It was night on the streets of Canterlot, many of the stores throughout the proud capital city were closed. Only a few food service and convenience stores still had their lights on at this hour, even if their employees were all half asleep. Besides the occasional law enforcement officer walking down the streetlight lit sidewalk and the sleepy night shift employee heading home, the city was all but dead.
But, there was one particular mare who trotted down the street at a relaxed pace and had a quaint smile on her lips as she made her way home. There was nothing unusual about a pony being happy about coming home after working their late night shift at work, especially if they were accustomed to being held back for hours on the drop of a hat, but something was wrong.
Now, it was not anything wrong about her ,specifically, walking home at night after work, but instead what wasn’t there, a chaperone.
Canterlot may have the rights to brag that it was one of the safest cities in Equestria, but good mothers still taught their daughters to never go out alone at night. There was just too much risk; danger that nopony would even want to leave up to chance of what could happen to a mare walking alone in the dark when the rest of the population slept.
But, that is what made this mare so peculiar, she was not from Equestria. She had left her home many years ago to live in a place that was supposed to be better than the failing infrastructure that her old country had become. Even if she moved, there were still a few things that she could not change from what her government had taught her while growing up.
In their society, there was no need to fear the night. They said that leaving your door unlocked was just as safe as if one had locked it. That a stranger was simply a person one had not met before. That everypony was to be a proactive member of society and the ones that were not acting as such were… relocated.
The mare kept walking, a slight smile across her face as she did so. In the old country, ignorance was bliss, bad things happen to bad ponies for a reason. She was the mother of three and the grandmother to two more, a supportive wife and a good citizen. Why would something bad happen to her? She had nothing to fear.
She walked her way across the fine white concrete sidewalks of Canterlot. She passed by the local park near her home as a cool breeze slipped through the playground and rocked the seats back and forth on the nearby swing set. It felt as if a cool mist of water hit her when the same breeze passed by, bouncing off her white uniform, but helpfully keeping her awake on her stroll home.
She walked to the correct intersection, turning down the right street, and walking down the row of houses until she finally found her own. The wrought iron safety gate opened and closed behind her, and she slipped up to the front door.
She reached for the knob and turned, but the door didn’t open. Puzzled, she looked at the door curiously. She was the last one to leave the house, it should have been unlocked. But then she saw it, a small piece of parchment hanging from the front window by a strip of tape.
Mom,
I came as soon as I got your message. I took Justice home with me when you didn’t show up.
I’ll walk him to school in the morning. Send a letter if you are still going to be needed at the hospital.
Love, Declaration.
The mother inside of her smiled with relief that her daughter had got the message that she sent earlier in the day. Thankful that she decided to pack her house key, she reached into her vest pocket. Her nose pushed past a few golden bits, but eventually found her house key. The door opened on finely oiled hinges as the white earth pony entered and closed the door behind her. She did not even think to lock the door.
The aging white mare with a pink mane walked through her home. In one way she felt lonely. She had been working almost all of the day tirelessly and she wanted to have some sort of interaction. Not between her coworkers, but something more… intimate, personal. It had not even been a minute, but she missed her son, she wanted to see her twin daughters, be greeted with joy by her granddaughters, or at least to see her husband again. But, the house was empty.
Yet, for as strange as it sounded, there was another side of her that somewhat rejoiced at the fact that there was nopony else in the house. For most of her days, she felt that she never had any privacy. At work she was always surrounded by the other mares, even though they were not necessarily friends, her husband and she would usually spend most of their free days together, but not necessarily doing anything too exciting. As shameful as she felt thinking about it, she felt as if she had been playing the role of mother for as long as she has lived in Equestria. But, then again, that is what happens when one has children almost two decades apart from each other.
The clock in the living room rang to remind her of the late hour that she had wandered home at. It wasn’t like she could go across the city to bring her son home; chances are he was already sleeping. That only left her to stop sulking and try to enjoy her short term freedom.
The homeowner walked into her kitchen and put some pre-sliced white bread- another thing that Equestria had over the old country. Back home, there was only one type of bread- into the toaster and slid the knob into place.
When the coils began to glow red, she turned around and made her way through her house, past the closed windows with drawn curtains and lamps that sat dormant. She bypassed the hall that lead to the rest of the house and instead to her own bedroom. By the door, a tall coatrack stood up in the corner and gladly held her white nurses uniform.
She walked around the bed, and into the master bathroom, swiping her hoof in the location of the magic candle that lit the tile floor of the room up in bright light. She closed the door behind her, and turned the shower on.
Waiting in the corner, she took a moment to marvel at another thing that always amazed her. She looked at the shower, but did not find this amazing anomaly over the fact that there was running water, but instead that it was so warm that steam was rising from it. It was wasteful! How many other would go hungry and starve to death in the street for one gluttonous slob to have a warm shower? When she first used the shower of her new home, she thought that the police were going to come and arrest her for being so selfish. Her teachers in school said that luxuries should be shared, not abused such as this. Citizens did not have a place to live, let alone warm running water! But, in Equestria, she had numerous things that a younger self would only think were reserved for royalty. Warm water, sliced bread, a whole house to one family, being “the enemy” was not as bad as she was lead to believe.
She shook her head. Equestria was no longer the enemy. That war ended years ago. Sure, she would remember the good times, think of the lessons that she learned and the things she could now take for granted while her children would not understand; but, she could not deny that her life was better “on the other side.”
A chill shook her spine with the next thought… the thoughts of what may have happened if she had not defected. She would no longer be Freedom Redheart, Residential Nurse at Canterlot Children’s hospital, mother of three and faithful wife. If she had stayed she would have probably been dead, a nameless body in the back of a wagon being carried off to the place where nobody returns, just another victim of the plague…..with two little ponies in her belly.
She awoke from her pondering as the steam began to cloud the mirror beside her. She stepped into the shower, threw her hair tie aside, and extended the shower curtain from wall to wall.
The warm water hit her bosom, causing her to moan with delight. She stepped forward and let the streams of water hit her higher on her neck until it met her scalp, flowing through her pink mane and bangs. There was no way to express how good that felt to her. Warm water had a magical way of relieving the stress of an emergency double shift.
She just stood for a moment, allowing the water to fill her open mouth and then overflow down her chest once more. She closed her eyes and allowed the constant rumble of the water distract her and take her away to a state of nirvana.
But, for as good as it felt, she should not have done that.
She should not have left her back to the door.
She should not have left the toaster running.
She should not have let herself be so easily distracted.
Just like she should not have left the front door to her house unlocked for the world to enter…
The bathroom door opened, slowly, silently, not a chance in the million that the pony using the shower could hear it open.
Through the mostly opaque sheet that was now even more clouded with steam, a shadow began to be casted against the shower curtain, the magic candle doing its best to try to warn the mare that she was no longer alone.
The mare spit out her water and began to move, trying to focus on other portions of her body.
From the shadow, a large knife began to rise slowly into the air…
Nurse Redheart turned her head, reaching into the shower caddy for her soap when she saw the-
“AAAHHHHHHH!” She pulled the curtain aside, reaching for the plunger to use as a club.
But then she got a better look at the shadow that was holding a knife right outside of her shower.
Heart racing at a mile a minute, she noticed that the intruder of her bathroom was not nearing the shower, but the closet beside it instead. Standing with a long clothesline of hangers and several garments being put away was a certain navy blue winged unicorn. His head was turned, studying the mare that was shielding her naked body with the curtain and had just screamed at him. He remained calm, turning his head back to the task before him, and put his large purple knife into its holster and then placed them on their correct hanger.
“You left the front door unlocked,” Was all he said.
Nurse Redheart, feeling as if she would be ending the night in the hospital, shouted out in her native tongue, “Peace! Вы сын сука! You almost gave me a heart attack!”
“sorry.” he replied, not pausing at all as he undressed.
Freedom lost her footing and sat down in the shower, her tingling skin ignoring the pleasantly warm rain around her. She gave a few breaths and finally began to calm down again. The door to the bathroom opened and closed again. And she could see that she was alone once again.
Most husbands would knock, enter with a bouquet of flowers, or greet their wives with a kiss… but not her husband. Yet, for as loyal, faithful, and a good stallion the father of her children was, those things meant almost nothing to him when he had prior business.
And that was what was so peculiar about her relationship to her husband. She did not necessarily know why, but she knew that, without a doubt, he loved her… but, to him, there was nothing wrong with sneaking into the bathroom and undressing with his newly made suit before he got it dirtied. He did absolutely everything she asked him to, but at the same time it was as if he was not a real pony.
It is what made her family somewhat different from the other of Canterlot. She could never truly gossip about how her husband’s antics got on her nerves, their children could not brag or bash about how great or poorly their father was when he gave them gifts or dealt punishments. It was awkward, strange, incomplete, difficult, and all sorts of other words that other Equestrian mares would not understand if she tried to use them. But… at the same time, they were still family.
“Well, Freedom.” She said to herself as she stood back up in the shower, “ If it’s so bad, then you shouldn’t have married him in the first place.”