Horrors of War

20th, March, 1017.
Entente Line, Delta-Bravo Sector.
Eighth Central Ponies Offensive.
142nd Rifle Regiment, 5th OnHooves Division.
4th Support Trench.

It's been a while, since I've been out commission for a week and on. I've been transferred to 142nd Rifle Regiment, 5th Onhooves division. Transferring a soldier wasn't easy, as we must either march or transported to the area were transferred to. I'm no exception, marching through the No Pony's Land are too horrible for anypony to stand for (Not to mention what happen a week ago). Thankfully, Front line weren't close to the location I've been transferred to, which i hoped for a relaxing in the trench. Playing cards, polishing rifle's, and doing some... Duty's to do. I also meet up and introduced with some other ponies, all of them were Earth ponies (while me being the only unicorn and the only Officer) and they... Quite frankly, pretty fun.

I also learned their name, their full name however are hardly to remembers so we used our nicknames instead, There's; Private Juliet (Female, yellow mane, purple coated), Corporal Saddleton (Male, blue mane, red coated), Private Gleavestone (Male, green mane, violet coated), Private Redina (Female, blonde mane, white coated) and last but not least, Private Greenhooves (Male, green lime mane, dark green coated), This are only act of a brothers/sisters-in arm relationship. According to them, they were transferred from a quieter post on the Hotel-Charlie sector (The most quietest place in the whole war). I don't know if i should be jealous or not, but they will be, sooner or later will see the horrors of war and real combat in this gruesome and bloody war. I don't have to inform this kind of things right? They might get traumatized, reluctantly they must fight and kill. I just don't have the courage to tell them. Frankly, their name's however, wouldn't matter much as they either be killed or captured, therefore their name's might lost or forgotten, Forever.

Even the front line were far from our trench's, we still have chores to do such as; repairing or cleaning the trench's, guard duty, carrying crates, or delivering letters to the front line. Stressful work, to be honest... But we must do it anyway, and since the trench were support type trench's. Expect a howitzer or heck a TANK in there, and it did have one. At first i couldn't believe it. Mark V Tank parked in a fixed digged position, its direction were towards the first trench and the Front line. I only shook my head in disbelieve as I rarely seen the huge behemoth, moving fortress (on my original sector at least).

I shared my bunk with Corporal Saddleton, who choose to be up top, while I take the lower bunk. We exchanged and sharedour stories, before we trotted to the front side of the trench. He joined the war in late November, which hardly less than 6 month ago. I told him my 'Incredible' stories about roughly a week go, which he doesn't believe it at first, but he listened anyway. We arrived at the frontal trench and reported to our Commanding Officer. The Major were quite straight-forward, they ordered us of what to do for the next couple of hours. Carrying boxes, sorting out letters, and fortifying the trench.

The sun setting in, and I have the first watch for the night and for two hours, nothing interesting happened, besides small rodent passing by or a series of flash's in the horizon. I'm getting quite bored in the trench's, but unlike the front line trench; we barely had any kind of combat or action going on. But it is quite relaxing especially when the moon shine's brightly, but i can't let my guard down... Anything can happen in the war, artillery barrage or a night raid could happen at any moment. Seeing the quiet night, I'd take a look at the surrounding stars that helps brighten the night, "Lovely stars eh, LT?" A voice was heard behind me, I'd turned to look who it is, it was Greenhooves.

"Taking the second watch, Greenhooves?" I asked.

Greenhooves nodded and simply answered, "Eeeyup."

I chuckled, and wish him good luck, Greenhooves simply nodded and trotted to his watch post. I don't expect anything that could happen that night, its a quiet night and nothing is happening on the front trench. I withdraw to the soldier quarter, I seen exhausted soldiers sleeping soundly as they have nothing to fear. I trotted to my bunk and saw Saddleton hooves are literally everywhere, pointing at every possible direction his hooves can go, I can only smile seeing him that sleeping heavily. Most soldier's that are resting for the night are those who take watch during the day, and didn't have time to sleep in the afternoon. Most trench's should be and always be patrolled, and guarded with many Pony's as possible,

Sitting on the side of the bunk, again I lost in deep thoughts, "When is this war gonna be over?" I asked the same question every God-Damn night, wishing the war will end by the end of the year. Soldiers already suffered enough from the war, why don't we just drop out of the war and give up!? We already exhausted and suffered enough in this war, I'm sick of it. And you know what? GO TO HELL PRIDE! Who care's about a nation pride anyway? We did our very best to win the war, and yet... What we achieved on the war is, nothing compared to the live of ponies that died in this seemingly endless conflict.

"I'm not going to think of this anymore," I muttered, afraid to wake up the others and then i put myself to the bunk and close's my eyes, trying to sleep, but i just can't. I tried to relax a bit but to no avail, i just can't... I opened my eyes again, I rubbed my face and I decided to take a walk around the trench's. Hopefully it will make me tired enough and helped clearing off my mind. I get up from the bunk, float my rifle, sling it to my neck, and then trotted outside. The trench are one of the 'typical' type kind of trench, sandbags everywhere, MG position, Medical area, Canteen, Soldier's Quarter, and the trench size were typical, around 3 feet deep, 2 meters wide, and it could stretch more than a mile. It also have one of room that most soldier called it 'Storage', because it housed all sorts of ammunition for many type of weaponry, rifles, MG, even howitzer shell were housed there (although they might get moved soon near the howitzer for faster reloading).

I trotted around the trench's, looking, wandering, and exploring the whole area of the trench's, I even take a brief visit to the Tank crew, which they appeared having a maintenance to the tank, finding anything that need sort of repairs or malfunction within the tank. Soldiers I bumped into were mostly patrolling the inside of the trench, or on their way somewhere, or just polishing their rifle. Moonlight surely bright tonight, even though it can't pierced through the fog that comes in. The fog are dangerous in the war, this kind of weather can be used by both sides for a Trench Raid or an Assault to the trench itself. Vision might be obstructed for while, and we can't see what's in front of us, we can see at least six kilometers, from we require the whole area to be able to see No Pony's Land clearly, and have the time to alarm the others for any possible assault.

I'm back at the frontal position of the trench, could see most pony's were off from their guard due to the thick fog. Personally, I use this opportunity to peak outside the trench walls, until i see something moving within the clouds. I float my rifle and aim at the shadowy figure's, I couldn't tell if it's friendly pony or an enemy, either way, i must be prepared for anything. I warned the other's that something is coming and it's coming for us, the first two ponies peak out and also warned the others, confirming what i said to them earlier. There's one shadow and then multiplied, I shouted for a possible raid, in mere seconds the others already have their heads showing above the trench, aiming towards the shadows. Brief silence as the shadow keep approaching our position. We are ready for an attack.

The shadows are approaching and we are keenly watched their movement, we don't know if this an enemy or a friendly. Until one of the shadows started to fire their rifle at us, we returned fire with a barrage of constant rifle volley. This is it, it's and enemy attack, and the more we shoot them down, more of them appeared, and more rifle shot were exchanged. Machinegun started gunned them these shadowy pony that come's charging in, pony's start to falls on both sides. We weren't actually certain if it's the enemy or not, The Major then start to shout, "SECOND TRENCH HAS BEEN TAKEN! FIRE AT WILL!"

We are now certain this an assault and they are charging right at us, Pony that were right beside me took a direct shot to the head, the bullet pierced through his helmet like a sheet of paper, fresh blood comes pouring down from his head, his head are now rested on the sandbag in front of him. I ducked for cover, and reload my rifle, floating rifle shells into the chamber. Then the tank started to fire their Machine Gun, their cannons everything they got, blasting and utterly devastate the enemy, sending their body's, limb, or body parts, flying across No Pony's Land. I peak out of cover, aim, shoot, pulled-push the bolt, reload, and repeat, no matter how many ponies i shot, they're just keep coming.

A stray bullet scratch my cheek. I quickly duck for cover, i felt the burning pain on my cheek but i ignored it anyway, there's bigger thing i have to worry about. If i just peak out of cover a little early, I should have died from a shrapnel, a grenade just exploded, an inch away from the sandbag I ducked for cover from. I turned my head to the left just to see a face of somepony, shrapnel filled his entire face, barely recognized the buck, then another pony falls down into the trench floor, and then another. I peak a little bit just to see what kind of hell are happening just now.

The enemy are charging mindlessly, trying to get into the trench despite the fact of thousand of bullets are now flying towards them, and they are desperate to do it. Floating my rifle above the sandbag and blindly fired at a random location hoping to hit somepony. They almost reached the trench, until Machinegun fire's are concentrating on a large group of ponies and start to just tearing them apart with bullets. The Mark V tank also fired its cannon, landing its shell somewhere in No Pony's Land. I only could pray to the goddesses, as things are about to get out of hoof on the trench very soon enough, and the goddesses really started to sent us the message.

Artillery Barrage start to tearing down our position, either landing it's shell into the enemy or somewhere in No Pony's Land, craters started to appear and the enemy start to take cover inside the craters. Our Tank took a direct hit from the Artillery, disabling the giant tank. Doubt the crew even survived that direct blast, even if it did, it won't take long before they just realized their tank were caught in fire and then exploded seconds later. Artillery barrage stopped their 'rain of fire' minutes later after their last soldier's retreated to the fog. Brief moment of silence, we relieved ourself from the enemy assault. They have started to stop sending ponies at us.

I peaked out of cover and i see clearly from the enemy are now gone, either dead or disappeared to the thick fog. I looked around the now 'battered' trench, dead ponies are everywhere, i could see Greenhooves lifeless corpse lying on the trench floor. Just as the enemy stopped their mindless advance, Artillery are now raining down upon us, they just didn't stop their Artillery barrage, it's just the beginning of their assault. We ducked for cover, hoping their shells or shrapnel missed their mark. I galloped to the signal station, it may be dangerous but, if there's any hope left for us to 'endure' their next assault. I'm willingly volunteering myself to do that, despite their artillery still firing their barrage of high explosive shells that battering down the landscape.

I arrived to the signal station (Command trench if i may call it), they were placed at the back of the trench, thankfully out of range of those artillery barrage. Inside the signal center, the only signal officer are trotting back and forth waiting for something, i expected he was waiting for orders. I shouted at him, "WHY ARE YOU NOT RELAYING MESSAGES!?" He only cower in fear and replied, "But sir, no orders are given by Major Cleo to relay any-" I quickly interrupted him, "Look, The Major are nowhere to be seen, I order you to relay a message to Headquarters for reinforcement, or else we will lose this trench!"

Didn't take long for the Signal officer to write down a message, and put it on the pigeon small pack that resides on one of his leg. It written as follow:

Fourth Support Trench, Delta-Bravo Sector. Requesting reinforcement, Major Offensive.

To be Continued.