Chapter 3:
Ease and suffering
"Giving kindness to an enemy is foolish but strategic if done correctly."
"TRIXIE!?" Fluttershy screamed in horror, rushing forwards at the injured blue mare. At the moment the yellow mare did not care about who it was in front of her. Only that it was somepony in need of help immediately.
Her heart rate was beating fast as she looked over the injuries once more. She placed her right ear slightly above Trixie's midsection, hoping to hear the speed of her heart's beats. For half a minute she listened. 23, no, 22. This isn't good. Fluttershy thought to herself, removing her head from contact with Trixie so she could get to work quickly.
The yellow mare furiously pushed away the shrubbery surrounding the body in an attempt to try and get rid of the obstacles that could prove to be problematic. Without hesitation Fluttershy maneuvered her body, trying to get underneath the mare in hopes of getting Trixie onto her back. The yellow mare pushed her head snug under Trixie, closing her eyes to make sure nothing would get into her eyes, and lifted upwards at a steady pace, not wanting to cause unnecessary strain on either herself or Trixie. Luckily she was very light; adding to fact adrenalin was rushing through Fluttershy’s veins made the action quite simple and efficient. During the process, Trixie had let out a few weak groans which to Fluttershy meant she may have rushed it slightly.
“Everything’s okay, you’ll be fine in a bit just hang on.” Fluttershy whispered calmly to the blue mare, wanting to quell any fears she might have had. Within a couple of seconds Trixie was now positioned on the yellow mare’s back with her front legs dangling on one side, and her back legs on the other.
Fluttershy took off into a collected trot towards her cottage and away from her original destination, trying not to go too slow but at the same time not too fast. Though, even if she wanted to go any faster, she would more than likely trip on the vines and roots that sprawled on the path at awkward and unpredictable angles. What made it worse was that every time Fluttershy had walked through, there would be more of them or they would move a few centimeters in a direction so there was no way to rush through by memorising patterns.
Breathing quickly, Fluttershy decreased her speed, maneuvering her way out of the forest with finesse. The light shone brighter and brighter the closer she had gotten to the normal part of Equestria and out of the corrupted forest until finally Fluttershy could feel the sun’s warmth landing on her face. At the moment however it wasn’t something she noticed consciously, her mind completely focused on the task on hoof.
Once she was outside of the wretched place, she decided to go a tad bit faster now that her house was in sight and the ground was on a much more even plane. She wasted no time when she got to her door, rushing through, scaring a large portion of the animals inside unintentionally from the booming of the door as it collided with the wall. A few of them grumbled loudly, trying to voice their complaints but stopped almost instantly when they saw the look on their caretaker, more importantly that she was carrying a body on her back. Most of them knew that when she was carrying something living on her back it meant one thing, that the animal, or this case pony, was injured.
“Angel please get my medical kit.” She asked quickly, while laying Trixie on the couch flat. He nodded in reply, hopping away to the cabinet where she stored most of her supplies. When she properly had Trixie on the couch she flew to the kitchen. Fluttershy ran some water until it had reached an appropriate temperature, placing her hoof underneath to check, it was. She took out a small towel from a nearby drawer and drenched it. Turning off the water, Fluttershy wrung it out before making her way back to start the process.
When she had come back, Fluttershy placed the damp towel on the wound, trying to keep a decent amount of pressure that would be just enough to stop the hemorrhaging. The towel started to absorb a small amount of blood every few seconds at a constant rate. Fluttershy continued to place pressure on the wound for what felt like ten minutes before gradually removing the force she placed on the cut. When she had fully released her hoof and pulled away the towel, she could see exactly how deep the cut actually was now that the bleeding had stopped and most of the blood that surrounded the cut had been soaked up. It isn’t as bad as I thought it was. No tendons were severed but it’s still very deep. She thought to herself, analyzing the cut in depth, thinking about the possible options. Stitches would be fine but I can’t close it up until it’s disinfected.
Suddenly a furry paw poked her from behind, bringing her outside of her thoughts and into the real world. When she turned around, Angel was behind her with a medical box three times his size on his right. “Oh, thank you Angel.” She threw him a quick smile before getting back to main problem at hand.
Fluttershy grabbed the kit and unlocked it, revealing the contents inside. Within the kit was the basic tools she needed to nurse wounds such as rubbing alcohol, rolls of gauze, bandages, spool of thread used for suturing, scissors, ointments and other various materials used to help her nurse wounds and other problems.
Nimbly she took out the rubbing alcohol to disinfect the wound, a spool of thread to close up the wound, scissors, a threading needle, a roll of gauze to keep it protected after the procedure, a small towel and a couple of bandages for the small cuts. Once she had everything she needed, Fluttershy closed the container and put it to the side, not wanting any unnecessary obstacles to make the procedure any more difficult than it needed to be.
The yellow mare saturated the towel with the alcohol, now ready to start. “I’m sorry Trixie but this might hurt.” Fluttershy whispered, trying to give words of warning that indefinitely were meant for the unconscious mare but only gave solace to herself. She applied the towel carefully on the cut, letting the chemical work its magic. Luckily she received very little movement in response, which was rather rare. After she was sure she would not need to use anymore of the alcohol, she started to unravel some of the thread, estimating how long it needed to be to make it proper. Not ever having stitches, Fluttershy could only imagine what kind of annoyance they could cause, especially if it wasn’t a perfect suture. 5 inches would be good. She thought to herself.
For the next step she unfolded her wings, bringing them close to her eyes. Fluttershy picked up the sterilized needle and thread, carefully positioning them in front of her line of sight. With precision and patience, Fluttershy had successfully put the thread through the needle’s eye. Now armed with the prepared tools she got to the difficult part. Its fine Fluttershy, you’ve done this a hundred times. Just think of the positives. Ignore the negatives. She reassured herself, taking the needle with the tips of her wings. Using her hooves were out of the question, so only Unicorns and specially trained pegasi, like herself, could do such a delicate task.
Moving slowly she pierced one side of the cut, moving diagonally across to the other side. The mare repeated this process four to five times before successfully closing up the hole. “Thank Celestia.” Fluttershy whispered to herself, glad that she had finished with no difficulty or troubles. Fluttershy removed her right wing from the needle and quickly snatched up the scissors. With a single snip, she separated the thread from the spool, with only about a millimeter of extra hanging loose from the suture.
Putting down the needle and the scissors, Fluttershy then took the roll of gauze with her hooves, rolling it around the laceration to make sure it would be able to heal properly with a lower chance of anything disturbing it. Checking off the main problem off her list, she focused more on the smaller cuts that ruined Trixie’s blue coat. Most of them were very insignificant that they wouldn’t need bandages but just to be safe Fluttershy applied the rubbing alcohol to make sure nothing would get into the blue mare’s system and possibly make her sick.
Last one and done. Fluttershy took a good look to make sure she hadn’t missed anything. Taking out the bandages from their respective covers, she saw only three cuts that would need extra protection. Gently, the yellow mare placed the bandages over the respective cuts.
I can’t just leave her here. She thought to herself, thinking of where she could put the injured mare. Then it clicked. It probably won’t be for long. Carefully she positioned herself underneath Trixie, getting the blue mare onto her back. Once safe, she made her way upstairs at a very slow pace. When she arrived at her bed, Fluttershy moved the blanket out of the way before placing Trixie on the bed. Taking the blanket with her teeth, she covered up the mare completely, save for her head.
Fluttershy was about to leave when she noticed how warm Trixie was to the touch. Quickly she put her hoof over the mare’s forehead, trying to see whether or not her presumptions were true. She’s burning up, she must have gotten sick. She thought to herself, scratching her chin. “Rest up Trixie, I’ll be back in a while.”