Chapter Two

“Alright, we’ve got a pegasus male, approximately fifty years of age, suffering atmospheric hypoxia. The paramedics got him on oxygen and his safety bloods are on their way to the lab, his heart is thready but stable so please get the cart and keep it on standby. Oh manure, he’s arresting, GET THE CART” The matron barked, pushing your gurney through the doors of the busy ward. A red unicorn mare disappeared, appearing moments later with the ward crash cart.

“Nurse Dearheart, take over BLS, thirty to two. Tenderheart, apply oxygen.”

Two other nurses snap into action, one starting chest compressions, the other placing a bag attached to a mask over your muzzle. After thirty compressions, Tenderheart squeezes the bag twice, forcing oxygen to saturate your lungs. Still un-responsive, the matron places her head against your mouth, one hoof on your pulse.

“Okay, it’s a witnessed arrest, I’m going to administer a pericardial thump in three, two, one”

She brings both front hooves down on your sternum. Still no response.

“Nurse Brush, charge to three hundred. Dearheart, Tenderheart, continue BLS until she’s charged. Redheart, please prepare half a ml of one in a thousand of adrenaline, keep it on standby; find the GTN spray and prep that for use as well.”

The young red mare closes her eyes, crackles of electricity building within her horn. She nodded to the matron.

“Everypony clear, Miss Brush, when you’re ready!”

The ginger maned mare places her hooves on your chest, one on the upper right, another on your lower left side. There was a jarring sensation and she discharges, making your spine involuntarily arch and you take a deep gulp of oxygen after the mask was placed back on your face moments later. The pain in your chest eases and you see all five nurses visibly sigh with relief. As you lay there, the matron tells Nurse “Redheart” to stay by you until one of the doctors is able to assess your condition further.

Unable to speak, you simply watch her. She can see your eyes flicking around the room, and chatters to you as she tends to other patients on the ward. Settling down for a few minutes, she mentions a little about herself, being from a small town a fair distance away from Cloudsdale and that she had been on a rotation at the hospital in order to keep her skills in acute emergency management.

Eventually, the shock and trauma of what happened wore off of you, and you were able to converse with the mare. You found something about the earth pony fascinating, she was nothing like the usual fillies you met during your time with the Wonderbolts; highly strung and sexually crazed sports fans looking to bag themselves a celebrity. She revealed that many of the staff at the hospital were unicorns and earth ponies that had received a little magic allowing them to work within the cloud city; few pegasi having a gift for medicine had made this somewhat a necessity.

You were fairly certain that she was at least somewhere near your age, if not slightly your junior. Her white coat was impeccably clean as expected and worked well against her light pink mane, tied in a conservative looking bun behind her head. You noticed her eyes were the same colour as your own, a gentle blue-gray colour surrounding her pupils.

“So, is there a Mr. Redheart?” you ask her when she stops by the bed again, your voice still slightly weak.

“No, there isn’t.” she replied, blushing gently.

“Well, would you be interested in dinner some time? I know this great little place in Cloudsdale,” you begin before being cut off.

“I’m sorry, I really am, but we’re not allowed to date patients.” the mare responded, looking into your eyes as she said it.

Slightly crushed, you changed the conversation, asking more about things such as hobbies, moving on to discuss how the life of a Wonderbolt member compared to being a nurse. She didn’t seem too fond of celebrity culture, something that the two of you had in common, and you readily agreed that nurses deserved more money for the hours they put into their profession - revealing that a fair chunk of your salary went towards a foundation providing clean drinking water and medical help to homeless foals in Zebrica. The pair of you continued talking to each other for a good hour or so longer, enjoying the company, when a doctor appeared to give you a brief look over.

You’re somewhat saddened when he gives you a clean bill of health, but thank Nurse Redheart for having kept you company and trot out of the hospital un-aided. Thinking about the experience, you decide that maybe travelling to insane altitudes wouldn’t be that great an idea to try again and make a mental note of it. Thinking about the nurse who had been talking to you - you couldn’t get her out of your head, she had been the first mare to have ever turned you down, but at least that was because you were her patient...

Then it hit you. You had been her patient. You weren’t now.

Grinning, you take flight and flap around trying to find a florist you was still open. You had spent a fair amount of time in the hospital before your discharge; it was now nine in the evening and you doubted you’d be able to find anywhere still selling flowers. Dejected, you end up flying back to your own home, planning to find somewhere tomorrow and then go to find the pretty nurse.

Next Chapter: Chapter 3 Estimated time remaining: 23 Minutes