This summer was Ponyville’s first annual blood drive, taking place in Sugar Cube Corner.
With the rise in accidents and threats to Equestria since Nightmare Moon’s return, Nurse Redheart and Doctor Stable agreed that it would be better to be safe than sorry and began reaching out to the community to donate blood to ensure the hospital had a steady supply.
To their surprise, a large number of the town’s citizens jumped at the chance to donate. Applejack and Rainbow Dash, the town’s greatest and most competitive athletes had actually made a competition over who could donate more blood. It had gotten to the point where Nurse Redheart had to insist that they stop for their own well-being.
Pinkie Pie had worked with Mr. and Mrs. Cake to bake a large amount specialized cookies for the drive with decorative frosting in the form of a red cross with four pink hearts-one between each line. The cookies were free for anyone who donated. Pinkie Pie had also volunteered to be the first to donate.
Fluttershy stood in line behind Rarity and Twilight, shaking violently.
“Fluttershy, are you alright?” Rarity asked, concerned.
“I-I don’t, I….” she stuttered.
“Are you feeling nervous?” Twilight asked, looking back at her.
She nodded weakly, with a whimper.
“You do know that you don’t have to do this?” Rarity asked. “This is purely a charity event; no one would blame you for not wanting to go through with it.”
Rarity herself would typically consider something like this a disgusting or uncouth, like in those silly horror movies. So she could understand why the prospect may seem terrifying to some. The only difference for her deciding to donate was that this was for a good cause with the potential to save lives.
“I-it’s not that I don’t want to donate…” Fluttershy replied, “It’s just that I’m scared of how it’s done…”
Twilight herself, had once had her blood drawn as a filly before being enrolled in Celestia’s school for gifted Unicorns, but she was more fascinated with the medical procedure than horrified.
“You don’t have to worry, Nurse Redheart is a professional.” Twilight assured her. “You’ll be asked about your medical history to see if you have any blood diseases, obviously-but, in addition to making sure your blood is safe to donate, she’s also making sure you’re safe from complications.”
“C-complications?” Fluttershy stammered.
“I’m sure you’ll be perfectly fine.” Rarity cut back in. “As Twilight said; Nurse Redheart is a professional and she always takes the utmost care of her patients.”
“What’s goin’ on?” Applejack asked.
The trio turned to see her and Rainbow Dash, both with a bandage over their forelegs.
Pinkie Pie jumped between the two athletes.
“Fluttershy’s afraid of having her blood taken, so Twilight and Rarity are trying to cheer her up.”
“It’s the needle, isn’t it?” Applejack asked softly.
Fluttershy nodded weakly.
“Well, it doesn’t hurt that much…” Dash tried comforting her.
“Maybe not to you and Applejack, but you’re both athletes with higher pain tolerances than the rest of us.” Twilight replied, matter-of-factly.
“Ooh! Ooh!” Pinkie bounced up and down as a thought occurred to her. “What if you try thinking about how happy whoever gets your blood is going to be?”
“Yeah!” Dash added. “I wonder who’ll be lucky enough to get my blood…I totally would’ve given more if Redheart let me…”
“Well, you do need time to recover.” Twilight pointed out.
“You do know that you don’t necessarily have to watch the process while you donate?” Rarity asked. “I mean, I certainly won’t when my turn comes.”
“And we will be here for you, so you don’t have to do this alone.” Applejack offered.
“Um, thanks girls…” Fluttershy replied.
As the line moved up, Twilight sat in the chair next to Nurse Redheart’s set-up.
“So…do you know which leg you’re going to be donating with?” Dash asked Fluttershy.
“Which…leg?”
Rainbow Dash held her bandaged foreleg up to show her.
“Nurse Redheart asked which leg I usually donate with, but it didn’t really matter, since I only really need my hind legs and my wings for most of my job.”
“Actually, the reason she asked that is because they want to make sure they know which veins are best to draw blood from.” Applejack corrected her.
“H-how do they find that out?”
“Well, I ain’t really sure about all the technical aspects…Nurse Redheart examined both my legs and then decided which one would be best to use” Applejack admitted. “But, I’m sure she can tell you how it’s done when it’s your turn.”
Twilight rejoined the group as Rarity took her place in the seat.
“So, where’s Spike?” Dash asked.
“Back at the library,” Twilight replied. “He’s a little too young to give blood and I don’t think dragon blood would be very compatible with equine anatomy…”
She then turned to Applejack.
“That reminds me; will Sweet Apple Acres be okay without your help for a while?”
“Yeah, Granny said it would be okay for me and Big Mac to take a while off for this event-bein’ for a good cause and all…”
Fluttershy’s began feeling dizzy as her heart sped up, the sound of her friend’s voices fading to incomprehensible murmurs. Rarity was donating now, which meant that she would be next. Why did this have to be so hard? Why couldn’t she be as brave as the rest of them?
To her horror, Rarity had already finished donating. How could she be finished already? The grip of panic tightened on Fluttershy as her anxiety spiked. What if there was something wrong with her blood? What if Nurse Redheart made a mistake and she ended up in the hospital? What if-
Her thoughts were cut off as Nurse Redheart spoke up, “Next?”
Slowly, Fluttershy felt her body begin to move forward as if it had a mind of its own. Her hooves felt like they were made of lead. As she approached Nurse Redheart, she kept trying to tell herself that she was a medical professional who wouldn’t let anything happen to her. But, at the same time, she was painfully aware of the fact that everyone makes mistakes and desperately hoped that this wouldn’t be one of those times.
Falling entered the small curtained area before falling into the seat and looked up at the other mare anxiously.
“Is this your first time giving blood?” Redheart asked.
She nodded, weakly.
“Well, the first thing we’re going to do is check your iron, blood pressure, and your pulse.” Redheart informed as Doctor Stable levitated a small object she couldn’t quite make out.
“Now, you’re going to feel a small prick.” He warned her as she squeezed her eyes shut.
To her surprise, resulting sensation near her hoof barely felt any worse than a mosquito bite.
“Good job, that takes care of the iron sample.” Stable commented before levitating the sphygmomanometer and wrapped the cuff around her foreleg and began pumping it up.
“Have you ever been outside of Equestria?” Redheart asked, with a small clipboard next to her with boxes to be checked off.
“Um, no…”
“Have you ever been advised not to give blood?”
“No…”
“Do you currently, or have you ever suffered from any kind of blood disorder?”
“No, I don’t think so…”
The questionnaire went on in this manner until Redheart reached the end.
“Okay, everything looks good so far...” Doctor Stable commented, taking a small, folded towel to place under Fluttershy’s foreleg.
“Now, what we’re going to need you to do is flex your hoof as the Doctor pumps up the cuff again, so we can tell which vein is the best to donate with.” Redheart instructed her.
After she complied, Stable informed her that she could relax before taking a swab with covered in a yellowish-brown substance and smearing it of the site of the vein.
“I don’t think you drink or smoke, but if you do smoke, then it is advised that you do not smoke for half an hour.” Redheart warned her. “A single alcoholic beverage will also be the equivalent of two, should you decide to drink. Absolutely no heavy lifting and it is recommended that you drink lots of fluids.”
Knowing how nervous Fluttershy must have been, Redheart pushed some papers in front of her as Doctor Stable began inserting the needle into her vein.
“Um, what’s that?” Fluttershy asked, confused after wincing from the small amount of pain from the needle being inserted.
“This is all of the information from this donation; the things we checked out earlier-your blood pressure and your iron count for today.” She replied.
“Every forty seconds I want you to flex your hoof again to make a sort of ‘squeezing’ sensation.” Doctor Stable instructed her. “The process should only take about five to ten minutes…”
“So, how are you feeling?” Redheart asked.
“Um, I was really nervous earlier, but now I don’t feel too bad…”
“Yeah, the first time’s always the scariest.” She replied. “You’re doing very well; we’ve had a few donors actually pass out today.”
“Oh my…were they alright?”
“They were fine; it’s just one of those things that can happen.” Redheart elaborated. “So, when we’re done here, you should probably just stay in the building for another ten to fifteen minutes so we can make sure you’re alright before letting continue on with your day.”
“I could also see that your friends were with you…”
“Um, yeah…they’re very worried about me.” She replied. “They know how nervous I am about this…”
“Well, as I’ve said earlier you’re doing fine and your almost done…just a few more minutes.”
“Were the cookies your idea?” Fluttershy asked.
“I’m sorry?”
“The cookies for everyone who is donating…were they your idea? They have the same design as your Cutie Mark.” She pointed out.
“Having a snack for the donors were something I found to be a necessity,” Redheart replied. “But, the design itself was all Pinkie Pie’s idea.”
“What about Doctor Stable?”
“I’m really just here to keep things sanitized.” He replied. “One of the benefits of being a Unicorn M.D. is that you don’t have to do things with your mouth all the time-Nurse Redheart is more than competent enough to do all of this herself, it’s just the health concerns of setting all of this up orally are why I’m needed.”
“And it looks like you are just about done.” He commented, removing the needle and placing a strip-like bandage over the area similar to the ones the rest of her friends were wearing earlier.
“Now, if after you go home and you begin to feel faint, you should lie down immediately with your legs elevated.” Nurse Redheart added as she slowly stood up. “If that happens and the feeling doesn’t go away, don’t be afraid to come back to us and we’ll help you out.”
As Fluttershy exited the area, all of her friends were standing in a group, waiting to greet her.
“Hey, Fluttershy!” Pinkie exclaimed waving a plate of cookies in front of her. “Look what I got for you; num-nums!”
“Those cookies are supposed to be for everyone.” Redheart reminded her.
“Um, thank you…” she replied before taking one.
“Now, it wasn’t all that bad-was it?” Applejack asked.
“Actually, no…it wasn’t.” Fluttershy realized, cheering up a bit.
“How does it feeling know your bravery has helped save lives?” Rarity pressed.
“Pretty good…”
“Do you think you’ll be donating again?” Twilight asked, cautiously.
“You know what? I think I will…”
