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Based on the following short story by Sithking-Zero

Chief absently ran the oil-stained cloth over the BR55HB service rifle in the light of the candles, lost in thought about the events that had taken place nearly two months ago.

Despite the news reporting that the newlywed couple were having "A storybook honeymoon," and spent much time gushing about how beautiful the Princess of Love and the former Captain of the Guard looked together, precious little had been said over the airwaves or in print about how the Guard would be changed to reflect their massive failure in the face of the Changeling threat, or of people being blamed, or of offensives being planned into Changeling-controlled territory, or reconstruction…

When Harvest had been retaken, there had been a sense of urgency, and the expedition was launched almost immediately. The people had demanded it, that humanity would not lose a single world to an alien menace. It had been a hard, brutal slog, but Harvest was eventually reclaimed.

Humanity and Ponies were very different, he mused. Then again, maybe they had a point- Harvest's reclamation was ultimately in vain, as the world had already been glassed, and the accomplishment was further tainted by Covenant incursions further and further into human space. Still, a total lack of any military build up, of any concern? One queen was defeated, thus they were safe forever?

They might look human to a degree, but the mentality was very different.

John shook his head as a soft, timid knock sounded on his door. Mentally, he groaned as he stood up and slowly slid the door open, revealing Sweetie Belle, clad in her pajamas, clutching her 'Big Belle' doll in one arm, and her blanket in the other. Deep dark circles ringed her eyes.

"John," she whispered, "I had a nightmare. Can I stay with you again tonight?"

Chief said nothing, merely nodding as the little girl who barely was up to his thigh in height scampered past him and commandeered his bed.

This was the other reason that the Chief was thinking about the failed Canterlot invasion: it had left scars on the populace that no one seemed willing to talk about.

Twilight Sparkle was far more agitated, practically jumping down the throat of those who disagreed with her. Applejack had stuck slightly closer to her little sister than she had before. Rainbow Dash seemed to almost permanently be up in the clouds, Pinkie's parties had a more forced quality to them- and if someone like the Chief could tell, that was saying something- and Fluttershy refused to go anywhere without Angel Bunny.

As for Rarity, the Chief hadn't noticed many signs, but he had noticed that bottles of wine tended to appear in the recycling bin far more often, and that the fashionista would wake up with equally dark, baggy eyes as her sister.

Sweetie and her two friends had been the flower girls for the wedding, and since the two people he lived with were invited, he was invited along as a plus-one.

The Chief was used to being in full-scale warzones, even full-scale warzones where giant, man-sized insects dove into crowds, pelting them with green energy. No one else was.

Chief had managed to fight his way through what felt like half the swarm to find Sweetie and her friends upon hearing their screams, and found them being sealed inside a cocoon for storage, managing to rescue them after the cocoon had been sealed.

Almost every night since then, Sweetie had woken up crying. And without fail, she would go to him for help sleeping, and be able to spend the rest of the night fine.

When he asked her about it, she had looked him in the eye and told him with complete honesty.

"You make the bugs go away."

And so he carefully tucked her into his oversized, reinforced bed, noting the small smile on her face as she snuggled closer to 'Big Belle', and felt no regret at sleeping on the floor tonight.

It was worth it to know that she would be free from the nightmares, just this one night…

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Posted previously at: 2016-01-19T03:10:07 | Posted previously by: Kyrii