Battle Scars

Night time on Guadalcanal was dark. Even a lighter light could be seen all across the island. Cheerilee and the rest of the ponies hugged the grass as they slowly crawled up the mountain once more. Inch by inch, they drew closer and closer to the exposed changeling machine gun position. The grass shook with fear as the six ponies crawled around the bunker and prepped their grenades. Cheerilee held one in her hoof. The bumps on the grenade felt right in her hooves, and acted like a solid stress ball, even if it was an explosive. Closer and closer they trotted up, until they heard some changelings talking. Sgt. Blossomforth jumped on top of the machine gun position and motioned for the others to gather around. Cheerilee sat on the left side, the grenade still in her hoof. Slowly and slowly, she was close to pulling the pin. Blossomforth made the fake motion of pulling the pin, and it was on. Cheerilee pulled the pin and threw the explosive in.

"Grenade!" shouted the changelings in the bunker. They tried to run away, but the explosion caught them before they could run away. Blossomforth kicked in the back doorway, a Reising M50 at the ready, she fired a burst into one changeling, and another running down the hallway.

"Lets go! Let's go!" shouted Blossomforth. The five ponies gathered around Blossomforth, while they continued to run towards the next position.

"Carrot top, Cloudkicker, go through the tunnels, the rest of you on me. Go!" she shouted. Cheerilee sprinted up the mountain, her Springfield held at the ready as she charged up the mountain. The tall grasses brushed against the rushing ponies as they reached the next bunker. Blossomforth kicked down the door and fired another burst of her Reising M50. She turned around to find a pony with a bayonet running towards her. She pulled the trigger, but, her Reising didn't respond. She pulled the trigger frantically again, but, once again, no response. Blossomforth looked up and took a rifle butt to the face. She fell down with tremendous force. The dust piled around her as she fell down. She looked up and saw a bayonet flying to her gut. It entered into her stomach and blood began to pour out.

"Ahhhhh!" she screamed as the long knife entered her body closer and closer. But, as it was about to pierce the body fully, Cheerilee fired a round from her Springfield. It penetrated the head of the changeling and exited out. The blood spat out of the head and splattered all over the wall. She cocked the bolt back and eject the empty shell.

"Cheerilee...continue the assault...your in charge." she simply said, holding the wound with all her strength. Cheerilee looked scared at first, down at the bleeding sergeant. She took deep breathes as she slowly took her orders in. She was now the leader of this assault.

"Carrot top, say with the sergeant. Everypony else, on me. We're continuing this assault." she said bravely. She picked up the Sergeants Reising M50 and unjammed the submachine gun. The assault was on. She continued to run up the hill. Dodging machine gun fire as they got closer and closer.

"Flank around the right! Get some grenades in there!" she shouted as they moved to the right. Cheerilee's assault team drew closer and closer to the machine gun bunker. She threw in a grenade and waited for the explosion. Instantaneously, the explosion blew open the door to the bunker. She entered in a sprayed the inside with her Reising, until once again, it jammed. She dropped the gun and pulled out her pistol. She fired off in the tunnel, as the changelings kept on charging, but kept getting gunned down by Cheerilee's fire. Every shot from that pistol found it's target as it entered each changeling's body in a blink of an eye. Cheerilee lowered the handgun as soon as it was out of ammo, no more changeling's remained, she reloaded her pistol, an M1911, and called for the radio.

"Diamond 2, this is Diamond Red 2, observable bunkers on the east side of the hill are secured. Ready to assault. Over." she said.

"Copy that Red 2, assaulting forces are coming in on your six." said a voice. The charge for the hill was on. The entire Equestrian XIV Corp charged in, guns a blazing. Cheerilee ran with only her pistol, nothing else. She lead the calvary up the hill as they came up to more changeling defenses. She jumped over rocks and logs as she moved closer and closer up the hill. The adrenaline pumping through her vanes as she ran full sprint and prepped a grenade. She pulled the pin and threw in the hand held explosive. The rest of the Corp watched with admiration as Cheerilee lead the assault, past the bunkers and up to the very top, where the last of the defenses were.

"Get moving! Get moving!" she shouted as she ran up the hill. It was like a full out invasion scale as the corp ran up farther, only to be met by changeling trenches. More machine gun fire, and mortars rained down on the field of the Corp. Explosions of dirt jumped high in the air and fell back down, taking with them anypony unfortunate enough to get caught up in the blast. Cheerilee ducked down, she knew she couldn't get this position cleared by herself. She grabbed another rifle from one of her fallen comrades, the new M1 Garand rifle from the army. She picked up some of the ammo and slapped on the bayonet.

"Firefly, Cloudchaser, Flitter with me. Berry Punch, i need some suppressive fire from that 30. Wait for my move." she shouted. She was eager to continue the assault. The thrill of war was rushing through her body, as she had a blood thirsty grin across her face. As she got up, she let out a ear wrenching scream as she ran in. The others followed her as they ran to the very edge of the trench and began firing. Cheerilee's Garand spat out it's powerful .30-06 bullet towards the bodies of changelings, still with bolt action rifles. She jumped down and continued the assault. The air breezing across her face as she continuously ran down the trench. She fired her Garand one last time, until the clip ejected and the fatal ping was heard. She didn't bother to reload, instead, she stabbed them with her bayonet. Smacking changeling's across the face and delivering the fatal stabbing wound. She felt powerful. She was on top of the world. Then, everything went black. Cheerilee felt a tremendous pain in her body as she was slowly regaining conscience. She no longer heard the sounds of guns, but, the sounds of bells in her ear. She opened her eyes, only to find herself looking up at the sky. She tried to get up, but she couldn't. What was keeping her from this? It was a wound.

"Cheerilee!!!" shouted a voice as she turned around and found Cloudchaser running towards her body. "Are you okay?" she shouted, but, Cheerilee couldn't make out what she was saying, but only saw darkness consume her vision.

"Cheerilee. Answer me!" said a voice. Cheerilee's hearing was getting back to normal. She slowly opened her eyes and found some figure by her side. She looked up around one more time to find herself no longer in the trenches, but, on a stretcher.

"Cheerilee, answer me!" said the voice, it was Cloudchaser.

"Cloud? What happened?" she said in a weak voice.

"Oh my Celestia, you're okay. You were caught in a grenade explosion. Nearly took your life." she said. Cheerilee wanted to react but she couldn't she felt tired. Way too tired to even speak.

"Where am I?" she asked.

"You're at the base. You're on the next cruise home Cheer." Cloudchaser had a smile across her face as her friend was alive. Cheerilee hasn't heard those words in over three months, home.

"Shit, I just got here." she said in a joking manner. The two shared a laugh as Lightning Dust trotted next to them.

"How you doin' Cheerilee?" she asked.

"I'm fine sir, how's Blossomforth?"

"She'll make it, she's already on the way home. And your next."

"Yes I am sir."

"Well, I got some papers to fill," Lightning Dust began to trot away, "you did good...sergeant Cheerilee."