8.
Redheart was at the hospital in fifteen minutes. By the time Doctor Stable had come into the changing room, Nurse Redheart had already placed on her nurse’s cap and had sanitized herself. Stable himself was carrying a small paper bag and a cup with a lid on it.
“Thank god, you made it here early,” he said. “I didn’t think you had time for breakfast, so I went by Sugarcube Corner and picked up a little something for you.”
“Thank you, Doctor,” Nurse Redheart said as she placed rubber coverings on her hooves. “You can go ahead and put it into the fridge; I’ll take it later once I’ve examined the situation.”
“Well, it’s better than we thought when Twilight first came in,” Doctor Stable said, following Redheart as they made their way out of the changing room and into the hallways of the emergency ward. “Her condition is listed down on the clipboard, but I’ll give you the short version. There’s three broken bones including a rib, both of her wing joints are dislocated and refuse to go back into position, and she suffered large blunt trauma to the head. Most of the doctors are saying it’s a wonder she’s still alive.”
“Yes, and it’s a wonder she’s still alive considering they haven’t done much,” Nurse Redheart replied. “Tittering around… I can’t believe none of them went about procedure, and we can’t have anything like that happening with a princess. Has anyone sent a note to Princess Celestia yet?”
“Not yet,” Stable answered. “I was planning on getting someone to work on it.”
“Don’t,” Nurse Redheart said. “Once things have calmed down and we return Twilight to a stable position, I’ll take care of it myself. Has she been hooked up to a heart monitor yet?”
“A digital electrocardiograph has been hooked up to her body,” Doctor Stable replied. “Her readings over the past few hours have been stable and regular but low; around thirty beats per minute of a normal around seventy five.”
“What about her breathing?”
“Shallow but regular as well. She’s been hooked up to a ventilator to help her breathe better, but I’m afraid the trauma might have initially cut off circulation to the brain.”
Nurse Redheart found her way to Twilight’s room and went up to and examine the mare and her clipboard, stating exactly what the doctor had told her. Cords with little nodes were attached all over Twilight’s body and the mare had a mask around her mouth hooked up to a machine just behind her bed. The liquid in the IV bag was getting low. “How much medicine has she been given today?”
“She’s just been given a bag early this morning,” Doctor Stable replied. “She’ll need another one in an hour.”
“Get the staff in the pharmacy to make two fresh bags for the IV; one for nutritional needs and the other for medicine. Make them twelve hours minimum; we need a constant rate going into her body for as long as possible.”
“Alright. What about the broken bones?”
“Up the calcium for the nutritional content. If nothing changes upon her next exam, continue doing so until we report that the bones are healing. Firmer casts need to be placed around the arms and ribs to keep them steady until they’ve healed. As for the wings, keep them in place but I don’t think we’ll be able to push them back until she’s gotten stronger; the pain might be unbearable at the moment.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“I suppose I’ll go and eat while the pharmacy gets the parenteral nutrition set up. I’ll be back to hook up the IV bags myself. Also, you can tell the pharmacist to stop with the shots for the time being since she’s being hooked up to the IV.”
Nurse Redheart began to walk out of the room.
“Redheart!”
Redheart turned around. Stable was looking at her with a straight face, though it soon broke into a small smile. “It’s good to have you back, nurse.”
Redheart smiled herself. “It’s good to be back, Doctor.”
Over the next thirty minutes, Redheart went into the staff break room to eat the breakfast Doctor Stable had picked up for her. She ate the sandwich and downed the orange juice quickly before pulling out a pen and paper and set about writing her letter.
Princess Celestia:
I am writing to inform you that your student and fellow princess Twilight Sparkle has arrived at our hospital and is currently in a coma due to blunt force trauma that has also broken three of her bones and dislocated her wing joints. While currently stationed in our hospital, I completely understand if you wish to transfer her to Canterlot for further treatment. Until we receive a reply, we here at Ponyville Hospital will be keeping her on parenteral nutrition until she can be removed and swear not to make a big deal out of the event to the press; the whole affair is kept private between the hospital staff and the Elements of Harmony present at the scene.
Nurse Redheart, Ponyville Hospital.
Doctor Stable – Head Physician, Ponyville Hospital
When the letter was finished, Redheart took it over to Doctor Stable for examination at his nearest free period. The doctor read over the letter what seemed like multiple times, then handed it back to Redheart with a nod of approval. “Good. I think that about covers everything she needs to know. Send it off as First-Class Mail with expedited delivery.”
“What about the dragon? Spike, I think it is?”
“Ah, yes. I’ve heard his fire can send messages to and from Princess Celestia. I don’t know where he would be at the moment, however; he might be with Celestia already so she can take care of him in Twilight’s absence.”
“Very well, then. I’ll go ahead and have it sent to the post office.”
Stable nodded and took the letter from Redheart again. Redheart went back to Twilight’s room where a technician was loading the new IV bags. Once both bags had a steady drip rate, the technician spoke to Redheart. “The bags will be good for twelve hours. Call us up one hour before and we’ll make another one; don’t do so any earlier so we don’t have a bunch of spare bags lying around that’ll go to waste.”
“Thank you.”
The technician nodded and left. Doctor Stable soon returned with the letter placed into an envelope and marked with his seal, in addition to proper postage. Redheart took the letter from him and told Stable to keep an eye on Twilight as she left for the post office. Almost immediately an attendant took her letter and called for one of the pegasi to take it; by the time Redheart had paid for the letter to be shipped and left, the pegasi was already flying off towards Canterlot.
Redheart returned to the hospital. Doctor Stable was at the front desk with a slip of paper under one of his hooves. Redheart went up to him.
“Letter has been delivered,” Redheart said. “Once the attendant saw it was for Princess Celestia and saw your stamp, she had it delivered almost immediately. I suspect it will make the Princess’ chambers by tomorrow morning at the latest.”
“Very good,” Stable said. “Until then, I have two pieces of information for you. First is that Twilight’s condition is stable; better than last night when I was afraid it would dip down and get worse. The second is that you’ve received a phone call from a stallion named Caramel; he asked if you would call him soon.” Doctor Stable pushed the piece of paper towards Redheart; it had a number on it along with Caramel’s name.
Redheart took the piece of paper. “Can I do so right now if you have no other jobs for me?”
“Currently, you’ve done in almost one hour what none of the nurses could figure to do in the time since Twilight’s arrival. You can call Caramel then head to the front desk for a few hours; I’ll manage Twilight for the time being and call for you if there’s anything else.”
Redheart nodded.
Redheart went to one of the office phones, picked up the receiver and dialed the number on the phone. It rang three times before a voice answered at the other end of the line.
“Hello, you’ve called the Ponyville Bookstore. This is Caramel; how may I help you?”
“Caramel; it’s Redheart.”
“Oh, good, so you got the message,” Caramel said, sounding relieved. “Listen. I wanted to ask you if you wanted to go out to dinner on Friday, two days from now. Maybe if you got off in time we could meet up at the hospital at about six-ish? It doesn’t have to be somewhere fancy.”
“Oh,” Redheart said. “I’ll check with my head physician, but I’m sure he won’t mind. Why?”
“There’s something I wanted to talk with you about.” The voice wasn’t serious, like he was trying to break something to her. Rather, it sounded like there was something bottled up inside him, something he had been suppressing.
“Yes. I’ll let the physician know. Maybe he’ll let me off early.”
“Cool. So six o’clock works for you?”
Redheart didn’t respond for a while. Is it about that encounter at the bookstore with Lyra...?
“…Redheart?” came Caramel’s voice from the other side of the line. “Are you still there?”
“Yes, Caramel. Six o’clock works out perfectly.”
“Alright. Thank you so much. I’ll see you Friday, then.”
“I’ll talk to you later, Caramel.”
Redheart heard a click on the other line and put down the receiver. Even now, after not speaking with him for so long, she could tell what was going to happen next, and it had nothing to do with Lyra. It happened the same way over four years ago.
Caramel was inviting her on a date.
Even more surprising, she had said yes without the slightest hesitation.