My Little Pony: One Thousand Tears
Chapter 2: Indestructible (Disturbed)
A wise one once said: 'War is war, and hell is hell, and of the two, war is a lot worse'. That wise one could not be any more correct. The seconds are ticking down from my pocket watch while the shelling raged on. I peaked up to look over at the frontier of shell holes and barbed wire. I closed my eyes for a moment, and cocked the receiver of my Walther.
"Fix bayonets!" I called back to my troops. The order circulated from Gilda to Gabby and the other officers taking part in the offensive. Here is hoping the creeping barrage will work against the enemy. The sounds of KS98 'Sawback' bayonets being unsheathed, and fixed to the barrels of rifles are notes in a song of war with choruses made by bullets.
I looked back at my troops. Gilda and Gabby looked back at me. Gabby has her puffy youthful cheeks and pretty eyes. Gilda and Galena have a grin that reflect their inner drive. It is good to have close friends in the trenches, but when they die the pain is worse than a bullet with death seeming to be the one release from the inferno of this shattered land
"Für Greifenstein! Angriff!" I yelled,
The war cries of thousands came out of the trenches, and charged the line. Thousands valiant in their hearts charging forward into the fire with bayonets. The only way to break the deadlock is forward into the crossfire and artillery. As we attacked, the shells kept falling. My ears will not forget the cries of pain, and sound of falling bodies to the barrage.
I shifted my eyes back at my troops. Soldiers were thrown back by machine gun and rifle fire from the enemy trench. There is no uglier a sound than a bullet hitting the mark on a soldier and having their blood splatter on your face. You cannot look back. You have to accept the fact that your comrades will die. The only thing you can do is press forward.
When the machine guns start spitting bullets, whole companies are cut down in an instant. The bodies fall, painting the disfigured ground red in blood. Bodies would be slumped over barbed wire or fall facedown in the mud or make a splash in the shell hole, floating facedown in the muddy water. There may also ring the gentle 'plink' sound of a headshot
A shell almost hit me as I rolled forward into a shell hole where I saw Gilda, Gabby, and Galena. I looked up to see a machine gun nest on the enemy lines. I saw my shot, and took it with a headshot at the loader of the Skoda M1909. Another loader took his place. The crossfire ground through the dirt and mud, almost hitting me as I ducked my head
As we readied our Stielhandgranates to take out the machine gun nest, another griffon soldier looked to our shell hole. A white griffon with black talons, dark grey wings, and a dark grey tail end. She got tangled in the barbed wire, and a shell landed directly on her. She vanished in a blackened explosion, and her disembodied head fell into the shellhole
"Sweet Celestia..." Gabby whimpered,
"Keep your head down, Gabby!" Gilda yelled,
"Stay with me, Gilda, and Galena!" I added,
I looked back to see the dead look in her turquoise eyes, and her beak slightly agape. I clinched my eyes closed, and opened them to look at the enemy cutting down soldier by solder with machine guns, and shell blasts killing even more. A soldier near our position had all his entrails and his liver splayed out as he laid on his back in a pool of his blood.
He called out to his mother in his cries of pain. There is no way he can be saved. Others are facedown in the mud or looking up at the grey skies with the lower halves of their bodies missing with entrails and blood reddening the murky waters of the shell holes behind them. I nodded to Gabby, Gilda, and Galena and we threw in our Stielhandgranates.
We had silenced that machine gun nest, "Los geht's!" I called out to any soldiers still alive to attack. There were a few still griffons alive taking cover in other positions on 'No Mares Land'. A couple more from Gretchen and Glenda cleared a way for us as we charged the trench from our positions. Splashes sounded griffons falling back, shot by rifle fire
"Here we go...," smirked Gilda,
We leaped into the trench where things get up close. I emptied my Walther Model 6 to kill any tan-uniformed changeling that got in my way. I patted the back of rifle-griffons as they moved through the maze of the trenches. I holstered my pistol for my steel trench club as I saw Glenda and Gretchen being pinned down, and I bashed in changeling skulls
Black blood splattered against my beak. It is bitter to taste. Glenda picked up her Luger Rifle again, and shot a changeling in the stomach. Her body slumped against the wooden ramparts. I unsheathed my M1917 Stormdolk to fight with my steel raiding club, stabbing a changeling under the wing, and then smashing another across the upside of the head
"Lieutenant!" Gilda cried out amid the carnage in the trenches. I failed to notice a changeling behind me looking to stick me with a bayonet. Galena squared her sights, and shot the changeling in the head before she could kill me. I nodded lightly as a thank you to one of the officers. I smacked another with my steel raiding club, and even broke a neck.
Glenda and Gretchen followed behind me, running changelings through with bayonets or striking them aside with rifle stocks. Ahead of me where Gabby, Gilda, and Galena. They looked to have stood their ground armed with sharpened spades and a trench club just like mine. I gave one to Gilda as a show of goodwill, "The trench's all clear," said Galena.
I lightly nodded with a grin to say 'good work'. Victory maybe sweet first, but the price that was paid for it makes the taste only last for a brief moment. The field was strewned with the bodies of the fallen. The stretcher bearers combed the field, and began the work of collecting the dead. All this for the price of a mile, for the price of a single trench line