What you Need

by Hemlock conium

Chapter 8: What are friends for?

Nurse Pink Heart spent most of that afternoon with the filly, unfortunately after their conversation she'd drifted back to her normal distant self. Pink Heart let out a depressed exhale of air. When the filly had gone out with Dr. Spark yesterday had finally though the filly was opening back up. Better yet she talked to her today, while that conversation was brief she actually spoke. Then she was suddenly back to her inert state, causing a wave of crushing defeat to wash over Pink Heart. She felt like they were so close to finally doing something, then to have the filly suddenly shut down was Heart breaking. Worse yet, what if it was her fault?

That realization petrified her Heart. Had she said something wrong during their talk that upset the filly? She wanted to run her hooves through her mane and yell in grief and frustration. Not now however, she thought to herself. She was still responsible for taking care of Phoenix right now. Her own self loathing could wait.

With that thought in mind she took back the half eaten apple Phoenix had left on the bed side and carefully placed it back in the basket. Pink Heart debated trying her luck again to see if she could rouse the filly back into talking, but ultimately decided against it. Instead she disposed of the apple cores and washed her hooves as her mind wandered.

They only had two more weeks with the filly, until she was properly taken to “ Wings of care orphanage” in Cloudsdale. Two weeks to try and help her. Two weeks to care for her. It may not have been nurse Pink Heart’s job to help their clients in that way, but she couldn't help it. In many ways she felt responsible for the filly's well being, beyond just her physical health. Yet at the same time she felt totally helpless, she was completely out of her depth. She could barely care for the emotional needs of her younger sisters. How was she going to handle a filly like her?

The realization made the pit in Pink Hearts stomach churn, uncomfortably so. Thankfully her fellow nurse Ginger Ale, a peppermint green pegasus, flapped up to her; with a friendly smile. Though the demeanor shifted to one of concern as the mare saw Pink Hearts ragged face.

“Pink, what has gotten you in a sour mood all the sudden?” The mare asked as she flipped her long, curly, purple hair out of her face.
“Wait let me guess,” Ginger continued, “it's the filly again?” Then upon seeing Pink Heart tense up in thought, Ginger Ale let out an empathetic, but tired sigh.

“You’ve already done everything you can Pinky. No use beating yourself up over it too. Now I know how you can get when you're like this, so let me stop your spiral of thoughts right there, because I have some great news!”

Pink Heart felt her ears perk up a bit at the comment as her face twisted into one of perplexity. Though before she could open her mouth to ask what she could have, Ginger Ale shoved a hoof to her muzzle and squealed.

“I got, us, front row seats to,” Ginger paused a long moment for dramatic effect, ”Stallions who cry’s winter solstice music balooza in three weeks! You can thank me when we’re there.” Ginger Ale exclaimed with a somewhat cheeky grin.

Pink Heart’s face lit up in astonishment at the reveal. Her mind scrambled for questions like how, but all that came up was ”I er, what when?!” causing Ginger Ale to burst into laughter at Pink Hearts response.

“Don't worry about it. When I saw the opportunity I took it, seeing how upset you were getting over the filly, I figured you needed something as a pick me up.” Ginger Ale continued

“Ginger I could kiss you.” Pink Heart finally managed to spit up in gratitude.

“Then do it.” Ginger cheekily replied in a singsong-esk tone. To which Pink Heart gave a causal but friendly roll of the eyes.

“One no, two that would be unprofessional,” Pink Heart replied back, “but I will do this.” Then like a snake striking she extended out her hooves and wrapped them around the mare in a tight embrace.

“Okay okay I get the point, careful or you'll mess up my mane,” the pegasus protested as she tried to squirm free of the embrace. Pink Heart held the hug a bit longer, to Ginger Ale's disapproval, before finally letting go.

“What would I do without you?” Pink Heart asked as she laid back on her haunches to rest.

“Probably still be stuck in that well you fell in back when we were fillies.” Ginger Ale quipped back with a smug, playful grin.

Pink Heart groaned into her hooves before asking with a muffled whine “Are you ever going to let that go?”

“Someday, maybe. But! Not today!” Ginger Ale beamed as she hummed softly. After a few moments of humiliated silence Pink Heart lowered her hooves to look back up at Ginger Ale.

“I’ll remember this next time you need help getting unstuck from a tree.”

“Hey that was like once! Maybe twice!” Ginger Ale objected.

“What are friends for.” Pink Heart replied with a smile. Causing ginger Ale to scowl momentarily before relaxing.

“Anyway, Thanks again and it's been fun and all, but I should get back to Phoenix.”

“As I said thank me when we’re actually there. But have fun with that. See you after work?” Ginger asked, waving off Pink Heart

“Wouldn't miss it!” Pink Heart called as she turned down the hall.

As Pink Heart disappeared around the corner Ginger Ale shook her head. That filly has her all kinds of jacked up. Ginger thought to herself. She felt her conscious nag at her, berating her with guilt for blaming the filly for Pink Heart’s stress. But, it was true. Pink Heart was overworking herself, she just hoped with the filly gone in two weeks and the concert, Pink Heart might finally get back in her normal groove.

Author's Note:

Yea, so that delay. Sorry on the radio silence, but life has been a huge roller coaster of event. That combined with a bit of laziness led to admittedly nothing getting done for a while. Having said that, hope these two new chapters and new cover art, done by yours truly, make up for that. As always, thank you for reading and have a good one y'all.

Comments

[Starlight Nova]

Are you the one who made the cover art?

[Hemlock conium]

10479258
This one, yes. I also made Boopy Doopy's Beyond Me. Why do you ask?

[earth]

10479345
I knew they looked similar!

Anyways, glad to see you're back.

[Hemlock conium]

10432692
So I was looking back and saw how poorly conveyed my thoughts were in my first draft. So here's a second one that would better illustrate what I was trying to say.
He was human yes, but the focus is less the fact the fact a human (at least in a meta sense) so I felt adding human tag would be improper since that's not my goal/objective with this story. That's simply the pretense that puts him in this situation. I think a good way of putting this is say, your watching a movie. In the first scene a bomb goes off and it cripples the main character. The rest of the story focuses then on the character coping with their new disabilities. While yes there is a bomb in the story, you would hardly say the story is about a bomb. As that was simply a way of getting to the heart of the matter the director truly wished to explore. This is ultimately why I have rejected the tag. While yes Phoenix WAS human, that isn't what I want the reader thinking of when they read. I don't want the focus to be on his prior existence, but rather the here and now, and the struggles he deals with(even if admittedly some of those struggles are an indirect result of formerly being human).
Hopefully this clears up your question, if you have any further inquires fill free to ask, and Ill happily get to it when I can. Having said that, thanks for reading and have a good one.

[Luckyfanisaac]

she’d drifted back to her normal distant self. Pink Heart let out a depressed exhale of air. When the filly had gone out with Dr. Spark yesterday she had finally thought the filly was opening back up.

In many ways she felt responsible for the filly’s well being,

“Pink, what's got you in a sour mood all of a sudden?”

Pink Heart felt her ears perk up a bit at the comment

“I got, us, front row seats, to,(——” Ginger paused a long moment for dramatic effect,

I figured you needed something as a pick me up.” Ginger Ale continued.(——

You forgot to capitalize “Ale” and “Heart” a few times.

“Okay okay I get the point, careful or you'll mess up my mane,(——”

her hooves before asking with a muffled whine,(—— “Are you ever going to let that go?”

Causing Ginger Ale to scowl momentarily before relaxing.

Ginger asked, waving off Pink Heart.(——

Pink Heart called as she turned down the hall.

[orp]

”Stallions who cry’s winter solstice music balooza in three weeks! You can thank me when we’re there.”

Let's just hope they won't slide into another dimension before that.