The Great War

Name: Edward Blankflank
Rank: Private
Date: 1st June 980 AD (After Discord)
Location: Vanhoover Frontline, about 15 kilometers away from the city centre

My name is Private Edward Blankflank of the 17th Royal Infantry Brigade. At this very moment my comrades and me are enjoying one of the very few little breaks that the war grants. Some of us cower in fear, awaiting the next attack or artillery barrage, others use the time to eat, a few of us are carving their names into their weapons. Me? I use times like these to write down how this war is truly fought, trying to prevent young colts from signing up for something they believe to be the greatest ride of their life...at least that's what the government tells them.

For now though, I'll start right at the very beginning. How the War started and how it changed Warfare and an entire Nation forever.

When the Crystal Empire returned, everypony in Equestria knew this would mean the return of King Sombra. With King Sombra, a War would soon imminent as soon as Sombra could muster enough of an army to fight.

We were right.

The Crystal Ponies, mind-controlled by King Sombra, marched towards Equestrian lands. Our Pegasi scouts saw their attack early enough for us to position our own forces near the Crystal Mountains.

What followed was the first of many, bloody battles.

Our forces' best soldiers and tacticians participated in that battle. And eventhough our soldiers fought bravely and heroicly...the battle was lost. Routed, the rest of the strike force fell back towards the next village to regroup. Celestia, who had fought in the battle herself, returned to Canterlot. Some say she didn't want to risk her own death, a certain killing blow for the unity of our people in times like these, others say she was simply afraid of fighting herself.

Whatever may be true, she returned to Canterlot, her last orders for the remainders of the army were to stand strong and defend as long as possible until reinforcements arrived.

There were no reinforcements.

Those brave souls fought for their country and people until the very end...they made the ultimate sacrifice.

A few days later, our armies managed to halt Sombra's army for the moment. It was then that Celestia's general staff suggested funding military research and the army. Celestia, not left with much of a choice, agreed. And with that fateful decision...Equestria as a whole went down a much different, darker, bloodier path.

Military engineers soon brought the first assortment of prototype weapons to the battlefields. Those first firearms were efficient and deadly, yet our soldiers weren't trained in using them efficiently. And so, the enemy eventually captured some of them in battle. Rumours say that this is why the Crystal Empire too started investing in new weapon technology. If it is true, we don't know.

It took about a month until the face of war had changed completely. The old, traditional way of fighting, hoof to hoof, was no more. By now, both sides had completely commited to the new style of warfare. Trench Warfare.

The previously green and beautiful plains near Vanhoover were no more. Everything in range of the enemies' artillery was now wasteland. Even land far beyond the actualy frontline was destroyed and in ruins as Artillery easily missed it's targets during the first few volleys.

However, the Equestrian Government and Military had not thought about the immense new need for mannpower and equipment that this style of warfare required. Some say that Celestia herself was already powerless, the military would always 'convince' her of their plans and ideas. That being said, it was settled that Equestria's economy would be completely renewed. New, efficient steam engines powered the now rapidly growing Industry. An industry that consumed almost as much land as the war itself did.

Yet this isn't where the military's chain of actions stopped. They created a special department for War Propaganda, trying to inspire the population of either fighting for their country or supporting their forces by working allday long in an armament factory. At first it was just a few posters and leaflets, even those things managed to rally ponies to the common cause of the nation: Victory. But the massive industrialization and funding of military inventions and equipment brought forth a completely new tool for them to manipulate the population with: The Radio. Radio's, although meant mainly for military use, were affordable for many families. I myself didn't have a family...not anymore at least, but me and my friends managed to pile up enough money to buy one for ourselves. We simply had to try out this new, big thing people were talking about. Upon hearing the constant war cries, the talk of honor, valor and bravery and the need to defend our homes, it didn't take long for us to fall for their dirty lies.
I don't know what exactly it was that made us so excited and confident about a war like this, how we could be so blind...perhaps it was because of our need for 'adventure' or 'change'...maybe. But then again, all we knew of the war, was what we were told by the government. All we knew were lies. Lies of bravery and heroism.

And we fell for it.

Me and my three friends all went out to the recruitment office to sign up for what would be a ride to hell. We reacted with enthusiasm as the officer in the office told us we had been approved. We ran outside of the recruitment office and cheered, unknowing of what was soon to come.

We were fools, but so was everyone else in town.

I still remember how me and my friends were greeted by cheering crowds as we entered the train station early in the morning. A woman ran up to us and gave one of my friends a bouquet of flowers, kissing his cheek as she did so. When we entered the train, we saw just how many others had signed up for this bloody mess. The whole train waggon was packed with fresh recruits, all 8 waggons. Looking back, I wish I would have just run away from all of this. My innocent, unknowing past self, how it celebrated that very moment. How I, no, we...how we were told lies, all of us. Everypony in that train was there only because they were lied to. Shown fake pictures of the war, told fake stories and facts about the war. It was all a lie. If only the war itself was as big of a lie as the propaganda.

As the train left the station, we waved at the cheering crowd from out of the windows of the waggon. Later on, many people had gone quiet. Many slept or simply rested, others talked, others sang patriotic or war songs. I myself looked outside of the window, imagining how proud my mum would be if she saw me now. Her only child, her little colt, on the way to the frontlines, fighting it out with the big tyrant's army. I'm sure my Dad would have been at arms for a long time by now, I knew him well enough to know that he was the kind of stallion to look for trouble and adventure.

But this would not be an adventure.

The train soon suddenly stopped out of nowhere, knocking many in the waggon out of their deep dreams. We looked around in confusion and unsafety for a moment as nobody knew what was going on. It didn't take long though until our Major entered the wagon. We all quickly saluted, as was normal when meeting a higher ranked soldier. The Major quickly left after he told us that we had reached our destination and that we are to leave train immediatly to make room for the new passengers. Noone knew who he meant with 'new passengers', especially since we were on our way to a warzone, not to a normal train station. We all seemed to just brush it off though as we, all in line and after one another, left the train.

What appeared gave us a good taste of what was soon to come.

The train had stopped at a rather large Field Headquarters. There were big artillery pieces stationed in the distance, I couldn't make out anything specific though. All I, and the others, noticed of them was a constant 'boom...boom, boom...boom, boom...' in the background. To our right, soldiers were carrying ammunition crates through the Headquarters. They soon disappeared behind a tent and then soon reappeared as they came back, picking up yet another crate and repeating the process. Across the entire Headquarters, Equestrian flags and banners could be seen. It was the very first thing I noticed while leaving the train, but as I stood outside for a couple of moments, my eyes were focused on something way more terrifying than all those things combined. The Field Hospital.

The Field Hospital was a big, half open tent to our left. Fittingly, it was the only white tent to be seen, and it also had a red cross on it, clearly showing that it was the field hospital. The open side of the tent was, unfortunatly, turned towards us. We were able to see all the poor souls that were unfortunate enough to find themselves there. There were stallions with only one eye, ones with only two hooves, even one that had lost all four of his hooves. There were about 17 wounded and injured stallions in there, but I didn't bother to count them. What really drew my attention was a stallion being carried over to the hospital by two nurses. He was lifted up onto a medical bed. He had bandages around his left front hoof. His face clearly showed the pain he was going through, his expression was shaped by a stinging pain in his injured hoof. As the nurses who brought him to his medical bed left, a doctor arrived. He said something to the stallion, unaudible for me and my comrades as we were too far away from them.
As the doctor stopped talking, he grabbed a bone saw from a nearby table. As the doctor looked at it, the man began crying and yelling. This time it was audible for even us, he yelled "No! No! Please no! Somepony! Help! No! Help! Please!" His cries for help were filled with both pain and fear. But it was to no avail, as his call for help were cutoff. They instead turned into cries of agony as the doctor started his procedure.

I couldn't watch the bloody spectacle that unfolded in front of my very eyes and turned away, my eyes closed, only hearing the painful cries of the stallion. With each second passing, his cries hurt me too. My heart skipped a couple of beats during the entire thing.

Then it stopped. He went silent. I opened my eyes and looked at my comrades next to me. By now every single one of us was watching what happened. Some of their faces were filled with fear, others with disgust. I looked over to the hospital as I saw what had happened.

He was no more. His injured hoof now laid in a bucket next to the bed he laid on. Both the bed and bucket were now spattered with blood, a trail of blood dripped out of the remainders of his left forehoof, down onto the grass. His body was lifeless, no muscle moved whatsoever. The doctor laid down the bone saw and checked the stallion's pulse for a moment. Of course, it was no surprise that he was disapointed when he detected no pulse whatsoever. He looked at the stallion as he took a few steps back and then turned back completely, walking off. For a brief moment, the dead body laid there, completely alone. Then the same two nurses from before reappeared. Once again, the lifted up the now dead stallion and carried him off. Where they brought him, I couldn't see. But I had a good feeling that I didn't want to know anyways.

With that, the spectacle was over. Me and my comrades looked at eachother, we all shared the same amount of dread and disugst. "We're all gonna end like him" Said one of my friends as he leaned over to me in shock, "We're all gonna kick the bucket out here. We're going to die!" My friend started to panic as me and my friends tried calming him as much as we could, even though we were at least just as concerned and afraid of what was to come as him.

"Attention!" Yelled the Major from before, stretching the 'e' as he did so. Quickly, we all formed a row, standing at attention after we did so. "Welcome to the Vanhoover front, gentlecolts. I am Major Cheapshot. I will be showing you your lovely new home." His speech already made me hate him. After what we had seen, I'm sure all of us shared the same hate in him as I did.

The Major lead us forward, along a cornfield. We started by walking on a road, as the cornfield ended though, so did the road. The green planes and yellow cornfield disappeared. All that was left of them was ashes. The land itself turned into a black wasteland, filled with craters, debris, barbed wire and...trenches. Alot of them, and they would be our new 'home' as he wanted to call it. And so our journey continued, now entering the trenches for our first time. At that time, we couldn't foresee that there was no going back from there on out. Once you enter the trenches, you don't go back. You either die in them, or die for leaving them. May that be by charging the enemy trenches or by deserting and being shot by your own officers.

It didn't take long until we arrived at the very frontline. We could still hear artillery, knowing it was ours that was still shelling the enemy positions. I looked up to the clouds to see how the shells left the black clouds and fell down, striking the enemy. As I looked down, I saw many soldiers who had already been stationed in our trench. They all looked at us as we walked past them. We were the fresh recruits, new blood. More bodies to throw at the enemy.

We arrived at a little dug in the trench as the major stoped and said "You three, these are your quarters." He pointed at me, one of my friends and somepony else I didn't know. We all walked forwards, into the little room. It really wasn't big. All that was in there was 3 tiny, green carpets to sleep on and an oil lamp on the ceiling. We came back out and saluted as we all replied "Yes, Sir!" followed by the Major and the rest of our troop marching off further down the trench, with them two of my good friends.

And so me, one of my friends and a complete stranger stood there. In a trench, in front of a little dugout that would serve as our own living space and bedroom. We looked at eachother, lost in thought, as I decided to say what we all were thinking.

"Fuck."