Battle Scars

Rarity began to slowly tear up after recalling those awful moments on that day. The salty tears began to run down her cheeks slowly.

"It's okay, Rarity." Fluttershy said calmly, holding the white mare in her hooves. Rarity wiped the tears away from her face.

"I'll be okay, darling. Thank you." she said as she slowly trotted away. Fluttershy sat back down on the crates as she leaned her head back and looked up to the sky.

"Hey, shy?" said Rarity, a few feet away from Fluttershy. She rocked her head back to look at Rarity again.

"Yes?"

"Don't let your heart to be consumed by darkness. Keep a special place for the ones you love and care about." With that, Rarity trotted down the road once more. Fluttershy took in the advice and began to ponder it all around her head. She looked down to find a small object. It looked liked a golden heart, with vines and leaves encrusted in it. Fluttershy picked it up and she opened the object. Inside was a picture of Sgt. Caramel on one side, and another picture of Rarity. The two were lovers before the war. Fluttershy's heart sank down, as she now put the pieces of the puzzle together. She didn't want anything to do with Caramel from the war. So much that she didn't even want the same rifle as her former lover. Fluttershy closed the locket and put it in her pocket as she took a deep breathe. She leaned her head back once more as she looked up at the stormy, grey clouds. The rain had finally stopped, but, it still looked pretty bad, like it was up for a rebuttal.

"Hey, Fluttershy." said a peppy voice. Fluttershy didn't even need a second guess on who was coming, it was Pinkie Pie.

"Hey, Pinkie." she said calmly, continuing to look up at the sky. The pink pony dropped down next to Fluttershy as she looked up to the sky too.

"Whatcha doin'? asked Pinkie, always hyper active.

"Nothing, just...watching the clouds."

"OOoooooo, sounds fun, hey look, I see a cute little bat in the sky." Pinkie pointed her hoof to a cloud in the sky. Fluttershy looked over to find the cloud Pinkie was pointing at, and she smiled.

"Your right Pinkie, oh, I see one that looks like a spade." Fluttershy pointed to a cloud with the spade sign on a card.

"Oh, your right shy. Look, I see one of a duck and a choo choo train." Fluttershy turned her head and saw just figures in the sky.

"That's awesome Pinkie, I see another thing, one...of...a grenade?" Pinkie turned her head in such amusement to find Fluttershy see an cloud in the shape of a grenade.

"Ooooooo, that is SO COOL, Fluttershy. Oh, look, I see one of a Thompson!" Fluttershy turned her head and no doubt, she saw the shadow of the Thompson submachine gun. Fluttershy's eyes began to widen as she was seeing things that were once peaceful, were now turning into war like figures. She turned her head and saw a pistol in the sky, to the right, a knife, and once more to the left, a rocket launcher. No matter where she looked, she saw the evil sights of war, weapons, equipment, and everything in between, she even began to see parts in the sky, each becoming more and more vivid. The clouds suddenly turned into actual images. Limbs being blown off, blood spilling, even bullet filled bodies. They sky turned from a dark grey, to a bloody red. Each of the skies objects became more and more violent and gory. She closed her eyes, but now she could hear voices in her head.

"Keep your head down Shy!" said a voice in her head.

"MG42! Cover!" said another, along with the loud buzz of the MG42 machine gun. The sound was piercing through her body as she felt her organs shift and knocked around they were a ball in a pinball machine. The buzz of the famed buzz saw   grew louder and louder, the screams of the dead began to fill her head with bad thoughts. The screams of agony as ponies slowly died from blood loss as they lost their leg, arm, or have a hole in their stomach. There entrails pouring out of their body as medics frantically hurried to piece them back together, even if it seemed like a fruitless action. The ponies crying for Celestia or even worse, there moms. Fluttershy couldn't handle it anymore, even if her eyes were closed, she still saw images of death and destruction. She tried to shut her eyes tighter, but it was no good. Finally, she had enough.

"AAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!" she screamed on the top of her lungs. "I CAN'T TAKE THIS ANYMORE!" as she trotted off to find a nice quiet place. She opened her eyes to find an awful scenery, it was Tartarus. She ran away as she saw the victims of war with their wounds, done crying, but in pain as they looked at her running away. Left and right, victims of war, painfully thin, and parts missing just stared at the frantic soldier. She kept running forward, then she tripped on something and she fell down, face first, into the puddle blood. She screamed as she struggled to get up and run. As she turned around, she felt a hoof hit the back of her shoulder, she fell down as she looked up. It was the captain, looking like she always does, fearless. Finally, the visions of Tartarus began to fade and the sky went back to a murky grey. Fluttershy was breathing heavily as her thoughts began to come to. The clouds no longer showed the violence of war, and returned to being normal puffs of water in the sky. As she looked around, she began to calm down, and just looked up at the captain once more. Her nightmare was over, she had enough. She wrapped her hoofs around the captain and began to cry.

"I'm sorry sir. I'm so sorry." she whimpered as her face was cemented into Twilight's body. Twilight was astonished as she then wrapped her hooves around Fluttershy too.

"There, there private, I gotcha. Come on, get up." she said as she slowly pulled Fluttershy up from the ground. She looked as she saw everypony from the Rangers and Airborne all watching the scene of what happened. Fluttershy turned around and wiped the tears from her face, as she trotted on back to the crate she sat on earlier. The rest of the ponies slowly trotted away as they went back to resume their jobs, all except Pinkie Pie, who rejoined her.

"Maybe we shouldn't stare at clouds anymore." she said trying to joke around. Fluttershy snickered a little.

"Yeah, sure Pinkie." The two were silent as Fluttershy played with her hooves and Pinkie was looking off into space.

"Wha...What happened to me Pinkie?" she asked. Pinkie Pie stared down at her, the pink pony looking down as if she knew the answer, and she did.

"You just had a bad nightmare, shy. Nothing more." For some reason, Fluttershy felt that that wasn't the correct answer.

"But, I wasn't sleeping..." she began.

"It was...it was..." began the pink pony. Fluttershy stared into her eyes, looking for an answer, it was the first time she saw Pinkie Pie showing some cracks in her.

"Alright, you had a rush of adrenaline, but, it was a bad one. If the captain didn't save you, you would have killed everypony on the base." she said. Fluttershy's eyes widen as she slouched back down on her seat.

"How did you know that?" she asked. Pinkie's cracks began to widen even more, until, she finally broke through her shell. She felt calm, but, she knew her tough exterior was broken.

"Okay, shy. It was back awhile ago. Like Cheerilee, I was in the Pacific, but, it was a different place than Guadalcanal..."