Upon hearing those last words, my heart seemed to skip a beat, and my eyes opened until they could open no farther. Looking at this strange stallion more closely, he did indeed resemble my every feature; from the color of my coat, to the length of my horn, to the very color of my eyes he looked exactly like me! It was like looking in a mirror..... a mirror of horrors, for I had never been more terrified in my life. The only thing he had that I didn't, appearance-wise, were war scars. Mother never mentioned anything to me about a twin. It was quite horrifying.
I just gazed at him for a very long time before I spoke my next words.
"If you're my twin brother... than why has Mother never mentioned anything about you?"
"I am unsure. I never knew Father as I grew up with Father. He was quite secretive about your existance as well."
We began to discuss life in our younger years and what we had missed doing as foals. He refused to tell me his name for some reason, and I still don't know it to this day. He told me of Father and his strange ways. When he inquired him about Mother, he would always seem to mutter strange things to himself without giving an answer, strange, unnatural riddles of some sort. Thinking back on it now, Mother was always the superstitious kind of pony. She would always go see seers for details on the future. Could it be possible that she was given a prediction that scared her causing her to separate my brother and I? I can think of no other reasonable explanation. I would worry about that later for as I continuously stared at him, images of Nurse Redheart began to show inside my head. I had no idea how long that medicine had put me to sleep. I began to wonder if she was okay for I feared for her safety around the other doctors around her that feared her. As thoughts of her raced in my head, the silence was broken when my brother spoke out.
"Hey!" My brother said, "What's that you got there?"
"Hm?" I reached around to see what could be near me, and pulled out the book I had grabbed from Nurse Redheart's shelf earlier. I finally had the chance to read the title. It read, "Honey & Sweetheart." On the cover was the same wedding photo that fell out of Nurse Redheart's diary. My heart began to sink. I presented it to my brother and his face lit up with a smile.
"Ah! You've found my wife and I's photo album! Have you seen any of the pictures yet?"
"Well no." I responded, "I fell asleep before I could even look at it."
He offered to show me a few of the photos. He sat at my bedside and we looked through the album, with each photo seen he told me a story of that moment in his seemingly perfect marriage; each story was more beautiful than the last and they both seemed very happy. I was slowly fighting back tears for I was both sad and happy. Happy because their marriage seemed like the perfect pony tale of the perfect marriage, sad because he seemed to bring Nurse Redheart a happiness I knew I could never even hope to equal.
"Wow." I said after a brief pause, "Your marriage is like a dream come true. Nurse Redheart is one lucky mare to have a stallion like you. It amazes me to see that you treat her so well."
My brother's smile faded after my short speech and he turned away from me. The tears in my eyes almost immediately dried up. Something was not right, and I had to know. I inquired about his sudden change in mood. He just said, "I'm not the stallion I once was." This phrase shocked, confused, and angered me all at the same time. What did he mean by that? What could have possibly made him say such a thing? I had to know!
"What do you mean?" I asked?
He looked at me again with a more serious expression.
"Eight years ago, one year after I was called for duty, I was setting up camp; It was a cold, windy night. When I had finished my part of the job, I noticed one of my squadmates, wearing a mask, and talking to somepony out of the corner of my eye. When I saw an enemy insignia on him, I immediately ran for them both. My squadmate bolted from the camp and I gave chase. Eventually I was able to tackle the traitor, and after a brief struggle I tore off the mask. What I saw was the last thing I expected to see, I saw a mare."
When he got to this part of the story, I could feel my blood pressure rise near it's boiling point. I missed most of the other parts because my thoughts were now focused on wringing his neck. I couldn't understand how he could think such a thing of anypony else when he has Nurse Redheart. I wanted to mangle him so bad. When my thoughts grew quiet, I was able to catch the last part of his story.
"So from that day forward we secretly met as often as we could and shared stories; also doing.... other... unmentionable things. Eventually, she told me that she was a spy who infiltrated our ranks, and always wore a mask claiming to have various appearance issues and diseases so others would stay away from her. I cared little for what she was, and cared more for who she was. I had felt a feeling I hadn't felt since I first saw Sweetheart. Soon after that..... she got pregnant. She is supposed to have her foal in a month or so and we had just been called to return to Equestria. I told her I had to return here so I could complete one task, than I would return to her."
My anger, at this point, was unimaginable. My head began to pound again, but I was mad enough to ignore it. Any ounce of awe and respect I had for him was now gone. I wanted to kill him. I wanted to make him pay dearly for his fidelity towards Nurse Redheart. I attempted to keep my cool as I simply asked him what his task was.
"To give Sweetheart a foal. I promised her that we would try endlessly that day, but I was called to duty so we couldn't. Once I fulfill my promise, i'm leaving to go back to her. She will never see me again and she will have the foal she always wanted."
That was where I drew the line.
"NO!!!" I shouted at him, "YOU WILL NOT LAY ONE, UNGRATEFUL, UNFAITHFUL, UNAPPRECIATIVE HOOF ON HER! SHE IS THE MOST KIND, SWEET PONY IN ALL OF EQUESTRIA & I LOVE HER! SHE DESERVES MUCH BETTER THAN YOU YOU UNGRATEFUL SCUMBAG! AS LONG AS I'M DRAWING BREATH, I PROMISE YOU SHE'S GOING TO KNOW ABOUT THIS & I WILL KILL YOU FOR THIS!"
I saw no reaction whatsoever from him. He kept a straight face through my whole rant. While I was catching my breath, he said, "Are you going to stop me? Do you think I don't know about your head injury? You're not going to stand in the way of this. Now I think it's time you took another looooong nap." He than grabbed the medicine Nurse Redheart left near my bed, grabbed my head and force fed me the contents of the bottle. The taste was horrible and nearly had me choking as my body tried to retch it up. When the entire bottle was emptied, he removed it from mt mouth and I started coughing. My brother laid me back on my bed, shushing me as he pushed the "Nurse" button on the side of my bed. There was so much medicine in my body, the effects were almost immediate. I quickly began to doze off once more. Before I could slumber, Nurse Redheart burst into the room to check on me as usual, but this time, my brother was standing in front of me blocking her view. I fought the medicine long enough to catch their conversation. She walked up to him and asked if he was okay.
"Yes Sweet- Umm.... Nurse Redheart. I'm fine." He responded covering up his was scars on his eye and rubbing them pretending to have a headache."
"Well... Okay honey, but why are you out of bed? Why are you fully clothed? Where are your head bandages? What-
Before she could get anymore suspicious, he grabbed her head, held her very close and kissed her deeply. Nurse Reheart blushed and closed her eyes as she held the kiss. My brother soon released the kiss.
"I'm feeling much better. I was on my way to see you. I just remembered my promise I made you before I left for the war, and I think it's time I kept it."
Nurse Redheart smiled,squealed, and immediately took his hoof & dragged him out of the room. When the door closed, I could fight the medicine no longer. My body would now be at war with it on it's own. I could feel my heartbeat slowing down and my breathing quell to a puff as thoughts of Nurse Redheart being hurt by my brother passed through my head. I felt helpless, he had won. I would never tell Nurse Redheart that there were two of us, and how I really felt about her. Even worse, she might have her foal, realize he left and end up killing me thinking I was him. I would be screwed either way. Suddenly, I heard a familiar voice in my head. It said, "Save me!" The voice kept repeating itself, and it got louder and louder with each phrase. The voice sounded like Nurse Redheart, but there was nothing around to make the noise. I suddenly awoke in my bed sweaty, and hyperventilating. I looked at the time, it hadn't been ten minutes since Nurse Redheart and my brother left the room. My body had did it's job & stopped the medicine's effect from putting me into a coma. To this day, I believe it was my immense desire to save Nurse Redheart from my brother that ultimately resulted in my rescue. After a minute to catch my breath, I jumped out of bed and started towards the door with one thought, one goal, one desire in my head:
"He is going to die!"