//------------------------------// // Prompt #398-The Most Precious Gift of All // Story: Ponywatching // by ThunderTempest //------------------------------// Ponyville, for all the insanity that happened there, was actually a rather safe town, and as such Nurse Redheart was sitting at the front desk of the Ponyville General Hospital, completely and utterly bored. Through the open door, she could see fillies playing, ponies laughing and, “Get out of my way!” screamed Rarity, as she barrelled into the hospital lobby, her sister Sweetie Belle held within her magical grasp, bleeding profusely, “I need a doctor, right now!” “Hang on, I’ll get him. Go down the hall, and first room on your left is free. Put your sister there.” Nurse Redheart galloped off down the halls, heading for the doctor’s office. In a few minutes, the two were back with Rarity and Sweetie Belle, where the younger unicorn was lying on a bed, her blood flowing oddly freely from a deep wound in her side, staining the sheets beneath her. “Rarity, it hurts,” whispered Sweetie Belle. “I know, Sweetie. We’re going to make it better, I promise.” “What happened, Miss?” asked the doctor. “My sister was injured badly while playing with her friends. This alone wasn’t the cause for my rush though, Doctor.” “And what was?” asked the stallion. “My sister has a rather acute form of hemophilia. All of our family has it, in various forms. I just happened to get a mild version.” “Right. We need blood donors, right now, then. Nurse Redheart, try and stop the bleeding,” said the doctor, “As her sister, Miss Rarity, I should ask...” “Yes. I’m compatible. I’ve had to donate blood to her before.” “Excellent. We’ll get started right away,” said the doctor, who then poked his head out the door, and called for another nurse to bring the blood collection kit. Behind Rarity, Nurse Redheart worked to slow, or stop the bleeding coming from Sweetie Belle. In a few minutes, another nurse arrived with the equipment required to extract Rarity’s blood, and soon the elder of the sisters was sitting with a tube coming out of her foreleg, leading to a steadily filling blood bag. A few short meters away, behind a curtain, the doctor and several nurses worked to seal Sweetie Belle’s wound. Once the bag was full, a nurse detached it, and was about to pull the tube from Rarity when the unicorn interrupted. “Put on another bag,” said Rarity. “You’ve given as much as we’re allowed to take,” explained the nurse, “Regulations state that...” “My sister is going to need as much blood as she can if she wants to live through this, nurse. I can recover from a few lost bags of blood. My sister will not. Put on another bag,” said Rarity, interrupting the nurse once more. The nurse sighed, and attached a new empty bag to the end of the tube. Rarity gave a small wince as she felt the blood begin to drain from her once again, but it was easily ignored. And once that bag was full, the nurse again detached it. “Another, nurse,” said Rarity, before the nurse could extract the tube. The nurse wordlessly attached the new bag, and Rarity could not disguise her grimace of pain this time. ****Time**** Eventually, another donor was found in Ponyville, and Rarity collapsed on a hospital bed, having donated half her blood to save her sister. “How is she?” were Rarity’s first words upon waking up much later in the hospital, “How is Sweetie Belle?” “It was touch and go for a while, Miss Rarity,” said the doctor, as he polished his glasses, “Your sister lost a great deal of blood. Your donations, and your haste in getting her here saved her life. It will be some time before she fully recovers, but she’s out of danger. Her wound is sealed, and she’s sleeping now. You just recover for now, Miss.” With those words, Rarity smiled, and collapsed back on the bed. “Thank you, doctor. I think I will.”