On Friday, the National Zoo’s female giant panda Mei Xiang gave birth to healthy panda cub, Butterstick II. While the new cub is reportedly doing great, looking “robust, fully formed and is a bright, healthy shade of pink,” the good news didn’t come without the bad this weekend.

Late Saturday, it was announced via the saddest press release you’ll ever read, that Mei Xiang gave birth to a second, stillborn panda cub. But before keepers realized that there was a second cub in the picture, there was a brief moment where “pure terror” struck the Zoo’s keepers, who thought it was Butterstick II that had died.

Talking to The Post, senior curator Brandie Smith says that when she and the other keepers first spotted the stillborn cub laying motionless on Mei Xiang’s belly, they experienced “five minutes of pure terror,” before they realized that the lifeless panda was actually a second stillborn cub.

“I know a lot of people that are very sad about the stillbirth of the second cub…but I have to say that [after] those moments of pure sorrow and panic, especially after last year, I have nothing but joy that we have one cub that is very healthy and doing well.”

After Mei Xiang’s second panda cub died unexpectedly just a week after it was born last year, I don’t think we can handle another panda-related tragedy. Stay healthy, Butterstick II. We need you.