Chapters Author's Note
This is an alternate version of history, made to be semi-educational and to test my writing style, please tell me any errors or things I need to change in the comments, as well as ideas. This story is not planned, and is written based on a combination of what my readers request and what I want. To clear up confusion, in 1902 a gateway between Equestrian and Earth was opened on a classified location in Georgia. Ever since ponies have lived and adapted to society, they are treated as equals, for humans fear what they could do if they weren't treated fairly.
Metal Raindrops
It is 1918, I don't know the time, date, or even exactly where the hell I am. Not that I care myself, there are greater things to worry about. For example, the artillery fire raining down at random locations on our trench. That's a good start.
"They've been shellin' us for ten minutes now!" A Green eyed, deep voiced, female Earth Pony yells from behind at no one in particular.
"Don't complain now, for all we know there's ten minutes more waiting for us!" I are forced to scream back, shouting over the artillery fire and screaming of injured soldiers, dying to protect these trenches. Even after all these years, it felt so weird talking to an animal, but I've learned that I can believe just about anything anymore.
Bright colors light up my way, growing darker as I run. The ground changed color as different Unicorns fired different colored blasts far behind you. This didn't make me feel any safer, however. The bright colors just made it harder for my eyes to find a proper adjustment.
I keep sprinting down the trench, deeper into my own lines in order to survive the onslaught. Not much further and I'd be at the dug-out. It was arguably lucky that there was a dugout, debris falling couldn't kill you. But if a shell were to land right on top, one shudders to imagine how long men could be buried.
But there was one problem, the officer blocking the only trench leading to the dug-out.
"Stop, coward! Get back out there and save your fellow soldiers!" The officer howls at me from a few feet away, I skid to a stop, the pony squeaks, slamming into my back. The soldier behind her also collides, and so forth. He aims his Colt into my chest (no pun intended).
I knew he'd shoot me. Officers had shot cowards many a time in front me before. I never had alot of thinking time, but I knew if I was going to die, it wouldn't be from American weapons, that's guaranteed. I could kill the officer if I wanted to, but I dropped my rifle when the shells started falling, and drawing my pistol would give the officer too much reaction time.
Out of decisions, I spun away from the officer and signaled to move. The Earth Pony's ears splayed back, it looked shocked. I was forced to shove the frozen pony away and weave my way around the space-takers in front of me. The blood red mud-water is splish splashing under my boots. Sprinting back into the chaos of explosions falling no less than 20 yards away, I begin feeling numb. I don't care or know if one is waiting to land on my head, and I don't care. I'm in the heat of war, the adrenaline has started seeping through my veins, I know this feeling all too well. My vision begins to tunnel and the regularly ear-deafening blams of explosions began to sound muffled and silent. I weave my way narrowly between slower Earth Ponies and soldiers. There were more Earth Ponies than humans at this point, they were in charge of field medical help and carrying wounded. Meaning bullets weren't a common risk to them. They could only use melee weapons, making them only combat effective if we were charged. They would be helping us shoot, but they couldn't exactly hold a rifle with those hooves.
I knew I had run half of the entire front line, but it felt like 5 feet, so the next thing I know, I was leaping over the bodies of the ponies and fallen soldiers that littered the trenches. I briefly remember my first time in the front lines, I couldn't get closer than 10 feet from the bodies, and had passed out from the sheer terror of men with their brains melted, oozing outside of their skull. Now, it was second nature to crawl over the corpses. What a world I've grown to witness.
I stand in one of the lines behind the firing step, my duty was now. I had dropped my weapon in the failed scuffle to escape artillery, and leaned over to pick up the rifle of a dead soldier, opening the bolt and pushing on the bullets, finding the rifle full. A shell lands inside the trench about 20 yards away, I feel shrapnel smack my helmet. The force knocks me into the bloody water, I see limbs hurling over me. My face submerges, quickly snapping me back into battle. I clamber to my feet, then lean down and pick up the dead soldier's ammo pack, jamming it into my vest. The unicorns were taking cover behind sandbags, some firing weak, rapid blasts of energy into enemy cover. Others taking slower, yet more powerful blasts into the enemy trenches. This used to panic me, as they fired directly over your head if you were in the firing step. I've grown less afraid of soldiers on both sides, and more afraid of personal failure, which may result in casualties.
There were only around one-hundred of us humans left in the front lines that were standing, only fifteen or so attacking. The unicorns were even less, only around twenty were even alive up here. The pegasai back on the airbase seemed very plentiful, but I was never allowed back there. As much as we are told they are in great numbers, any Pegasus we talk to tells us they are shredded and injured from getting shot at while flying reconnaissance.
*CRUNCH *
The man in front of me falls down, lifelessly. A new hole torn through his head, his blood now stained my face and clothes. This only added to the rush I was already feeling. It was my turn, I needed to make this happen now. I give his blood a second to wash off of the step, experience told me how easy it was to slip. An Earth Pony runs to the case, grabbing the neck of the dead man's fatigues. His blue eyes switching to me, he looks between me and my firing step expectantly.
With a month of building habit, I leaped onto the firing step with out another thought, immediately taking in the sight of hundreds of bodies, mangled and mutilated, lying over No Man's Land. Some Germans were laying in the barbed wire, full of holes, others weren't even given chance to get so close. I take aim at the first thing that moves in my vision. Soon I was firing rapidly at all moving objects, I had no idea if it was a person or an object, or if I hit it, but the firing would at least pin the Germans down. When I ran our of ammo, I'd reload and continue firing. When I didn't see movement, I'd shoot where the unicorns were blasting.
After ten minutes, the explosions fall silent. And as I soon realized, all was quiet. Terrifyingly quiet. The sun had started to set and the sky was a haunting orange. Smoke covered the land from the battle just waged, and everyone continued aiming, looking for any signs of further fighting.
I take a moment to analyze my life, realizing this might be the last time I have to think. Back in 1902, the gateway opened, letting colorful, talking, equine animals into our world. We were scared at first, ready to defend, but as they showed no hostile signs, we negotiated. Realizing the portal worked both ways we began to enter each others worlds, they helped us with magic, we helped them with technology. I'd never been to the other world, but it sounded great. They hadn't had a war in ages, and everyone got along there. We were not so well-kept. Luckily, when the United States entered the war, they sided with America specifically, meaning Germany didn't have ponies on their side. They were an exclusive American fighting force. I had always told myself, if I survive this war, the first think I'm doing is visiting that peaceful world. I now realize I may never get that far. I forget the name, has an E? Ecan, Ecaul, E-
The next sound I heard ripped me from my thoughts, and made my blood run cold.
*FWEEEEEEEE *
From a good distance ahead, I hear the all-too familiar, menacing blow of a whistle. Followed by the distant rumbling of war shouts, which was soon to crescendo.
"THEY'RE GOING OVER THE TOP!" I didn't even need to look behind myself to recognize the voice of the unicorn that has been screaming into my ear the entire time. I swear, I've heard grenades quieter than that mare... Why did we let female ponies to the front lines to begin with? Human women can't be up here, damn I hate that rule. I wouldn't have recognized that unicorn without the voice, all these ponies looked the same to me, the only notable difference being gender and body mass. this was because they all were dyed a dirty brown to blend in with the trenches. Pink and Cyan aren't exactly blending colors.
Anyway, these were things to think about later, for now I needed to worry about what the siren of a creature, and the rumble of Earth Ponies approaching the front lines to reinforce us had just clarified.
The Germans were going over the top, through No Man's Land, and into our trenches...
A Grey wave begins to grow where the trenches were supposed to be, and I see a number of enemy troops marching, I gawk at the sight, easily outnumbered. There were somewhere around 200-300 enemy troops holding formation, the front line firing randomly into our trenches.
I hear a friendly machine gun open fire, then another, followed by the pop-pop of the rest of the troops firing their rifles at the enemies. Even the Unicorns began sending a hell storm of light into the wave, making the battlefield flash in a beautifully horrible sight. I join into the dark orchestra, aiming high. People start locking grenades, several high ranking unicorns were throwing them while firing blasts from their horns. The entire front row dies almost in sync. Before the entire formation breaks into a sprint, dashing closer to us, FAST. I raise my Springfield, and hold a German near the right side in my sights.
BLAM
I know I killed that one, for as soon as I shot, his chest seemed to explode. He screamed and fell down, the problem was the soldier right behind him snapped his eyes right onto me, and took aim right in my direction. This caught me off-guard.
His rifle returned a shot.
I wish I could have said he wasn't that lucky.
I feel a sharp sting in my left shoulder, strangely not as bad as you would expect from such a wound. It was a hard enough impact to knock me flat onto my back. As I fall I am greeted with a firework show of magic directly overhead, before I land into the flooded trench with a splash, and my face submerges. I scramble back onto my feet before I drown, I turn around to see the entire unit lit up with gunfire, not retreating as I had expected to see. The unicorns were hiding behind the bags, sticking nothing up but their horns. Sending explosive blasts everywhere possible in front of them. They seemed to cook the Germans alive.
I think about picking up the rifle again, but another round strikes me in the stomach. I scream and hunch over, grabbing my gut in sheer agony. For whatever reason, this one hurt much, much worse. I start to lose vision, and I feel my legs give out. Now on my knees, waist-high in water, I look around. Everything is so distant now, everything is muffled, to the point where the rifles can hardly be heard. Everything was blurry, save for a tiny spot right in the center of my focus, which seemed to zoom in. The rifles seem to eject their shells in slow motion. Smoke rolling out of the metal casket before floating into the pool of bloody water, reflecting the explosions of gun muzzles trying desperately to guard the men behind their sights. I saw every spark of the flashes, every detail, before everything went dark.
The last thing I saw, was a Green silhouette, non-human, bearing two large Green eyes, which got quickly bigger. I couldn't even remember what they were called, this creature was certainly familiar though, as I tried to regain brain function, everything went dark, quiet, and just peaceful.
My eyes slowly blink open, I am greeted with a face full of dirt, very blurry still. I bring up my arms, realizing they feel like one-ton weights. I rub my eyes before letting my hands go limp again, returning to their original state of hanging off the side of the bed. It only takes a few seconds to realize exactly where I am. This is the dug-out for wounded, which was quickly confirmed as the man next to me started to cough in a whooping fashion. Which was typically not great.
"How you feeling?" A voice from your left asks.
Reflexes kick in as you spin around and lift your guard, suddenly feeling a little stronger in surprise. You lower your hands to see it is a nurse, she looks tired, worn, and aching. Even her posture is crooked and weak. You can't help but feel a little sorry for the female work force. You know from experience they get more crap in one day than you would ever ask for. Your opinion was biased, however. You weren't a people person.
"Like I was just shot twice, how about you?"
The nurse cringes a little, and gets to walking away to assist with a soldier who appears to be in much more agony than you are.
"Sorry I asked"
"Wait a moment..."
She turns around, confused that you wanted to continue the conversation, her brown locks bounce a little, almost cute, had they not been on someone who looked so broken.
"Who brought me in here? Name and rank?" You ask, genuinely wanting to know if your savior was someone who knew you like you expected.
"Private First Class, don't know the name. She came in here and tossed you down and went back off, all I saw was the rank insignia."
"Wait, she? Was it one of the EPs?" EPs are what we referred Earth Ponies are, the other races were referred to by full name, since their abbriviations didn't sound right usually.
"Of course, most of the other soldiers were too distracted. She might be back in here, not sure. Seemed in a hurry to get back out there, but you were the only one she brought back. Maybe she didn't make it, she had Green eyes, if that helps..." With that, the nurse turned back and started leaving again.
"Wait! Nurse, one more thing, what happened to us?"
"What do you mean?"
"Did we keep our trench?"
"Oh, yes. But we are spread thin, we couldn't possibly take another attack. Reinforcements are on the way to help our war efforts. Should be here in a couple days."
"Days!? Do you know how many things could go wrong in the next hour!?"
The nurse snaps back, clearly not in the mood for violence. I quickly regret shouting, but it was hands down the unluckiest news I could hear at a time like this. We were almost undefended for the next few days, and if the Germans got this far back, I had no way to stop them from taking you as a war prisoner. I'd only heard of the horrors they do to captured Entente soldiers, and I didn't want to think about it any harder.
Getting woozy from the news, I close my eyes and relax, trying to sleep. This was difficult with the sound of gunfire and explosions not that far away. But after maybe an hour, I fall asleep without even realizing.
KABOOOOOOM
I leap upwards, reflexively trying to escape the noise, but am put down by an extreme pain in my chest. It felt like an Elephant was sitting on it. It knocks the wind out of me, and I gasp for air. It feels like I'm choking to death, save for the slight flow of dust-polluted oxygen. I lay back down, and take a look at my surroundings, hoping to find the source of the explosion.
On the far corner of the room, the entire med-bay is caved in. The wooden supports on my side, closer to the mouth of the cave, still hold. Unfortunately, the patients on the other side didn't seem to be so lucky. Muffled screams and coughing can be heard from behind the wall, which likely wouldn't last long.
It didn't take much brainpower to know what happened, a shell hit the top of the med-bay and sent it falling. You're lucky to be alive, as most stories of this happening don't have any survivors. Usually people are crushed to death, blown up, or suffocated by the dirt. Sometimes it takes days to die inside a collapsed tunnel.
A team of diggers run through the room, carefully stepping over all of us alive, and removing the small trench shovels from their utility belts. Instantly, they begin to find bodies and remove them from the dirt pile. Doesn't look like any of them made it nearby to the mouth. I was a good distance though, among the safest.
Not that that makes me feel any happier about it.
The medical NCO runs in, and starts to organize the diggers, he turns to us.
"Alright calm down calm down! I know it's dusty, but try to go back to sleep. We can't have the wounded getting worked up, it's not good for the blood. We have it handled out here, stay calm." He tries to sound sincere, but clearly is terrified, and sleep deprived. He doesn't seem to notice how bad he is at forming this facade.
Welcome to paradise, numb nuts.
This is the first time that I really look at the other patients. I quickly wish I hadn't.
Most were missing limbs, but a few had bandaged eyes. One of the Earth Ponies had an entire face-wrap, likely due to taking debris from a mortar shell.
One of them had a body wrap, right around the midsection, which didn't seem abnormal. Until I realized there was alot more blood than any gunshot wound would likely leave. That's when I noticed the wing on the OTHER side of this pony, as well as the absence of one on my side.
I hear a distant whistle, and the gunfire and explosions greatly increase in the distant. I hear a chorus of screaming, like a giant crowd shouted at the sky at the same time. Bright colors of all types flash, as the unicorns fire blasts at the enemy Germans. This gradually dies down, until all is back to normal. It only took about a minute. Now, reinforcements run through the trenches, signaled by the thundering of a hundred feet across the nearby area. The clip-clopping of hooves doesn't hardly stand out when running in the mud, so it's hard to tell how many of what type of soldier will be protecting me for the next 24 hours.
I lay my head back down on the pillow, listening to medical NCO numb nuts' recommendation.
Well, except for the falling asleep part. That won't be happening anytime again soon.
