Chapter 3
Redheart trailed off, and her red-rimmed blue eyes stared at her husband. She shook her head and looked around the kitchen, then back to him.
AP leaned forward and hugged her, a desperate bear hug, and she huffed as the air left her lungs. She hugged him back as he rubbed his hooves up-and-down her withers. “My love…” he whispered into her ear.
He released her, took her hoof that had been torn apart by a caltrop between his, and kissed the scar softly.
"The Guard is darn good at treating infections," she said. "Amazing potions, and any doctor they want. A surgeon with a soft-tissue spell got flown in from Las Pegasus, on the Crown's bit. And the rumor..."
"Rumor?" AP asked.
"That bag of whole blood I didn't need. Well, there are old mare's tales about alicorn blood's healing abilities... I was back on my hooves in four weeks, and fit to fight in nine."
"What happened to the other prisoners? To the mercenaries?"
"While I was flat on my back, Celestia's Own and the Mountain Battalion broke them."
AP frowned. "Mountain Battalion? Those are the batponies?"
"It has ponies, too, but yes, mostly."
"What happened?"
"Batponies know caves. One night, they found a back entrance to the cavern the prisoners were in and snuck them out. Celestia's Own hit the camp at dawn. Most of them were taken prisoner, which… well, I’m glad they weren’t killed."
"What were the mercenaries even doing?" AP asked.
Redheart smiled. "They had no idea, they just knew they were getting paid to make ponies homeless. We had no idea who or why, at that time. ...I have some theories now. I think it was all related to... hrmm... better not say. That leads to the parts of the story I’m not allowed to tell."
"What happened to you?"
Redheart's face darkened and her jaw worked, as if she was thinking about spitting on the floor. "Lieutenant Armor—he got his commission—and Major Blueblood, the Battalion's deputy commander, all visited the hospital. Princess Cadance was with them. Major Blueblood gave me my Combat Action Badge and the Medic's Star, my POW badge, and my first Wounded in Action badge, and..."
Redheart glared.
"And?"
"And a—" she paused, then her voice turned harsh: "They also brought along a newspaper photographer."
AP raised an eyebrow.
"I looked bad. Gray, sick, thin, sunken cheeks, disheveled mane, black eyes, stuck full of needles. My hometown newspaper ran the picture. My parents and little brothers found it on their doorstep one morning."
"Why... why would they do that to you?"
Redheart shrugged. "It burned my flank at the time. I was furious. Princess Cadance herself was younger than even me, maybe seventeen, eighteen? Celestia wanted Equestria to accept the new Princess. My story gave Celestia a chance to tell everypony how Cadance had gone, unarmed and alone, into the raiders' redoubt to parley for a single wounded pony's life. I understand it was necessary. I just wish they'd found a different pawn."
AP looked at his wife's expression and tapped his hoof on the table, trying to think of a subject change. "What happened to Spring Thunder?"
"I heard he walked upriver for three days, and reported that I'd been captured. Princess Cadance, who was at the command post, was able to track me... somehow. Alicorns get vague when they talk about their magic."
Redheart looked out the window. "Cadance got that bag of antibiotic potion in me just in time. She saved my life. I still resent that she accepted parole on my behalf, though."
He leaned close again and hugged her. "Thank you, love. Thank you for finally opening up."
"The worst part..." Redheart muttered.
He brushed her cheek with his feathers. "What?"
She shook, and cradled her head in her forehooves. The smell of her sweat filled the kitchen. "The letters from Mom n' Dad."
"Oh!"
"They knew I was in combat. The Guard hadn’t deployed in years, so the border raids were in the news. Everypony knew that Celestia's Own was down on the Southern Marches, fighting, taking casualties."
AP shook his head. "I can't imagine how they felt."
"There were a half-dozen kids from Whinnyapolis deployed, counting me. Mom and Dad flew a Blue Star flag in front of the house. The city flew six blue streamers on the flags at every government building. My kid brothers sewed blue stars onto their school bags."
"How old were your brothers?"
"Fourteen." She stood, set more coffee to brew, and sat back down. "The five other local kids were in Third Battalion, so the newspaper ran a blurb on me because I was the only Household trooper. Mom n' Dad gave them my graduation picture from medic's training. Being a medic and a good-looking young mare just made the story juicier." Redheart thunked her forehead onto the kitchen table. AP ran a wing down her spine and kissed her behind the ear.
She continued, her voice muffled against the table: "Well, after all that whoop-de-doo... the Colonel of the local Home Guard and Baroness Whinnyapolis knocked on their door. Mom later told me that Dad opened the door and just... collapsed. My brothers, they were just kids, but they understood exactly what was happening. They knew that having a Peer of the Realm on the front stoop couldn't mean good news."
"Sweet Luna..." AP hissed.
"The Baroness told them I was 'missing, last seen wounded.' Missing. Major Blueblood wrote them a note, Shining Armor wrote them a note, the skipper of the barge wrote them a note. Missing. What could be worse? I could have been dead in an arroyo, my bones never to be found, or swept down the river and out to sea, and I would still stay missing. And the worst part..."
She stood, poured more coffee, and took a few sips before sitting back down with the steaming mug.
AP wrapped Redheart's head in his wings, the feathers a warm blanket around her.
"The next week, the next stupid week, there's that same knock on the door. The Colonel and the Baroness again. Mom n' Dad figured..." Redheart cleared her throat. "But the Baroness told them I wasn't dead, I'd been captured but traded back because I was gravely wounded. Gravely wounded. Dad demanded to be taken to the hospital to visit me, but no civilians were allowed near the front. Every house on the block put out their Equestrian flags until I was out of the hospital. The city changed one of the six blue streamers to red. That picture of me, so sick, getting medals pinned on my pillow, well, that didn't help. Everpony figured...."
She sipped more coffee, thinking for several minutes before continuing. "I wrote a letter home the second day I was awake, to try to get them calmed down. But for the rest of my Guard stint... they said things like 'Come home safe to us' that they had never said before."
AP pulled her close and kissed the top of her snout.
She hugged him back, her forelegs around his neck. "I need a break."
"Sure, but you have to finish—"
“Help me clean the kitchen. We’ve got dishes to wash from breakfast.”
A little while later, they sat on the couch in the living room, and she leaned her head onto his shoulder.
"Thanks for loving me," she said. "There were some times, some days when the entire world seemed too dark to fight for. Having you, and the twins... it's like I can go back in time, and tell twenty-year-old me it was all worth it."
He kissed her nose.
"About four months after I was captured, about a month after I was cleared for duty, we were in our barracks in Canterlot when Celestia herself summoned the whole Battalion..."
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A bit of a call-forward towards The Ponies in the Caves, I see
Sigh. In another story, this would be the spotlight. Cadance's coming-of-age, the moment she comes into her own and becomes accepted, stepping out of her aunt's shadow, with Celestia's help. But life, as it were with its many threads, isn't just one person's story. Poor Redheart.
Redheart's somber tale this chapter paints a vivid image of what she felt and went through in the aftermath. But personally, I really liked the little gestures between the two of them, AP and Redheart. And while few in the world truly cared about the pony Cadance saved then, here, she's his entire world, and vice versa.
If I have to critique an otherwise lovely chapter, this seems too quick of a transition. But anyways, like I said, it was a nice breather of a chapter
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Welllllll..... in first draft, they adjourned to the bedroom.
Is Major Blueblood a prince by any chance or would this be a family member to our ahem "favorite prince"?
I don't know how one can have a civilian life when they have to constantly guard every word that comes out of their mouth lest they spill a "classified" tidbit of information. I'd probably burst, I mean I could keep a secret for say a surprise birthday party or gift well enough I suppose, but practically living a double life like Redheart, that's (excuse me) a horse of a different color.
I like how you show AP and Redheart's love in the quiet moments, the gentle touches, the just being there for one another.
As to this chapter, I kind of feel that it was a bit quick, like the previous two chapters, had a sort of tension to them, this one felt more like I don't know...like Redheart was speeding through this for some reason. I kind of feel that maybe this could be longer, or that this could be an intermission chapter if you will. Like, you could have Redheart do a quick summary of her stay in the hospital, then do most of the chapter about their lives in the present; foals, domestic issues, a nosy neighbor, unapologetic door-to-door sales ponies, the CMC causing havoc, etc. Then in the next chapter, you could have Redheart talk about her parents, maybe like to give AP a background on her growing up, her hopes, her dreams, why she joined the guard, etc.
I hope this helps, and I'm definitely invested in this story.
Oh, I'm glad he lived! I feared the worst after what Redheart ended on about him last time...
And as Sledge says, nice callback to The Ponies in the Caves.
I'm also glad Spring got out, for a moment I though he might have been killed. It's also neat that her playing distraction for him, got her and the rest of the prisoners saved. So yeah, she really earned those medals.
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Yes, Prince Blueblood as a younger stallion. Thank you very much for the comments, they are appreciated!
It doesn't change how heroic Redheart is either way, but it's still nice to hear the good things that happened because of her.
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It no doubt helps when most of the secrets relate to things you really don't want to talk about.
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Blue star as military emblem? Clever!
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Mostly as an allusion American readers might grasp instantly.
Nicely done! It clearly shows how she struggles to accept this all
So this was the same campaign with Major Dusky?
Are her brothers twins?
It would be polite if they had at least discussed the whole photograpgh with Redheart first. She may hvae accepted it as necessary if it was explained but doing so without her permission was very rude.
Hehe of course xD
ZZZZzzz...
:/