My Little Pony: Sleeping Giant
Chapter 2: Indestructible
The guns of the navy roared like a dragon, and the shells hammered the defenses of the Equestrians. As our Toku Daihatsu-class landing craft were moving toward the shores, we all made our preparations for battle. Ponies used their unicorn magic to fix bayonets on the ends of their rifles. I kept calm amid battle's roar. The sea breeze wetted my fur.
Each landing craft holds fifteen ponies. The transport ships that followed behind us held our tanks, and artillery pieces. Some ponies were not used to the sea, and vomited over the edge or into the landing craft. Others had shaky hooves as they drank from their canteens, "Thirty seconds, Kougu-Heika Banzai!" said a stallion, our tactics are very simple.
Push forward. The orders are easy: 'kill or be killed'. The gates went down, the machine guns from the fortified positions started spitting lead. Amid the hail of bullets, the stout bravery of our soldiers was on full display. I unsheathed my Shin-Gunto, and led the charge, "Kougu-Heika Banzai!" I roared as I led my soldiers from the front though many fell.
"Ikuzo! ("Let's go!")" roared White Lotus
"Utte! ("Fire!") called out the artillery officers
The bullets were cutting through flesh and bone echoed in my ears. The shells of the heavy guns sent splinters of shrapnel in all directions. One nearly hit me, and hit the soldier behind me. My face was splattered with her blood, a bit of her brain matter and she fell back in a splattering of her blood. Her exposed brains looked like the roe of a gutted fish.
The wet sands were painted red in our blood. Ponies were shot, and felled into bloody puddles of salt water on the beaches. The clouds were grey, and the screams of the dying and the wounded lingered in the salty air. Shells kicked up sand as we ducked, but kept pressing forward. An officer was directing soldiers until a shell landed a direct hit on him.
He disappeared in an explosion of sand and a fine, white and red mist. We were able to secure a beachhead, and fired back with artillery of our own. Heavy machine gun fire cut down many soldiers, and laughed at our vain attempts to charge the line. White Lotus dived forward to evade an exploding shell. She landed near me on a dune. I grinned to her
"Ready?" I asked her with a ready Type 91 grenade
I nodded quickly, "Now!" I said as the crew reloaded
White Lotus nodded. We pulled the pins, and tossed them into the opening of a machine gun bunker. We rolled out of the way as the two grenades exploded, and destroyed the heavy machine gun. The transport craft were making it onto the beach, and the tanks were a welcome sight. Two Type 6 'Mamushi' medium tanks were the first on the beaches.
A high velocity 105mm shell zoomed over us, and exploded to make a hole in the barbed wire defenses. White Lotus shot an Equestrian Soldier-Pony in the head. I used the fact the other was distracted by the death of his comrade, and charged up and chopped off his head with one clean slash of my Shin-Gunto, and I slashed another across the muzzle.
Shells from the large heavy cruisers 'Yoshino' and 'Azuma', with the assistance of the light cruisers 'Agano' and 'Yahagi', hammered the gun positions defending the beach. Tanks rolled onto the beach with their infantry escorts while the shells of Equestrian guns blasted and cut down the brave Umanese mare and stallion-soldiers. Still, they kept attacking
"Ike (Attack!)" I yelled amid the mighty cannons roar
Our soldiers emerged from the cover of the dunes. A shell exploded, and cut down about six mares and stallions in the attacking wave. Through the holes made in the barbed wire defenses, we charged in and ran through the enemy ponies with bayonets and shot and killed any Equestrian soldier-pony that resisted the onslaught. It all came at a cost.
Using my unicorn magic, I used my Hamada pistol to shoot an Equestrian Officer-Pony in the head between the eyes, and slashed another across the face and muzzle. I turned, and used my katana to slash through an M1 rifle and split a bloody slash to cleave a head perfectly in half down the center. Soldiers with Shisei Type 3 machine guns gave cover.
The sounds of heavy gunfire was evident that these ponies will fight to the last mare, and stallion. Once we broke through the lines, we captured each of the Equestrian heavy gun emplacements, "BANZAI!" the soldiers cheered, it was our first taste of battle against Equestria, and it was our first taste of victory. The beach was littered with many dead.
"This was one battle, there will be more," I stated
"I believe our pony enemy should not hear our scorn,"
Equestria is a persistent, and stubborn enemy. The waters ran red with the blood of our dead floating facedown in the salt waters. Some had lost limbs, or worse. Others had the entire halves of their bodies vaporized by artillery. Such carnage made it seem like getting shot was just the easy way out. With assistance from the Navy, we wounded Equestria
I slashed the blood off my Shin-Gunto, and sheathed my sword. I took off my peaked cap, and the soldier-ponies removed their helmets as we bowed to the sacred dead being taken away by our pegasi nurses and field medics. Along with soldiers who survived the first battle, I was warmed to see my friend White Lotus is still alive. She is a sister to me
"Alright, we'll move further in, and set up our base, we are in enemy territory so stay on your hooves, there's also a chance we may run into allies, we shall embrace them as our sisters and brothers-in-arms in this war," I explained to what is left of my company after the battle, "rest well and eat well to recover your strength, we move out tomorrow,"
"Hai!" responded her soldier-ponies obediently
I sighed "This is a war none will ever forget,"