Battle Scars

The roar of the MG42 is terrifying. It fires an 8mm Mauser round, and is deadly accurate. But, it's the rate of fire that causes the scare, of 1,200 RPM. It is the fastest gun on the battlefield, and it happens to be in the hooves of the changelings. Equestria had nothing to even come close to that fire rate, and only the anti aircraft guns match that fire rate of the MG42. The sound roared through the echos and hills of the battlefield. Apple Company was on a routine patrol, when they were targeted by the best known as "Chrysalis' Buzzsaw". The company commander, Captain Twilight Sparkle, led a squad of six ponies on a flanking mission, attack the 42 from the side, through the house. Below the ground, inside the basement, they found a staircase to up above.

"MG42 above, use your frags first, then take 'em out. Pinkie Pie, your on point." she whispered.

"Okie dokie lokie!" said the pink pony, loading her M3 Grease Gun. She slowly trotted down the long hallway, where the sound of the 42 grew louder and louder. The terrifying echo of the gun, filled the sound of the hallway. Not even a train whistle could be heard over the sound of the buzzsaw. Pinkie Pie looked up and prepped a frag grenade. She pulled the pin and threw it up in the air. Within 5 seconds, the grenade would explode with tremendous force. It would blow open a hole in the wall, effectively crippling the house even more, as if the constant bombardment of bombs wasn't enough.

The grenade exploded and the squad ran up. Rifle and submachine gun fire was the only thing that was heard in the house now. The powerful MG42, was finally silenced.

"Fluttershy, go with Rarity and clear out these rooms." ordered Twilight. Fluttershy just nodded. She trotted down with her M1 Carbine at the ready. Terrified, she slowly trotted up with Rarity, the marksmare of the group. Rarity led the way as she busted down the door and scanned the area for hostiles. Fluttershy similarly scanned the area again, incase Rarity missed something.

"This rooms clear darling, let's check the next one." she said in her posh accent. Fluttershy just nodded as the two were about to repeat the process. When she charged in a changeling with an MP40 greeted her, and nearly shot her head clean off. Rarity ducked down and fired her M1 Garand rifle five times before it jammed. She charged in to find another changeling struggling to operate his Kar98k rifle. Rarity jumped the soldier to finish him off once and for all.

The two forces of both good and evil couldn't come closer as Rarity threw many punches towards the face, and so did the changeling. Fluttershy just watched as the two duked it out as they fought for control. The weakened Rarity fell on her back, and was greeted by a knife in the changeling's hoof. With all her strength left, she pushed the knife away from her chest.

"Shoot him!" shouted Rarity to Fluttershy. She continued the struggle as the knife drew closer and closer to her chest.

"Shoot him for Celestia's sake Shy!" she shouted again. Fluttershy prepped her M1 Carbine and aimed for the changelings body. She's only a new recruit, and hasn't killed anypony before. The small rifle was raised to her face, and the safety was off. The magazine loaded with it's .30 Carbine rounds were about to shoot out of the barrel. Fluttershy closed her eyes as she pulled the trigger. The Carbine reacted as if somepony pulled the wings off a pegasus, and spat out the small round. It entered the body of the changeling, and the knife fell out of his hoof. Fluttershy fired one more time, and hit the flank, the changeling finally fell down in pain as Rarity just looked at Fluttershy. She fired once more, this ending up in the changelings chest. It slowly drained out the blood as it took it's last breathe of air before dying. The blood began to overflow and drool out of his mouth, the wounds too excessive for any hopes of living. Rarity just sat on the ground and looked at Fluttershy. She put down the rifle and just collapsed from what she did. She whimpered and went into a fetal position as she slowly began to cry.

"What's all the commotion?" said Twilight walking in. She looked down to find two dead changelings, a still shell shocked Rarity, and a crying Fluttershy.

"Are you okay Rarity?" asked Twilight, grabbing her rifle from the ground.

"Yes sir, I am." she said, softly, regaining her thoughts. She looked down at Fluttershy, who was still crying softly.

"Thanks darling, for saving my life." she said simply. She grabbed her M1 Garand and tried to clear the jam. Twilight watched Rarity trot down the hallway to rejoin her squad. Twilight turned and looked down at the crying yellow pony. She knelled down and put her hoof around her.

"You did good private, you saved Rarity's life." she said. Fluttershy didn't respond, she just remained sad, and crying a little bit.

"It's hard getting over your first kill. I know, I've been there." Twilight reassured. This made Fluttershy's crying stop, but she still kept her head down from the captain.

"You'll get used to it, private. Trust me. Before you know it, all of us will be back home. Isn't that something to look forward too?"

"Yes....sir..." Fluttershy said quietly.

"That's good to hear. But the only way for that to happen is if we keep pushing, can you do that?"

"I'll....I...I'll try...sir."

"That's good. C'mon, get up, go join the rest of your squad private." Twilight ended. Fluttershy got up and grabbed her helmet, a picture of her pet bunny Angel laid in there. She just looked at the black and white photo, and put her helmet back on. She grabbed her M1 Carbine off the ground and trotted to her squad mates, resting, talking, and enjoying the surprising nice weather.

"There she is! The mare of the hour! How you doin' shy?" asked Rainbow Dash.

"Fine, Rainbow, thanks." she replied, taking a seat.

"OOOOOooooo, tell me how he did Fluttershy! I wanna hear all about it!" said Pinkie.

"Well...um..."

"Oh wait I KNOW!" shouted the pink pony. "Rarity was fighting some pony, throwing punches left and right like washoo and washhaaa like that. There was blood everywhere. Finally when the changeling pulled a knife out she was all like 'no, no, mr. changeling, don't hurt me.' The changeling laughed as the knife drew closer and your all like: 'I'll save your Rarity!' And then you unleash an entire MAGAZINE into the body, saving Rarity's life, and, and then you..."

"Calm down Pinkie, let Fluttershy tell the story." said Applejack, stopping the pink pony from telling another one of those highly fictional stories of recent events. "Go ahead, sugacube." she said to Fluttershy after Pinkie quieted down.

"Well, um...., you see, I just...well....Rari...um....she was...in...trouble so, um, she told me to kill him...so....um...I did." she said stammering a lot. She didn't want to recall those awful events that just happened.

"That's it?" asked Rainbow Dash.

"Yeah. No heroic ending where you tell him 'NEVER TO MESS WITH MY FRIENDS AGAIN SCRUB!'?" asked Pinkie.

"No, it just happened..." she said quietly.

"Well, that's boring. I'll tell you about my most recent kill. So this changeling was..." Rainbow Dash began.

"Rainbow, it can wait," said Staff Sergeant Cheerilee "Captain wants Fluttershy and Applejack up top for overwatch, the rest guard the perimeter while we wait for supplies."

"Yes, Sarge." said Applejack as she got up, with Fluttershy following her to the upper layer of the house. It had one of those look out towers above, high up in the sky. Fluttershy trotted to the tower, and climbed up the ladder. She looked out into the sky, the sun was about to set. The orange color covered the sky, along with patches of bright red and yellow. It was truly beautiful, a sight Fluttershy enjoyed seeing in the changeling empire.

"Heads up 'shy!" shouted AJ as she threw up a belt fed machine gun. Fluttershy turned to find a Browning 30 Caliber machine gun fly in the air from the hole in the floor. She squeeked a little as the 31 ibs machine gun landed on the ground with a loud thud.

"Gosh darn it 'Shy, you were supposed to catch the darn thing." said AJ climbing up the ladder to the tower.

"Oh, I'm sorry." said Fluttershy, who was really thinking "how in the hell was I supposed to know?"

"It's fine sugar cube. Jus' set the thing to the twelve o'clock position, Captain's expecting a counter attack."

Fluttershy lifted up the heavy machine gun and placed it on some sand bags. Then, Applejack brought up the rest of the ammunition.

"Get her loaded 'Shy, we have to be prepared for tomorrow." Applejack stated. Fluttershy opened the feeding cover of the 30 caliber machine gun. She loaded in the belt of bullets and shut the cover down once more. She cocked the bolt back twice, once for locking it in place, and once for actually loading in the gun. She set the machine gun down and sat on the ledge of the window once more.

"Quite a view, ain't it private?" asked Applejack, holding her canteen as the two stared off into the sun.

"Yeah, it is." she simply said. The warm feelings of being back at home reappeared into her body once more, as if they were gone forever. For the first time in weeks, Fluttershy actually smiled. The sun, even though low, still shined on her yellow coat, her pink mane flowed with the slight, yet strong enough breeze that pushed her hair backwards. For the first time today, Fluttershy felt calm. Applejack took out a carton of Canterlot cigarettes, the ones with Princess Celestia on it raising the sun for the summer solstice.

"Y'all want one?" Applejack asked, with one already in her mouth. Fluttershy never smoked before, and she didn't want to anytime soon. However, as if it were instinct, she grabbed the cigarette, and put it up to her mouth. Applejack took out her lighter and lit the stick of nicotine. As she inhaled, the hot smoked went down her mouth, and into her lungs. She exhaled with a big puff of smoke and, she began to slouch down even more. Her brain began to tell her to relax, and that's what she did. She took another inhale, to relax even further. She exhaled through her nose as she now felt like she was in place with others. But, Fluttershy still felt a sense of awkwardness in the air, as she watched Applejack clean out her M1911 pistol. All that was heard was some small chatter of ponies below, or the birds high up in the sky, chirping away their beautiful songs.

"AJ?" asked Fluttershy, finally breaking the silence.

"Yes sugar cube?" she replied in her country accent.

"What was it like?"

"What was what like?"

"Your first kill. How did you feel?"

Applejack stopped her cleaning as the rod stopped moving. She slowly pulled out the rod and cloth and set the pistol down on the ledge next to her.

"Well, Fluttershy, it ain't really sumthin' I like to talk about hun'." she stated, looking down at her hooves.

"Oh, um okay. I understand." Fluttershy replied.

"But, I'll make an exception for you. Jus' don't tell anypony." she stated.

"Got it."

"It was 1943, part of the Sicily campaign..."