of expertise.”
“Was that supposed to be smart?”
“Not really, considering it’s about earth ponies.”
I was ready to introduce my earth pony hoof to his face when my pager told me I was on Lunch break. “Well, it looks like I’m on break, I guess you’ll have to find somepony else.” I walk away with a smirk.

Lunch was to say the very least, bad. I was sitting in my normal spot in the Employee Break Room. I had gotten a lettuce and tomato sandwich with water and a side of fries. I was talking with some of the other nurses when Sugar Spoon plops down next to me, speaking to me through corn and hay. She swallowed and said, “Can you go get me some water? My throat feels like a bucking desert.”
I was about to protest, when I realized that I could get away from her a while. “Sure.” I stood up and turned around straight into Knee Knocker, the clumsiest pony in all Equestria, who somehow managed to become a physical therapist. He was a white unicorn with a grey mane and bones for his cutie mark his face was covered in freckles and he wore a pair of all but broken glasses. His food got all over me, I was covered in lettuce, tomato, ketchup, sugar, and worst of all, an extra-large diet soda, and I hate diet.
“Oh, I’m sorry let me help,” he grabbed a bunch of napkins with his glowing horn and tried to wipe me off, only spreading around the gunk. “Oh maybe they need to be wet?” for some reason he thought the water cooler was the best water source in the room, grabbed it with his magic, and of course, it opens and all the water falls on me. “Oh no, um here this should dry you off.” He gets out a fan, one of those little cheap ones that run on batteries that you can get for like, one bit, and turns it on.
“Knee Knocker,” I say calmly, “I think you've helped enough.” I walk towards the mare’s room but Knee Knocker comes after me saying he wants to help, trips, and his face lands right on my plot. I freeze; the whole room is looking at me, in a mess, with a clumsy unicorn’s face in my plot. A few seconds go past and I calmly say, “Knee Knocker, please move from your current position.”
“About that, I’m stuck.”
I let my rage explode “What do you mean you’re stuck? You just like my plot don’t you, you little pervert! Get out of there now!”
“I can’t!”
“Why not? Because you’re suffering from pervert disease?”
“No, my glasses are hooked on your tail!”
“Then take off your glasses.”
“I can’t”
“Why?”
“Because they’re hooked on my mane!”
“You've got to be bucking kidding me.”
“I’m not”
“Then somepony do something!”
A silence falls over the room. Nopony moves, at all. 
“Well if we have no volunteers, then I guess we’ll have to draft! You there with the stethoscope, get over here!”
The large stallion doctor walks over and manages to separate us.
“I’m really sorry.” Knee Knocker said “Maybe I can-”
“I believe you have done enough. Let me leave, with the little dignity I have left.” I walk over to the restroom and halfway through the door Knee Knocker informs me, “That’s the stallion’s room.”
I turn around and walk to the other bathroom.

After my lunch-less lunch break, I am asked to escort some visitors to a room. I walk to the front lobby to see Mr. Filthy Rich and his young daughter, Diamond Tiara. I lead them to the room that they are visiting, and have to stand by the door. I hear the conversation pretty clearly, it’s hard not to.
“Hi honey” Said Mr. Rich.
“Hello” the patient replied.
“Diamond,” said Mr. Rich, “give your mom a hug.”
“I missed you so much” the patient said. “You hardly visit.” There is no response from Diamond. “Why don’t you tell me about your day? How has school been?’
“Fine.” Diamond mumbled.
“How is your friend, what’s her name? Applebloom?”
“We’re not friends.”
“Why not.”
“Because she’s lame. She doesn't even have her cutie mark. And she’s friends with a clumsy unicorn and a Pegasus who can’t even fly.”
“Then who are some of friends?”
“Silver Spoon.”
“And?”
“What do you mean ‘and’?”
“Who are your other friends?”
“Nopony.”
“Why don’t you try to make friends?”
“Because they don’t like me.”
“Have you talked to Cheerilee?”
“I don’t want to.”
“Why?”
“Because she always says the same thing ‘Be nicer’. How lame?”
“Why would she need to say that?”
“Because, I call the other ponies blank flanks, and make fun of their families, like Dinky Doo, her mom is a freak of nature and Applebloom’s granny is loco.” Diamond started to cry.
“Why would you say that?”
“Because, I think that maybe if I put their family down, I can feel like you are, normal.” Diamond said sobbing. There was a long pause.
“Honey, what makes you think I’m not normal?”
“Because you’re not supposed to have Cancer! It’s totally lame!” Diamond screams.
“Don’t say that.”
“But if anypony found out, they would treat me differently, and they might not think that I’m a strong leader if I show my emotions. That’s all I want to be, a good leader like daddy. Leaders aren't supposed to cry.”
“But a leader doesn't keep secrets from the ones they’re leading.” Cut in Mr. Rich.
“I don’t care! I don’t want pity, I want respect, and I’m gonna’ earn it! I’ll be the best darn leader in the history of Equestria, and nopony will ever see me cry!”
Another long silence fills the room. “I think it’s time for us to head home.” Mr. Rich said. I escorted them to the entrance and returned to the nurses’ station. 
I begin reading my book when a call light from, that room, starts to glow. I sigh and walk over to room 113-A.
“What do you want Rainbow Dash?” I ask.
“I’m bored.”
“Read the book I gave you.”
“I already read it.”
“Then read it again, see if the ending is any different.”
“I don’t think books can do that.”
“Yeah I know. Do you want to eat something?”
“No thanks. Do you have an arcade?”
“No we are not a hotel, we are a hospital.”
“Do you have a pool?”
“The pool is strictly for aqua therapy patients.”
“Can I go to the restroom?”
“You have a catheter.”
“I know.”
“Then why do you want to go to the restroom?”
“To stretch my legs.”
“You are suffering from a torn wing ligament, nothing is stopping you from getting up and walking.”
“This IV thing is.”
“It has wheels for a reason.”
“So can I get up?”
“If you want to.”
“Yes! I’m going to the library.”
“You are not allowed to leave the Hospital let alone this room without proper supervision.”
“Man this stinks!”
“Yeah well it’s not that bad” I turn to leave and halfway across the room she says the thing. The thing she always says that makes me furious.
“Wing injuries are the worst.”
I stopped, I wanted to tell her, I wanted to tell her about other ponies that had it way worse. A Pegasus with a cracked hoof, a foal who died seconds after birth, the ponies with Alzheimer’s, the royal guard with PTSD,  ponies who suffered pain too great to imagine, and this stupid Pegasus thinks a wing injury is the worst thing that could happen. I wonder if she’s ever had to see the pain in a family’s eyes when you tell them their loved one didn't make it. She never had a suffering pony begging her for death. She never had to be the one to pull the plugs on a heart monitor. She doesn't know what pain and suffering is. All she thinks it is, is an injured wing.
I was immobilized by rage. She asked if there was something wrong. “No I’m fine, rest up.”
Walking from her room Sugar Spoon trotted up to me, “You are blushing, just like I said.” I ignore her.
“It’s ok, I know you must feel torn between job and romance, but you will find a solution.”
“You can shut your mouth now, or I can shut it for you.”
“Why such a fuss, you upset because of your dilemma?”
“My dilemma is that I am the only one here, it seems, to understand that ponies lives are in our hooves.”
“What the hell do you mean?”
“Well for starters you. You and your big mouth always blabbing away to the other nurses when there are five call lights on. And who do you think goes to those rooms? Me. And I have to take a bet as to which is more urgent, because I know ponies lives are at stake. Meanwhile I've got the doctors who think they own the world, going around putting all the jobs on us, and by that I mean me. Meanwhile there are visitors who need to be shown in, call lights to answer, and I’m the only one doing anything about it.”
“Well if you really feel that way, why don’t you just take a damn vacation?”
“Because I know you all are going to muck it up!” at that I turn around and go to the next patient.

He was a quiet stallion. Big, muscular, and gentle. His name was Ferdinand. He was a dark purple with green eyes. His mane was a light blue with a streak of white. When I came in he was reaching for something, I was about to offer help, when grabbed it. I had to look close to see that it was a small moth, which must have been caught in a web. Ferdinand stroked the moth with his gargantuan hoof  to brush off the web without harming it in any way. Then it flew off.
“How are we doing today?”
“OK” he said in his deep resonating voice
“Well your blood tests came back negative, but the urinary test wasn't promising.” He nodded for me to continue, “And it looks like you have a very serious kidney infection. Serious enough that your kidney will need to be removed.” He nodded his head, showing no emotion. “When would you like to schedule it?”
“Is it enough to kill me?” he asked
“Yes” I answered surprised.
“How painful would death be?”
“Excruciating” I was wondering where this line of questioning would lead.
“How long would it take?”
“About a month and a half.”
“Month and a half, that should be enough time; to wrap up my odds and ends.”
“What are you saying?” I said concerned.
“I believe that Ma an’ Pa will want the keys to my room.”
“Ferdinand.”
“And Larry will want to go to camping with me one last time.”
“Ferdinand”
“Sally Lou will want a hug.”
“Ferdinand”
“And I guess I’ll have time to compete in one last rodeo”
“Ferdinand” I shouted, “what are you talking about?”
“Well, missy, it would seem that I have reached the end of my funds. So some big fancy surgery is out of the question. I couldn't even afford to have you put a Band-Aid on me.” I tried to think of something to say, but no words came. “Oh and Miss Reeda, don’t worry about me. I know that I will die soon, but that doesn't scare me. In fact I’m less scared now that I know it won’t jump out of the blue. But Miss Reeda, I want to let you know that, of all the ponies I've ever met, you have got to have the biggest, most loving, and most wonderful heart anypony could have. Your nickname should be Gold Heart. No matter what, remember this; it don’t matter what you look like, it don’t matter what the others think, it only matters that your heart is open, not just to receive love, but to give it, and you always get what you give.” With those words he stood up and left. I exited the room and he was nowhere to be seen.

I got called down to Dr. Goodwin’s office (the only decent doctor at this place).  “As you know, the patient in room 225-C had surgery this morning to remove a tumor on her stomach. Well, there was a problem.”
“Is she OK?”
“Yes, she was un-harmed from the surgery, but we came across this.” He pulled out a picture from a folder and I didn't believe what I saw.
“That’s not possible. How did that happen?”
“I don’t know, but she just woke up, and I have to tell her.”
“Why do you need me?”
“Because I’m not strong enough to do it alone.” He said looking up with a tear in his eye.
We entered the dark room and a voice worn by time welcomed us in. Mrs. Withers was a large older pony with dark maroon fur and a mane bleached white by age. “How did the surgery go doc?” she asked.
“Well,” said Dr. Goodwin tears forming in his eyes, “We couldn't remove the tumor on your stomach.” He put his hoof to his eyes. “Because it has spread to your heart.” He sits down on the bed crying.
“There there sonny you done the best you could. That’s good enough for me.”
“But I should have done something sooner. I’m sorry! I’m so sorry!”
“You don’t need to be sorry.”
“This just proves I’m unfit to be a doctor.”
“Now listen to me sonny!” she said sharply, “You done the best you could. That makes you the best darn doctor in the world for all I care. Now I’m an old pony, I would die soon anyway. And don’t let one failure make your life one as well. Chin up, and go be the best damn doctor in the world. ‘Cause me, I’ll be watchin’ you and I will not rest until I see the day that you are given the highest award in medicine. And you will do it, because you've got heart, and a damn good’un at that!”
“Thank you.” He says. “I just hope someday I can thank you.”
“You can thank me by being the best doctor ever. Now go, I need my beauty sleep.”

I decided to take a smoke break. Nopony smokes at the Hospital it’s just called that because it’s fifteen minutes long. I went outside into the employee courtyard, which was really ten square feet surrounded by cement walls on three sides and a gate on the fourth. Today has been crazy; I’m only nine hours into my twelve hour shift and all this stuff has happened to me, just thinking about it stressed me out. I started feeling a pain in my chest which was weird considering I hadn't eaten at lunch. I looked over at the clock on the otherwise bare wall, “That’s funny,” I said starting to feel dizzy, “When did they put in that other clock?” I was really tired “I might just rest for…” then I realized what was happening. I was having a heart attack. I turned towards the door, but fell down on my first step. I had to fight it, to stay alive, not for me, but for my patients. I tried shouting, but couldn't get the words out. I reached for my pager and turned on the open signal that connected to all of the other doctor and nurses’ pagers. I could barely move, but managed to tap the ground with my hoof. Three short taps, three long taps, and three more short taps. That’s all I could do, “S.O.S.” the pager picked up on the Mare’s Code, now I just need to send it…
A new spike of pain plunged into my chest, I don’t know if I managed to hit send or not. I was blacking out. “Damn it. I can’t let go.” I thought. The last thing I remember was vomiting the little food I had eaten.

*Beep* I knew that sound, a heart monitor, and from the sound of the beeping, the patient was in severe condition. *Beep* I need to get the AED, for the patient, *Beep* who was the patient? *Beep* It was…me…*Beep*. I faded into darkness again.