Through the Eyes of a Soldier: Taking Hill 790
By That Hooded Fella

22 June, 5 A.B.H. // 18:00 hours
42 Hours After Start of Operation

Lub-dub, lub-dub

Bullets whizzed by her ears as Apple Bloom ran from her cover, one grazing her helmet with a loud clang, ripping it from her head. The mare stumbled for a moment before tripping from the brush beneath her. Her face dug into the scorched ground, ash and dirt filling her mouth as she lifted her head. To her right, a mortar pounded the earth, sending a screaming stallion end over end to land on his muzzle, caving his face into his skull.

Turning her head from an all-too-familiar sight, Apple Bloom scrambled over to a nearby tree, leaning against it in exhaustion. Her chest heaved as she sucked in the hot air of battle; dirt and ash clung to her exposed fur and covered her now unprotected face and head. In her hooves, she clutched an assault rifle that felt like lead in her arms.

Lifting her head, she slowly peeked around the side of the scorched tree, attempting to see where the humans had positioned themselves on the incline. The mare got a glimpse of their loosely straight line on the ridge before she was forced back into cover by concentrated rifle fire. More mortars went off around her, one hitting a clump of downed trees, sending out debris and wood everywhere.

Apple Bloom cried out as some of the deadly missiles managed to dig themselves past camo fatigues and underneath body armor; a rather large splinter stuck from her foreleg. She immediately grasped with her teeth and yanked; the wood hadn't seemed to have penetrated any major veins, so she was safe for the time being.

Safe being the epitome of irony at the moment.

Lub-dub, lub-dub

Checking herself over, Apple Bloom snapped her head up as she heard shouting to her right. Looking, she saw Rainbow Dash, crouched behind a large pile of downed trees and debris, rallying nearby troops to herself. Apple Bloom, still breathing heavily, shook in her uniform from the adrenaline coursing through her veins.

Sucking in air, Apple Bloom sprinted from behind the tree, fire raining down from the ridge as she exposed herself for a precious few seconds. A bullet zipped by and managed to take a chunk of her ear along with it. Screaming, she dove forward behind cover; her comrades grabbed and yanked the mare further behind their temporary protection.

Her ear and other injuries flared, tears welling up as she squeezed her eyes shut. Something was stuck in her foreleg for an instant before disappearing. A few moments passed and, slowly, the pain ebbed down to a dull throb. Her ears were still ringing from the shot and explosions, but even that faded as Apple Bloom opened her eyes in time to see a medic move away.

Sitting up with a groan, Apple Bloom held tight to her weapon, not willing to let it go for any but Death itself. Dragging her body, she leaned against the thick pile of trees, turning to look at her cyan commander. Dash continued to shout out orders and encouragement, gaining more and more soldiers behind the long barrier every minute or so.

Lub-dub, lub-dub

Apple Bloom watched as Dash and others laid down covering fire for a few stragglers making their way to what was left of the battalion. Shaking her head, the mare popped up and joined in tearing up the ridge a few hundred feet beyond; the bullets kicked up dust and ash, temporarily blocking both sides sight.

The ponies ducked behind their cover as the stragglers arrived, having four less than when they had first begun running for the group. Nopony spoke as Dash looked over her troops, leaning forward as she did so, revealing the tattered remains of what could have been considered wings. She took a deep breath, her once vibrant rainbow mane jostling underneath her helmet.

"All right, listen up! I want the remaining officers circled around me now!"

Word passed through the large group and from the crowd, fourteen stallions and mares emerged, ducking their heads as they made their way towards Dash. Among them was Apple Bloom. She had recently received an unwanted field promotion after her last lieutenant had taken a misplaced round through the temple. The responsibility of leading others now weighed heavily upon her shoulders.

Rainbow Dash swept her eyes over those in front of her. Their ranks ranged from warrant officer through captain but many, if not half, seemed to be first and second lieutenants. Behind the officers, crouching or lying in the protection of the long pile of trees and debris, were roughly three hundred and fifty privates, corporals, and scattered sergeants. The battalion had once been filled with over a thousand strong.

Lub-dub, lub-dub

Dash, completing her sweep, thought for a moment before coming up with a simplistic and straightforward plan. Mortars continued to fall as she silently cursed the humans for wiping out her Unicorns.

"Eyes on me!" Jabbing her hoof at one side of the officers, she began issuing orders, "I want you seven to gather twenty-five troops each and flank those damn bastards from the left. The rest of you, gather twenty-five each and flank them from the right. Satcom is still being jammed so we won't be getting any help from the Air Force today."

The group nodded in affirmation, none looking nervous at the impossible odds. Mortar rounds kept falling from the sky, yet it seemed the humans were having trouble aiming.

"We've been in this position before so you all know the drill! Command ordered this hill taken in two days so that's what we're going to do! We only have six hours left so let's get stepping!" Looking at the officers, she stated, "You have your orders. Yoake Gata."

"Yoake Gata," they parroted and snapped salutes.

Lub-dub, lub-dub

Apple Bloom turned about to seek troops for her platoon, opening her mouth to shout out.

"Lieutenant Apple!"

The mare abruptly turned around to face her commander, a knowing look on her face.

"Ma'am?"

"I'll be accompanying you and your troops into the firefight."

Apple Bloom nodded her head, a grim smile upon her lips. It was not an uncommon thing for Dash to simply announce this to any officer during an operation. After all, Commander Dash was notoriously loyal to her troops to a fault, much to the chagrin of the rear echelon of Equestrian High Command.

Turning around once more, Apple Bloom made her way to a group of soldiers lying upon the ground, Rainbow Dash following behind. Quickly counting off twenty-five, she shouted them into position and readiness. Once her stallions and mares were set, she looked about her and saw that each officer had also set their troops into position.

Facing forwards, she closed her eyes and sucked in a deep breath.

Lub-dub, lub-dub

"Forward!"

Apple Bloom didn't care who shouted, she simply followed the order. Rising to her hooves, she and others copied the shout as they began sprinting forward into the open. All at once, fire erupted from the ridge line; bullets kicked up ash and dirt as the ponies ran, with some finding their marks. Bodies soon littered the scorched battlefield.

Apple Bloom, her soldiers, and the rest of those assigned to the right flank dove into the unscorched section of the forest below the ridge line. They all scrambled for cover, trying to get a hold of the situation before pressing on. The lieutenant looked back from whence they came. Fifteen or so bodies lay out in the open, all of them torn to pieces of flesh, bone and gore. One mutilated soldier continued to move, however, dragging his body with one hoof while the other cradled the stomach that was falling out of his abdomen.

Watching as the blood covered stallion cried in pain and dragged himself towards the group, Apple Bloom could do nothing except look on in pity. A nearby private was unable to simply watch as a comrade bled to death before his eyes though. Before any could react, the stallion had sprung up and sprinted out to pull his brother the rest of the way. Shaking her head, Apple Bloom turned her gaze away as she saw both soldiers riddled with bullets from the ridge before a mortar landed behind them, ripping each limb from limb.

Lub-dub, lub-dub

Unable to dwell on the losses, Apple Bloom lifted her head and, furrowing her brows in determination, shouted her troops forward. It took a moment but the flanking group once again moved from cover to cover; they inched their way up the hill and around the back of the accursed humans, attempting to set up a ragged flanking formation.

After what seemed like an eternity, Apple Bloom found herself behind yet another fallen oak. She reloaded her weapon, stood, and fired burst after deadly burst of lead into the line of humans. The warmongers had slowly been retreating up the incline after they had first noticed the flanking attempts, a few stopping every so often to plant tan colored devices on the ground. Apple Bloom grinned slightly as she saw her enemy fall, the human women clutching her ribs.

Crouching back down into cover, Apple Bloom reloaded as Rainbow Dash joined her; sweat covered Dash's now helmetless head, revealing a grazing wound on the left side of it. Apple Bloom declined to comment, seeing as it didn't seem to be life threatening and her CO looked to be functioning correctly.

Rainbow Dash turned her gashed head to look at Apple Bloom and their eyes met. A brief wisp of worry flashed in Dash's eyes before Apple Bloom began shouting over the noise of battle.

"We've almost broken the line ma'am! The troops are tired and our numbers have dwindled but we've managed to rout 'em! One more push should make 'em break and send 'em runnin' up the hill if we come at 'em fast and hard!"

Dash's only response was a firm nod of the head and a savage grin.

Lub-dub, lub-dub

With a loud cry of old, Dash rallied those around her before standing and firing off a long round of ammunition. She then vaulted over the tree and charged headlong into the face of her enemy. Her troops let out their own cries, sprinting forward after their leader with a passion. Apple Bloom followed the rainbow haired pony into the fray, a snarl on her normally stoic face.

The humans, surprised by the sudden show of ferocity, began moving faster up the hill in a rising panic. A few managed to fire off their weapons before they all finally broke out into a sprint. Earth ponies were notorious for their melee skills and Apple Bloom knew the humans would think twice about melee combat at the sight of a group charging at them with weapons blazing.

Looking to her left, the mare saw that she had misjudged them slightly; two lone humans, dressed in more armor than the rest, stood back to back, firing their weapons every which way and downing a fair amount of ponies. Apple Bloom's eyes flared in anger; detouring from her group, she ran towards the pair, her rifle barking as she fired at them.

Most were absorb but one bullet found the lucky mark as one of the humans fell, blood spraying out from where his neck had been punctured. The remaining human looked about before his eyes fell upon the charging mare; he snarled in hate as he turned and fired at her, even as lead began to riddle his body.

A few shots found her fore and back legs and stumble, yelling in pain, but she kept on running despite these. Her rifle continued to kick against her shoulder as she aimed for the man's head, though her bullets either missed or were deflected by the human's helmet.

As she ran, Apple Bloom barely registered the single, floating red line that seemed to be emanating from the tree in front of her. By the time she did, however, it was too late and her eyes widened as a her collarbone was hit and the base of the tree exploded.

*****

Lub-dub.. lub-dub..

Lub-dub.... lub-dub....

Lub-dub...... lub-dub......

She couldn't hear, she couldn't see, and she could barely breath. She tried to move but found only her forelegs barely responded. She coughed violently, wheezing for air as something coated her throat. Her mind was muddled and she couldn't think straight. Everything below her stomach had gone numb and everything above it screamed at her in pain.

Lub-dub....... lub-dub........

Something grabbed onto her forelegs and lifted, making her cough up blood and what would have been a scream of anguish. She still could neither see the world around her nor feel the lower half of her body, though a ringing had come crashing down onto her abused ears like a waterfall, replacing the almost peaceful silence that deafness brought.

Lub-dub........ lub-dub........

Apple Bloom felt like she was losing hold of something, like water between her teeth. She couldn't quite think of what though. Her eyes opened for a moment and she saw a glimpse of the sky above her, slowly moving backwards. Her eyes shifted and she saw the face of a blood covered Earth pony, his eyes darting around wildly as he dragged her along.

Her body began getting heavier as her eye lids drooped closed and her wheezing slowed. The ringing in her ears began to fade away; everything became muffled and unclear, as if she were underwater. What little of her body she had still felt had also become numb; even the hooves of the pony dragging her had seemed to disappear. She didn't mind though. The pain was falling away and it felt like she was drifting to sleep.

Lub-dub......... lub-dub......... lub-dub.........

All her worries and thoughts felt so insignificant; maybe if she let herself rest for just a moment.

Lub-dub.......... lub-dub....... lub-dub..... lub-dub... lub-dub.. lub-dub, lub-dublubdublubdublubdub

Then, a panic shot through her body. She didn't want to go to sleep. She knew if she did, she'd never wake to see the morning again. Fear racked what was left of her body as her heart and breathing slowed even more and she felt herself slipping. Tears leaked through her closed eyes as she silently cried, feeling so many thoughts, having so many regrets.

Thinking of things that were or could be.

Lubdublubdublubdub, lub-dub, lub-dub.. lub-dub..... lub-dub......... lub-dub.............. lub-..dub..............lub-......dub.....................

Things that would never be.

Author's Note

'A.B.H.'- After Broken Harmony

"Yoake Gata"- Japanese; Translation: 'Unto Dawn'

Constructive Criticism very much welcomed and appreciated. If you are an editor and see errors in my writing, please, feel free to point them out.

This is a new writing style I'm experimenting with so please give your thoughts on whether you liked it or not. The "Lub-dub"s were suppose to simulate a heart-beat. Did they come across that way?