At the outskirts of the small town of Ponyville the hospital of the little town was having a hectic day like usual.
Even though things were never easy in the hospital before, there had been an increase in the numbers of sick or hurt ponies during the past eight months.
Eight months ago, over fourteen elderly ponies were in the hospital because of massive hearts attack caused by the return of Nightmare moon. The poor ponies were so scared from the formerly banished princess, they almost died, luckily none of them did pass away. Four months ago, there had been a huge crisis due to ponies extremely sick because of food poisoning brought by Pinkie Pie's muffins. Three months ago a large amount of ponies ended up in the hospital due to their houses falling on them. Apparently enchanted parasprites had eaten through the support beams of their houses causing for the structure to collapse on them and their families. Again, thanks to the skies, there were no causalities. Now, two months after that, over half the population of the entire town sits in the hospital waiting room with broken bones, bruises, biting marks and cuts after one of the biggest battles ever took place over a small plush pony Twilight Sparkle had enchanted. Some of the nurses were hurt as well and so, they also were receiving medical attention from their co-workers.
One of them, a mare with a blue coat, a pink mane and a white cross cutie mark, was getting a pretty big bruise across her cheek disinfected.The wound was caused by her best friend, who was on the other side of the room getting her foreleg shoved back in place.
The face of the blue mare twisted due to the burning sensation of the alcohol against her open wound, but despite the pain she made no sound beyond a muffled grunt. The hundred of times she told other ponies to stop whining over such a small thing prevented her from whining also. She had endure the pain in silence. Still she couldn't help, but ask if it was going to be over soon.
-Don't worry, I'm almost done disinfecting the area.- Said the nurse taking care of her while she attended her wound. -But I have to close the wound with tread and needle after this, so...- The blue mare sighed in resignation while her face cringed once more when the nurse applied alcohol for the last time.
-Good. Now, I have to close the wound.- The nurse looked at her co-worker in the eye as she said this, probably to let her know that now, more than before, she had to endure without moving too much. The blue mare just nodded silently, showed her cheek and closed her eyes. Before they could begin though a muffled scream of agony draw their attention from the work at hoof to the mare that was getting her foreleg popped back in place. The mare in question was named Sweetheart. She was a mare with a light pink coat and a purple mane with white stripes. Sweetheart had been working in the hospital over ten years already, six of which she had been friends with Tenderheart, the blue mare that had dislocated her foreleg during the fight, and who, as mentioned before had received a deep cut across her face from her during the skirmish. Tears were streaming non-stop down Sweethearts cheeks as the doctor tried to put the bone back in place. The mare held a piece of wood tightly between her teeth. The wooden stick was under such pressure that it almost looked like it would break any second. The pain was excruciating surely, but it didn't last long. A nasty knack was heard by everypony in the room; the bone of Sweetheart was finally back in place. Sweetheart let the piece of wood fall from her mouth; clear teeth marks could clearly seen on the saliva covered wooden body. Unable to hear anything the doctor was saying to Sweetheart, Tenderheart just saw him place her foreleg in a certain position surely telling her to hold it like that while he tied the sling around her neck in order to immobilize the injured joint. Sweetheart nodded and once the doctor was done she lowered her head and seemed to thank him. The doctor, a brown pony with curly brown hair just smiled and gave her the softest pat on her healthy shoulder before he apparently sent her home. It was quite obvious Sweetheart wouldn't be able to work under such conditions. The mare left the hospital hopping carefully towards the entrance, exchanging only a short glance with Tenderheart, who quickly looked away, once she noticed Sweetheart was looking at her too.
-What are you going to do about that?- the nurse taking care of Tenderheart asked softly while she carefully rotated Tenderheart's head to get to her wounded cheek and begin closing it. The blue mare remained silent, unable to answer the question. She didn't really quite now what to do. She and Sweetheart were really good friends, best friends even. To see the amount of damage they had done to each other was depressing, and to think about what could have possibly happened had they not been stopped in time was downright horrible. The hurt mare, sunk in her own thoughts and her problem with her friend, did not feel the needle pierce her skin, nor did she mind the tread pull the two pieces of flesh together. She just noticed a certain stiffness on the side of her face and a short pang of pain when she talked.
-Are you done already?- She asked -Yes.- replied the nurse. -Wow. It didn't even hurt.-
Tenderheart spoke little spirit while she looked down at the floor, depressed and without any ideas on how make things better again.
-Why don't you go and apologize to her?-
The blue mare looked up to the nurse, into her bright azure eyes. -I'm sure things will get better if you two talk about this. If you avoid each other you are just going to grow apart.-
Tenderheart understood what her co-worked was trying to say. If things remained like this, if she and Sweetheart turned the other way around each time their eyes met, one of them surely would ask to be transferred to another hospital in another town
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