//------------------------------// // Chapter 3 - "A Knight's Tale" // Story: Married to Her Job, Single in Her Heart // by Revenant Wings //------------------------------// 3. Once at home, Redheart deposited the saddlebags in her bedroom and pulled out the little red book. She gazed at it for a long while, wondering about the reason why she had gravitated to that book in particular even though she hadn’t gone there for something that she would consider as light and fluffy for reading. Even with her being a mare focused on her work, Redheart sat on the couch, opened up A Knight’s Tale and began to read. It started out simple enough. There was a unicorn knight of Celestia’s guard who was strong, powerful, and brave. He loved to go out on adventures and soon became known as a great adventurer as well as a knight. The stallion loved to go out and wander the roads of Equestria to find new treasures and places to explore for his princess. He took on all sorts of quests and soon became famous. The stallion eventually took on a quest that had him rescue a young mare from the clutches of a dragon. So stereotypical, Redheart thought to herself, yet to her surprise she kept on reading. The stallion climbed a mountain and soon found himself at the cave where the dragon lived. He armed himself with his best weapons and magic and entered the dragon’s lair. The stallion fought valiantly, but it was soon found that no armor or magic could pierce the dragon’s skin. So the stallion decided to trick the dragon. It wasn’t long before he used his magic to distract the dragon while the mare ran around it and the stallion was able to take her to safety. Afterwards, the stallion took the mare back to the city where she lived, much to the happiness of the mare and her family. The stallion, tired from his journeys, stayed with the mare for a few days. The stallion and the mare began to get to know each other. After a few days, the stallion decided he was getting restless again. The mare pleaded with him to stay, but the stallion shut himself away from her, believing that his true calling was adventuring. Redheart felt sympathy for the stallion, feeling the same sort of longing that the stallion had with her own work. But the last few pages contained an odd stinger. The stallion ventured off and eventually took another quest as he enjoyed doing. While he was on that quest, the stallion was attacked by a group of rogues who he was searching for. However, the stallion eventually became swarmed by the rogues and was mortally wounded. In his last moments, he thought of the mare and how staying with her would have saved his life. He ended up dying alone and restless in spirit. “What a stupid ending!” Redheart said as she threw the book across the room, causing a dull thud against the wall. The book fell to the floor and some of the pages were bent in the resulting fall. Redheart did not feel sorry about it at all and left the book there as she went to the kitchen, feeling hungry and thirsty. A quick look of the time revealed why: Redheart looked with astonishment at the clock in the kitchen and saw it to be nearly six o’clock in the evening. Had she really read that entire book in one sitting? It was certainly plausible with how short the book had been, but Redheart didn’t believe it. She soon pushed the book out of her memory with a sniff, hoping she wasn’t coming down with a cold as she started to make herself soup for dinner. Dinner was nearly finished when Redheart heard a knock at her door. Redheart assumed it was the landlord wanting to know when his pay was coming in and left her soup in the pot as she went over to the door with an annoyed sigh. The knocking came again. “I’m coming!” Redheart said impatiently. When Redheart opened the door, she found herself gasping at the sight. In front of her was Twilight, looking like the unicorn she remembered but with a little pair of wings folded neatly at either side of her. While she was initially smiling, Redheart quickly saw her turn embarrassed. “I’m so sorry, Nurse Redheart,” Twilight said. “Are you in the middle of something?” “No,” Redheart said. “I… I thought you were my landlord looking to collect payment. I didn’t mean to be so irritated with you, Twilight. Is there something you wanted?” “Well, I remember you saying earlier today at the library that you were off work this week.” Twilight’s face returned to a friendly smile. “I was wondering if you wanted to come out to the park with me and a few of my friends for a picnic the day after tomorrow since you had the day off.” Redheart raised an eyebrow. “Um… thank you, but why?” “Well, I’ve seen you around town and have had to work with you on a few occasions. There was the time with the bad muffins,” Twilight listed, counting off the items with the feathers on her wings, “the time when Rainbow Dash broke her wing, Cup Cake and Carrot Cake’s twins, and most recently the whole ordeal with my freaking out over a version of me that came from the future. But, despite all that, I never really got to know you.” “Well, that’s all fine, but why would you want to get to know me? I’m just a nurse pony, and all the times you’ve seen me has been what I do normally: work with the rest of the hospital staff. Besides that, I don’t know what else there is to know.” “Well, the main reason I was allowed to stay here in Ponyville was to study the magic of friendship,” Twilight said. “One of the ways I figured I could do that was to make friends outside the Elements of Harmony and learn more about the ponies around here. Well… for all intents and purposes, you’re one of the ones I hardly know or interact with.” “That’s flattering, Twilight, but I’m not exactly interested. I, as of right now, would prefer to just stay inside and not worry about any sort of thing like that right now. I’ll probably just want to take some notes and keep myself working since it’s going to be a long week. Maybe later.” “Oh…” Twilight seemed disappointed. Redheart could not figure out why to save her life, despite all her times being able to read patient conditions and emotions. “Well… are you okay?” Redheart looked at her questioningly. “What do you mean?” “Well, your eyes are all red like they’re irritated. Are you sick or something?” “What? No. I’ve probably just been sitting in front of a fan for too long.” Twilight raised an eyebrow suspiciously, but soon shrugged. “Well, I guess I’ll see you around, then.” “You too, Twilight Sparkle,” Redheart said. She watched as Twilight turned around and left, then shut the door. The soup was still trying to come to a boil, so Redheart decided to go to the bathroom to see what Twilight was talking about. She looked into the mirror and was surprised to see that Twilight was correct, in addition to a small wet trail going from her eyes and down to her nose. She gawked at her own image, wondering where that could have come from. Her thoughts were only broken by the sounds of the pot of soup boiling in the kitchen.