The Great War

Name: Edward Blankflank
Rank: Corporal
Date: 15th June 980 AD
Location: Vanhoover Headquarters

The horrors of this war only grow in numbers as time passes. Every new minute the war comes up with a completely new, yet unthought of way to kill. Gigantic, destructive machines of war, intended to break through enemy lines, appeared on the battlefields a few months ago. Until a few days ago, the Vancouver front had yet to face such beasts of war.

That was until our trench was, from one moment to the other, transformed into a pool of blood and mud. At that time I was busy playing cards in a little shelter me and a group of others had build out of spare planks of wood. The same group of ponies had challenged me to that fateful card game. I'm not great at playing cards, not even close, but when you're stuck in a muddy trench, doomed to die, you start distracting yourself from that exact fact, though for me it was more about killing time. It was long past the point to which my mind could have ever been distracted from the war and the horrific images that had burnt themselves into my mind.

I agreed to playing, something they seemed to celebrate more than I had expected. Perhaps I had made the impression of being lame, maybe even antisocial during my time in arms with them. I did spend most of my time by myself, thinking over the war, myself and many other things, really. I to this point still do not know whether or not my comrades see me as antisocial or even insane to a certain degree, but I have more important matters to care and think about. Much more important...

The enemy attack came without warning, screams and explosions signaled that the enemy attack was underway. Me and my comrades in the shelter looked up as the little as a little oil lamp at the ceiling of the shelter shook around from the explosions' vibrations. We jumped up from the ground, seeing as how we couldn't find chairs to sit on prior to starting our game, grabbed our guns and rushed outside. I was the last one to leave the shelter and could hear friendly machine gun fire as I made my way out. The day light blinded me at first, although the light was darkened by multiple pitch black smoke clouds rising up into the sky. I could only assume their source were shelters and command posts, simple, fragile wooden shelters like ours. Two of my comrades rushed off, splitting off from our group. At that point our group consisted only out of 4 confused, helpless stallions, me included. We turned to our left as a loud rumbling could be heard. I rushed to the nearest trench ladder, barely poking my head out, to see just what was charging towards us.

It was a thing I had never seen before, I had only heard some rumors and stories about things like it. I had tried to imagine the 'gigantic war machines' though I could never fully make myself an imagine of them. My imagination simply was not ready for what war engineers had unleashed upon us. The beast rolled towards me, fully covered in steel with 2 big tracks on its sides, as well as 2 big turrets. I saw how the left turret gave of a shot, creating a loud bang noise. The bang was then followed by an explosion and a couple of distant cries and yells, though they seemed to be dying down with every passing second. My body froze at the sight of the behemoth that rolled towards me, never had I dared to imagine such a creation of war to be possible. Though it seemed that, once again, the war did not follow any kind of rules. The War had simply abolished any kind of rules or restrictions and made its own ones, changing the face of war and nations forever in the course of a single day.

That day was one of them, a day that would change the face of war forever.

My senses returned as I heard loud screams, hundreds if not thousands of them. For once though, they were not screams of wounded comrades of mine, they were enemy screams. My eyes widened as I saw an entire line of enemy infantry charging past the tank, towards our trench. It was then that my instincts took over.

I jumped down from the trench ladder I was standing on, landing in front of the group of scared, helpless stallions. One of them asked me in a scared voice what I had seen and what was heading towards us, though I decided to not tell him. I pushed him aside, rushing past him and the rest of the group who looked at eachother in confusion. I looked back for one last time, seeing them staying where they were, not following me. I now regret not telling them to follow me, I had been in a rush and must have forgotten or not cared about telling them. I continued my short-lived run through the trench, rushing past soldiers that were either firing at the enemy with whatever they could find, slain soldiers or soldiers what cowered on the floor, praying to Celestia that they would survive what was to come. I mostly ignored anyone I passed by, keeping my head down as I did so.

I eventually spotted a mounted Machine Gun position in the distance, sprinting even faster than before after spotting it. I knew that the machine gun would be of much use in this situation, no matter if I survived or not.

Out of breath, I arrived at the machine gun, only now seeing the previous gunner laying on top of the gun, shot dead. I put my right hoof on his back and turned him around so that I could see his face. Looking at his face, I saw a bullet wound right between his eyes. The wound itself was not bleeding anymore, the wound must have been older than I had expected, though his Uniform still had red stains on it. I looked at his eyes afterwards, realizing how his eyes remained open, even after his death, leaving him in an empty stare. He must have died in a matter of seconds, if not less.

A sudden explosion to my right, accompanied by another array of screams, interrupted my inspection of the dead soldier. I grabbed one of the soldier's hooves and threw his corpse to the ground, realizing I would need to defend what was left of our positions if anyone was to survive the attack. I grabbed the gun with my right hoof, pulling myself towards it and grabbing it with my left hoof as well, now having the gun in both of my hooves, ready to fire. Before I was nowhere near properly trained or equipped in order to use a machine gun, though you really didn't need any kind of training for it. It was a gun, like the one I had, it killed, just like mine did. Only difference was that the machine gun killed better and quicker, something I am, for once in this war, thankful for.

I saw a bigger group of infantry to my right flank and positioned my crosshair accordingly. One of them was crouching, leaning over a seemingly wounded enemy soldier. 3 other soldiers were standing in front of them, shooting at my fellow comrades. My mind protested but my instincts did not care as my hooves inched on the trigger.

Loud bangs that made my ears ring escaped from out the machine gun as I pushed the trigger. The short lever on the right of the gun moved up and down with every shot, making it hard for me to concentrate on firing. It took no more than about 6 seconds when I stopped firing, the barrel of the gun smoked from the heat of the barrel. I leaned my head to the right, trying to spot the previous group of enemies. I narrowed my eyes, still trying to spot them, though I gave up soon after. I had eradicated them for sure, though there was more to be done. Much more.

looking to my left again I saw a line of infantry charging right towards my position. From out the distance I could make out an officer leading their charge, waving around a pistol in his right hoof. I once again prepared my machine gun, turning it towards the officer as he was the most distinguishable. I quickly looked to my left as 2 friendly soldiers ran up to me, aiming their guns at the enemy as they peeked out their head over the top of the trench. As one of them gave of his first shot I myself unleashed hell upon our foes once more.

This second time my ears had already gotten used to the loud gun sounds, though it was still very, very loud. I almost find it funny now how the killing itself did not bother me at all but instead the loud gun sounds did.

Once again, the crystal ponies did not last long and they were shot down shortly after me and my comrades commenced firing. My head shot to the left as one of the soldiers next to me cheered abruptly at our victory. I breathed carefully, looking out into no man's land, scanning the area for any further hostiles. It seemed that at that very moment the attack had been haulted, at our position at least.

"I don't think you should be cheering just yet." I said to the cheering soldier who promptly stopped cheering at my comment.

The air was charged, the two soldiers looked at eachother, the previously cheering soldier raising an eyebrow. I turned back to the machine gun, holding it with one hoof, looking for enemies. It did seem that the attack had been halted, if not repulsed, though that impression did not last long.

A sudden explosion to our right, the direction I had originally come from, attracted the attention of us. It didn't take much thinking until I realized what had caused the explosion.

"The tank...The Tank! The bloody tank!" I yelled out loud. I jumped off of the machine gun, grabbing my rifle and running off to where I had come from, the wooden shelter where I had left my group of comrades.

And so, I began my journey back to where I had come from, running past the same corpses I had run past before. Though, the second time they smelled worse. Much worse. Whether or not the two soldiers knew where I was going, I don't know, but I didn't have any intention on getting them killed either. I myself was sure I would not survive a direct confrontation with the giant that was the tank. Hell, I didn't even know how to destroy it. Though I was sure if I had doubts about surviving then the two of them would not be of any help.

Halfway I slowed down, I had to catch my breath seeing as how I had run all this time. At first I slowed down to a trot, then I leaned myself on a wall, breathing heavily. I looked down in exhaustion, feeling how my hooves had almost become numb from the constant running. I looked around myself as I caught my breath and discovered a dead regular who laid on his back. I pushed myself off the wall and walked over to him, only to discover the fatal wound that had cost him his life. A big bloodstain was visible on his uniform, it was where his lungs were. I kneeled down to the corpse. It was then that I discovered he was holding a small picture in his left hoof. I carefully reached for the picture, gently taking it from his dead grasp. I looked at him once more, how he simply laid there, seemingly in peace, before looking at his picture.

The picture showed a small group of ponies, a stallion, a mare and a young foal which the older ones carried together. I immediately realized that the picture showed him and his family. His beloved family. His wife, who he had promised to return home safely, and his young daughter, who he had told daddy would be there for here whenever she needed him.

I closed my eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. I put the picture back on the stallion's chest, where it belonged, and moved both of his forehooves so that they held it close. With a sense of regret and fear, I decided to move on, leaving the dead body behind.

It was about half a minute afterwards that I started covering my nose with my left hoof. I looked around as I slowed down to a trot once more, though this time it was not because of exhaustion but because I knew I was close to my destination. The incredibly disgusting smell originated from the numerous corpses laying in the trench. Some, if not most of them, were burnt, though even the ones that were not began smelling as they began to rot. The burnt bodies' skin had turned black from the fire. As I progressed I encountered more and more corpses that were still burning, or their uniforms at least. I was shocked, true, though I knew I had to focus if I was to survive to see another day. Whatever had killed these soldiers could surely kill me just as easily. No, I was no hero, only a soldier who has had luck up until that point. The bad thing about luck is that it's unreliable.

I heard a loud bang shortly before a fiery explosion threw me to the ground. I was unable to make out what had happened at that moment. My head rang from the loud explosion and I felt like I had been run over by a truck. Being the stubborn idiot that I am, I tried pulling myself back up. I could only yell in agony though as I could sense an immsense, stinging pain in my left foreleg. Unable to get off the ground, I leaned over to inspect my left foreleg. I was unable to discover any kind of wound as first, though I knew something was wrong as the pain only seemed to grow stronger. I knew my uniform was covering whatever hid beneath it. I looked for my rifle and saw it laying to my right, luckily still in reach. I pulled it over to me and took off the bayonet. With the bayonet in my right hoof, I managed to cut off the sleeve that was covering my left forehoof. What I saw was exactly what I hoped not to discover.

Blood was pouring out of a big flesh wound in my left hoof. It was the exact position the stinging pain came from, to no surprise to me. In shock, I tried moving my left hoof to the side and, although it hurt lots to do so, managed to do so for just a few seconds. In those few seconds I saw that there was a similar wound on the other side of my hoof. I knew all too well what that meant.

Shrapnel. I've heard of wounds like mine before from comrades of mine. From what I've been told many of these wounds are lethal and usually end in a quick, yet painful death. The shrapnel of the explosion must have shot right through my hoof.

I felt weaker with every passing second as the pain in my hoof grew. In a last effort to possibly save my life I took the bit of cloth that I had cut off from my uniform and tried covering my wounds with it. My eyes became heavy as I tried covering my wounds. I bit my tongue as the pain reached its maximum when I covered them with the cloth, pressing it against the open wound. With my last bit of strength I managed to knot the piece of cloth around my hoof. With the last strength I had used, my eyes closed and I passed out.