When You Fall...

by DerpiusHoovicus2

There to Catch You...

Redheart’s week was mind bogglingly slow. Over the span of her entire weeklong shift she had 13 patients with minor injuries, nothing she wasn’t used to. She sat in the staff lounge tapping her hooves on the table waiting for something to do.

While Nurse Redheart was exhausted and tired from working over night, Derpy sat watching the oven’s timer tick slowly down.

At the loud ding of the oven she pulled open the door and grabbed the tray with a hot pad in her mouth. She carefully set the muffin tray onto the small counter behind her and let them cool off. She smiled with a sense of pride in not burning them, that couldn’t quite be said about the others however.

The door of Sugarcube Corner rang open and in stepped a VERY pink pony. “Good morning Derpy! You’re here early, why’s that?” Pinkie Pie said in her usual energy filled voice. Derpy wasn’t particularly early this morning, but she was used to waking up to go to the post office which was farther away. So she always got to her current workplace on time, even with a small delay.

“Good Morning,” Derpy said with a huge smile. “I’m just as early as usual Pinkie, every day you’ve asked me and I always give the same answer.” Derpy was slightly confused at Pinkie’s daily question.

“That’s because it’s the wrong answer silly! I know why you’re here early all the time, Auntie Pinkie knows all, but do you know why you’re here early every morning?” Now Derpy was just more confused, what was that supposed to mean?

“Because it’s convenient?” Pinkie just shook her head.

“You’ll figure it out eventually. OOH are those freshly baked, Derpy’s Signature Muffins?!”Pinkie darted over to the still steaming muffins on the counter. They had the most wonderful, intoxicating aroma that could put a Star Spawn away from his meanie ways.

“Yeah, you can have some if you want be careful they’re-” She stopped her sentence as Pinkie shoved a muffin in her mouth and closed her eyes in bliss. “Hot.” Pinkie didn’t care, anything was worth one of Derpy’s signature muffins. When they weren’t crispy to the point they tasted like charcoal that is, and Pinkie knew what charcoal tasted like.

“Mmm. These are super duper wonderful! You should make more, would you mind if I sold some? They are so scrumdiddilyumptious that I wanna share them with everypony.” Pinkie still had her eyes on the muffins as she spoke.

“Oh, I dunno these are kinda just for my friends. I don’t wanna be selfish, but these are hard to make.” Derpy shuffled her hooves in shame, she didn’t want to be rude but she spent a long time on these and they were special.

“That’s okay, I understand. It’s like my cupcakes, only made fro- for my friends.”

“But you give cupcakes to everyone, don't you?” Derpy said now even more confused.

“Everypony is my friend silly!” That made sense to Derpy and she nodded. “Let’s get started with the day then!” Pinkie stepped past Derpy and moved toward the area of the building where she made most of her pastries and sweets.

Derpy followed suit and started on making regular muffin batter near her sporadic friend.

***

Redheart sat staring at a wall in a patient’s room. The patient had come in for a dislocated leg and simply sat in the bed reading a book. Or she was until she set it down and turned to the nurse.

“What’s it like being a nurse?” She asked trying to make conversation with the distant Redheart. Said nurse shook her head and turned to look at the mare asking the question.

“It has it’s ups and down’s I suppose, I don’t get very much free time but I like to help ponies get better. I don’t like seeing ponies hurt and it makes me feel that much better to bring a smile to their face. Although, I only really have time off on weekends so that really takes a toll on my sleeping habits. It’s funny, I help ponies get rest and I rarely get any myself.” The mare in the bed looked a little sad after Redheart’s answer.

“That sounds rough, but at least you can help ponies get better.” After the mare said this they fell into an awkward silence. Redheart took a good look at the mare on the bed.

She had a cream colored coat that looked the same color in any light. She had green eyes that blended perfectly with her red and soft pink mane. She was under the covers, so Redheart couldn’t get a look at her cutiemark.

“You seem distant, is something bothering you?” The unnamed patient finally said.

“No, I’m just planning out my weekend. I’m going to visit a curious somepony I met the other day, they were a patient but even though they broke their wing they still smiled like nothing was wrong.”

“That is rather strange, I would probably be bawling my eyes out if I broke my leg” The patient joked. They shared a laugh and eventually returned to talking.

“I never got your name…” Redheart said.

“Oh pardon me, I thought I told you. My name’s Roseluck, I work a flower stand here in Canterlot. I tripped and landed on a planter, got my leg all messed up. I don’t believe I got your name either.” Rose retorted Redheart’s question.

“Of course, mind my manners, I’m Nurse Redheart. I work here as a nurse, as you can tell.”

“What a wonderful name.”

“The doctor should be her soon to give you a spiel about keeping your leg healthy, I’ll be nearby. If you need me just call for me.” Redheart pointed to a small phone near the bed.

Rose thanked Redheart as the latter stepped out of the room to get the doctor. She did as such and the doctor went to the room and spoke with Roseluck.

A while later Rose had left and Redheart was bored again. It was late in the afternoon by now, and Redheart would be off of her shift soon. She watched the clock tick menacingly along with a couple others as it neared the time that they got off. Other ponies with a different schedule would take over for them on the weekend, the hospital always had somepony in it.

The clocked ticked closer, second by second, minute by minute, until 21:45. By the time the digital clock changed they were already wearing coats and had whatever they would need at home. They all bustled out through the door and again through the main entrance. Each went their own way. Redheart enjoyed the chilly air of the night, the stars were out by now and they each shined just as bright as another.

Redheart’s door unlocked and swung open. She tossed her hat in the laundry room, she would get to it later, and shuffled off to bed. She was utterly worn from a whole week of walking back and forth delivering notes and status updates on patients.

The bed made an audible ‘thwump’ as she just fell into it and closed her eyes. She would have quite the day ahead of her.

~~~

Nurse Redheart stood in a wide open field, all of the colors had a strange yellowish tint but it was very peaceful. The tall overgrown and tan wheatgrass rose to her knees and hocks. It waved slowly in the blowing wind, softly dancing and swaying in a beautiful harmony of life.

Somepony sat in the grass not far away, their mane waving in the wind ever so softly. She turned to look at Redheart and her golden eyes nearly made the nurse quiver. The mare’s eyes were off in different directions and she had a goofy smile on her face. Everything was so beautiful as she sat and smiled.

Redheart approached and sat next to her, they just smiled at each other. Redheart leaned in slowly, as did the soft grey goofy mare. Redheart chuckled as Derpy missed and kissed at the air confusedly.

She pulled her face to hers and leaned in again…

~~~

Okay so maybe Redheart had a crush. She woke up and spit the pillow away from her lips. “Oh, good thing no-one saw that” She thought, growing a small blush on her white cheeks, it was hard not to see the pure white mare blush. She looked at her clock that read 03:24, her sleep schedule really needed to be fixed.

After several attempts to fall back asleep she gave up and dragged herself out of bed. Since she had nowhere to be she draped the blankets over her back and made her way to the small living room in her house. She took a comfortable seat on the cozy couch and lay her head on the leg rest.

She grabbed a small book and turned on a lamp and started to read. That didn’t last long. She fell to sleep in 15 minutes or so, never actually focusing on the words in the book.

***

Derpy woke up at the usual time, just as excited to get to work as usual, whatever muffins weren’t eaten she could have at the end of the day. Almost always the muffins were gone at the end of the day, but Derpy was happy that ponies enjoyed her gift of eating her favorite treat.

She performed her morning routine (with a shower) and left the house.

As usual she was 20 minutes early to work, but that gave her time to start on the muffins, and or lumps of crispy charcoal. She could never get the first batch right, but would usually get it by the second or third. Thankfully there was a window to let out all of the smoke. As she was pulling out a tray she got too close to the rack and burned her chin.

“Owie!” She exclaimed loudly, hoping no pony heard. She moved as quickly as she could to set the muffins on the counter and rushed to the freezer to get ice. The wound was nothing new, this happened fairly often so she had a procedure set out for it. The routine consisted of getting ice and holding it against the burn.

She heard Pinkie come in moments later. “Derpy? You here yet?” Pinkie shouted through the bakery.

“Yeah, sorry I burned myself. I’m in the back.” Derpy replied, but Pinkie was already in the room.

“Oh that’s terrible, will you be alright? That would be super not fun if you were really hurt.” Pinkie exclaimed as she saw the small pink patch where soft grey should be.

“I’ll be okay, at least my chin won’t get hot!” Pinkie thought that was an odd thing to say. That’s coming from Pinkie.

“You’re absolutely, positively, totally, 100 percent, super duper sure you’re okay?” There were way too many adverbs in that sentence. Derpy nodded anyway with a huge smile. “I guess I can’t argue with a smile. Let’s get to work!”

A few hours passed and so did several customers. “So, have you figured out why you get here so early yet?” Pinkie said in her strange sing song voice. Derpy wondered how Pinkie was behind her when she was just out in front of the counter serving some pony.

“No, I guess I haven’t given it much thought.” Derpy said still confused by Pinkie’s antics.

“Well I bet you’ll figure it out today, if you don’t I’ll be pretty disappointed in you. You’re smarter than you look.” Derpy blushed at her compliment but was still confused by the first statement, Pinkie was always confusing poor Derpy.

Not long after the work ponies had their conversation, a white mare with a pink mane walked through the door. Derpy became more clumsy with her movements upon seeing the beautiful nurse walk through the door.

Redheart approached the counter Derpy was standing behind and smiled.

“You weren’t wrong when you said this place was hard to miss. It’s nice to finally see you again.” Her heavenly voice rang in Derpy’s ears, she had to try really hard to form a proper sentence.

“You too.” She said briefly. “Smooth Derpy, real smooth”.

“I have nothing to do today, when you catch a break would you like to get some lunch?” Derpy just nodded dumbly.

“Say something you dummy” She scolded herself mentally. “Oh, um, yeah! I can get off at 11:00 if that works for you, I get an hour lunch break.” “Better”

“Works for me! Could I get a blueberry muffin while I’m here? I skipped breakfast and blueberry is my favorite.” Derpy’s eyes lit up as Redheart asked.

“Omigosh. Ahem sorry. Yeah of course, I would recommend them.” She said in a more proper business tone. Redheart rolled her eyes playfully and Derpy smiled. Derpy went to the back to get muffins giving Redheart a good view of her TAIL. NOTHING ELSE. She returned briskly and handed over the muffin. Redheart reached into her purse to get out the bits to pay. Before Derpy stopped her. (What a cliché right?)

“It’s on the house! I make ‘em so I get to decide who pays.” She said trying a nervous smile.

“Of course, thank you a bunch. I’m paying for lunch though, no buts about it.” Derpy would have offered to pay bu- yet was stopped by her finishing statement. “See you at 11:00 then, we’ll meet here?” Derpy nodded and got back to work.

Each had their stomach tied in knots, although Redheart kept it more contained than Derpy. As Redheart left and shut the door they each let out a sigh of relief.

“Well that could’ve gone better” They thought in unison

Pinkie popped up behind Derpy again.

“So… did ya figure it out yet?” She asked excited. Derpy wondered how Pinkie knew but shrugged it off as it being ‘just Pinkie’.

“Y’know, I think I did…”

Author's Note:

I left this a little short, because I wanted their da- 'friendly meeting' to have it's own chapter. Please any feedback is appreciated, and if you downvote I would like to know why so I can get better
EDIT: (sorry mods) I realized while looking for a better cover image that Redheart lives and works in Ponyville, it's too late to fix it so I'm just goin' with it.

Comments

[Lesesa]

Oh gawd. MOAR !

[DerpiusHoovicus2]

7999646
I'm glad to see you liked it! I will hopefully get another chapter out around Thursday, what with school and other stories in the way. I hope you like what I have in plan for the next chapter. Until then, may you have delicious muffins in your future.

[Vaguely Demented]

“That’s okay, I understand. It’s like my cupcakes, only made fro- for my friends.”

Bad Pinkie! No serial killing!