Chapter 7
"My lung was punctured by one of the broken ribs," Redheart said. She glared at her mug, the hot chocolate now cold. Savoir Fare had left them alone in the back of the restaurant after delivering their meal over an hour before. "The numbness, the adrenaline from the scrap... I had no idea until after I cried it out. They evacuated me to a ship to recuperate, but I spent more time with a psychologist than the doctors. I just—I mean—I can't—I never, ever imagined I would take lives, instead of saving them, or losing them despite trying.”
AP ground his teeth, not knowing what to say.
"Three, four weeks later, two days before Hearth's Warming... well, I can't tell you about that. All I can say is, after that, I got that stupid medal and eight months in the hospital, then a discharge. I requested to stay in the reserves. I went to college, I met you..." Redheart shrugged, then smiled at AP. Her voice turned from icy to warm, and she reached to touch his hoof. "Well, you know the rest of the story."
"Now I'm beginning to wonder if I really do."
Redheart chuckled. "The Canterlot Home Guard is accustomed to having ex-regulars transfer in when they show up as freshmares at the University. But even they weren't quite sure what to think about a wounded ex-Household medic with the Cross and a top-secret citation. Their Colonel read my file, my real file, and... well..."
He reached out, and grabbed her right forehoof between both of his. "Why did you want to stay in the reserves?" AP said.
Redheart tapped her other hoof on the table. "Because I'm good at it. That disaster with the diamond dogs last summer, I saved three troopers' and a half-dozen prisoners' lives. You saw Cloudchaser out in the café's front dining room. She'll never walk without that knee brace again, not in her life—but she's alive. My cutie mark won't let me not do this."
"Last summer..." AP grumped, shuffling his wings. "You got a fresh batch of nightmares for your effort."
She nodded. "Yes. I did. And it was worth it. We saved four fillies. Equestria is worth it. I've been up close with Princess Cadance, Princess Twilight, and Princess... um... yeeeeeeeah... when the spells are flying and the blood is spilling. I believe in them. In what they stand for. I'm proud to have stood next to them. To have bled with them."
The remains of the meal were cold, and AP winged out a few bits to pay the check.
"Leave Savoir Fare a good tip," Redheart said. "We've been here for at least an extra hour."
They walked out into Ponyville's late afternoon. High clouds covered the sun, and a few snowflakes swirled. Their breath fogged.
Redheart stuck out her tongue, caught a snowflake, and laughed. "I need to teach that to the twins."
AP looked up at the clock on town hall. "Let's go get them. My brother probably needs a break."
He started to turn in the direction of Warm Front's apartment, but Redheart grabbed AP's scarf in her teeth. "Stahp," she said, then spit out the fabric. "Stop. Wait."
He cocked his head and looked at her. Wind ruffled his feathers.
"I can't tell you the fourth story. Understand? Don't ask."
"I don't understand," he said. "The whole expedition was in the newspapers."
She shook her head. "Details. There are details that remain secret. And I nearly bled out into the dirt underneath one of those details."
"Please?" he said.
Redheart shook her head, her eyes darkening as she remembered something from her distant past. "No. Because I love you... I don't want to hit you with something ponies weren't meant to know. It's bad enough that I remember."
"I've seen your X-rays," AP said. "In the drawer, under your Home Guard uniforms. Half your right hip is metal and screws and plates. I can feel the scars when we make love. You limp in winter weather."
"They didn't think I would live, to be honest."
"I'm glad they were wrong."
They kissed. The Cutie Mark Crusaders, bundled up warmly and trotting past on their own business, cheered for them. Redheart grinned at them and bowed.
"We'll get y'all some mistletoe," Apple Bloom called.
Redheart kissed her husband again, very deeply, then smirked at the CMCs. "We've been married nine years. We don't need mistletoe!"
As the Crusaders trotted off, AP pointed at Apple Bloom and whispered, "That filly's alive because of you."
Redheart nodded and gave a little smile. "That was a good day. A day to be proud of."
"Do you still keep up with your tally?"
Redheart frowned, but nodded. “Yeah…”
"What is it?"
"As of today? Four hundred and twenty-three saved. Apple Bloom was life number four hundred and nineteen. Two hundred and two lost." Redheart's face turned splotchy gray. "And... six killed."
AP didn't knock, he just opened the door to his younger brother's second-floor apartment. Warm Front, his fiancée, a batpony named Dusky, and the twins all sat on the floor, playing Candyland.
"Momma!" the twins shouted. Dandelion galloped to Redheart and she slammed headfirst into her forelegs. Contrail took two steps, buzzed his wings, and got just enough altitude to clasp his tiny forelegs around the tail of Redheart's scarf.
"Momma momma momma momma!" Dandelion shouted.
"Momma hi daddy momma momma momma momma momma!" Contrail shouted.
AP just looked at Dusky and Warm Front, grinned, and shrugged his wings.
"Aunt Dusky helped me get extra double more airborne today!" Contrail shouted. "I banged my head on the ceiling! Uncle Warmie got me 'n icepack!"
"Aunt Dusky did?" Redheart said with a smile.
The batpony blushed. Warm Front hid a laugh with his wing.
"Momma, how come you and I don't got wings?" Dandelion demanded.
Dusky cocked her head and looked at her red eyes. "You've had a bad day," the batpony said.
Redheart looked at Dusky and Warm Front. "I was telling AP old stories. Stories from... before we met, if you understand my meaning."
Dusky nodded her head. She wore a cinnabar-colored cape, which meant she would later be working the night shift as the cashier at Filthy Rich's Barnyard Bargains.
"I do understand," Dusky said. Although her day job was at Filthy Rich's store, she was, like Redheart, a wounded and decorated veteran of the Household Battalion. Presently a Home Guard Lieutenant Colonel, Dusky was the operations officer and third-in-command of Redheart's reserve unit, Fourteenth Battalion.
Dusky unconsciously flared her left wing, and scar tissue on the leathery membranes crinkled in the quiet room. "You okay, Redheart?"
Redheart plopped down to her bottom, grabbed a foal under each foreleg, and squeezed them to her chest, nuzzling their soft manes with her snout and cheeks. Her eyes closed, and a huge smile formed on her face as the twins fought to escape her crushing hug, gasping momma momma momma too tight momma daddy daddy help!
Redheart's purr filled the room and drove away the winter chill. "Yeah," Redheart whispered. "Right now? I. Am. Perfect!"
Two days later, on Hearth's Warming, the family woke up well before dawn and opened presents.
Redheart hugged the twins, put her nurse's cap in a saddlebag, donned her cold-weather jogging outfit, gave AP a kiss and ear-nibble, and headed for the door.
No matter the day of the year or the weather, Redheart always ran five laps around Ponyville—eight miles—before heading to work, taking a shower, donning her cap, and starting her shift. She might be approaching middle age, and her right hip might mostly be metal screws and plates, but she was a citizen-soldier of Their Equestrian Majesties' Home Guard, and Redheart always stayed fit to fight.
"Momma!" cried Dandelion.
"Momma!" cried Contrail.
"But it's Hearth's Warming!" the twins shouted.
Redheart lowered herself to her knees, going nose-to-nose with the preschoolers. "Even on a holiday, ponies still get hurt or sick. Somepony has to run the hospital today."
"I thought the doctors ran the hospital?" Contrail said.
"That's what we nurses want them to think. I'll be home by dinnertime. Aunt Dusky is cooking batpony green chile potatoes and blue cornbread for us for Hearth's Warming dinner. I bet it'll be amazing."
A new toboggan sat amongst the wrapping paper debris of Hearth's Warming. AP pointed a wing at the sled. "C'mon, you two. We'll get our warm clothes on and head to the park."
AP bundled the twins into their snowsuits. Redheart left the house and began her jog.
Any Ponyville resident was accustomed to seeing one alicorn. Princess Twilight spent as much time in town as she did in her castle.
But three alicorns? That wasn't a common sight.
In Ponyville Park, the twins clambered onto the toboggan and AP used its tow rope to flap it to the top of the hill. He watched the other group of ponies. Princess Twilight, Starlight Glimmer, Trixie, and Spike, he recognized. Princesses Cadance and Flurry Heart, and Prince Shining Armor, he knew from the newspaper.
AP’s ears flattened, seeing the young Lieutenant Armor from Redheart's tale, and imagining a young Cadance in blood-stained camouflage. He pushed the twins' sled with a forehoof, and it slid down the hill. They squealed as the toboggan accelerated downslope.
The Royals were helping Flurry Heart sled, too.
AP dragged the twins and the sled across the park, toward the other group. "Happy Hearth's Warming!" he called.
Twilight nodded and waved a hoof. "Mr. Payable, good morning! Happy Hearth's Warming!"
"Spike!" shouted the twins, abandoning the toboggan to tackle the dragon. Contrail flapped into the air and landed on Spike's head. They knocked him into the snow.
"Shiny, Cadance,” Twilight said, “please meet Accounts Payable. This is my brother, Shining Armor, and my sister-in-law, Cadance."
"A pleasure," Cadance said, extending a hoof and bumping with AP.
"Same!" Shining said with a hoof bump.
AP frowned. There was a faint scent of... pudding?... about them. Well, it was the holiday season. "Call me AP! Everypony but Princess Twilight does. I've heard a lot about you two."
"Have you now?" Cadance said with a giggle, then looked at Twilight. "From whom, I wonder?"
"Not her," AP said.
Cadance's head cocked, but the smile remained. "Oh?"
"Starlight, Trixie," AP said, his voice quiet, looking at his hooves. "Do you think you could play with the littles for a minute?"
Dandelion and Contrail looked at him, frowning. Contrail chided, "No grownup talk on Hearth's Warming!"
"It's important," AP said.
Starlight levitated up the toboggan and Flurry, and waved to the twins. "C'mon, I'll make it fun," and walked off. The twins, Trixie, and Spike scrambled after her.
"Thank you!" AP called.
"What's the matter?" Twilight asked, frowning.
He looked at Cadance and Shining. His face scrunched up and his ears wilted. AP closed his eyes. "You two know my wife."
"We know lots of ponies," Cadance said.
AP opened his eyes and looked at Cadance. "Redheart."
"Oh!" Cadance said, and the tall alicorn shrunk an inch or two, her face paling.
"Redheart?" Shining said. "That name takes me baaaack... I knew she lived in Ponyville, but I lost track of her when she graduated Canterlot University. Those... those two foals are hers?"
AP nodded. "Yup! She's the best mom in Equestria. Well—" he looked at Cadance “—present company excepted.”
Shining rubbed the back of his head. "I wondered if she would be able to have foals... after... well, you know."
"That's what I wanted to talk to you two about. I don't know. She told me the story up to the ridgeline with the night-vision potions, but she won't tell me what happened after that. She says it's a secret."
"What?" Twilight said.
Cadance went pale and ground her teeth. "That ridgeline... that accursed ridge... I haven't thought about that in years."
"Redheart gets pretty... dark... this time every year. But she won't tell me why."
Cadance sat down in the snow, and a single tear ran down her nose. "The few days before Hearth's Warming. Yeah. I get a bit dark, myself, some years."
Shining's face turned red. Through gritted teeth, he said, "This isn't really a Hearth's Warming story."
Twilight looked from AP, to Shining, to Cadance. "What are you three talking about?"
Shining said, "Remember the first time I wasn't home for Hearth's Warming?"
"Only sorta..." Twilight frowned. "I was still pretty small, and really deep into my studies. I wanted to skip that Hearth's Warming and spend it at the library."
"I was a thousand miles away from Equestria, aboard a hospital ship. I wasn't wounded, well, not badly, but half my platoon was, and a quarter of my platoon was dead."
"Oh!" Twilight said, frowning. "Wait. You were still a cadet! Why did you have a platoon?"
"I’d been commissioned early. And that's why," Shining looked across the park, at Starlight, Trixie, Spike, and the three foals. Laughter floated across the hills. "So that foals could laugh and play, without ever knowing what the dangers around Equestria were. It was so bad on that island..." Shining lowered his head and a tear rolled off his nose, into the snow.
"Shining got the Silver Shield," Cadance said, "for protecting Redheart, while Redheart saved her."
"Who's 'her?'" Twilight asked.
Cadance looked at Twilight, and raised an eyebrow.
"Oh!" Twilight gasped. "You can't mean—"
"Who is 'her?'" AP said.
Shining stomped in the snow. "Mom and Dad lied to you, Twily. I was in combat, not the academy. Redheart was under my command." Shining looked at AP. "Can you find a babysitter?"
"Yeah, my little brother and his fiancée. They're eating dinner with us and my parents tonight at my house."
"They're engaged?" Twilight said, flapping her wings and clapping her forehooves. "Excellent! Wonderful!"
AP grinned. "The twins are already calling her 'Aunt' Dusky."
Twilight gave a hoof-pump and a whispered "Yes!"
Cadance stood, and put a hoof on AP's shoulder. "Have a nice Hearth's Warming dinner, put your twins in bed, and then ask somepony to watch the house and keep an ear on them. Come to the castle at... eight-thirty?"
AP nodded. "Twins' bedtime is seven-thirty."
"I can give Redheart permission to break the secret to you," Shining said. "And if she refuses... we'll tell you the story. Cadance and I were both there."
AP gasped, then nodded his head. Flapping his wings and hovering, AP clasped Shining's forehoof between his and shook it. "Thank you!"
"Wrong," Shining said, his face twisting and his ears trembling. "Don't thank me. You'll be very sorry you heard this story."
Redheart leaned her head against AP's right wing as they walked across nighttime Ponyville. "A nightcap with the Princess? It'll be nice to see Twilight when there's not... unpleasantness..." Redheart's voice trailed off as she remembered the subterranean combat in the diamond dogs' warren, several months earlier.
"Oh, goodness!" Redheart said, her head jerking upright. "We didn't bring the princess a Hearth's Warming present. Or Spike! Did I tell you that Spike attended the CPR class I teach? He's a very good student. And anycreature with hands is... handy... to have around during CPR."
They trudged up the Castle's icy steps, salt and grit crunching under their boots. AP knocked.
Spike opened the door. "Nurse Redheart, Mr. AP! Happy Hearth's Warming! They're in the library. I'll walk you there."
Redheart glanced at AP. "Who is 'they?' I thought we were meeting Twilight."
They shucked their boots and walked down the hallway—which smelled rather like... pudding?—Spike jogging to keep ahead of the ponies. Spike opened the door and bowed Redheart and AP into the library.
Cadance and Shining stood, smiling.
Redheart's eyes went wide, and her tail tucked. She started backing up, and bumped her butt into the door Spike had already closed.
She glared at her husband, face red. She poked his nose with her right forehoof. "You sneaky son of—I told you to stop asking!"
Cadance trotted around and hugged Redheart. "I met your twins this morning! They're adorable. How are you? How have you been? It's been a decade!"
Redheart hung her head for a moment before returning Cadance's hug. "I've been great. Those two little monsters are the best thing in the world! Well, you know. I've seen your daughter in the newspaper. She's a cutie."
Cadance smiled. "Thank you."
Shining approached, and bumped hooves with Redheart. "I read the full classified after-action report about last summer. There are diamond dogs near the Empire, so we wanted the details. You did good."
"It was ugly," Redheart said, "but thanks to Twilight, no ponies died, and only three dogs. The important part was what Twilight did the next day."
Cadance and Shining looked at her. Twilight blushed and stared at her forehooves.
"Twilight’s opened trade with them," Redheart said. "They have two booths at the Ponyville farmers' market, where they trade their ores and gems for foodstuffs and manufactured goods. We treated their pups at the hospital when they had the distemper outbreak."
"And Redheart and the crew from the hospital go to their warren twice a month," Twilight said, "providing vaccinations, and medical and dental treatment. We'll admit two pups to the Friendship School next year. Those dogs will never raise a paw against a pony again."
Cadance nodded. "We need to do that in the Empire."
"You still did good," Shining said to Redheart. "You realize you're the only living pony with two Monarch's Thanks. And the first pony in over three centuries to earn five Medic's Stars."
"Don't remind me!" Redheart stomped to the table and dropped into a chair. "And it's called the Diarchs' Thanks now. The new ribbon is yellow and blue, and the metal interwoven gold and silver. It's actually very snazzy. My dress uniform looks like a ringmaster's with all the preposterous trim."
The others all sat down at the table. AP reached a wing out for Redheart, and she scooted a few inches farther away from him.
He pulled his wing back in and frowned.
"I understand you’re the supervisory nurse at Ponyville emergency room?" Cadance said.
Redheart nodded, then gave a little smile.
Shining chuckled. "Yeah. Cool in an emergency. That's you. There are a lot of ponies who would be dead without you." Shining looked straight at AP. "And that includes Princess Celestia."
AP's vision dimmed for a few seconds and his hearing took an odd, echoey timbre. "No. No. She's immortal."
"She's unaging," Cadance said. "But not immortal."
"You see now why this is a deep-black secret, AP?” Shining said. “Redheart, I'm giving you permission to tell him about the jungle. As Captain Emeritus, I have the authority."
"I—I—I don't want to tell him! I want to protect him! What would happen to Equestria if Celestia died? I don't want the stallion I love to have to think—"
The door opened and Spike came in, carrying a tray with five mugs, a pitcher of hot chocolate, and a bottle of amaretto.
Spike poured Redheart a mug of cocoa, and wiggled the liquor bottle, one eyebrow raised.
Redheart nodded, once, a sharp dip of her muzzle. "A light one." She glared at the polished tabletop.
Spike added a small shot of liquor, set the bottle down, and retreated from the library, closing the door behind him.
"He knows this will be a war story," Twilight said. "A literal war story. He also knows it's not for an adolescent's ears. He'll leave us alone, now."
Redheart sipped her drink, and then scooted back close to AP. She buried her face into his neck. "Honey... you'll be happier not knowing the truth."
"No. My wife is in pain. Every holiday season, you get dark. Tell me the story, and let me share your pain. Let me shine some light for you."
Twilight levitated up the cocoa and booze, and poured everypony else a drink.
Redheart's eyes went unfocused, and she started her story.
"I got a chest infection, from the broken ribs. They treated my chest aboard the ship, and treated my mental shock from the killings. First and Third battalion mopped up the pirates, stormed the fortress, and rescued the slaves. The pirates they captured told us where the pirate's actual home base was. Told us it contained more than a thousand captives. One thousand slaves! That... that couldn't be allowed. The depth of evil is... every one of us, the patients on the hospital ship, we wanted a piece of that action..."
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It's the little moments, like these, that convey a sense of life to it all
Redheart's insistence, AP's concern, their mutual love - and the Crusaders being cheery as always 
Personally, I forgot to mention that I thought it was odd that Apple Bloom didn't go and thank her personally, but the fact that she was the one to blurt out that they'll get them mistletoe ought to be enough, heh.
I see you're keeping consistency with For Better and For Worse
. Apart from that... Redheart carries a heavy burden, indeed.
The kids have a favourite now, do they?
I'm gonna take an aside to say that AP has been a lovely fellow throughout the entire story 
A cute moment, shadowed by a darker past. Much like what this chapter is to the next one...
Princess of Friendship, huzzah!
It's a nice detail that they would indeed update the ribbon's colours
. Naturally, this is my Luna bias talking so, heh 
All in all, one last calm before the storm, and another pleasant look into Redheart's life at peace - the children were a delight! The callbacks to The Ponies in the Cave are very much appreciated (I haven't given that one a detailed review
), and, naturally, everyone's got their own stories to tell! It's nice to see Dusky, happy and content, after all her trouble, and also to see Shining's cameraderie 
.
But now, into darkness we must go, one last time.
I think, given the next chapter, this perfectly summarises it. The big one.
I forgot the name of it, but does this mean Redheart has the combat T for all 4 princess's?
10300307
Happy endings! Happy endings for all!
...eventually.
It's better than an ent pun, at least...
Well, this'll be a very interesting story to hear. Twilight will have lots of questions too.
I wonder how Twilight never found out her brother was in combat. I mean, marrying Cadance put him firmly in the spotlight and I guess some of Shining's brothers in arms are more talkative than Redheart (although Equestrian tabloids might be in infancy and Twilight probably doesn't read classified military files for fun).
10304690
I assumed her OCD and borderline ASD, pre-Ponyville. That, and they just didn't tell her.
And we have the big secret - the one ordinary ponies couldn't be allowed to know. (Given what Celestia said before about her service record, I suspect this wasn't the first time - but the news media probably wasn't so much of a thing back then.)
It's never easy to tell. But it helps to get it off most of the time
The idea that Celestia could have been killed is probably so strictly classified that this is only the second time since Luna's return this has been talked about. The first time being when Luna was told of course.
Ouch... so 2 mor... harsh...
This must be getting pretty grim...