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Prologue 1,358 words
July 1st, 1916-The battle of the Somme-The First World War4,166 words
September 17th, 1862-The battle of Antietam-The American Civil War2,758 words
October 25th, 1415-The battle of Agincourt-The Hundred Years War2,528 words
October 2nd, 1942-The battle for the 'Red October' Factory canteen, Siege of Stalingrad-The Second World War3,887 words

September 17th, 1862-The battle of Antietam-The American Civil War

"Soon we began to hear a most ominous sound."

-Lt. Frederick Hitchcock, Union soldier describing a confederate artillery barrage.

Fluttershy materialized in thin air, falling to the ground.

Thinking quickly, she unfurled her wings and flapped them gently, floating daintily to the ground. Her hooves touched the soft soil as she looked up and surveyed her surroundings. Only, there were no surroundings.

Just a lot of corn husks.

She was in the middle of a giant corn field. She could clearly hear loud pops and screams in the distance, prompting her to duck to the ground following a near-silent yelp. Though they were faint, the noises were not far off. Whatever was happening that may have been causing the loud din was probably going on just outside of the cornfield. She noticed that much of the corn was singed black, the thick smell of sulfur or some other type of gunpowder hanging in the air.

"Oh my . . . " She spoke to herself as she backed away from the destroyed plants.

Her rear hooves stepped in something moist, causing her to whip around in a skittish manner. Looking down, she lifted her hoof and noticed that a sticky red liquid had coated a thin layer on her yellow fur.

Blood.

Fluttershy shrieked, bouncing away from the pool of red. She teetered backwards, and tripped on something in her path. The yellow pony pitched back and fell to the ground, shivering in fear. Blood meant something was hurt, and something being hurt meant that whatever was hurting things was nearby. She shivered behind the log that she had tripped over, hoping that whatever was happening would come to pass, and that she could find her element and leave wherever she was.

" . . Ugh . . ."

Fluttershy jumped in shock.

The log next to her moaned. Logs don't moan. Fluttershy approached the grey thing and noticed that it wasn't a log at all. It was a living, breathing animal dressed in grey cloth. Fluttershy gasped when she caught sight of a red blotch on it's torso leaking the crimson substance all over . . . whatever was laying next to it.

Another creature just like it, only it donned a navy blue instead of grey.

It's torso rose up and down in a rhythmic pattern, signifying breath. It was still alive, just like it's grey counterpart. The blue one however was groaning silently to himself, the pain it was feeling unbearable. Fluttershy was about to run and hide until she remembered her self-induced doctrine towards all living creatures.

"I need to help those poor things, no matter what." She told herself as she trotted up to the two beings writhing in pain on the ground.

After a quick diagnosis, Fluttershy concluded that the one on the left, the grey one, had lost a lot of blood already from an odd hole in it's waist. The blue one had yet to notice Fluttershy, it being way too engaged with the pain coming from a deep stab wound in it's belly. It saddened the yellow mare greatly to think that these poor animals had been left out to die in such a dirty place. Feeling hopeless to treat the hole in the grey one, Fluttershy trotted up to the blue creature and applied pressure to the wound. Though she was reluctant, her need to help the helpless overcame her nervousness as she allowed the blood to run down her forelegs.

"Oh my, there's just too much . . . blood . . to handle!" She said squeamishly, wincing at the red bodily fluids as it poured out from the gash.

The animal had opened it's eyes and stared at Fluttershy, trying to comprehend what it was seeing. Fluttershy matched it's gaze and continued to apply a light pressure so as not to irritate the wound any further.

"Are . . are you an angel?" It spoke in a delusional voice, staring at Fluttershy's wings with glazed-over eyes.

Fluttershy ignored the question and replied in a calm fashion in an attempt to soothe the hurting animal.

"How are you feeling? I hope I'm not hurting you too much!" She said, trying to find something to close up the wound.

"Please ma'am . . . it hurts so much." It said in weak tone, it's voice high and squeaky.

A wave of pity rushed over the yellow mare as tears formed at her eyes. She couldn't possibly comprehend the amount of pain this creature was feeling. It tried to keep it's head up, but the gash had opened up a little more, prompting more crimson fluids to flood out.

"Oh no! Please don't go, please don't go!" The yellow mare pleaded.

The thing's eyes blinked rapidly, and then it's head fell limply to the ground. With a sigh, the last bit of light left the animal's eyes. Fluttershy continued to apply pressure but she knew in the back of her mind that this creature was already dead. The tears erupted from her eyes as she unleashed a wave of sobs over the dead body.

"I-I'm s-sorry . . . I'm so . . sorry . ." She said as she choked on her words.

Fluttershy glanced over at the other animal in grey but had come to the frightening conclusion that it had stopped breathing as well. Just like the one she stooped over now, the grey thing had already passed from this world. She felt like laying down and dying herself until she heard a terrifyingly loud explosion very near to her location. She could hear the rolling beats of a drum as hundreds of voices erupted within the cornfield.

"Charge!"

"Lets go get them rebs!"

"Die Yankee scum!"

The sounds overwhelmed the small pony, causing her to do the first thing that came to mind.

She ran.

Through the cornfield she galloped, trying to avoid the center of the noises that grew louder as she moved. Fluttershy seemed to grow closer and closer to the very middle of whatever she was trying to escape from when she tripped over a large brown pole with a pike on the end, sending her flying into a small clearing in the cornfield. When she looked up, she tried to gasp but there was just no air available to leave her mouth.

She was in the middle of the largest fight she had ever seen.

Strange creatures similar to those back there wrestled with each other on the ground, bashing and stabbing each other in the face and body with the wooden ends of their poles, large knives, and rocks. The carnage was too great for Fluttershy to handle. She could only sit and watch with tear filled eyes as these monsters slaughtered each other in the most horrible ways possible.

"Die . . you . . . bastard!" Said one in blue as it seemed to choke the other in grey.

Nearby, one of the beasts raised his pike and activated a mechanism, causing a large puff of smoke to eject from the tube on the end of his great spear. The animal in front of him wailed in pain and dropped to the ground, clutching what appeared to be his lower abdomen. A deafening explosion tore through the air around Fluttershy, sending many of the creatures flying in all directions. One in particular landed in front of Fluttershy, it's head hanging by a small patch of skin and some loose veins. Shocked and traumatized, Fluttershy screamed a shrilly shriek, piercing the gruesome atmosphere.

A long, terrified scream.

For a moment, her voice was heard over the din of battle, causing many of the monsters to look over at her. Some of them even stopped fighting each other as they stared in awe at the yellow Pegasus. Fluttershy screamed her vocal cords raw until she could no longer scream. The loud concussive noises continued, but the murderers in front of the yellow mare stopped fighting for the briefest of moments to try to understand something.

Why something so innocent could be caught out in the middle of all this fighting.

Another explosion tore through the staring crowd, cutting some of the animals wearing blue in two, scattering their halves all over their comrades and enemies. Some of the blues panicked and ran, dropping their poles and knives.

"Retreat! Fall back to the guns!" Shouted one.

Disregarding the yellow mare, the greys pursued the blue coated animals with fierce, primal yells. After a few minutes, the monsters had passed, leaving only Fluttershy in the middle of the blood-drenched field. She couldn't understand why any of them would do the things she had just witnessed, especially to their own kind. A younger creature dressed in grey lay mutilated on the ground, it's face gored to an almost unrecognizable pulp. Fluttershy shook terribly as she stared at the dead body. A murder* of crows had come to scavenge, one of them dropping by as it picked the youngling's eye out of it's socket and began chewing on it.

Fluttershy watched it happen, then lost consciousness as she fainted into blackness.

Hours later, Fluttershy awoke with a start.

The sun was at it's peak, probably nearing mid afternoon. The smell around the yellow mare stiffened into an unbearably ugly stench. Blood spatter, severed limbs, and strange equipment lay scattered among the dead and dying as Fluttershy struggled to stand up. She tried as hard as she could to ignore the cries of those in pain, for she felt next to no sympathy for them now. They were ruthless killers, and deserved treatment as such. Fluttershy heard rustling in the remaining corn stalks as voices popped up from out of nowhere. Hiding within a patch of weeds, Fluttershy sat still as she waited for them to pass.

"Charlie, search those dead yanks for any maps! C'mon boys, we're moving out!"

"Where to captain?"

"The yanks are makin' a push for that sunken road. We gotta stop 'em."

The voices died down, and Fluttershy emerged from her hiding place. She wanted nothing more than to stop her search and hide, but she knew she needed to find her element so she could escape this horrible battlefield.

"The princess said it would be hidden in the area I came in so . . . that way I guess."

Fluttershy unfurled her wings and flew in her chosen direction, unaware whether or not she was going the right way or not.

It had been more than twenty minutes since Fluttershy had taken off, sticking to the forest to avoid any patrols, and she still hadn't found a trace of her element. She often came across small encampments, flying high above them if she couldn't seek refuge in the trees. Everywhere she went she came across mounds of the dead, their rotting flesh baking in the heat of the sun. She had lost her nerve and broken down twice already, and she was about to do it again until she came across something that got her attention.

One of the animals in blue below her carried something on it's waist.

A shiny, jewel encrusted necklace.

"My element!" Fluttershy gasped from her vantage point as she watched the thief parade around with her necklace.

It strode up to another creature elegantly dressed in blue and spoke proudly.

"Look what I found out in the middle of the field! Pretty flashy ain't it?"

"Yeah, bet a reb sniper would just love to kill you for that." The other replied.

Fluttershy watched them as they conversed, too shy to fly down and retrieve it herself. They seemed to be speaking jovially, not even reminiscent of that days grotesque events. A regally dressed creature walked up to the two, doing something akin to a salute. He spoke to them both, and the two donned serious looks as they started off towards the rows of tents in front of them. Moments later, hundreds of blues were roused from their tents as they snatched up those peculiar brown poles and marched off in an orderly fashion toward what sounded like more fighting. The thing carrying Fluttershy's element accompanied them as well.

"Oh no, now I'll have to follow him until he stops again. Fluttershy you fool, you should have just asked him nicely for it!" She scolded to herself.

Flapping her wings silently, Fluttershy followed the assembly of monsters as they moved toward a deep, sunken road in the distance that had been consumed in smoke.

Thirty minutes later, Fluttershy was in hell.

The pops and explosions below her terrified the fragile mare as hundreds upon hundreds of the bipedal figures slumped to the ground, blood gushing from any open wounds. The battle had begun moments before, the greys and the blues seeming to dispute over large tubes on wheels. The things crewing them picked up their own poles and joined the massacre, kicking and stabbing anything in their way. The smoke coming from the poles blinded Fluttershy, but she could still hear the voices cry out throughout the battle.

"Take those cannons!"

"Beat them Yankee bastards back!"

"Ready! Aim! FIRE!"

The bodies piled up on top of each other until the monsters that remained had to trudge over their fallen, stepping on the bodies as if they were the ground themselves. The killing died out soon after, many of the greys pulling back to positions across a stone bridge in the distance. Fluttershy spotted the glint of her element as the creature that held it marched alongside it's comrades, urging them on.

"C'mon men, push them back! To the bridge!" It shouted.

Fluttershy flitted over the surge of blues and tried to keep the one with her necklace in sight, but this proved difficult considering the amount of smoke that had accumulated over time. It got no better once the bulk of the blues reached the stone crossing. The other side of the bridge immediately lit up in a fiery inferno, smoke coming from thousands of poles fired by the greys. Many blues fell, but Fluttershy could still faintly see her element glisten through the fire.

"Cross that bridge! Cross that-"

The creature speaking dropped to the ground, a fresh hole in his head leaking brain matter.

Fluttershy had lost sight of the thing with her element, and began to frantically scan the bloodbath, looking for it. Seconds later, a sharp pain ripped through her left wing, causing her to drop from the sky into the maelstrom below. Fluttershy landed on a mound of bodies, their clothing softening the impact. Grunting in agony as she looked at her wound, Fluttershy could clearly see a dark hole punched straight through the frail skin on her wing.

"Oh . . . it-it hurts . ." She cried to herself.

She began to cry as many blues fell to her left and right. One of them, a younger looking one with smoother facial features dropped to the ground, his lower leg blown clean off. It screamed an unnaturally guttural scream but was drowned out in the sea of death around it. Fluttershy was about to give in to the immense pain until she saw something that made her heart jump.

Her element, laying on the limp body of the blue that had taken it.

Gathering all her strength, Fluttershy began crawling towards it as the world exploded around her. Her wings scraped along the ground as she inched forward toward her salvation. A blue had fallen in front of her, prompting the yellow mare to climb over it instead of going around, only one goal in mind.

"Almost . . there . . ." She muttered as she reached the fallen blue.

The monster was dead, obviously, it's intestines splattered across it's once-elegant uniform. The necklace, now covered in gore, sat tangled in the thing's guts. Fluttershy would have to yank it out in order to get home.

So she did.

With a squeamish cringe, Fluttershy lifted a cord-like tube and flopped it down to the side of the dead thing and grabbed her element, holding it close.

Fluttershy was immediately engulfed in a flash of light, and was gone just as quickly.

Author's Note:

The battle of Antietam holds it's place in the books as the bloodiest day in American history. In the midst of the American Civil War, the army of the Potomac under the command of General George McClellan marched on Robert E. Lee's forces near Sharpsburg, Maryland. The ensuing battle cost the lives of a whopping 23,110 men in a single day. The morning assault consisted of a series of confrontations within the West Woods and Miller's cornfield. The fighting was so terrible that by the end of the day, not a single stalk of corn was left standing. After Fluttershy's debacle in the cornfield, she followed the Union army into the battle for the sunken road, a Union attempt at seizing confederate cannons. Troops were dying so fast that by the end of the battle, bodies were piled six feet high in the sunken road. This led on into the battle for Burnsides bridge, named after one of the Union generals who attacked it. This is where Fluttershy received her wound to her left wing. The rebels fired volley after volley into the Union troops trying to cross the bridge, felling many before they finally ran out of ammo and had to retreat. After the sun had gone down and the deaths were tallied, the battle resulted in a draw for both sides.

(Murder of Crows- Plural for crows)

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