"No no no!" Trixie picked up Twilight's head in her hooves and cradled it in the crook of one leg while shaking her body with the other. "Come on Twilight! Come on! Don't give up!"

There was no answer from Twilight, and Trixie, as much as she wanted to deny it what she knew to be true, gently placed Twilight's head back onto the floor. She sat there in a stunned silence while the sounds of fighting continued, but even that abated after a while.

She looked at the sword she had pulled from Twilight and picked it up, studying it like it was suddenly the most interesting thing in the world. It was by all accounts a very nice and well made sword, or cutlass as she vaguely remembered the type of sword was called, with a elegantly designed guard in gold.

She turned to Filigree's headless body and unstrapped the weapon's scabbard from it before strapping it around herself and wiping the blade off on his uniform. She was about the slide the blade into its scabbard, but stopped, anger at herself and so many other things building up inside her.

With a cry she plunged the sword into Filigree's corpse again and again, splattering herself with its still warm blood. "You bastard! You fucking bastard! You killed her!" Again and again the blade slammed through the body, but even that wasn't enough. She lifted the body off the ground and with a flex of her magic, tore it apart into bloody chunks, soaking the decking beneath it with gore.

Trixie stood panting, still not satisfied. She wanted to do more than rip apart an already dead body. She wanted to tear apart every last soldier here until they were all dead.

"Trixie?"

"What!?" Trixie spun on the spot, taking the sword with her. A line of blood flicked off the end of it, splashing across the rear hooves of Shadow as she hovered at a reasonably safe distance.

"Hey!"

"What do you want Shadow?" Trixie growled from between gritted teeth.

"Is... Is Twilight dead?"

"Yes she's dead. Twilight's dead, and Filigree's dead. They're both dead." A stab of pain shot through Trixie's chest, although it wasn't the kind of pain that could be caused by any weapon. "What do you want Shadow? Can't you see I'm busy?"

"Well, the enemy's retreating, or scattering. One or the other. I was hoping to get orders off Twilight, but..."

"Hunt them down. Your thestrals, and the pegasi, are to hunt every last one of them down until they're all dead! Understand?"

Shadow slowly backed away from Trixie, but still saluted. "Understood. Ma'am."

Trixie watched as Shadow retreated back to the skies to relay her orders. She wanted to join the hunt but there was so much more to do, things that were so much more important, and she couldn't in good conscience deny the crows their feast on Filigree's remains much longer.

She lit her horn with coils of dark magic, but stopped as she realised that picking Twilight up like that wasn't something she would appreciate. Instead she used her normal magic, finding it wasn't much harder than if she had used dark magic.

She picked up Twilight's body and laid it on its side before folding her wings in and arranging her legs so that they rested nicely. Like that, it appeared as though she was merely sleeping, and she wobbled in Trixie's magic as her resolve faltered.

Trixie recovered though, and with Twilight held before her on a bed of pink magic she made her way off the platform and through the battlefield back towards Puddingarde.

Ponies would stop and stare as she passed them, and whispers spread about quicker than she could walk. Again and again she would find ponies ahead of her approaching to see her carry Twilight's body, wanting proof for themselves as to whether the whispers were true or not.

"Trixie!" Trixie stopped and bowed her head slightly as she waited for the pony that had shouted her name neared her. It was Snowbright, although with his dirt streaked face he was failing to live up to his namesake. "It's true then, she's really dead."

"She is," Trixie confirmed.

"Damn it! What the hell are we supposed to do now? She was the one in charge!"

Trixie's eyed narrowed, annoyed that that was his immediate concern, but said nothing about it. "Neigh Orleans."

"Huh?"

"Some of the enemy would still be in Neigh Orleans, right?"

"Well, yeah, I guess so."

"Then take whatever ponies we still have and go retake the city!"

"We've barely just made it through this, and now you want us to go attack Neigh Orleans? Are you insane?"

Trixie fought back the urge to blast him. "You said yourself that it would be a mess if they fortify themselves in the city. We have them on the run, so we should go after them before they can prepare for us."

Snowbright held up his hooves placatingly, "Alright! Alright. You're right."

"I'm glad you agree. I trust you know what you're doing?"

"Yeah, I'll get it done."

"Good. Thank you." Trixie continued her journey towards Puddingarde, thankfully without being bothered by anypony else. She approached the triage area which was filled with the cries of the wounded. Even so, Octavia and Summer were sat at the edge of it, waiting for her.

Octavia pressed her hooves to her mouth, shaking her head slowly as her eyes watered. Summer looked anywhere but at Twilight, her expression sorrowful but hard. No words were exchanged as none were needed as both ponies fell in behind Trixie.

Puddingarde seemed eerily quiet as most ponies were still out on the battlefield or making their way towards Neigh Orleans. Only a few ponies stopped to watch as Trixie carried Twilight's body into the keep and through the infirmary.

"What's going on?" Fleur called out, "Trixie? Is that you- Oh no... Oh Celestia no..."

"Twilight!" The filly fought her way free of Fleur's legs and galloped over to where Trixie was still holding Twilight's body, slamming her forehooves up against Twilight's chest and shaking her. "Twilight! Twilight, please!"

"Filly, stop," said Octavia as she tried to pull her away from Twilight. The filly smacked her hoof away and kept shaking Twilight.

"You said she couldn't die Fleur! You said she couldn't die! You lied to me!"

"I... I didn't think she could..." The filly slumped to the floor, tears flowing down her face. "How? How did this happen?"

"Filigree did it," said Trixie. "She could've just killed him and ended this, but she had to get close, and he killed her."

"What do you mean she had to get close? Why?"

"I don't know! Okay? I don't know why she felt the need to do that!" Black started creeping into her magic, so she quickly placed Twilight's body on the ground.

"Maybe she tried asking him to surrender?" Summer suggested.

"That does sound like something she would do," agreed Octavia.

"Well she shouldn't have!" Trixie shouted back. "She should've just killed him and moved on instead of being stupid!" Tears started leaking from her eyes and she quickly wiped them away.

Shouts started echoing through the keep, and ponies started bringing through the injured. "We should probably go somewhere else as it's probably going to get crowded here soon," said Fleur.

"But what about Twilight?" Octavia asked tearfully.

"We should put her in the morgue where somepony can clean her up. Unless you want to do it yourself of course?" Everypony shook their heads. "Then put her there and let's get out of the way. We can't put her before the wounded."

Trixie gently lifted Twilight's body again and moved it through the infirmary and into the morgue. She was about to lay Twilight down on a slab, but stopped and quickly stripped the armour off her before finally laying her down.

"Should we wash the blood off her as well?" Octavia asked timorously.

"Later," said Trixie. She should've explained her reasons as to why she said that, since they were many, but words escaped her. "Later," she repeated. She dumped the armour in the corner before turning and leaving, reasoning that nopony here would dare steal it. She picked Fleur's stretcher up in her magic as she passed by, leading them away from the infirmary, which was swiftly filling up with ponies needing more attention than them.

Author's Notes:

Just a short little thing. I know it could have easily gone at the start of the next chapter but I was going to skip time a little bit. I kind of realised that it didn't work very well though so created this to fill the gap. I was originally going to start the next chapter like this but it felt far too forced and hammy, but decided to try again today and came up with something I'm at least comfortable with posting. Next chapter should be up in a few days. Also the shortest chapter I've posted. The shame.

tl;dr - It's a thing, don't worry about it too much.