Trixie hummed a little tune as she tightened her grip on her gun. What tune? She didn't know, but it sounded nice. She flipped down her goggles and briefly scanned the outside. Nothing.

She sighed in relief and returned to the fire. Watch, finally over. After that firefight, digging, and a looooooooong watch, she relished the chance for rest.

She got to the campfire, now cold, and turned around to view the little village they were in. The few houses all led to one of the two crisscrossing central roads, which is where they had encamped. She faintly smiled as she imagined Unicorn families walking, foals frolicking... everything she missed at home. Shaking her head, she entered the tent of the next watch.

It was warm. Very warm. The inside felt more like twenty Celsius than the negative twenty of outside. After shaking the first stallion up, she stumbled out and into her tent, collapsing on the cot. She breathed into the pillow, hard. Her eyes closed, and she started to drift gently to sleep...

The cot to her right squeaked, as if somepony was getting up. She slowly turned her head to see a stallion laying down, wide awake and staring at her, and a mare halfway out the door. "Were you two-"

"Shhhh!" The stallion hissed. The mare left quickly, and the stallion shut the tent. "Just... shut up!"

"Why would I care anyways?" Trixie could tell she sounded delivered, or delirious, or dilapidated - whatever it was. She sounded bad.

"Because we were..." he blushed. "...doing that while deployed?!"

"You could fuck for all I care, as long as you're quiet..." Trixie turned around and immediately fell asleep.

Trixie awoke to a shrill bugle call. She quickly sat up and hopped onto her feet. She felt... refreshed, considering she had just 7 hours of sleep. She found both of the other ponies laying in the other cot. "Gooooood morning you two!"

"Morning," the stallion responded, clearly nervous. It was just then that Trixie noticed that the stallion had a horn, but the mare had the strap wings. The stallion gave a very unconvincing smile.

"Why are you so nervous...?" Trixie stared into his eyes. Maybe he's ashamed he's betraying his race...

"W-well... it's still a bit... taboo for interracial breeding..." The two other ponies got up and started to dress out.

Knew it! "Interesting..." Trixie quickly started to dress herself out, sliding into the kev-lar suit and slinging her rifle. "So, what is your name?"

"I'm Starry Barrow," the stallion said.

"And I'm-" the mare began.

"Did I ask for your name?" Trixie made sure her gaze was extra stern.

It seemed to work, as the mare visibly recoiled. "N-no..."

"Then don't give it," Trixie strapped on her helmet and walked out, receiving a harsh glare from the stallion. Good. Filthy race traitor.

The sergeant had everypony else in formation. "Supply truck in five, get ready to unload!" The unit saluted, ordered arms, then fell out to the tables that were set up overnight.

Trixie sat alone at one, smug. She had shown that stallion!

...right?

Her head held onto that word for all five minutes. Nothing with it, just the word. ...right?

Was she right?

Soon enough, the supply truck came in and interrupted her thoughts. Trixie gladly got up and started unloading some crates, marked "CONCRETE".

She barely noticed the driver getting out, but after half a minute Sarge approached her. "Trixie,"

"Yes?" She set the box down. "What is it,"

"You're going home. Pack up,"

Hearing a few murmurs, Trixie shrugged. "Ok," She got into the shotgun seat of the car and waited for the unpacking to finish. Her mind settled back on that damned word...

Soon enough, the driver got in. Trixie looked her over. Gray pegasus, eyes unaligned; typical pegasus derp. "What's your name,"

"I'm Derpy!" The pegasus started up the truck and pulled out of the parking lot. "And you?"

"Fitting name," Trixie snorted and looked away. "Stupid Pegasus,"

"Hey, that's not nice! And you looked good too..."

Trixie was, once again, flabbergasted. Another pony trying to hit on her... maybe she really was attractive? Even... pretty...?

She toyed with the thought in her mind for a while. Eventually, she asked "I... look good...?"

"I think so, but I can't see straight so what do I know!" The truck pulled up into the base, somewhere in the supply depot. "You can get out now!"

Trixie slowly got out of the vehicle and started trotting, probably towards the stairway. Was she pretty? Or was Derpy

"Hey thar sugarcube, let's'a go!" Trixie looked up to see AJ, or AG, whatever.

"To?"

"Starlight's room. Now c'mon!" AD led Trixie up the stairs, presumably to Starlight's room. Along the way she couldn't get that though out of her head. Was she... was she drugged or something? Normally she wouldn't pay any mind to this, but...

"We're here," Trixie nodded as she quietly entered the room. As she locked the door, she turned around to see Starlight, alone on the bed.

"I said, LEAVE ME ALONE TWI-" Starlight looked up to see Trixie. "Light..."

"Hope I'm no trouble...?"

"Trixie," Starlight patted the bed next to her. "Come, sit with me,"

Trixie obliged and sat down on the bed only to be immediately assaulted by a pair of forelegs.

"I... I missed you," There was a pang of sorrow in Starlight's voice.

"I can tell..." The fuck do I do?! Trixie awkwardly reached over and patted Starlight's mane.

Starlight flinched. "Sorry..."

"For...?" Weirdo...

"Flinching..."

"I... ok? Look, I don't know what I-"

A huge flash filled Trixie's vision, causing her to stumble back. When she opened her eyes, she found herself at Starlight's door.

"Ah expected that. Let's go,"

Trixie bit her lip furiously, studying the tactical map. "But I thought they couldn't produce that many tanks?" There were 147 tank figures,beach representing 50 or so, lined up directly towards Canterlot. "How did they..."

"Very good question," Twi responded. "But they have that many, so we have to adapt..."

"Ah still say we give satchels n gun emplacements to tha engineers," AJ interjected.

"If we dropped bombs, we'd take less casualties!" Dash snorted furiously.

"Ladies, we obviously need more Jaegers..." Rarity mused, referring to the Changeling troops with special clothing. They had one model, representing all 437 soldiers. "Our priority is still ponypower,"

"Food!" Pinkie said, voice laced with aggression. "We're running out and winter is around the corner!"

"I have an idea!" Trixie shot up her hoof. A dumb one maybe, but... The mares all turned to look at her. "So, that's cool doctrines you have there, but consider doing them all at once? Combined weapons or something?"

"That... that would take care of the tanks..." Twi tugged at her camo cap, clearly berating herself. "Yeah... so that's the tanks then. I want your wings scheduled ladies!"

"Yes ma'am!" Dash and AJ stood up, saluted, then jogged off.

"Now, any other brilliant ideas?"

"Well..." Trixie mused. "What's in the former city?"

The table froze. After a few seconds, Twi said "Corpses. Monsters. And more,"

"Disconcerting... well, were there disaster shelters?"

"Probably, why...?"

"Those would have MRGs, right?"

"MRGs?" Twi stared at Trixie, eye raised.

"MREs, sorry,"

Pinkie slammed the table. "Yes!" Within a blink, she was gone, hallway filled with the sound of thunder.

"Ok, so... ponypower,"

Trixie started biting her hoof. It was a common nervous habit. So, let's see... nighttime abductions? Robots? Cloning? Or...

"I have it!" Rarity shouted. As the mares turned to race her, she proposed "So, if we deal with the tanks in a non-lethal way, that's abductions waiting to happen..."

Twi quickly scribbled up an order and handed it to Rarity, who went racing after Dash. Twi then sighed and sat back down in her chair. "That's the large-scale issues dealt with..."

"Just Starlight left," Trixie quipped.

To her surprise, Twi responded with a completely serious and very grim "Yes..."

"Wait, that's an actual issue?"

"Trixie..." Twi sighed, clearly frustrated. "Lemme explain. She's never been 100% happy, right? But, ever since you got here and... had your initial conversation, she's been... absent from everything.

"The Supreme Commander. Has been absent. From everything. She's despondent. How do we fix this? What did you even do to her?"

Trixie very carefully considered her next words. "So... she showed me some old memories of us in love... and I made it... very clear i am not her lover anymore,"

Twi groaned and slumped forwards into her hooves. "So, heartbreak?"

"Yes ma'am,"

After a few seconds of frustration, Twi returned to her original posture. "Go, talk with her and figure this out. Fast,"

Trixie slowly pushed open this cursed door for the second time today. This time, she made herself pretty beforehand: she brushed her hair and wiped away the sweat. As she entered the room, she found the pink mare asleep with a pillow skewered on her horn. She whispered "Yikes," then moved onto the bed. Not really sure what to do, she just laid down next to the mare.

For the first time, she took a good look at Starlight. Her mane was purple, with little streaks of dark blue run throughout. Sorta cute. Her fur was indeed pink, and her cutie mark was

Starlight's head shifted onto Trixie's lap. The pillow pressed against Trixie's stomachand Starlight's breathing slowed a little. Though a bit hard to tell in the dark, Starlight seemed to have a faint smile. Unsure of what to do once again, Trixie wrapped a foreleg around the mare's head and settled in for the night.

Author's Note

Back to uploading it seems.