War Zone-Equestria

A light brown earth pony with a short blue mane with spiked red tips, a short tail of the same color scheme, and a cutie mark of what looked like the reticle of a rifle had been sitting at a large boarded window for ages, watching out from a high and open point of view through the scope of her rifle. It wasn’t a very technologically advanced rifle but it was built for power and distance. It seemed to be fashioned in way perfect for her to use, with a long shining, slender body, and a lever, that acted as the trigger.

She kept watching and didn’t even blink for a second. She seemed to be extremely intent on finding something. She moved aside to a telescope to get a sight of the further areas of Equestria, but all the way from the remains of Trottingham to the rubble of Manehattan, there was nothing. She sat back down in front of her rifle, shifting the scope towards the undisturbed lands, the green land and large hills, harboring many trees and other fauna; she grabbed the straw of drink and took a sip from it, not shifting her gaze for even a second. But then something seemed to flash behind one of the hills. A very faint purple flash, 6 times in a row it repeated itself. No normal pony would usually notice it because it was so faint, but Cross Fire was no normal pony. She saw everything differently to everypony else. The small things that nopony paid attention to were the things that mattered most in a situation to her. She sat there watching the hill for about 8 minutes before starting to lose interest. She knew that by now something would have happened. ‘You’ve been sitting behind the rifle for so long now… you’re probably just so bored that your seeing things,’ she thought to herself, but quickly disregarded the thought. She never missed a spec of dust in a spotless room; there was no way that it was her brain playing tricks on her.

She kept her vision entirely on the mountain for a few more minutes when suddenly the door at the back of the room opened, and a thin earth pony entered the room carrying a box in his mouth.

She sighed before addressing him, “What is it Luis? Why have you interrupted me yet again?”

The stallion was nervous and sweating, clearly uncomfortable being where he was. He started to stutter out his sentence.

”I’m s-sorry for the disruption, C-C-Cross Fire, I, ugh, just b-brought the bullets you asked m-me to retrieve.”

“Ah, excellent. Place them right here.” Cross Fire said pointing to her left. She had momentarily shifted her gaze from the hill. She looked back into the scope. It had been 13 minutes since she had seen the flash and nothing had happened. She sighed about to shift her gaze to another location before suddenly a small purple figure had walked onto the top of the hill. She almost kicked the drink from the chair and dropped the rifle. She picked it back up, readjusting the lens and tinkering with the focus. When she finally saw the figure her jaw almost hit the ground.

Wasn’t that the unicorn she had executed during an assault against Canterlot castle?! She blinked a few times and checked her lens to see if she was actually just seeing things, but she was really there. “How is that possible? I shot her right between the eyes! I watched the life flee her, her brain matter was all over ground!” She shoved the wall in front of her. “It’s not possible! How can she be here?!” Cross Fire was breathing heavily questioning her knowledge of magic. She knew there was no spell that could bring the dead back. Especially with injuries like the ones she’d inflicted on this particular unicorn. So how was she standing right there? It was almost as if Cross Fire could reach out and touch her.

“Uhm if you don’t mind, Cross fire, I’d like to return to my duties in the lower regions of the castle.” Luis told her.

”Wait!” she commanded. "Come here and look at this first. Tell me what you see.” Without moving the rifle she allowed the stallion to look into it.

”I uh, see a, purple unicorn, and a pink pony with a very curly mane and tail.” He said peeking through the scope.

”Wait! What?” Crossfire shoved the small stallion aside and looked through the scope again. He wasn’t lying. There were now two ponies on the hill. She recognized the second one too. She was one of the 5 ponies that stood side by side with the purple unicorn. But then another one walked up, and one by one, to Cross Fire’s shock, all 6 of the ponies that she had executed with so much enthusiasm, had now appeared on the hill before her.

She had no idea how it was possible; she knew they were dead! They had to be! She remembered the glee it brought her to put her hoof gun right between their eyes one by one and fire without even a second thought. She remembered the brains and blood splattering on the concrete floor beneath them as the bullet penetrated the opposite end of the skull, and the blood spraying at her from the explosive force of it entering at such close range. Nopony can survive a point blank shot to the head, especially after the damage it caused. And even if they had found a way, the strongest magic wouldn’t be able to heal their injuries, or just sneak them out of Canterlot castle unnoticed.

”Luis! Go to the body vault, and find the bodies of the ponies you just saw. NOW!” She commanded him.

Without hesitation the small stallion pelted towards the door and shut it behind him.

She looked closely at the expressions the 6 ponies bore on their faces. They looked so confused and horrified at the same time. She pictured what their faces might look like if she got a headshot in on the orange one, and left a bloody disfigured mess on her neck. She took aim, licking her lips and just envisioning the outcome. She pushed on the trigger, and a loud crack erupted in the room as a small explosion occurred within the barrel of her rifle. The noise was almost deafening, but she had fired the rifle so many times, and been in so many gun fights, that she could easily tolerate the noise. She looked back into the scope as the smoke created by the bullet being fired begun to clear away, but she cursed under her breath. She had missed and hit the mare’s flank. She never missed.

“I thought I told them to make the adjustments on this scope accurate!” She said. “When I find that engineer if he doesn’t fix it properly… Humph” She grumbled clearly ticked that the shot had missed its target. She knew that shock and blood could do the rest of the work on the mare but she was really disappointed. She liked it best when she had guaranteed a good kill. Still there was no point in wasting an opportunity.

She picked up a bullet from the box Luis had bought her and placed it on the chair next to her. She cocked the rifle back and the casing that held the bullet bounced out. She picked up the bullet in her mouth and placed it into the slot where the other had just been. She found she was a lot slower if she tried changing bullets with her hooves, and she was still waiting for the engineer to create a magazine that could hold several bullets. She took aim again cocking the rifle and loading the bullet, ready to fire it. She took aim at the blue pegasus, who like her friends was fussing over her friend’s condition, she adjusted the scope ever slightly towards her head, and without a second glance, pushed the trigger. Again the loud crack filled the room and a small explosion occurred in the barrel of the rifle. She shooed away the smoke and looked through her rifle again. She cursed even louder than last time. She missed he target again! The bullet had entered somewhere under the pony’s front left arm.

She was done messing around now. She was determined to take out the group. One missed shot was bad luck, two was really bad luck, but bad luck was something Cross Fire had never had to worry about. She had no doubt the third shot would take out her target. She noticed the purple unicorn starting to focus on the castle spires, but not hers in particular. She had to take her out before she realized that’s where the bullets were coming from. Almost instantly she had slung another bullet into the rifle, and cocked it. She aimed it slowly above the unicorns head and pushed the trigger. But this time she completely ignored the noise and explosion and focused on the unicorn to make sure it had worked. She saw a vibrant purple light expand outwards from in front of the unicorns face. She had perfectly assumed the bullets trajectory, but hadn’t accounted for the unicorn’s magical ability.

She bit her lip to stop herself from swearing out loud and angrily slung another bullet into her rifle. She aimed instead at the yellow pegasus pony’s head and pulled the trigger. Again ignoring the reaction that usually ensued, she watched the group sling their friends onto their backs. Her bullet pierced straight through the force field, but she’d forgotten to account for the inaccuracy of the scope and bullet went straight past the yellow pony’s leg. She swore out loud, she didn’t care now. 4 missed shots were impossible. She hardly ever missed at all. She threw in another bullet for good measure, but was too late, as the ponies had already run back down the hill.

Cross Fire was outraged. She threw her rifle aside out frustration.

”Useless, inaccurate piece of…” she was cut off by the door opening behind her.

”WHAT DO YOU WANT LUIS?!” she yelled as the small stallion collapsed out of fear.

”I f-f-f-found the b-b-bodies, y-you asked m-me to find.” He told her quietly, fearing she might strike him again. “A-a-also the p-p-princess wants t-t-to see you.” He managed to choke out.

She was extremely annoyed and didn’t want anypony else to bother her. “Good. Now get out of my sight!” she commanded. The pony didn’t need to be told again. He sprinted out of the room at top speed. Cross fire looked at her rifle, and back out the window. She slung the rifle over her shoulder and exited the spire following the staircase to the main castle chambers. She trotted over to the main throne room and entered, descending into a bow as Princess Luna appeared before her.

”Cross Fire. I was hoping to get a word with you.” She spoke. She wasn’t using her ‘royal Canterlot voice’ but she still struck fear into Cross Fire, who trembled almost every time she spoke.

”How can I be of assistance Princess?” she asked, not moving from her position.

”you can stand up Cross Fire. You’re my most trusted soldier. I’ve told you many times you have no reason to show me any special respect or fear me.”

Cross Fire Stumbled to a normal stance. “I’m sorry Luna. I’m not in a good state of mind right now.” She informed her.

The princess eyed her carefully. “I heard 4 shots come from your spire. Who was out there?” the princess asked.

“Well that’s just it Princess. I’m not sure if it was my mind playing tricks on me, but Celestia’s 6 best soldiers were standing atop a hill next to the great forests. And I am certain it was them.” Cross Fire informed her.

”That’s impossible. Their bodies were recovered after my sister’s last soldier retreated. You’d left most of their heads lying on the ground of Canterlot. How can they be back?” Luna asked, surprisingly enough to Cross Fire, her voice seemed to have a hint of concern in it.

”I don’t know. But the worst part is, when I tried to take them out, I missed. Only two shots hit them!”

”But that’s impossible! I’ve never seen you miss a shot in the entire time I’ve known you!”

”You can chalk it up to the engineer for the mistake. He hasn’t accurately adjusted the scope on my rifle.”

”I’ll ensure a swift punishment for the engineer and have him fix your rifle, but if what you say is true, we must prepare for our next move!”

”Pardon me for asking Princess, but what is our next move?” Cross Fire asked her, her enthusiasm starting to light up.

”If the 6 were out there, that means my sister may have situated her base in the same area, and if she’s found them. She’ll probably try and recruit the two unicorns to use their magic against me. So I have one option in mind. Prep the bomb squad, they’re about to begin a new mission.” Luna commanded as an evil grin spread across her face.

”With pleasure!” Cross Fire said with a similar look appearing on hers. She turned and trotted towards the door, closing it behind herself.