A magic symphony

by Naroe_Clan

A frantic hospital

Nurse Redheart raised an eyebrow at the six mares in front of her. Fluttershy was visibly panicking, hiding behind Applejack's comforting hoof. Rarity and Pinkie Pie were off to the side muttering to each other. Rainbow Dash hovered over a stretcher which was held in a purple aura of magic, worriedly looking at it's occupant.

“Fell... from the sky?” Redheart repeated, pulling on her uniform.

Twilight gave a huff, but responded “Yes, fell from the sky. Right after Discord was petrified.”

Redheart nodded at that, hoping this would be one of the stranger patients she would have today. She looked around at Ponyville General Hospital rapidly getting back into operating order. Doctors, nurses and technicians ran every which way, checking stocks and equipment, making sure the reign of chaos that ended just half an hour ago wouldn't keep them from helping ponies.

Quickly discerning order out of the apparent lack of such, Redheart waved the mares to follow her towards a side door. She tapped the shoulder of a passing doctor, stating “121” as he turned to her. A quick nod came from the doctor before he continued on his task. Redheart marched towards the spassageway, seemingly ignoring the other rushing ponies around her.

Twilight levitated the stretcher to follow the nurse closely. The other Elements quickly followed close behind. Redheart lead the group through one wide doorway, down a short hallway and into an ordinary patient's room. She gestured to the bed in the room, saying “Put her down. Gently.” as she went to the machines off to the side, rolling them towards the bed.

The stretcher slowly lowered down next to the bed before Rainbow and Applejack gently lifted the small form resting on it over on top of the sheets.

Redheart looked down at the small filly laying on her side, her forest green fur matted down in more than a few places. Darker splotches of color along her flank hopefully just indicated natural coloring and not something else. That her left ear had a cut almost halfway through it, the raw skin on either side still bleeding indicated that the splotches would need to be seen to quickly before they worsened. Her silver mane was similarly discolored throughout, though the red stains showed much more obviously.

A grimace broke out on Redheart's face as she placed a few patches on the filly. She pressed a few buttons on the machinery as the room's door opened and the doctor from earlier came into the room. A terrible cacophony of noise came from the devices for a few moments, startling the Elements until Redheart gave a hard kick to one's side and the noise settled down into a rapid heartbeat and other varied beeps.

The six friends stood back a little from the two medical professionals rapidly assessing the filly, before Redheart roughly pushed past the mares, calling out into the hall some strange sequence of words before ducking back into the room. She looked at the group shuffling around awkwardly. She gave a silent sigh before telling them “Could you wait in the lobby? I promise we'll do our best, but we need the room.”

“Ah, yeah...ah guess we should” was the only verbal response, from Applejack. The six shuffled out of the room and back to the lobby. On the way, a few nurses ran past, pushing a heavy cart towards the room they just left. Rainbow Dash stared for a long time at the door before Rarity said “Come along dear. Let them do their work.” and she turned back with a shake of her head, rushing to catch up.

---

Several hours later, Rainbow Dash sat in the lobby, lost in thought. Her friends had all left earlier, having their own duties to attend to.

“The...the animals are probably so scared. I-I-I should help them.”

“I need to talk to the mayor. And send a letter to the princess. And make sure Spike's okay. And...”

“Mah orchard might be havin' a bad time of it, and ah need to make sure Granny's not hurt.”

“The Cake's'll need me to help them bake treats to make sure everyone has smiles!”

“I can't trust that that rapscallion didn't destroy my dresses. Oh that would be the worst! I must check on them!”

Rainbow knew that all of them, even Rarity, had good reasons to go. Discord was a menace, who knows what long-term effects he could have. Some part of her knew that the Elements of Harmony would fix a lot of it, but some stuff would take a lot of time and effort to make right. The weather would need work, probably lots of it.

But whenever she thought about what she needed to do, her mind stayed fixed on a small crumpled form that had just fallen from above.

She'd never seen that filly before.

But she was hurt.

She'd gotten her to the hospital, right?

But she was hurt.

She had other ponies who needed her.

But she was hurt.

She could barely even keep her eyes open she was so tired.

But there was a hurt little filly who might need someone, so she stayed.

Quite a few other ponies had some into the hospital with small injuries. A cut there from a knife suddenly stopping being a conversationalist and falling on its 'drinking buddy'. A bruise over there from falling through formerly solid cotton candy clouds. Even a dislocated shoulder from something the pony whispered that made the nurse blush.

She hadn't caught a glimpse of nurse Redheart or that doctor.

But now the rush of ponies had quieted down and Rainbow sat almost alone in the darkening room, only the receptionist keeping her company. Not that he was much company. Rainbow had tried starting a conversation a few...dozen times, but noncommittal nonanswers were all she got at first, now the guy just looked straight ahead and ignored her.

She got to whistling tunes to pass the time, boredom as ever her enemy even while waiting for news on an injured little filly. And still no pony came to tell her anything.

She eventually lapsed into a worried silence, her brain spending its time coming up with worse and worse reasons why she was still in the dark.

Just as her tired brain almost convinced her to start worrying about the sudden onset of the zombie apocalypse, the side door opened startling a cry out of her. She rapidly looked around, noticing the receptionist giving her a weird look before spotting Redheart.

The nurse was wearing a new uniform and looked like she had just dried her hair after dunking it in a bucket of water. Her eyes had sunken into her face, bags underneath them already drooping. Her posture screamed that all she wanted was to go home and fall into her bed. But most importantly, she had a satisfied smile on her tired face, proud to have done good.

Redheart looked over the lobby twice before spotting Rainbow and slowly making her way over. “That filly is very, very lucky that you got her here as soon as you did.” was the first thing she said.

“Yeah?” was Rainbows only response.

Redheart's smile faded a little as she just said “She was hurt bad. Very bad. But she'll be okay now. You should head home, we'll tell you and your friends more tomorrow.”

“Yeah, yeah I'll do that.” Rainbow tiredly stated before floating out the door into the night.

The receptionist looked over some of the papers in front of him before asking “Did you forget some of the report?”

Redheart looked over at him with a frown on her face. “No, I'll tell her when both of our brains are working.”

She walked towards the back room. As she passed him, he said “Permanent crippling injuries are generally the sort of thing you don't wait to mention you know.”

A sigh and an “I know.” were the only response as Redheart slipped past to gather her things.