“Colonel Crete!” Silk exclaimed excitedly as she exited the M.O.P tent still dressed in her nurse’s uniform and looking cute as a button. “And Captain Crisp! What a wonderful surprise!”

“You told her we were coming right?” Hucks mumbled to me as we hugged the soft pink mare before us.

“She did, she did!” Silk laughed heartily, blushing a little. “I guess I’m just surprised you actually turned up! The last couple of dates I had, the guy never turned up so...Not that this is a date! Heh! It's just the best thing I could come up with for conversation. Anyway!”

She blushed even harder looking between Hucks and I while we stood there laughing with her, even though we knew right then and there where the night was headed. She apologized for not dressing up better for the night, especially compared to my mare and I who were wearing our dress uniforms, but we quickly put a stop to her apologies. Hucks and I actually hoped to catch her before she had changed into something else since, who could resist a cute pink mare in a white nurse outfit? I suppose it could be considered bad that we had every intention on seducing her but we weren't going to go anywhere she didn't want. At the very least, we'd get a nice dinner with a cutie pie who could help get Hucks connected with some more medical training to aid in the days ahead. Barring anything insane happening, we were looking at a solid win tonight.

“So what’s the plan for tonight?” She asked excitedly as we led the way back towards our tent, the boys and Penny having already moved out on a three-pony patrol of the Western ridge to give us space. “Sadly there’s no Chez Perez restaurant in camp or else I'd say let's use those military discounts of yours to get us good seats.”
“Well, we might not have any sort of restaurant out here without going up to Appleloosa but, by special request, Athena here managed to convince the cooks to make us a nice meal. Eggplant steak with a creamy sauce, mushroom garlic risotto, a light salad and peach pie!” Huckleberry proclaimed proudly, sweeping the door flap to the tent open presenting the metal table in the center of the tent that had been given a makeover for the night.

My ‘friend’ in the galley (the Staff Sergeant who had taken a liking to me in the freezer) had been so kind as to lend me a tablecloth and a pair of candles for the occasion as well as serving our meals on metal platters rather than the usual plastic ones. The lit candles threw the rather fine cuisine set for three in a romantic light, and I caught the surprise on Silk’s face as she saw the spread. I would have probably reacted the same if I had come home to this one night after a patrol.

“O-oh my!” She gasped, staring at the savory steaks and risotto on the table with a watering mouth. “This looks wonderful! H-how did you get all this?!”

“Being a big shot has its perks!” Huckleberry giggled, slapping me on the ass in a not-so-subtle way much to the surprise of Silk who stared as if not sure if what she had seen had actually happened.

“Heh, yeah it does!” She finally laughed as she took a seat at the table and set several napkins on her lap to keep her uniform from staining. "This sort of meal takes a lot of skill behind the cook! Did you get someone out of Appleloosa or...?"

"You're joking right?" I laughed, looking between her and Hucks incredulously. "I think the only one with the balls to pull a pretentious move like that on a day's notice would be our benevolent General."

"Heh, is that so?" Silk laughed nervously, unsure of how to respond it seemed. "W-well, it looks delicious all the same!"
We sat on either side of her and began to eat, the meal having been prepared with delicious care. The thick juicy steak was on par with any I had eaten at the restaurants in Manehattan and the risotto actually beat them out of the water. Whoever this Staff Sergeant was before the War, it had to have been an extremely competent cook to be able to pull off a meal like this on short notice with what the military had in the kitchens. As we devoured our meal, I winked at Hucks to get her to take a second from staring at me to glance at Silk who was eating her food with closed eyes and a look of pure bliss on her face. She grinned back at me and mouthed, ‘Phase One Complete.’

Naturally we had planned the whole night out and Silk Carnation was the focus of our efforts. The goal? To sweep her off her hooves with a wonderful night with two awesome mares and then move in for the kill. We had no intention to force her into anything but we sure as hell were going to try and get her turned on and at least sexually confused. If nothing came of it then we weren’t out anything and if she came from it then all the better. This wasn’t the first operation of this kind Huckleberry and I had undertaken, nor would it be the last if we had anything to say about it. The 3:1 gender ratio of the country was only exacerbated by War casualties and there were more sexually frustrated girls fighting the good fight across the globe than you'd expect in this day and age. Didn't take much to show one of those lucky ladies a good time.

“How is it?” I asked, beating Hucks to the question.

“It’s amazing…” She crooned softly in pleasure. “I haven’t eaten this good in years...so much work, no time for fancy food. I can’t tell you how many meals have been dominated by top-ramen and MREs in the last three years…”

We both nodded in agreement. War had a way of limiting your food choices, especially when you were on an extended campaign. Still, top-ramen was one of the most versatile quick meals I knew of as long as you had a good spice collection and some other stuff to put with it like canned vegetables and the occasional can of Cram I managed to ‘borrow’ off Buck Beak or any of the other omnivores I knew. Meat had its place in my diet although I rarely got to have it thanks to everypony around me usually looking at me like a disgusting freak. Sadly, not even tonight was I allowing myself my quasi-taboo indulgence. It was already going to be an experience and a half for the poor girl, I didn't want to make her sick to her stomach just because I wanna play carnivore. Guess my guts would thank me too.

“I’m glad to hear it!” Huckleberry smiled, winking subtly at me in victory. “You know Athena’s mother is a really good cook too. Back before our Squad was basically living in our armor 24/7 in the desert, we used to have big dinner parties at her place in PonyVille. Her fucking peasant loaf bread and homemade raspberry jam are to die for.”

“Oh? What does your mom do for a living?” Silk asked, politely swallowing before speaking. “Do you have any other brothers or sisters?”

I shook my head and laughed, “Nah, just little old shithead me running around the house making a mess was more than enough for her. My mom is a dentist in PonyVille. Well, was. She works in Manehattan now since it offered more money and was somehow quieter than the hometown of the Ministry Mares. Nothing special, but she’s good at what she does.”

“You’re from PonyVille?” She asked excitedly, just like everypony did when they learned where I grew up. “Did you ever-”

“Get to meet any of the Ministry Mares?” I finished for her. “I get asked that a lot whenever anypony learns where I was born and I have to tell everyone the same thing: nope. Maybe when I was extremely young back when they still lived there but I don’t ever remember meeting any of them. I was the daughter of the local dentist. What right did I have to go see mares like them? I know my mom knew them rather well back in the day before they became too important for such a small town but...that was a long time ago.”

“Oh...I guess you’re right…” She replied with a sad tone. “But still...it must have been cool to have lived in the same town as them right?”

“Yeah, I guess…” I said quietly, thinking back on the rather boring childhood I had. "To be honest, aside from the occasional trainload of tourists come to see the former hometown of the Elements of Harmony, PonyVille was very quiet. I guess after the Ministry Mares moved away to attend to the government, all the weird shit the town was known for kinda just...stopped. No more Chaos gods, no paranormal invasions, not really even any freak weather outta the Everfree. Nopony went in looking for trouble and no trouble came crawling out of it to bother us in town. Hell, you could even explore the first few hundred feet of the tree line without feeling impending doom was nigh."

"Huh...how...disappointing." Silk sighed wistfully.

"Disappointing eh?" Hucks laughed. "What, you were expecting spectacular stories or something?"

"Well...yeah, I guess so." She relented with a blush. "Growing up hearing the stories of PonyVille and the Ministry Mares encountering evil and weird things for the sake of Equestria..."

"Sorry to burst your bubble..." I laughed sheepishly, taking another large bite in order to give me a bit of time to breathe. "All that fun stuff happened in my mom's early twenties and she's almost sixty now. The Ministry Mares seem to have been blessed with an extended lifespan thanks to the Elements because they haven't aged nearly as much as they should have in forty years. My mom and other original residents seem to have gotten a bit of that effect too; my mom barely looks like she's out of her forties."

"Really?" She gasped, her wide eyes reflecting the candlelight magnificently. "I never knew that!"

"Neither did I to be honest." Huckleberry commented with similar surprise after a bite of risotto. "But now that you mention it...it goes a long way to explain some shit I've always wondered. Always thought the Ministry Mares just had access to some high-tier magic to keep them young so their minds and bodies stayed at their peak for the War."

"Well...honestly that's a pretty good theory to be honest. But no, it's their connection to the Elements according to my mom. She had a chance to ask one of them personally about it during one of the town's reunion fairs when I was still a newborn. I'm the first to admit I don't know a ton about Arcane Science but I know better than to question the abilities of ancient magic, especially as far as the Elements are concerned. Sadly the Six went their separate ways before I was even four or five and I don't think they ever really got the chance to come to another reunion. I went to about a dozen of those reunions for the free food and to see mom light up at seeing old friends from back in the day. Neighborhood definitely changed over the years..."

"I'm...sorry to hear that." Silk sighed sadly. "I bet that was pretty tough on your mom to see the town break up like that."

"Well...she handled it pretty well all things considered. Business was thriving thanks to Pinkie Pie's Sugarcube Empire putting cavities into everypony's teeth and her homemade toothpaste recipe took off like wildfire in the dental community. She actually minored in chemistry in college and spent a lot of her free time when I was a napping filly to fuck around with her chemistry equipment she kept in the basement trying to make better toothpaste, mouthwash and the like. Guess you could have called it a bit of a closet obsession but she made a lot of money on the side selling her products via her clinic and soon enough was filing patents to protect her investments."

"You're kidding..." Silk gasped, looking at me with a mixture of impressed and disbelieving. "No way you're talking about Colgate."

"Heh, yeah most people know her for her last name since that's what she named her brand after." I laughed in response, feeling a bit odd being a bit of a celebrity. "Once I moved out of the house she thought fuck it and decided to go full-time into her patents and before she knew it she had an office in Canterlot and a manufacturing plant outside of Fillydelphia making 30k a day in profits. Although nowadays she shifted from an active role in her company back to a more quiet life in a clinic she owns in Manehatten while the board of directors handles the brand. Still makes a killing just off the royalties alone so she is more than content to keep things as they are. Hell, she's looking at a very comfortable retirement whenever she decides to slow down finally. Like I said, being near the Elements for so long in her early marehood seems to have boosted her longevity a bit. Not that I'm complaining...I love her so, so, so fucking much..."

"Huh...so you're her daughter. I would have never guessed that..."

"Well, with a name like Athena Crete, it's not hard to see why." I replied with a slightly bitter laugh. "First thing you should know about mom is she was big into romance novels after I was born. Guess she felt she couldn't find a husband, raise me and run a growing business all at the same time so she got off to those raunchy fantasy novels that were kind of the rage a few decades ago. I...was a surprise kid in her senior year of dental school so she didn't have a name picked out or anything. Unlike most parents, I guess the gift of foresight that usually graces parents when they name their kids skipped her by because she couldn't come by any inspiration for my name or so she says. Eventually she decided to name me after some character in one of her novels as she was her favorite heroine. And no...I never bothered to look into my namesake, it's a bit too embarrassing to think about."

"Sweet Celestia...I can see why you would feel that way, holy cow..."

“Sorry to be boring but my backstory ain't so crazy as hers." Huckleberry giggled after a moment of silence. "I grew up in Stalliongrad with my six siblings. My dad worked as an accountant and my mom stayed at home taking care of the seven of us. We were staggered out at least so a few of us were old enough to be out there looking for part-time work to help the family out. Wasn't comfy living by any means but we never went hungry at least, not something everypony could say during the 50s.”

“Seven??” Silk asked incredulously as a family that size would have been prohibitively expensive with today’s economy. “How was your dad able to afford all of you? N-no offense…”

“Honestly I have no clue…” She admitted. “I hardly ever saw him so I guess he just worked all the time to support us. He died a few years ago from a heart attack. Doctor said it was stress and overwork so I guess that’s it.”

“Wow...and here I thought my family struggled…”

"Oh hush hun, it was ages ago and I've definitely gained some good, healthy weight on me since then. Hell, enrolling in EastPoint right outa Stalliongrad U was probably the best choice I could have made given our circumstances. It got me outta the house, let me channel my anger in a constructive funnel and officer's pay is enough to send a little home each month."

"Wow, you both seem to love your families very much to give them up for this hot, desolate place."

"Eh, I mean yeah I love them and all but I didn't get involved just because of them. Honestly given our social status the best job I could hope for was some boring ass, low-wage secretary position at one of the factories there which...fuck that shit."

The air was getting a little hostile as Hucks showed a bit of her hidden venom for the mundaneness of the civilian world so I decided to interject in order to save the mood.

“How’d you get into the M.O.P?” I asked, catching her slightly by surprise.

“Oh, I just signed up at the high school job-fair thing my school had. I’ve always looked up to Fluttershy growing up and playing doctor with my sister, so it just kind of made sense you know? I never felt so at home then when I first put on my trainee scrubs and set hoof into one of those big hospitals the Army has out of Camp Golf. Soon enough I was reading medical textbooks in my spare time any chance I got and the course just flew by. Once I finished the basic training course they looked at my test scores and said I had the first pick over two equally honorable careers. On the one hoof, I could go intern under a nurse’s assistant at one of the Helping Hoof clinics and take a four-year nursing course to become a fully fledged nurse working in the civilian sphere. Or, I could sign up for the two-year advanced training course for the Ministry of Peace and become a licensed nurse as an official student of Fluttershy. Obviously I took that choice. There was no way I was about to pass up the chance to wear the true M.O.P nurse cap, it's a badge of honor in the medical community.”

She patted the nurse’s cap set on the edge of the table lovingly and smiled to herself lost in some happy memory.

“I didn’t graduate top of my class but I was in the top fifteen-percent so that’s something right?” She laughed. “Dad was proud of me at least. Mom...thought I could have done better but she was always a major bitch to me so I never really listen to her. Anyway, after graduating I interned as full-fledged nurse at one of the Army hospitals in Trottingham since they always need lots of help and it was there I saw the chance to become a…‘combat medic’. They had lots of openings for the Eastern and Southern Fronts and I chose the Southern one because I guess I thought the fighting down here would be...not so intense. Plus, I like the heat. It was always too cold for me in Trottingham.”

“Oh you’re from Trottingham?” Hucks asked excitedly as we were eventually planning to move there.

“Well, I was born in Manehattan but dad got a job in Trottingham so we moved there when I was like six or seven. Why, got family there?”

“No, it’s just Athena and I were planning on buying a house together there.”

She looked at Hucks and I curiously as usually only couples bought a house together while roommates usually worded it differently than that. More like, ‘renting a place together’. I bit my lip nervously as she stared critically at each of us, the weight of the law heavy on my mind.

“Wait…” She said softly, her eyes widening as the two of us broke out in heavy blushing. “You’re not...oh my Celestia…”

“Not...what?” I said nervously, staring at her rather than Huckleberry.

“You know exactly what I’m saying.” She said flatly.

“Alright, fuck this.” Huckleberry sighed as she got on her hooves and stared Silk down. “Yeah, Athena and I are lovers and we’re madly in love with each other. Tell anypony and I’ll be sure to add your name to the lists of the deceased you hear me? If there's one goddamn thing this War has taught me, it's how to put bodies in graves. I’ve worked too hard for too long to keep our relationship a secret and I’m not going to jeopardize it for some sweet ass like yourself. Got it?”

Silk trembled and cowered in fear much like she had in the M.O.P tent earlier when I had counter-lectured her on the realities of war. I felt kinda bad for her but I was filled with admiration for my mare and her fiery passion for me and our relationship. I knew she wasn’t going to give up on me and I sure as hell wasn’t going to give up on her. We had been together for eight years now and I was going to make sure that number went into the double digits at the very least.

“Y-yes m-m-ma’am…” She squeaked with trembling lips.

Hucks returned to her seat and put her hoof on mine, leaning over the table to kiss me in full view of our guest. It was scary yet highly arousing to make out with my mare in front of a stranger and I could feel the arousal trickling down my thighs thinking about all the things I wanted to do to her right then and there. The muffling spell was in place, the tent had a proximity warning spell surrounding it and the mood was right. I was going to fuck both these mare’s brains out.

“O-oh my…” Silk gasped in surprise as she watched us, a heavy blush hitting her face though her eyes never looked away.

Huckleberry lingered on the kiss for a few more seconds before slowly pulling away and winking towards Silk and licking her lips.

“What? Never seen two girls making out before?” She teased, poking her on the chest. “Obviously you’ve never been around a drunk, horny mare at a sorority party before.”

Silk shook her head and covered her mouth sheepishly as she squeaked, “I-I...I’ve never…”

“Never what?” I asked, unbuttoning Huck’s dress shirt and nibbling on her chest fluff. “Kissed a mare? Watched mares kiss each other? Gone to a sorority party?”

“A-all of the above…?” She squeaked again.

“Well fuck me, next thing you’re gonna tell me is you’re a virgin.” Hucks giggled sarcastically, helping me undo my buttons using her teeth and tongue in a very sensual manner.

Her silence caught both of us off guard enough that we stopped stripping each other down to the nude and stared in her direction. Now her entire face was hidden behind her hooves, the bright red skin of her face standing out starkly behind her soft pink hooves.

“Sweet Celestia…” We both gasped in amazement given a mare of her caliber should have been drowning in whatever gender she preferred. “You’re a fucking virgin?!”

“I’m sorry!” She cried slamming her face down into the table and covering her head as if to ward off an attack.

As she began to sob we stood there quite unsure how to proceed. Here was this twenty something piece of fine ass who had yet to pop her cherry with anyone let alone a stallion, which was the usual way people lost their fillyhood. Hucks just shook her head in amazement while I thought back to my first time in bed with someone at the age of twelve. When I had first gone into heat was when mom, in her conscientious motherly wisdom, had stopped allowing me to have sleepovers with boys including Zecuro since boys going into their first few ruts were known to be less than self-controlled. I had been clopping since I was about six or so so I knew why she was keeping me from horny boys but she let me have girls over with the idea that I was as straight as most everyone else. How wrong she was!

Hucks finished taking off my shirt, using her magic this time around just to speed things up and once we were both properly stripped down to our drab black dress socks and panties we converged on our sobbing guest. With immense practiced ease we snuggled up into her sides and wrapped our arms around her in as comforting a way as we could muster, petting her back slowly and methodically while whispering kind comforting words into her ears.

“Hey...shhhhhh...it’s ok cutie.” Hucks whispered tenderly. “It’s not like we’re going to hit you for being a virgin sweetie. It just means we have...an extra responsibility to make sure your first time is your most memorable.”

I nodded and followed up with, “Mhm...in a lot of ways I envy you because you’re old enough to be smart with who you decide to be with instead of taking the first dick that comes your way...a lot of my fillyhood friends did that and...they regret it. Hell most of them got pregnant from it and the boys left them in the dust...so...count yourself lucky.”

She was mostly silent save for the occasional sniff and hitched breath until she asked, “D-did that...happen to either of you…?”

“No…” Huckleberry said first. “My first was my boyfriend when I was sixteen...he...died a few months before I went to East Point...you know, when we had that nasty outbreak of Dragon Pox…”

“Mine was actually with another filly…when I was twelve...” I admitted, laughing silently at how long my preference for girls had been around in my life. “My mom wouldn't let me have sleepovers with boys after I had my first estrus so I got to know the local fillies in more ways than one. Was smart of her to keep me away from teen pregnancy and she had no clue I was bi until I was sixteen and she caught me one night cuffed to my bed with Peachy Creme humping my face. Heh...the look on her face…”

“You were twelve…?” Silk asked, slowly lifting her head to look towards me with puffy, damp eyes.

“Yep!” I giggled confidently and unabashedly. “Candy Twizzler in the old treehouse in our backyard. She was really confused when I crawled between her legs and started eating her out like it was my last meal but she was so horned up that she begged me to keep going. And going and going and going. Neither of us slept that night. Heh, mom was so confused why the two of us smelt so fruity and shit but she let us shower together which was cause for only more pussy eating. God I miss those days…”

“Fruity…?” She asked again, this time with more interest in her voice.

“Well, she tasted like cherry liccorice and I taste more like peaches or apricots.” I explained. “What, didn’t you know every pussy tastes different?”

She shook her head with surprise etched onto her face like a beautiful stone carving.

“Seriously? Well, I guess straight girls wouldn’t exactly know that but guys who’ve slept around certainly do! We’re kinda like Basking Robbins, over a million flavors of pussy!”

She blushed but gave a small laugh at my analogy before pulling herself up from the table slightly and finally realizing Hucks and I were stripped down causing her to blush even harder.

“Y-you two...f-find me a-attractive…?” She whispered, looking between us with almost a hint of need as if this information was vital to her wellbeing.

“Phbbt, hell yeah we do!” I exclaimed sincerely, brushing a hoof against her cheek. “What’s not to like? You’re a beautiful pink, you’ve got white hair to die for and it matches your coat so perfectly! Plus, baby blue eyes? Princess I’ll fuck you anytime, anywhere and I’ll love you just as much as I love Huckleberry.”

Hucks smirked at me over Silk’s back but didn’t comment as Silk whispered, “R-really…?”

“I know you’re a virgin but are you telling me this is literally the first time someone’s ever complimented you on your body like this?” Hucks asked, looking back at me with an expression of total disbelief.

“W-well...no…” She admitted, leaning back in her chair and feeling our chest fluffs under her timid pink hooves with a look of rapture. “But...n-not so...sincerely...I guess…”

We were hot chicks serving in the Army alongside the rowdiest asshats the male species had ever spat out of the general civilian workforce. Catcalling and sexual harassment were all part of the daily life for us so it made sense she had learned to tune it all out. If anything she had it worse off than either of us did since she was hotter than most and wore a tight fitting nurse uniform and even tighter fitting panties. Speaking of…

“Oh, and before I forget, you rock the cameltoe just let me say.” I crooned into her ear eliciting a squeak of embarrassed panic out of her.

“Does she?!” Huckleberry exclaimed excitedly. “Of course you got to see up her skirt first you lucky bitchnozzle…”

“W-would you like to see it…?” She asked, surprising both of us as we had been expecting a tad more seduction to be required before we reached this point.

“Girl is that even a question?” Hucks asked incredulously though her tone was playful rather than accusatory. “Hell yes we wanna see it!”

She blushed ever harder, the blush seeming to move beyond her face and into the rest of her body as she went from a soft pink to a more hot pink color (no pun intended). With some hesitation, she stood up from her seat and leaned her upper body on the table, gently pushing what remained of her meal out of the way while spreading her hind legs slightly and pushing the chair away. We waited patiently, with damp and dripping nethers, for her to go at her own pace and gave small whistles of sensual encouragement as she reached back and tugged up her white skirt showing the size-too-small white panties hugging her ass so tightly it left almost nothing to the imagination, save for what her puffy little lips and glistening pink interior actually looked like.

“Damn girl!” Hucks and I said almost in unison, relishing the unobstructed view of another mare’s snatch. “You do rock the cameltoe!”

Silk squeaked in embarrassment but didn’t pull her hooves away from her skirt keeping it up for us to see. Hucks winked to me and gave her wonderfully plump but slender ass a good smack eliciting a small yelp of surprise from our guest but also making the fabric pulled taught against her lips get immediately dark and damp with sweet, fragrant mare juice. The air was getting heavy with the smell of warm huckleberry, tangy peach and soft carnation and with another few spanks of her ass from both of us, Silk was gripping the far side of the table and panting heavily.

“I think she likes it babe!” Hucks giggled as she crouched over Silk and nibbled on her ear, her hooves masterfully massaging into her upper back getting her even more aroused based on her groans of pleasure lingering in the air as heavily as our combined musks.

“Ohhhhhfffuuuuccckkk….” Silk moaned breathlessly and sensually, her eyes unfocused and her mouth open and drooling a puddle onto the table.

“Gonna take that as a yes!” I replied to her comment, pulling Hucks down with me so we could each strip her underwear off together and get the first view of her soaked virgin slit.

As our teeth clamped down gently on the waistband, she eagerly wiggled her hips under our chins, panting in need but quite unable to make any coherent sentence. We obliged her immediately and freed her delicious candy ass, each of us closing our eyes so as to not spoil the view too early.

It was difficult to tell a virgin pussy from a well loved one, even for somepony like Hucks and I who had probably seen a good hundred or so of them between us, but Silk’s looked entirely untouched. Her swollen pink labia were plump and squishy with little of the ‘contouring’ that older fillies and mares developed making her snatch look like it belonged on a young filly rather than the early twenties-something mare we were seducing. Like her lips, her clit was a small nub of pink adorning the top of her snatch with thick drops of mare cum dribbling off it and onto the sandy floor below, the scent of carnations and something even sweeter emanating from her nethers like that first breath of air after walking into a floral shop.

“Holy fuck, this looks like mine when I was twelve!” I blurted out, thinking back to those days I would stand in front of the bathroom mirror staring at my own ass and wishing I could fuck myself.

“I was going to say the same thing.” Hucks mumbled as she leaned close and took a long whiff of her dripping cunt. “Mmmmmmm….fuck me, you smell gorgeous. Like delicious but fucking beautifully so.”

“O-oh…?” Silk whispered from her place on the table, her sweat beaded face peering back at us with that same out-of-focus gaze.

“Mhm!” I confirmed, leaning forward to get a smell for myself.

My muzzle went farther than I had intended and the tip of my nose brushed against her sodden lips, the heat emanating from her love tunnel radiating against my face like a warm fire and sending my own body into horny conniptions. Unlike most mares...when I get wet, I get really fucking wet. As Hucks could affirm, if I was sufficiently horny I could make puddles around my hind legs if I stood still for too long in once place and could probably drown a mare in my own cum if I sat on their face too long. (Now that’s the way I wanted to go!) Already I could feel the panties hugging my cunt were doing nothing to stem the flow of juices dripping from my snatch like a veritable waterfall and Hucks could clearly see it from her place beside me.

Hucks grinned at me and nodded for me to take another whiff before shoving my face deep into her vagina, my muzzle surprisingly fitting between her filly sized lips and my entire nose being enveloped in the hot, sticky, deliciously comfortable vice that was her pussy. At my sudden intrusion she gasped loudly and her entire body trembled as she tried to bite back the groans fighting their way free from her lips. Without another thought I began to lap like a thirsty dog at the moist ribbed walls clamping down on my face trying to slurp up as much of her flowery nectar as I possibly could, her moans turning quickly to full-throated screams of ecstasy at my unrelenting assault on her virginhood.

Though I couldn’t see it (as I had a face full of delicious pink ass to stare at), I knew instinctively that Huckleberry was either at work kissing our guest or was soon going to begin snaking her tongue under Silk’s tail to give her a good rimjob as was her specialty. Her cum tasted delicious and I could scarcely get enough of it in my mouth or lathered on my tongue at any given time. Hucks head rested on my own indicating she was going for the glory and the groans turned to beastial howls of pleasure as we lapped away at the most sensitive of places on a mare’s body. Before I knew it I could feel her already tight walls begin to clamp down even harder and spasm out as she reached her climax.

“FUUUCKKK!!” She howled, arching her back and shoving her ass deeper into both of our faces as a generous helping of thick, sweet cum gushed out of the depths of her pussy and into my greedy mouth, which I promptly guzzled down like the good little slut I was.

The tide of juices kept flowing, ebbing into a small drizzle as she collapsed onto the table panting like she had just run a marathon. With a final slurp on her insides and a few gentle, loving kisses to her drenched lips I rose up from where I had been crouched on the floor, wincing silently as my muscles screamed out from being in such an awkward position for so long.

“How was it babe?” I asked softly, leaning close to her hot, sweat covered face and giving her cheek a gentle kiss.

“A-amazing…” She gasped out between labored breaths, her eyes clamped shut and her body trembling softly as she basked in the warm, happy afterglow of her orgasm. “B-better than...I ever...thought it would be…”

I looked back at Hucks who was still nuzzling her ass tenderly and gave her a well-earned smirk of victory. I was the champion cunt-muncher and she was the queen of ass-licking. Together, we formed quite the team of ‘professional’ mare-pleasers, satisfying any and every need a girl could have minus a few. Neither of us would work with shit, vomit or blood fetishes but just about everything else was fair game. In fact, recently Hucks had gotten the both of us into watersports though performing that while in a tent with three others sleeping nearby was next to impossible. That was one of the downsides of our line of work...the proper place to take a piss was either in the latrines or behind a bush if you were out on patrol, not on another mare’s face or body.

“Glad to know we did such a good job.” Hucks said proudly, mounting the mare from behind like a horny stallion. “Mmmm, damn. Ya know how I sometimes say I wish I had a dick? This is one of those times. I’d bust a nut so deep in your tight ass I’d be satisfied for a week.”

Silk blushed at that but seemed to really like the idea by the way she wiggled her hips against Hucks, her tail getting drenched in the sticky, syrupy like juices trickling down from Huck’s snatch.

“I think I agree with you Hucks, she would be a great mare to smash. You’re not in heat are you?” I asked her with a soft giggle.

“N-no…” She breathed out, still wiggling her hips against Huck’s crotch. “B-but you t-two could still...c-cum in me if you wanted to...I’d like that.”

I bit my lip at the thought. Though my experience with stallions and other males was limited compared to my experience with girls, I knew it was the ultimate fantasy for just about every guy to bust his load deep inside a girl’s cunt or ass and watch her howl and moan like a cat in heat while impaled on their shaft. Though I hadn’t admitted it to Hucks for her own pride’s sake, I had actually developed quite the hunger for it. So much to the point I had went out and bought for myself one of those dildos that ejaculates fake jizz into you just to satisfy my hunger for a good creampie. Though my chances to use it were few, I enjoyed it immensely but...it still wasn’t the same as the real thing. Maybe...I was more into guys than I had lead myself to believe.

“So, anything you’d like to try sweet lips?” I asked with a small laugh, playfully giving her wet ass a good spank.

“C-could I see yours…?” She asked timidly, looking at the two of us.

“Hmm, let me think about tha- YES.” Hucks exclaimed, standing with her ass right up against her face and beckoning me to join her.

As I moved over to join her though, a soft beeping noise came from my helmet which was laying on the corner of my bed next to my piled up armor indicating I had someone trying to reach me. Considering that it only beeped if someone was trying to contact me via my private channel, this had to be of some importance.

“W-what’s that…?” Silk asked, peeking up from over Huck’s ass to look at the helmet.

“Someone’s trying to call me…” I sighed, slowly walking towards it with no little amount of reluctance and resentment.

“Just ignore it…” Hucks sighed, rolling her eyes and looking back at Silk. “We’re kind of really fucking busy right now.”

“I’m going to tell them that, just give me a second.” I replied dully, putting on my helmet and flopping onto my back on my cot, wincing as my back collided with the armor I had forgotten was there momentarily.

“Crete here...this better be important guys, I’m in the middle of something.” I sighed out into the mic, hoping they would catch the obvious annoyance in my tone.

“Atina? This is you, yes?”

I would have recognized those melodic, Zebra tones anywhere.

“Zecuro?! How the fuck did you get this frequency?!” I exclaimed in shock, completely taken aback at how my private channel had been compromised so easily.

“I will explain all at a time removed from now.” He replied earnestly. “Harken, I do not have much time. Inform your compatriots there will an attack commence on thine Eastern ridge just before the sun rises and thine artillery is not sufficiently defended. Tell thine compatriots to shore up their watch immediately and please do not delay thine coming to our meeting. I am en-route as I speak. We have much to discuss.”

And with that the line went dead filling my ears with hissing static and my mind with confused panic. How had he gotten access to my private channel? Why so soon was he willing to trust me with this kind of information? Was this a test? A ruse? A fucking goose-chase? And he was talking to me while he was walking to Charlie-Horse. I looked at the top right corner of my visor to check the time and saw it was only 10:30. We had been with Silk for only a few minute-long hours and our original meeting time was set for something like 3a.m. Something was definitely up and I didn’t like the feeling it gave me.

As I took off my helmet, Hucks cocked her head and looked at me with concern.

“What’s up? Who was that?” She asked, seeming to forget for a moment there was a mare sniffing at her panties.

“My meeting got pushed to now instead of later…” I replied with a sigh, trying to play off my budding panic as annoyance and hoping it was convincing given our uninformed company.

“Oh…? I wonder why so soon?” She asked, thankfully catching on and playing the vague-game.

“I’m so fucking sorry Silk to leave but...duty calls.” I said as apologetically as I could while fussing my way into my armored underbarding and strapping on my armor.

“It’s ok!” She giggled, giving Hucks a spank of her own which made her turn around with surprise and a very sultry look. “I think I’ll be ok with your girl here. You don’t mind that I’m borrowing her do you?”

“Absolutely not!” I grinned, slapping my Sequoia into its holster on my leg. “Long as you give her back to me. She is my fiancé after all.”

“What?!” She gasped in excitement. “Congratulations! Though...how are you two gonna marry with M.O.M looking over your shoulder?”
‘Man...she had a quick turnaround time…’ I thought to myself before I answered her.
“I’m sure we can find a priest somewhere who will be willing to do the ceremony if we paid him enough.” I replied with a laugh, getting my duster on followed by its external armored pieces. “There’s more supporters of gay-rights in Equestria than you would think, especially because it was practically legal to be anything other than straight not even twenty years ago.”

“True...forgot about that…” She mused. “Fuck, so much has changed in Equestria since I was a kid…”

“Mhm...I still remember when cartoons were just for entertainment and not for indoctrination.” Hucks commented. “Alright, get going babe. Let me know how it goes alright?”

“You know it.” I giggled, slapping on my helmet and trotting out of the tent towards H.Q for permission to go to Charlie-Horse for a shift.

It hurt me to leave them, especially when my legs and snatch were still wet from the anticipation of getting licked by her but I had a job to do and a potentially game-changing opportunity to gain inside information of the Zebra war plans from a Crimson Dragon. His rank alone would guarantee him a place in their most exclusive of military councils which meant he would have access to all but the most classified of their information. A downside of being a Ranger marked for active duty with a Squad was the fact I was usually excluded from high-level meetings on the basis that I was just too busy kicking ass to attend them. I would always be informed soon after the meeting ended about what transpired but I almost always had a part to play in their schemes. I could count how many of those meetings I had attended since joining Beta-now-Alpha Squad without even reaching the number five. Priorities were made and as much as I hated being in the dark, I hated being off the battlefield even more. Nothing got me more bored and stir-crazy than meetings.
The trip back up to H.Q was shorter than I remembered it being but then again, I hadn’t been running the first few times I had made the hike up to the lair of the General. There were many I passed while en-route there but most didn’t pay me much attention as they passed by, the bulk of them being slightly inebriated or just wandering about out of boredom as the night wore on. The M.O.P tents were brightly illuminated from within like a forest of white fairy lights stretching out of sight while the exteriors were strung with soft golden Hearth’s Warming lights. Despite it being late March, the out-of-season lights nonetheless gave the tent an even cozier appearance while the tenants inside were naught but silhouettes milling about their own business. Even in the small things the Ministry of Image seemed to go a bit above the bare essentials.

“Ah, Colonel Crete.” One of the Shock Troopers grunted as I approached the front door of the tent. “The General would like to speak with you in his office. We just sent a runner to your tent to fetch you but it looks like you were ahead of schedule.”

Of course he wanted to speak to me now… The Laws of Irony were still very much in effect as it were.

“Thank you. As you were.” I replied, quickly walking inside and finding a private corner to send a frantic message to Huckleberry concerning the coming messenger.

“Hucks!” I yelled into my mic, hoping I was loud enough to get her attention. “Hucks! Stop fucking and get dressed NOW! The General has a runner inbound and you two don’t have much time! I gotta go so PLEASE FUCKING STOP!”

I cut the transmission and took off my helmet as I was now indoors and about to speak with my superior. It took a second to slow my heart rate and frantic thoughts about my mare getting caught. We had set two proximity spells around the tent set ten-feet apart from each other and tied their response mechanisms to the psychological profiler subroutine of our helmets so it could differentiate between passing hooves and ponies intentionally coming towards our tent. I was out of range of the spell but Hucks wasn’t and I prayed to Celestia that she wasn’t nose deep in her ass enough to not hear the proximity warning. It wouldn't be the first time...

“Ah, Colonel. Come in…” The General crooned as I walked into his spacious office. “You may leave, Miss Daisy.”

His yuppy secretary gave a nod of her rose colored head and scampered off leaving him and I alone in his well decorated office space. I took the padded seat offered in front of him putting my poker face to use once again while trying to remember the weaknesses inherent in the Mrk. V model combat armor as a way to focus my thoughts. Even then though, I couldn’t help but notice the lavish luxury he had chosen to adorn his space with. There was a Saddle Arabian rug beneath me, a Tiffany chandelier above me and the walls were covered with hanging portraits of the General wearing different uniforms and different medals all sneering out of their frames with his grimy, ugly grin. On the wall above his head hung a picture of him dressed in the new Power Armor of his Shock Troopers while, unsurprisingly, standing surrounded by his favorite Steel Rangers. The ego of this fuck never ceased to amaze me or not make me sick to my stomach. Even the Colonel with all his joking ego fluffing wasn't this much up his own asshole.

“So...Crete.” He said, leaning forward in his high backed leather chair that could have passed as a throne. “Why do you think you’re here?”

Fuck...it was another iteration of my mom’s favorite game when I was growing up. ‘What Do You Have to Tell Me?’ was the worst game ever invented besides Monopoly and I hated playing it then as a kid and now as an adult. You never lnew just how much they knew and if you're me, you're into a lot of questionable shit.

“You tell me, Sir.” I responded in an even tone, hoping to prick his ego enough for him to spill the beans for me rather than having to guess, starting with the least consequential then moving up the list. “Considering I am here without much pretext, it honestly could be anything so I am going to refrain from guessing as it is pointless.”

He frowned a bit at my answer and leaned back in his chair a bit more.

“I asked you here Crete because I think you’re hiding something from me.” He said flatly, his chest puffing out slightly as if to make him seem more intimidating. “And I wanna know what.”

Ice shot through my body like a bullet but I didn’t let the pain show on my face. There were a lot of things I was hiding from him, the question was which was he specifically thinking about? My relationship with Huckleberry? My dissatisfaction with Equestrian nationality? My hidden stash of porn in my tent? Zecuro? The list of grievances was longer than the barrel of my AMR and possibly even beat it in terms of range.

“I’m afraid I do not understand Sir.” I replied, maintaining my calm demeanor even though I was screaming underneath. “What exactly can one hide when they are under constant surveillance by the M.O.M and their superior officers?”

“Quite afuckinglot it would seem…” He grumbled. “Tell me, what happened on your little patrol with Captain Onyx and his Squad?”

“I’m afraid I’m still confused...Sir.” I said. “This line of questioning seems more appropriate for my C.O to be asking as I report directly to him and he to you. Unless I am mistaken in my knowledge of the chain of command we have established for things like this. I presented my report in full to Colonel Horn as soon as it had ended and the facts presented there are an accurate representation of events.”

He was getting really pissed off and he did a poor job of hiding it. I got the impression that he was not used to being beaten around the bush by an inferior and judging by the look he gave Miss Daisy as she left the room...I had to assume he wasn’t used to mares with a backbone either.

“You are correct. Technically speaking.” He grumbled again, the wheels in his ugly little head obviously spinning out of control in an attempt to find a way around my words. “But, as your General I have the authority to question you directly and by Celestia I’m gonna use that power. Tell. Me. What. Happened.”

His eyes glowered with restrained anger as he stood up slightly in his chair in yet another attempt to make his short stature more menacing when in all reality, the stars on his shoulders were by far the most intimidating aspect of his person.

“You’ve read my report. It states clearly what happened. If there was anything more, I would have added it in there but, obviously, there was nothing of further value to be added. If you would like me to make a footnote or an annotation I certainly can but there will be nothing to show for it as there is no information to include in such a manner. I have said what was to be said as per protocol.”

I could tell in that moment that if he wasn’t surrounded by other offices, he would have shot me in the head right then and there. I was essentially the rape victim who was telling him ‘no!’ and he was a stallion not used to being denied what he wanted and my mind was cast back to high school reading MacTeague. Unless I wanted to end up like Trina, I had to play my cards very carefully. At least I wasn’t a money whore, so I had that on my side for what it was worth.

“Very well.” He said finally through gritted teeth. “But if I get even the slightest hint that you’re lying to me Colonel...I will personally see to it that that pretty little head of yours gets a full shakedown from M.O.M. Am. I. Clear?”

I nodded, containing my dread of a potential mind-rape by one of M.O.M’s goons behind a face of steely indifference. I had been shot, stabbed, electrocuted, burned and poisoned more times than I could ever hope to count and this little fat assed demi-god wannabe was talking to me like he was my alcoholic father demanding another beer. I had to be careful...but then again, I wasn’t going to go down easily if it came to it. If it came down to it, I was going to go down swinging without a single fuck given as at that point, what had I to lose anymore?

“Alright...get the hell out of my office, Crete. Go do something productive or something.” He growled, picking up a random pile of papers and pretending to work, the door immediately opening and Daisy stepping in with a pot of coffee, a plate of scones and two mugs.

“Have a good day sweetie!” She called out to me as I walked past, her voice having a slight southern drawl to it and sounding much older than the mare it belonged to.

“Yeah, whatever...” I grunted, getting out of there as quickly as I could and trying not to imagine what else Miss Daisy was bringing the General to eat.

At the far end of the tent was the Requisitions Office where everypony had to go if they wanted their gear repaired, wanted to request special assignment or really just wanted anything in general that wasn't important enough to bother you CO about. It was a place I was more than familiar with as in the years leading up to now I had been a regular face. Always coming up with requests for assignment to one op or another in the hopes of rising through the ranks faster by building my 'portfolio' of missions top impress the brass with. It was a strategy that worked in my favor more than once and there was always the element of luck involved in my escapades. Most of the time it was the luck of just staying alive (something that seemed to have followed me ever since Withering Heights) but every blue moon the commanding officer of the operation would be K.I.A and I would step into their boots and take command of the operation. When I got home, boom, a battlefield promotion was waiting for me to take their place because I somehow pulled it all together. Eventually they caught on that I was better suited for work as a Ranger and they yanked me out of the GA and into the Desert Ranger Corps. I had been dreaming of joining them ever since I was a teenager and first saw the propaganda posters for the newly reformatted Desert Rangers. Of course...that was back when Equestria saw them as heroes. Before that title was stolen away.

“Well hello there Major Crete!” A voice called out from the desk in front of me rousing me from my thoughts.

“Well shit, I didn’t know they pulled you back here!” I exclaimed happily, looking into the eyes of the very same stallion who had been there for me at Withering Heights. “How you been Dodge?”

He was an orange musclebound stallion in his early thirties with a black mane and spring green eyes wearing an olive green GA uniform that clashed weirdly with his coat. Specialist Dodgeball was a chill dude who knew how to make a mean cocktail he called the Atomic Annihilator and though I had never tried it myself, I knew the people who had and they adored it. Plus, it had the fun side effect of making your whole body glow like a bottle of Sparkle-Rad which was a huge hit at raves. The pictures folks would bring back from PT were a sight to behold.

“Best fuckin’ time of my life BitchLord!” He laughed, giving me a hard hoofbump before gawking at my neck. “Holy shit, you’re a fucking Colonel now?!”

I laughed and pointed out that the pin was an oak leaf and not the silver Phoenix of a real Colonel like Horn had been promoted to.

“Lieutenant Colonel, Dodge. Het your eyes checked, dumbass.” I giggled. “But people call me Colonel anyway since there’s really no short-hoof way of saying Lieutenant Colonel without saying LC which...just sounds like fucking gang slang. Calling somepony a Lieutenant would be insulting to their rank but calling them Colonel isn’t exactly true either so it's one of those weird grey zones nopony likes to put much thought into.”

“Yeah…” He agreed, scratching at his neck where his mane seemed to have recently been on the receiving end of a haircut. “And saying the whole title feels too long. Fuck, now that’s gonna bother me for the rest of the day! Thanks, asshole.”

I rolled my eyes and set my hooves on the counter/table between us and said, “Yeah, yeah...look, I’d like to get booked for the next immediate shift on Charlie-Horse, k?”

He looked at me incredulously but pulled up the information on his terminal anyway while saying, “God, your life must have gotten pretty boring since the last time I saw ya, BitchLord. What, they got you sitting behind a desk now too?”

I tapped the table he was currently sitting behind with a smirk.

“Look who’s talking. Nah, they’ll probably ask me to after this tour is over in a few weeks just to keep their hierarchy intact a bit longer. Since my rank as a Veteran Ranger outweighs my rank as Lt. Colonel, they need me out here more than they need me behind a desk so for now, I get to be a field operative still. Honestly ever since I became a Ranger, the whole GA ranking system has become a formality more than anything. Rangers only have three ranks just to denote skill level and veterancy since we intentionally leave behind our old ranks to join the Corps. Problem is, all the GA officers keep getting killed left and right so they gotta rubber stamp more and more of us for ghost positions in the hierarchy just to keep shit functional. The whole fucking thing is a joke.”

“Heh, you’ve got that right!" He chuckled bitterly. "They don't got you leading platoons and shit do they? I've had to assign so many to Rangers in the last few weeks I can't remember who does and who doesn't have an assignment."
"Oh thank fuck no. Actually my Squad got promoted to Alpha finally though...not in the way we intended."
"Well before shit hits the fan, lemme just say congrats! So, what ya mean, 'not as you intended'?"
"Heh, dunno if I should tell you this but the original Alpha was yoinked right outta Camp Macintosh not even two hours from our deployment down here. Word from Colonel Horn is M.O.M thinks they're some sort of high-tier Imperial spy ring or some shit. So, being Beta we were naturally next in line to take up their title and boom, now I am the leader of the DRC's Alpha Squad."
"Well shit...that's all sorts of fucked up sister." He replied with a knowing smirk. "Still though, bet it feels good to finally be able to call yourself Alpha finally. You talked nonstop about being in second place to those perfect fucking boys last time I saw you. Might have been a few years back but it's damn hard to forget how much you bitched to me, Blaze and Buck; every fucking night it felt like!"
"Alright, fine...you gotta point." I sighed in defeat, leaning on the counter and laying myself down a bit. "Point is...we didn't earn it dude. This tour was supposed to be our shining moment where we finally did something worth dazzling the chiefs with and getting considered for the top spot. To win by default like this...it doesn't feel like a victory at all."
"Huh...that sentimental about it eh? Well, maybe just use this tour to make yourself feel like you earned it. There's gotta be something you can do to get some sorta closure for this shit."
"Yeah...well, sadly that ain't tonight." I laughed, feeling the clock on the wall stabbing anxiety into my bloodstream. "Like I said, I need to be put on for Charlie-Horse. Draw straws for it in the Squad since our number came up and I got the ass end of chance."
I mean, Lady Luck ain't everyone's savior so I guess it's only fair. Besides, you’re dressed up and all ready to go kick some ass so who am I to say no to Fate? Next shift starts in ten minutes and...oh, looks like there’s already two others posted to be there too! Isn’t that nice? Now you can get bored out of your fucking mind with friends! Make sure ya snag a magazine and a lot of something to snack on, it's gonna be a hell of a night.”

Two others? Fuck, that was going to make my rendezvous with Zecuro even more difficult. I mean, how the fuck was I going to talk with him when I had two others not involved in the scheme stuck by my side? I thought about maybe meeting him in the trenches on the pretext of going to take a shit or something but if I was gone for more than even ten minutes, they’d probably come looking for me. Maybe if I brought a magazine to ‘read’ while I ‘did’ it? Everypony knows if you bring something to read with you to the bathroom, you’re gonna be there for awhile. He already recommended the magazine bit so it stood to reason it was a decent cover story. Wasn’t much of a plan but it was the best I could come up with on the fly.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah Dodge.” I sighed, hiding my apprehension once again behind a mask though this one was of humor rather than my earlier one of steely indifference. “Just put me on the list so I can go please. I got picked for next shift and if it's in ten minutes then I'm already gonna be late as it is.”

“Already done!” He laughed, tapping the screen of his computer confidently. “If they gave out battlefield promotions for fastest typist in the GA, I’d be a fucking Master Sergeant by now.”

As I turned away to leave, his last words stuck in my mind and just as I was leaving his corner of the tent I turned and said, “Let me put in a good word for you Specialist. I owe you that much for the extra ammunition you gave me and my Platoon at Withering Heights. Saved a lot of lives. I'm smelling Warrant Officer heh heh.”

He looked astounded I remembered something so small that had happened over six years ago but I left before he could respond. I was unsure if I could pull off something like a Warrant offer but he deserved it after being stuck at the same rank for several years now. Despite his physique, his mind was even more potent and he had single-hoofedly streamlined the Requisition process and computer systems. Unfortunately, this was a very specific Specialty and as such there really was no rank higher than his that reflected his mastery. However since he spent so much time behind the counter doing what he did best, he rarely got any time in the field meaning he usually couldn't pass the practical parts of the tests. Why they hadn't already awarded him a Warrant...was completely beyond me. Wouldn't be the first time the EAF was in such disarray some deserving few were forgotten and left behind. As I began the long run to make it to Charlie-Horse in time for my shift, I thought back to the aftermath of that day in the Ponyarny Inlet when Dodge and I had both first met.

It had been a regular, boring day on the Heights overlooking the inlet that lay on the Westcoast of Equestria about forty miles Southeast of Manehattan. I was a Second Lieutenant just a month fresh off the graduation path from EastPoint in command of my first Platoon of forty soldiers; the bulk of whom were male and had taken quite the dislike of having a mare be their C.O. Especially one who had earned her commission by going to a cushy military school rather than by a battlefield commission earning it through blood. Lots and lots of blood. It had been sixteen years since the War had begun and only three since we had beaten back the Empire’s First Invasion force. How we managed the first time, I honestly didn’t have a clue even after four years of grueling modern-day military history classes. It all seemed like a mixture of superior magic/technology mixed with a hell of a lot of luck. Regardless, I was fresh out of school and was just as clueless about the ‘real world’ as I had been coming out of high school.

What began as small blips on the E.F.S radar turned into a solid mass hurtling towards us from the ocean, like a tsunami of pure death sent from the Empire. Ships filled the water like geese in a pond full of soggy bread and Wyverns, the Dragon species native to Zebra lands, filled the skies with noise and fire. And there I was, a wide-eyed freshmare in high school all over again staring at the embodiment of Death itself with only forty other poor bastards stuck under my command. The only advantages we had in that fight were our well planned/well built fortifications, high caliber Anti-Ship/Anti-Air guns and access to the then-new GAU-19 minigun, a tri-barreled machine of death chambered in .50BMG, the largest sub-cannon caliber available at the time to the General Army. I could remember staring at the multi-thousand round belts that fed into those beauties as they looked out over the Great Sea sitting on the concrete walls of the Sea Wall. HEI, HEI, AP-I, SLAP, AP-T. The same, odd pattern of five continuing endlessly for yards through flex-chutes and out of large ammo canisters. In retrospect the odd belt pattern had been a blessing as it allowed us to engage ships, early combat robots and infantry alike with high-explosive incendiaries to soften the targets and armor penetrating tungsten to punch right through and do some real damage.

Thanks to the MDS, Deep-Pocket spell and the sheer amount of explosive ordinance we had at our disposal (thanks in no small part to Specialist Dodge bending the rules for me), we somehow managed to survive the brunt of the 10,000 troops attempting to land in the Ponyarny Inlet. In total, the Inlet had maybe 200 troops to defend it in total with another few dozen from the Engineer Corps on-site to assist with the heavy ordinance. It took a full week and 147 deaths before the Steel Rangers came to save us but by that time we were almost no longer in need of rescue. We sunk so many of their ships and blasted so many Wyverns from the sky that we were only up against what was estimated to be roughly a little over three-thousand enemy combatants by the time the Tin Heads came barreling onto the beaches. With Manehattan properly defended and garrisoned, the full brunt of the SRs descended on the rest of the coastline to assist. There were plenty of other places like Ponyarny that were similarly understaffed and overwhelmed but who had held out against incredible odds. And yet, for their relatively easy clean-up operations, they were awarded the Medal of Valor by Princess Luna herself and I went from Second to First Lieutenant, almost completely forgotten as I laid in the first of many M.O.P tents recovering from eight gunshot wounds and my front left leg getting blown off. Thankfully I had seen where the damn thing had flown off to when that Commando swung his sword through my shoulder and they were able to reattach it. But...at the end of the day, I felt forgotten. Me and all the other poor fucks who somehow survived the Invasion were quietly awarded Amethyst Hearts, a promotion in rank here or there and sent right back out as soon as the docs cleared us for active duty once more.

When the Third Invasion hit in 2074, the SRs were in Ponyarny and I was busy at work down in the Badlands, a fully initiated Ranger of the Desert Ranger Corps and having the time of my life. And yet...I never once was recommended for any kind of commendation for my efforts at Withering Heights save for nine Amethyst Hearts and a simple promotion. Meanwhile...the well-known tale of the SRs began to get even more inflated and propelled them into legendary status while the Desert Rangers were shoved towards the asshole of military importance. And now, here I was three years later a Veteran in almost record time still without recognition. They made a fancy ribbon specifically for Withering Heights that went on as part of your dress uniform, a grey rectangle with a blue stripe down the center flanked on either side by a dash of red. There was no V-PI (Victory-Ponyarny Inlet) award on my uniform and I doubted there ever would be. It was not something I was about to go demanding for.

I was so consumed with inner anger and hatred for things that happened nearly eight years ago that I walked head first right into one of the thick wooden beams supporting the watchtower that was Outpost Charlie-Horse. The blow shocked me more than it hurt and I heard laughing above me as I looked up to see a Ranger and a GI look down at me from their perch, grins on their faces as they reveled in seeing a Veteran absent-mindedly walk right into a pole.

“Oh shut up…” I growled quietly to myself, walking around to the walkway leading up the tower that hugged the tower like scaffolding. “I’ve got more experience than the two of you combined.”

Once at the top, I remembered how boring Charlie-Horse really was. Beneath the drab wooden roof were three-and-a-half concrete walls reinforced with sandbags with an opening for the ramp, a couple rickety chairs, a table, a radio and a few metal boxes for storing supplies. The only potential redeemable factor the tower had to offer was the unobscured view it provided of the labyrinth of trenches extending out for miles in every direction and the distant glow of Camp Fuck-Off.

The Ranger was dressed in the usual armor unique to this particular rank, a thick tan breastplate with bulky shoulder guards, faulds, bracers and greaves and a black water pouch fastened firmly to his backplate. Supplemented with an appropriate tactical harness, the M-CAT(R) Gen II was looking better than ever as the next best thing to a Veteran's Mrk. IV. I remembered the weight and protection it offered well as it had only been a few years since I had last worn it myself. It was more than capable of taking shots from the usual weapons the Zebras carried keeping your ass in the game longer than you'd expect with casualty reports like the ones we had. The Ranger wearing the armor was more of an afterthought when it came to the details I took in about him. Dusky orange fur, yellowish hair and green eyes. Nothing too impressive for me to seriously consider his appearance. He wasn't a mare, he wasn't a sexy feathery birb, he was just another stallion. Nothing to write to mom about.

The GI was even less remarkable as an individual, both in terms of his looks and his armor. I could tell with just a brief glance he was a Corporal by the simple short-fiber shoulder pads and ballistic vest he wore over his drab olive green uniform. They only gave plate carriers to Sergeants and anyone above that wore M-CAT. Brown coat, chestnut mane and I didn’t even bother looking at his eyes. These people were only going to get my attention if their personalities stood out more than their generic appearances. Not to say I was hostile towards new faces, I was just not in the mood nor in the correct circumstances to be making friends out here. Far as I was concerned, they were just as in the way as the General was for all I cared.

“Well, didn’t know we were getting a Veteran posted out here tonight!” The Ranger commented, his accent sounding more Western than anything else. “How’d one of you get posted all the way out here? Bad luck?”

The less they knew, the better.

“Yeah, you could say that.” I replied with a well-faked laugh, sitting down at their table where they were playing a game of Blackjack using real bits instead of chips. “Me and my Squad drew straws and I lost.”

“Oh shit, you’re a girl!” The GI exclaimed in disbelief, nearly falling out of his chair as his face flushed red.

“Very astute observation numb-nuts…” I sighed, pulling off my helmet for them to ogle me like most guys did.

“Damn, you get your promotion from flaunting them good looks?” The Ranger chuckled, thumping his chest where the Desert Ranger symbol was painted alongside the words ‘Ranger Dusk’.

“If you’re implying that I slept with the Colonel to get promoted to Veteran then I suggest you run off back to Camp before I cut your dick off.” I growled, making sure they both caught sight of the Sequoia on my leg, the pins on my lapels and the handles of the combat knives I kept on the small of my back.

“Whoa, fucking hell Ranger! It was just a joke!” He blurted out, holding up his hooves defensively while the GI chose to hide under the table whimpering.

“It better be.” I sighed, setting my helmet down on one of the boxes next to me and leaning back in my chair popping my spine comfortably against the back of it. “I’m sick of being harassed about that kind of shit from all of you people.”

“Meant no offense Ma’am.” The GI whimpered as he climbed back into his seat after seeing I wasn’t going for his dick with something sharp and military-issued.

“I know…” I finally sighed, picking up a set of cards and shuffling them with my magic. “Look...you guys don’t know what it’s like to be a mare out here. Showers are rare, there’s no medicine out here for when you go into heat and guys like you are constantly making jokes about our ‘female problems’ and asking us to get into bed with you while pretty much ignoring the things we do out here. Always gotta be flaunting your own portfolios and awards so loud in our faces we can't even get a word in edge-wise despite having a fucking majority of the population We’ve already got enough stress from getting shot at out here just like you so stop adding to our problems alright? If female shit annoys you so much, why not try finding out what those problems really are and seeing what you can do to help them. We wouldn’t complain so much if you guys didn’t complain so much about our complaining and actually did something. There's plenty you guys can do to make our lives easier. We're all far from home feeling hot and sweaty and all that shit just like everyone else down here and we deserve some goddamn fucking respect alright?”

They stared at me with confusion as I dealt out the cards and pulled thirty bits out of my money purse, setting it on the table before me. It wasn't my first time baring my fangs a bit at misogynistic behavior from my peers and I was well known to be the first to promote all the cool shit mares were doing in the War. I wasn't part of some agenda like many wanted to believe but it was out of a genuine hatred for the loss of the equality of the sexes that once existed in the world. While mares dominated the population brackets, somewhere along the way stallions had crept in front of us. Perhaps a show of chivalry harkening back to the old days of swords and metal plate but over time came a sense of superiority of sorts. At first we were too precious to waste as corpses in War and then all of a sudden it became a matter of us not being fit for battle. It was absolutely ridiculous...some of us had always been getting our hooves dirty from the very start like the members of the Wonderbolts. Having a dick or a cunt wasn't enough of a factor to determine who could kick ass and who couldn't, it was how badass the owner was that made the soldier; simple as that. It was a belief worth fighting for because all it asked for was equal recognition. No special treatment, no fawning parades of sympathy, no special labels. Just the ability to do a good job and be accepted as part of the group for it.

“I’m sorry...I didn’t think about that.” The Ranger said quietly while the GI nodded in agreement.

“No one does, that’s why it’s still a problem. Next time you get the chance, ask you mom about what it’s like. Might give you some good insight. Now, let’s play. I’ve only been here five minutes and I’m already bored out of my mind unless you boys can't play a good round of cards to save your asses.”

The mood lightened significantly after my lecture and soon enough we were laughing, swapping stories and dirty jokes over lukewarm bottles of Sparkle-Cola and Sunrise Sarsaparilla; the latter of which I enjoyed much more than Cola as the carbonation didn't hurt my sinuses as much. The Ranger, who’s name was Summer Dusk, was a plumber and electrician before the War and had been recruited into the Desert Rangers after he had shown particular skill in maintaining energy weapons and disabling enemy combat robots. Why he joined the Rangers rather than the Engineers? Well, better pay and he got to be where the action was more than the Engineers did with a gun in his hooves and adrenaline in his veins.

The GI was still unremarkable as a person even after he told us his whole life story. However, he made up for that a bit with his gentle, generous nature. He was barely nineteen years old, had graduated high school in Manehattan and came from a family of street cleaners. He really only had joined the Army to send the bigger paychecks back home to try and get his family into better housing. Other than that, he had no other reasons to be away from home in the middle of a desert fighting a country he had never even heard of before for reasons he could only begin to try and guess at. He wasn’t a patriot...he was a scared young stallion doing what he thought would better his family situation. What a way to live...

“What about you, Ranger?” Summer asked me pointedly after pushing the thirteen bits I had won from him into my pile. “What brings you all the way out to the fuck-middle of nowhere? I’d expect someone like you to be up on the Eastern Front to be honest. Fighting over there is pretty bad from what I hear.”

“Well, to be honest where else is a Desert Ranger supposed to be but the deser-” I began only for the two of them to gasp and then collapse on their sides right after the other.

I knew exactly what was going on and was on my hooves in an instant, flinging the table their direction hoping either it or the cards and bits that were on it would hit her and show me her position. The table bounced off in a weird way before it hit the sandbags on the other side of the platform and I hurled myself right after it with my knives and Sequoia out and ready. If I could cause enough damage, I could disrupt the cloaking spell and make her visible. I collided against a very hard, invisible object and I wrapped my legs around it like a spider with its prey bringing the invisible Crimson Dragon to the ground. The impact knocked the wind out of me but I didn't loosen my grip lest I give up my one real advantage over her. I wasn’t going to let the fact I couldn’t see her fuck me over like she had Summer and the other guy.

“Atina! Cease! It is I!” The invisible but unmistakable voice cried out somewhere near my right armpit.
There was only one person I knew who wouldn’t (or couldn’t?) remember the ‘h’ in my name and I immediately relaxed my anaconda squeeze to let him up. It was a bizarre experience feeling an invisible force extricate itself from your grasp but a moment later his hood was flung back and I was seeing my own orange tinted reflection staring back at me from the massive glass visor on his head. It looked similar (if more heavily armored) to the Advanced Environmental Suits the scientists from the M.O.A or the nurses from the M.O.P sometimes wore whenever they needed to travel into unsafe conditions. The orange opaque visor extended from just below the nostrils all the way back to mid-scalp like a glossy dome while the rest of the head was encased in the same matte black metal the rest of his armor was made from. Interestingly, the slit in the top of the helmet that allowed their high mohawks to fit was entirely absent making me wonder just how short he had to have cut his mane to be able to fit it in there.

“I am most apologetic concerning your comrades.” He said quickly, nodding to the two bodies on the ground. “Fret not, they are but unconscious. My hoof was forced so I adapted. I have no intention of harming Equestrian lives any more than I am forced to do so by mine country.”

I stole a quick glance and saw that they were indeed still breathing before looking back at him. The helmet hissed softly and sections on the neck and muzzle popped out slightly allowing him to remove the helmet from off his head. I had to suppress a giggle at the three-inch high strip of hair that had replaced the rather majestic mohawk he had sported the last time I had seen him but he didn’t seem to notice my amusement; a smile broke out across his young face, his blue eyes no less striking than the first time I had seen them. They were beautiful but wholly unnatural from any other Zebras I had seen before and though I couldn’t remember through the haze of time...I swear his eyes used to be gold.

“Atina...it is so good to see you once more...after so many years.” He said sincerely, picking up the thrown table and scattered chairs so we could talk in more comfort. “I apologize for the inconvenience mine appearance has caused you thus far. It is regrettably unavoidable given our circumstance.”

I took a seat across from him, setting my helmet down beside me on the table like he had done with his own strange helmet and allowed myself to smile as wide as I could in glee. I had not realized just how giddy seeing him again after more than twenty years would make me but I was not opposed to the feels either. He had been a good friend in the past and that fact had not seemed to dim with time, War or circumstance.

“Believe me…” I managed to say between trying to catch my breath. “Seeing you again is well worth the trouble. To be honest, I thought you were dead. Like legitimately thought you had died in the riots of ‘54 by the way your parents reacted when I came over to play after they happened.”

“Ah…” He sighed softly, scratching at his scarred neck in an almost nervous manner. “Those years were...complicated. And something I do not wish to discuss now. Presently, did you warn your people concerning the attack?”

“Oh fuck me…” I whispered as I realized I had completely forgotten about his warning in the wake of the General and Silk.

“I had feared thusly…” He sighed, obviously disappointed the first bit of intel he had given me was seemingly wasted.

An idea sprang into my head and before he could even ask I was at the radio set in the far corner of the platform and had dialed into H.Q to tell them the news.

“Alpha six-nine to base, Alpha six-nine to base, I’ve got eyes-on tangos en-route to ordinance on East Ridge. Suggest immediate reinforcement ASAP, over.”

The line was silent save for quiet static for a few moments before a tired voice responded, “Negative copy on that, Alpha six-nine. Say again, over.”

I repeated myself again, trying to keep my cool in front of my friend who watched on in silence.

“Solid copy six-nine, thanks for the heads-up. Command out.” The other end replied before the line went dead leaving me feeling confused if he had even really cared about the rather important information I had given him. Charlie-Horse may be one of the most boring places on the Front but that didn’t mean the info forwarded on from here was just as boring.

“Well...I did my part.” I sighed, returning back to the table and sitting back down. “So...where to begin?”

“I was asking myself that very same inquiry.” He said calmly, putting his hooves on the table and spreading out a map. “I felt we should begin with a convergence of information as further proof of my diligence to this defection.”

“You don’t have to prove anything to me Zecuro.” I reassured him, my youthful confidence in his character pushing aside my doubts and reservations.

“Perhaps not...but it would not be wise to be so trusting in me so soon.” He warned, the little doubts in my heart stirring slightly to his words but not enough to erode my confidence. “Now...as of now, our forces are most concerned with the defense of our main camp until a caravan from the Empire arrives with supplies and troops. At such time we will attempt to make a push back towards thine Camp and regain such areas as have been lost to us by the arrival of your Rangers.”

He pointed at the stretch of No-Pony’s Land separating the two Camps on the map and I was surprised at the accuracy of the drawings of the area with even the minute details on point with the latest intelligence I had learned just that morning. It seemed they were more than aware of our positions up and down the valley down to the types of artillery we had and the locations of the Steel and Desert Rangers best troops.

“How did you get all these details?” I asked him seriously, seeing a small black circle in the DRs group that looked roughly where my tent was placed.

“Various sources of information compile to make these charts.” He explained. “Interceptions of communications, Dragon operatives like unto myself and informants in your ranks.”

“Wait, WHAT?” I exclaimed, realizing that little black circle was exactly where my tent was based on the location of the Galley and the M.O.P tents.

“Monetary compensation and lofty promises are quite appeasing bargaining tools that we have utilized against thine country for decades now.” He said with remorse. “It is most unfortunate not all your people are as stalwart in their nationalism as thou art.”

Of course it made sense we had traitors of our own in our midst. The economic recession, exhaustion from fighting, indoctrination, sympathy...all these factors could wear down on a pony and make them betray their own people to secure their own finances and...perhaps even their own place in the new world order if the Empire successfully conquered Equestria. Despite my understanding of their situation though, I was determined to weed out these little fuckers with all the same fury I had focused on the stubborn dandelions that had infested mom’s garden as a filly. I wasn’t going to be bested by a fucking weed. And the best part was I had a gun this time around rather than a garden hoe and a shovel.

“Alright…” I breathed out, returning my focus to the map. “So what’s next?”

“That is an astute question…” He said, pointing towards the ocean far to the Southeast of Camp Fuck-Off off the coast of the Far South. “Our reinforcements will make landfall in less than two weeks’ time so you have time to prepare for their coming. Intelligence reports have this force as being particularly large, far more so than in previous months.”

“Actually, I already knew about that.” I replied, biting my lip nervously as I remembered Operation: Downsize was looming in the future. “Our General informed us about it and he wanted me, my Squad and an unknown number of Steel Rangers to take it out as soon as they land. He told me it was full of Zebra foals.”

“W-what…?” He asked fearfully, staring at me with his wide blue eyes. “F-foals…? That is not possible...the High Chief would feign send children to a place such as this!”

“I don’t know, Zecuro...that’s just what I was told. We were ordered to go in there and blow the whole fucking thing to hell twice over. Hell I wouldn’t be surprised if he ordered an artillery barrage of the area before and after we were done just to make sure everyone was dead. He seemed...particularly happy about it. In a way that rubbed all of us the real wrong way.”

“This is most troubling…” He said after a moment of tense silence. “I was informed it would be but able-bodied reinforcements, supplies and ammunition. Are you certain to this information’s validity?”

“Bro, the whole thing is so fucked up and ambiguous that nopony knows what the fuck is going on anymore. Far as I know, yeah this shit is a 100% real. The General is...a special kind of racist psychopath yes but he wouldn't be where he is if he made decisions on completely faulty intel. This kind of thing is totally within the realm of reason for him and to be honest, so is the possibility that this is all a red herring and we’re going to be sent on a wild goose chase and get killed. Far as I know he’s already killed off plenty of people who’ve caused him trouble and I think I’m next on that list. For all I know, I could be sent to the Empire on the front lines intentionally to die out of his sight.”

“I see…” He sighed, leaning back in his chair and rubbing his eyes. “Such is Fate to grant us such a mess as we have in our possession…”

He remained in silent in contemplation and I took the time to take in every detail the map had to offer, lamenting it wasn’t one of the fancier digital maps we had back at Camp so I could zoom in and out on the various details. Another point of annoyance was the lack of English anywhere on the paper, the squiggly runes of Afrikaans littering the margins like an ancient manuscript. I was no linguist and neither were anyone in my Squad. We left that to the eggheads to handle since our jobs were to kill everything and gather what information we could manage and leave the rest to the handsome talking experts who dealt in that kind of work. I only had a basic grasp of the spoken language but the written one was just too foreign for me being written in a strange, flowing script. The differences between letters was too subtle for me to focus on while entire words and sentences just looked like the scribblings of a kindergarten foal.

“Zecuro?” I asked him eventually, taking an interest in the helmet that lay beside him. “When did these get made? You weren’t wearing one of these the other night.”

“Ah, the helmet.” He said with a smile, picking it up like a proud parent. “Indeed these are new. With the technology we recovered from thine fallen Rangers we have developed a similar system for tracking enemies and seeing through obscuring agents. With the unrestricted allowance of the use of NecroGas, our operatives required adequate shielding and a breathing apparatus. This is our proud result.”

He offered the helmet to me and after a moment’s hesitation I gave him mine to inspect. Considering there were no Unicorns in the Empire, there was no place for my horn to go in the thing so I had to make my observations by peering through the neck hole at the inside of the visor, Indeed it seemed to have a bare-bones version of the E.F.S running as I could see an orange/gold HUD on the inside of the visor. Complete with what looked like a compass and what could have been a rudimentary MHG and motion detector in the top left and right corners. Judging by its ability to operate independent of being attached to a power source on the main body, I had to assume the strange circular device on the back of the helmet housed a power source, most likely one of the artificial crystals they used to power their automations. The construction was solid as well, bearing a similar feel and weight to what the armor I had recovered recently but had yet to examine up close. Without better tools to pry into its secrets more, I was only left guessing how effective against bullets it would be.

“The fit is not the best…” He muttered and I looked up to see him wearing my helmet which clashed with the sleek black of his armor so much I almost laughed. “This is highly advanced. I know not what even the half of what these functions perform. Indeed this is impressive technology.”

I nodded with a proud smile, happy that at least in this case my shit was better than his. A small victory but one that mattered to me. At least in this regard we had a leg up on them in the R&D department.

“Good.” I giggled, offering him back his helmet after I had gathered all I could from it. “I actually have obtained one of those sets of armor when out in the trenches a half mile South of here. It should be waiting in my tent by the time I get back from this meeting and I am now looking extremely forward to examining it in detail.”

He peered at me inquisitively and asked, “Why would it be in your tent? I would assume, like all else your people recover from the field of battle, it would be forwarded unto your Engineers for analysis.”

“Because I’m obsessed with armor and I want to learn everything I can about every set that hits the battlefield. That way I know its strengths and weaknesses and thus can adapt my fighting style to match without having to guess until I died. If I gave it to the Engineers, I wouldn’t see it again and they would most likely downplay its strengths to maintain the illusion of home brewed superiority. As great as Equestrian tech is, I’m not stupid enough to think our shit is automatically gonna be superior to yours. War is the mother of innovation and you guys are not an exception to the rule; I don’t want a watered down version of the facts. If my government and leadership are going to pour water in my vodka, I’m gonna just drink vinegar and get it over with. That is, if I was a vodka girl which I sure as hell ain't.”

“You are just as much a curiosity as you were when we were but foals.” He chuckled, glancing at his fetlock where a small orange hologram came to life displaying the time. “I must leave shortly. Thine compatriots are sure to rouse soon and I would feign be spotted by them at such a time as this.”

“Yeah, I hear ya.” I agreed, looking at the unconscious bodies of the Ranger and the GI. “Look, before you go...I just wanted to say thank you for trusting me like this. I know how dangerous this is for you, especially given your Great Chief's method of dealing with traitors…”

“Tis only traitorous if one believes his side was once correct but no longer is. I have never once believed the Great Chief to be in the right. This is my home. The land I was born unto and the country I, for a time, grew up in. A Zebra I may be; a foreign national in the land of horns, wings and strong magic...but I am an Equestrian at heart. I share more with thee than my own kin.”

I was flabbergasted. Never in my life had I not heard a Zebra declare their love of land, country and kin and I suppose this time was no exception to that rule but never had I seen a Zebra proclaim their love for Equestria with the same zeal. Indeed, not one had ever claimed Equestria as their land, country and kin. Had he included a ‘Long Live Princess Luna’ in there, I would have eaten my own citizenship papers.

“Waar is jy? Moens ons hulp kry?” Came a yell from down below, the language and voice undoubtedly Zebra.

“Oh Gods immolate me hence…” He whispered, slamming his helmet onto his head and indicating for me to become as one with the floor as possible while he stood and went to the wall to look over.

He called out to them in Afrikaans, most likely telling them he had killed everyone in the tower already while I laid on the rough wooden floor trying not to breathe in any of the sand that piled on the ground at least an inch thick. His tone changed to one of pleading and I heard the sound of armored hooves on the boardwalk headed up to where we were. Obviously they either wanted to come inspect the kills themselves or just wanted to come up, pull up a chair and relax for a bit. Either way...I was fucked if they decided to inspect any of us. Before they came around the bend, I yanked my helmet off the table and onto my head with magic before laying back on the ground as limp as a boned fish. I was hoping I passed for a dead body, grateful my armor hid the betraying rise and fall of my chest. I even craned my neck at a painful angle to make it look like he had snapped my neck so as to account for the lack of blood. Had to hope they didn't look too closely at the other two guys who weren't so well hidden.

“Ah, well done Dragon.” A melodic female voice declared as their hooves walked slowly past me, the PipBuck operating system translating their foreign speech into intelligible English for me in my ears. It was a new feature that came with the latest software update but had not really had the chance to test for myself with so little talking going on between them and me. “Incredible, you even managed to kill one of their Veteran Rangers! That is no small feat.”

“I caught them unawares. It was not an honorable kill.” He replied flatly. "There is no honor in such an unworthy hunt."

“Humph...honor is relative.” The Zebra scoffed, a hoof colliding with the side of my head sending me flopping onto my back. “All that matters is more of them die than our own kin. Burn them, shoot them, skin them alive if you wish. All that matters is they suffer the wrath of the Great Chief and that of our people for what they have done to us. Would you not agree?”

“I agree.” He said immediately. “Death unto Equestria.”

“Death unto them indeed. Now, what brings a Dragon so far North at this time? I thought none were allowed to leave the Camp unless given explicit commands?”

“I am under special orders from the Kolonel.” He said firmly, a challenging tone to his voice. “And who are you to question my authority, Kaptein?”

“It is becoming of a leader to question the actions and motivations of those above her.” She retorted, a set of cat-like paws coming into my limited field of vision indicating there was a Cheetah or Leopard in their midst, a rare thing indeed after the failure of the Second Invasion.

“Then do you question the actions and motivations of our Great Chief?” He asked pointedly, my ears straining to catch her answer.

“Of course not.” She spat, anger kindled in her voice. “Dare you to question him yourself you curr?!”

“No. But I wanted to point out the flaw in your logic. If you question my actions as part of your philosophy on leadership then it logically follows that you would in turn question those above me leading all the way to the top of our hierarchy. Do you question the Kolonel?”

“What you speak is blasphemy!” She growled, the sound of a gun cocking as loud as an actual gunshot in the tense silence surrounding us.

“Blasphemy? Surely you must be joking…” He replied with a sigh. “If there is any fault here, it is in your hypocritical philosophy. Either you challenge the authority of those in positions above you or you do not. There is no room for selectivity in your philosophy.”

The cat creature growled lowly in its throat nearby and I could almost hear the silent grinding of the teeth by the Kaptein. Things were getting electric in boring old Charlie-Horse and I had to play dead while they happened.

“We will speak of your blasphemy to the Kolonel herself. She will decide your fate.”

“Of course.” Zecuro responded coolly. “But know that I outrank you Kaptein and my words stand above yours in the eyes of the Kolonel. Who is she more likely to believe? One who has earned the right to the Black Ghost or one who has but merely earned the right of a middling command?”

There was silence between them and the pounding of my heart was so loud I feared even they could hear it through the inch and a half of Kevyarn and steel covering my breast as I lay on the floor beneath them. Shit was about to go down but in what way I could only frantically guess. Best case scenario, they left me alone. Worst…?

“I am not convinced even now of the validity of your kills.” The Kaptein commented, her voice now directed towards my body. “How am I to know he is only half-dead? If honor is so important to you, then let me validate it on your behalf. A kill means naught if there is no one to confirm it occurred. Such is the way.”

Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck…

It was a dangerous move...but I had no other choice given one look at my face would show the life still beating frantically in my body. I grabbed onto the combat knives on my back with my telekinesis, grateful the armor on my horn obscured the sparkling aura, and flung them in the direction of the voice above me while at the same time rolling my body under myself and flipping up to my hooves. There was a loud metallic clang as one blade glanced off her armored torso and a yelp of pain as the other somehow managed to find the chink between her pauldron and breastplate. By no means a killing blow but distraction enough for me to get my Sequoia out of its holster and out where I could see it. All it takes is a second.

S.A.T.S came online giving me a good view of the chaotic world that I had incited around me and a moment to mentally breathe. Ruby red blood sprayed out of the wound in the Centurion’s shoulder, suspended in the air like a macabre garden hose while I caught sight of the other three in the group. One was a spotted Cheetah dressed in lightweight, flexible armor complimentary for their terrifying speed on open ground with razor sharp metal claws strapped onto his/her paws. The other two were Zebra Askari, field troops dressed in their Imperial Mrk. IIIs and hoisting assault rifles with intimidating drum mags. If they managed to pull them from their slings, they would have fifty rounds each while all I logically had was six shots and a couple of knives since my rifle was far too unwieldy in such a tight space. This was a situation best suited for Penny and her shotguns. Thank fuck none of them had one of their enchanted swords...

Without realizing it I had used up almost all of the spell’s duration making notes about their armor and weaponry and only managed to get off one 95% headshot on the Zebra nearest to the barrel of my revolver before the spell exhausted itself and time resumed its normal pace. None of them were wearing helmets as my assessment had discovered meaning my best chance of success was to shoot ‘em all in the brain. The Kaptein did not stay down for as long as I would have hoped and within a second of her comrade’s head turning to gory confetti, she had yanked my knife out of her body and was lunging for me; the blood covered blade clenched in her snarling teeth begging to make friends with my body. I jumped up, presenting my chest to her as it was the most heavily armored part of my body, and caught onto one of the crossbeams supporting the roof, using my momentum to swing/kick my legs into her neck after the knife grazed off my breastplate in a shower of sparks. I was eternally grateful that the overall tower was structurally sound despite its reputation.

She flew backwards and over the concrete wall of the tower, flopping out of sight while the Cheetah pounced upwards at me, tackling me to the ground with a crash that knocked the wind out of me and made me lose focus on my magic leaving me weaponless. The snarling cat pressed down on my chest with its sharpened claws and pressed its menacing face against my muzzle allowing me to stare into its golden eyes. It was then that I noticed they had round pupils rather than the vertical pupils of house cats, an odd revelation to take away in the face of an apex predator. Its face was adorned with the characteristic black spots of its kind but also had intimidating red war paint adorning its cheeks and forehead that looked like it could only have been drawn in blood. This was one kitty that had tasted pony blood before and liked the flavor.

“You disgusting Unicorn!” He hissed, his mouth full of metal fangs that clamped down on my neck like a vice.

His fangs were halted by the long-fibre Kevlarn mesh of my underbarding but the flexible fabric didn’t stop his mouth from cutting off my airway. With his paws pinning my hooves down, I could only lie there and suffocate without even the use of my horn to defend me being as distracted and in destress as I was. My lungs and brain cried for the air that would not come and I felt genuine terror of dying. A bullet was hurt like hell but could be pretty quick for the most part. Suffocation though...every second was spaced into an hour while my vision went foggy and my head ached with unbearable pain, veins popping everywhere like bubble wrap in my head and neck. Hucks and I had tried erotic asphyxiation once. Neither of us had enjoyed doing or receiving it one bit despite how much we trusted each other and I doubted this fucking spotted freak would respect my safe word. ‘Pineapple’ wouldn’t mean a damn thing to him. Only scenario I feared more than this was drowning. This was a damn close second though.

“Atina! Atina please wake!”

The world came back into focus slowly, the pounding in my head making me clench my eyes shut against the pain while my bruised throat croaked out a pitiful whimper.

“Oh praise the Gods!” Zecuro gasped in relief, the feeling of his body under mine faint through my armor. “I had feared you had perished!”

When the pounding in my brain subsided enough that I was willing to tempt my eyes open, I saw his sweaty, panicked face hovering inches above mine, his blue eyes wide with fear but softened slightly by relief. My helmet was laying on its side to my left where it had been tossed aside by my compassionate friend. Looking further I also saw the long silver blade of his unique curved sword gleaming softly in the dim light of the overhead lamp; its long handle wrapped in black and red bands and capped with a silver pommel with a large red stone housed within. Even for the few moments I looked at it, it seemed to gleam from within with an unsettling glow.

“N-not quite…” I croaked out, the words as painfully sharp as those of the Cheetah as they crawled out of my throat.

“They are all vanquished…” He said quietly, nodding his head to the sword and the dead bodies that undoubtedly lay on the ground beyond my sight. “I have...never taken another Zebra’s life...but your life outweighs their own. Yours must be saved.”

Any doubts regarding his trustworthiness died in my heart as though they had been run through by his sword. He had killed his fellow soldiers, the ultimate act of betrayal a soldier can perform, to save my life. Maybe he had done it out of necessity to add validity to his stance with me when he was really a double agent...but the fuck that I cared about that possibility. He had just yanked my ass from the brink of death. I owed him the extreme benefit of the doubt at the very least for such an act as a life-debt was not something he was bound to treat lightly.

“I do not have much by means of aid for your wounds…” He lamented. “But I took the necessity of locating your medical supplies on your body. Forgive mine intrusion of bodily privacy.”

He lifted the bottle of healing potion Huckleberry had given me what felt like a lifetime ago and pulled the brown cork out with his perfectly white teeth. Pressing the cool glass against my lips, the magenta fluid sloshed gently inside the bottle while the smell of some kind of flower wafted over my nostrils. Even the scent alone was enough to clear my airway slightly and clear my cloudy mind.

“Drink. If you are able.” He pleaded gently, his eyes now full of compassion and gentleness. “I must see to your health.”

I took the vial in my shaky magic and opened my mouth, letting him pour the sugary liquid down my throat, the bruised tissues screaming out in pain before going numb and then warm and tingly as the concoction did its job repairing the damage. Any who drank these potions on a regular basis knew that when the warm sensation in your stomach died off, the potion had exhausted itself and the healing would stop immediately after even if the wound was only half-healed. The warm bubbly feeling wore off after a few moments leaving a sort of empty, lonely feeling in my stomach. But, my throat no longer hurt and I could breathe normally again which was good enough for me. The damage wasn’t entirely fixed as my larynx still felt tender and my voice was a little raspy but I was good enough to get back onto my hooves. The rest could be fixed soon as I got home.

The floor of the tower was wet with blood-soaked sand, one blood soaked pussycat and two headless bodies. One with a jagged stump for a neck from my Sequoia and the other with a clean, professional cut through the skin, muscles and spinal cord. It was obvious whose work was whose and I laughed to myself at the clean nature of his kill compared to the brutal method of mine as he yanked his sword from the body of the Cheetah, a wet scraping sound screeching out softly as the blade dragged against the metal armor on its back. Made me want to cover my ears and scratch myself silly...

“Thank you, Zecuro. I owe you a life-debt.” I said raspily as he sheathed the blade on his back in a simple black scabbard.

“Think nothing of it.” He replied in an even tone, picking up his helmet and shaking the bloody sand from its orange visor. “Circumstance is nary one to grant ease of passage through the bowels of war.”

I could scarcely put it better, let alone so eloquently as he had and I just nodded, picking up my knives and revolver from the ground. He put his helmet back on, the sectioned areas hissing closed as a seal was formed similar to that of my own armor and he bowed formally to me.

“I think it is best if I depart for now. With these bodies it will be easy to explain to thine comrades what occurred here. I will contact you again when I have an adequate opportunity presents itself to me.”
Before I could respond he backflipped over the edge of the tower, his hood slipping into place as he did so hiding him from sight before he hit the ground. I knew I wouldn’t be able to see him but I ran to the edge anyway and looked out over the darkened landscape before me wondering how he had survived that fall. I was a somewhat capable free-runner but a forty-five foot backflip was not something I was willing to ever try. Zecuro was on a whole other level of badass than I was used to seeing and I was excited to see just how much training the Crimson Dragons had instilled into his mind and body.

As I turned back to the carnage on the floor, I heard the GI and Summer groaning as they came to, their minds undoubtedly full of questions about what the hell just happened. I had to agree with Zecuro. The pile of bodies was going to be much easier to explain than the truth.

Next Chapter: Chapter Twenty-Five: Restitutions for the Dead Estimated time remaining: 19 Hours, 3 Minutes