Battle Scars

"Sniper!" shouted several ponies as the shot rang out all around the village. Fluttershy fell down from her seat and tumbled over as she watched several ponies run frantically for cover.

"Sarge is hit!" said a voice. Fluttershy looked up to find Cheerilee on the ground, wounded but still alive. She looked bad, a wound through the left side of her, a bad spot to be shot by. The blood splash covered her cutie mark, which was a once bright set of flowers, now a blood stained daisy.

"Shy, get to cover!" shouted AJ as she grabbed the yellow pony and dragged her into the fox hole. For a moment, everything was silent. No pony dared breathe or even move at the sudden action. But, Fluttershy's mind wasn't on the long range specialist, her mind was on the wounded Cheerilee, Fluttershy frantically moved around as Cheerilee's life was slowly drifting away. She looked over to Twilight for an answer, but her focus was on the sniper.

"Sgt. Mjr, you have a sniper?" she asked.

"Yeah, we do. Octavia, get up here." shouted Trixie. A grey pony came running down the battlefield and up to the two commanders.

"Take up a position in that diner." said Trixie and Octavia nodded. She trotted past the entrenched ponies as Fluttershy continued to watch the bleeding staff sergeant. She then felt a hoof on her shoulder, it was Applejack.

"She's gone Shy, let's just watch to see what happens." she said softly. Fluttershy's feelings began to sink down further, as she now felt awful. She heard another shot ring out, but this time, two of them.

"Octavia is hit!" shouted a mare as Octavia collapsed, a round penetrated her right hoof and her shoulder. She bit down on her teeth as the pain raged through out her body.

"Buck, Rarity, can you take out that sniper?" asked Twilight.

"Yes sir." she said as she gave AJ the 30 cal to gun. Rarity trotted past Fluttershy as she looked up at the white pony. She said a quick message to Celestia, 'please don't let Rarity to die.' she thought over and over again. Rarity grabbed the rifle, an M1903A4 Springfield, a scoped version of the old world war 1 rifle. She zoomed in through the scope, it showed a clear indication of where the target was. She slowly breathed in and out as she waited for the perfect moment. Fluttershy's heart raced as her eyes kept on Rarity as she waited for her to fall. She closed her eyes and heard the snap of the rifle. But, no pony screamed for help or any pony was hit, she slowly opened her eyes and found Rarity still scoped in. She pulled the bolt back and trotted outside.

"Snipers down." she said as the ponies began to relieve the wounded. Fluttershy watched as Octavia was taken to have her wounds treated and she then looked down at Cheerilee. The blood loss was too massive to save her as her breathing stopped. Cheerilee was dead.

"Motherbuckers." said Rainbow Dash in such disgust. The rest of the makeshift squad gathered around Cheerilee's dead body, their sergeant, their tough, grizzled, veteran sergeant, was now gone. A series of hoof steps came closer to Fluttershy, it was the captain.

"Let's get her out of here, Pinkie, AJ, take her to the medical tent, every pony else, get loaded up once more. Fluttershy sat down on some crates as she began to process the previous events. Staff Sergeant Cheerilee is dead, Octavia injured. She was sad, she wanted to cry, but she couldn't. There was something preventing her from crying, was it herself, did she lose all of her emotions, or was it the spirit of Cheerilee comforting her? Either way, Fluttershy just kept her head down as she remembers just talking to Cheerilee no longer than 3 minutes ago.

"You okay darling?" asked Rarity, taking a seat next to Fluttershy.

"Yeah, Rarity, I'm okay." she said softly.

"Thats good. I saw you take out that MG42, that takes a lot of guts to do. I don't think even Rainbow Dash could do that." Fluttershy laughed a little, but then, she heard Cheerilee's voice in her head. She smiled a little and began to talk with a bit more confidence.

"I was just doing my job, it was nothing special."

"NOTHING SPECIAL?! Darling, what you did was amazing. I've never met a pony with such bravery and accuracy to take down something as dangerous as an MG42." Fluttershy began to smile even wider.

"Well, thank you, Rarity, I really appreciate it."

"Oh, no problem darling, I should be thanking YOU. You single hoofed destroyed not only an MG42, but even a 37mm gun!"

"Oh, well, yeah, I kinda forgot about that."

"Well, I am very appreciative of your heroic actions, unlike some ponies, but, I digress." Fluttershy now felt really happy at the compliments Rarity was giving to her, so she thought she would do the same thing.

"Well, you did a good job of taking out that sniper Rarity." she said with pride. Rarity's smile turned into an face of shock. Her smile slowly disappeared and sulked into a state of depression.

"Yes, well, we do what we have to do. Right darling?" she said uneasy. Fluttershy read the look on her face, she was confused.

"Rarity? Are you okay?" she asked politely.

"Yes, darling I'm fine. I just... well..." Rarity was getting too caught up in her words until she finally sat down next to Fluttershy once more, as if the tables all of a sudden took a turn for the worst.

"Rarity, you can tell me anything. We're friends." Fluttershy said in a soft, soothing voice, as she put her hoof around Rarity.

"Well darling, it was a while back, after the invasion of the empire. I was on a patrol..."