The rush of battle adrenaline kept Twieren on her feet, feet that were begging for a sit down. But she must keep calm, and carry on.
Especially in front of the ponies. A single slip in her demeanour would cause mass hysteria.
"Twieren!" huffed Spiarmin as he waddled quickly across the field towards her and Miraibaka. "I went and got Miraibaka as soon as I saw what was going on!"
He pointed to the great steaming corpse of the Lesbian Horse, even on its side and evaporating it was as tall as most ponies. Perhaps one might even go investigate its corpse before it disappeared now that they had her tacit acknowledgement that it was dead.
"And just in time," Twieren offered a gracious dip of her head in sincere thanks. "Any later and I would have been dead"
Spiarmin nodded, his expression tight, "just doing my civic duty"
Twieren frowned at this, not at Spiarmin, but at the chaos created by the invasion of the Lesbian Horse. She'd just committed to taking Miraibaka to the infirmary which left no one to continue farm tool distribution. She couldn't postpone that, the ponies who'd already be sent to work would pitch a fit and go on a strike over the unfairness of it all.
"Could I trouble you to go a bit further?" Twieren spake, "I'll need you to sign off on the rest of this lots gear for a short while, get a pony to help you hand out the heavy stuff"
Spiarmin's eyes drifted over to the crowd who were divided in watching us and watching the evaporating Horse. Could he have been planning something? Did he dare attempt to assume command greater than I had gifted him?
He snapped to attention, salute proud and high. It seemed he was playing up my Generalship by deferring to me respectfully, thus cementing my position as a giver of orders.
"Sure thing," he said before waddling over to the desk and megaphone.
Twieren saw his posture sag at the strewn pamphlets and chortled, "come adoptive sister, we must away"
"Indeed," said Miraibaka, her voice cracking through what was undoubtedly a lump of stress in her throat.
As she supported Miraibaka's weight in such a way as to make it obvious to the crowd that she was compassionate, Twieren couldn't help but notice that maybe Miraibaka wasn't mentally prepared to any degree for what was to inevitably come. This spelled doubly worse for her new recruits, the fools would no doubt be quaking in their boots, or they would be if they wore boots, or indeed needed to wear boots.
Another speech was in order, it seemed, although not about boots.
Twieren gingerly helped Miraibaka over the threshold of the front door, closing it behind them. Miraibaka's whole body spasmed as she let out a strangled gurgle, and another; Twieren was for a moment seriously baffled as to what and why this would be happening before realising it was something she hadn't seen in a life age of the earth.
Miraibaka was hiccupping sobs. Thin streams of tears and mucous trickled down her face and she leant more heavily into Twieren, her legs seemingly losing strength.
Twieren felt decidedly awkward, planning a bloody revolution was her forte, not all this feelings palaver.
"Don't lose your way in your mind," she said, dabbing at her adopted sisters tears with a strip of bandage gauze, "we have to fight as one. Don't be afraid, Adopted Sister, this is the way to be more strong"
Shit. What did that nonsense even mean, thought Twieren as they entered the fully stocked and surgically sterile infirmary located at the very back of her house, near the back door. Why was her grammar failing her at this critical juncture? It was clearly not emotional difficulties about nearly dying to her hated enemy, those had long since burned away in the fires of her wrathful heart. No, the source was quite clear, her concern for Miraibaka was expressing outward characteristics.
The other option, she was worried that she wasn't feeling the correct emotional reactions to the events of the day, especially in comparison to Miraibaka, was laughable.
She was feeling exactly what she needed to feel.
Exactly what she wanted to feel.
Purpose.
Righteousness.
Fury.
These bright emotions smouldering in her chest flared as she sat Miraibaka down and removed the scarf. Half dry blood coated the entire right side of her neck, still leaking slowly from what she was relieved to see was a rather shallow bite wound. No pony deserved such a wound, at any time or place, especially inflicted by another living being out of nothing more than malice.
"Fear not, Adopted Sister!" Twieren delighted a flourish, "it's barely a thing"
"It doesn't feel like barely a thing, I thought we were going to die," said Miraibaka, flinching as Twieren cleaned the wound.
Twieren nodded, "of course, in no way does the comparatively small wound size detract from the size of the trauma, the pain you're feeling is proper and you should not think it too large," she smeared a sanitising poultice on the cut. It was unknown in the bite of a Lesbian Horse was in anyway poisonous, infectious or otherwise different from the bite of a pony and Twieren wasn't about to take a chance by letting the wound fester. There would be plenty of time for that come later battles where a pony of lesser usefulness might be allowed to suffer the full effects.
Miraibaka biffed her with a tail flick, "you really should work on your bedside manner, did you get that straight out of a first aid guide?"
"Yes, so?"
Miraibaka just rolled her eyes drolly and submitted to having the wound bandaged.
"Didn't you also get hurt?" she asked, "you were on the ground when I got there"
Twieren squirmed in her formfitting body armour, pain from several bruises flaring, most notably on her spine where the Horse had bitten her, "it's fine, I'm sure"
Miraibaka gave her a lofty look, "you don't need to be tough here, you know," she said in the closest approximation her voice could achieve to imperiousness. "Even you take damage like everyone else"
"Fine," huffed Twieren and indicated the hard to reach zip on the back of her neck which hadn't seemed half as impractical when she had telekinesis. "But you'll have to unzip me"
Twieren led her adopted sister, now all cried out and thoroughly composed, back outside and over to the table where Spiarmin was handing out pamphlets and farm tools.
"Have you received you orientation package?" Twieren demanded of the pony helping Spiarmin.
"No, um, Captain," he said as he studiously studied the grass.
Captain, yes she liked that, and the pony had to be twice her age. Indeed, everyone should bend their knee to her, humble. Demure, even. Thankful for the protection.
"Off you go then first in line, Ensign," Twieren gave him a severe salute, gratified when he clumsily jumped to copy her before scampering off. She turned to Miraibaka, "you can take over his job, unless you feel well enough to return to the field, though I recommend light duties"
"It will probably do more good to have me till, at least a little," said Miraibaka, saluting cheekily. Or as cheekily as her deadpan demeanour allowed.
"Dismissed," Twieren raised a single eyebrow, very impressed with herself for having chosen such an exemplary everything to be her lieutenant. She turned to Spiarmin and turfed him out of the chair to resume her earlier work of making sure the assembled idiots didn't get themselves killed.