All Is Hell In Love And War

“Get down!”

Fluttershy was bowled over by rainbow dash as the wall above their heads was torn apart by machine gun fire. A second too late and her head would be splattered all over the scorched brick rubble. With an agitated groan rainbow climbed off her and roughly pulled her to her hooves, obviously not very happy.

“You have to be more careful Fluttershy!” rainbow yelled angrily, “you could have been killed! That’s the fourth time today I’ve had to save your sorry flank from getting blown off!”

Fluttershy was leaning against the wall clutching her rifle to her chest and accepting the verbal beating from her commanding officer. “I’m sorry!” she sobbed over the deafening noise of gunfire and nonstop shelling, celestia I’m sorry! I can’t take it dash! I wanna go home!”

“WHAT?!” rainbow roared, pulling her Pegasus friend off the wall and pushing her forward. “You can’t go home Fluttershy! Home is gone! Destroyed!”

Now well into a full mental breakdown, Fluttershy dropped her rifle and grabbed rainbow loosely: slowly sliding down her chest and into a blubbering heap on the floor. “I wanna see our friends rainbow dash! I wanna see pinkie! And applejack! And twilight! And rarity! I wanna talk to them! Where are they?”

“DEAD! They are all dead Fluttershy! We are never going to see them again!” rainbow now had tears running down her face as the faces of her past friends floated into her mind. She ducked behind a pillar and dragged Fluttershy across her lap, narrowly avoiding being torn in half by a mounted machine gun that had been unattended only moments earlier

“Please rainbow dash!” Fluttershy pleaded in between sobs, now completely lost in her terror and emotion. “Let me go home please!”

Rainbow drew back a hoof and slapped her across the face, shutting her up and bringing her somewhat back to their horrifying reality. “Shut up Fluttershy!” she was barely able to wrench the yellow mares’ rifle from her hooves as she had started to put the barrel under her chin.

Fluttershy scrambled to get her gun back, repeatedly kicking dash in the face and chest. “Give it back! Give it back celestia damn it! I can’t take this anymore! I want to die! Kill me damn it! KILL ME!”

With a sickening thud rainbow brought the butt of the rifle down on her friends head, knocking her out cold. She draped the unconscious mare across her back and ran out of cover, sprinting for the next solid chunk of wall.

Rubble exploded around her hooves as she narrowly avoided getting blown to pieces by mortar attacks. She leapt over a ledge but caught her hoof on the edge of it, sending them tumbling out of cover into the deadly open. Rainbow barely got to her hooves fast enough to avoid getting her brains splattered across the rubble that was once her beloved home town of ponyville.

Her leg had snapped at an awkward angle when she hit the ground and broken her left shoulder, meaning her rifle was now completely useless. She peeked around the wall and fired a shot only to scream in agony and repeatedly slam her goo foreleg into the wall, dropping her weapon.

Her mouth was filling with blood and bile as she vomited all over herself, only to discover she had bitten the tip of her tongue off. She spat out as much of the blood as she could and took out her sidearm, firing blindly in the general direction of her attackers so she could make a run for Fluttershy; who was lying in a heap behind some boxes.

She slid to a stop behind the boxes and checked Fluttershy over. The mare was uninjured except for some nasty looking scrapes along her side and a bloody bump on her head.

Rainbow got her canteen from her saddle bag and emptied the remainder of her water over fluttershys' head. The cold fluid quickly brought the mare back to horrifying reality.

“Rainbow dash?” she coughed, “is it over?”

Rainbow suddenly became aware of how distant the sound of gunfire had become. Their battalion must have driven them back while she was rescuing Fluttershy.

“Almost Fluttershy” she forced a smile, “can you get up?”

“I-I think so.” Fluttershy started to stand but fell back onto her side; her left back leg was broken.

From somewhere on the other side of the boxes came a scream and a single gunshot. A second later a small metal ball landed next to them.

Without a second thought rainbow threw herself over her friend. The grenade exploded, and Fluttershy once again sank into darkness.

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“Fluttershy? Fluttershy are you okay?”

Oh, I’m fine twilight; I just had the most terrible dream.”

“What about?”

“It was awful twilight, everypony was fighting and rainbow and I were trapped and a grenade exploded next to us. It was just so awful, I’m glad it’s over”

“Fluttershy?”

“Yes twilight?”

“I need you to do me a favor okay?”

“Oh anything twilight, what is it?”

“Wake up”

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Fluttershy opened her eyes to see the gloomy smoke that filled the evening sky. It was deathly silent and the whole area seemed to be deserted.

“It wasn’t a dream” she whispered to herself, tears coming to her eyes. “But if it wasn’t a dream then that means… RAINBOW!”

She rolled over to find her dear friend lying dead in a small pool of her own blood. Her wings lay mangled on her back and her back legs were shredded by the shrapnel.

Fluttershy crawled over and shook rainbow dash, vainly trying to wake her up. “Rainbow dash! Wake up! Don’t die on me! Please! Don’t die!” she started to cry uncontrollably as she rolled her friend over to see her lifeless glazed over crimson eyes staring back at her, her jaw laying slack and open her mouth now becoming a breeding ground for flies.

With a shaky sob, Fluttershy buried her face into rainbows soft chest, and cried.