//------------------------------// // Duell // Story: Mares und Panzer // by Indulgence //------------------------------// ‘“Speed is as much a weapon of war as any armament, particularly so when it comes to the tank, and all forces should be arranged around this concept.”’1 ‘Manestein?’ ‘Nope, but close.’ ‘It can’t be Zhoofkov then?’ ‘Nope. I kinda should also say that I’m more paraphrasing than actually quoting.’ The best part of the Panther’s crew (minus their gunner) sat outside the maintenance shed, enjoying the sun’s heat in contrast to the cold climate of their trip to Yan Hoover. A scavenged hull plate served them for a table, supported by fuel barrels, whilst for chairs they as per usual had a bunch of empty ammunition crates. The mass of stuff occupying the homemade desk made it seem lucky that it was made from a slab of armour, anything less likely inadequate. Stretched maps and thick files made up most of its contents, accompanied by further copious piles of sheets, several half eaten lunches, a tool kit, and the spilled guts of a savaged radio set. Noise and the bright sparks of flames came from the barn at their back, the work of only really a few labouring tools resonating proudly outward. Most others had instead elected to use the granted time for a much needed break. ‘I’ll leave you to keep guessing for now’ Toffee continued, ‘but the point is the easiest effective way to organise ourselves would be in groups of relatively similar capabilities in terms of mobility, and then we can move on to considering complimentary firepower.’ ‘Makes sense’ Dawn nodded. She and the other earth mare occupied one more greatly papered half of the mess, for the last time pawing over a set of championship maps. The arrival of the grid-lined sheets had suddenly made everything much more real, at least as far as the two of them were concerned, immediately throwing all their focus behind planning for their final match ahead. ‘The Rhinos all move similarly, plus after all the changes our Panther, the Tornado and the Little Lion will all likewise be relatively matching. Only the Hydra remains a little sluggish, but its added firepower more than makes up for it, as proven last time.’ ‘Would you mind checking this?’ Coquette asked from the other end of the table, turning her question and the radio she was attempting to reassemble to the taller unicorn next to her. ‘Just a sec…’ Blossom meanwhile worked with a pen and ruler, carefully annotating a set of official looking diagrams, aided by her magic. The images depicted the Rhinos Two and Five, showing the addition of boxy scaffolding tubes on the sides of their turrets. These constructions (four in total per tank) were further expanded elsewhere, shown to each contain a heavy bore artillery missile to be launched at an angle from these mounts. ‘Let me just finish this section…’ At the same time as the other writing implement another worked over a series of documents, filling in designated questions and ticking required boxes in a flowing hoof. ‘Mare, they don’t make it easy do they! Now, what is it?’ ‘Have I done it right?’ the smaller coms operator queried, pointing to a protruding tangle of wires she had been working on. The loader levitated the piece under her gaze, turning it over and obviously going through a mental checklist as she counted off cables in series. ‘Yep’ she confirmed, ‘just seal it up and it should work fine.’ ‘Really?!’ The golden mare was ecstatic. ‘You mean I’ve seriously managed to freaking fix it?’ ‘Yep’ Blossom repeated, smiling. ‘You’re nowhere near as clueless as you make yourself out to be you know. Mostly’ she laughed, her quip totally ignored by her partner still celebrating. ‘How many copies of this do I need to do?’ ‘Three I’m afraid’ Toffee responded, ‘one for us and two for the officials to look over.’ ‘Buck! And if I screw anything up or it’s not accepted we’ll have to do it again?’ ‘Pretty much; hence why you’re the one doing it. Thanks again by the way.’ ‘No pressure!’ the unicorn huffed. ‘You’d think they’d make it at least a tad easier to be creative though, I mean isn’t part of the sport’s aim supposed to be development? Bucking health and safety!’ ‘I know!’ Coquette piped up with a grin, ‘we want to strap rocket launchers to the sides of our tanks, which if hit could explode by the way, and with them we plan on firing at other ponies. Obviously us having to fill in a few forms to make it legit it health and safety gone mad! Oi!’ The golden mare received a flick of ink and a raised eyebrow back from the loader. ‘If you want a go filling in this crap then be my guest!’ ‘So we’ll be facing twenty of Ponyville’s vehicles?’ Dawn looked back to her own work and their resident intelligence officer, the ever-present black jacket adding to the image. ‘Any ideas on specifics?’ ‘Their arsenal is huge’ Toffee shook her head. ‘Since their original patron was Twilight Sparkle, the first Minister of Education, they’ve always had the best stuff, and their tank team is no exception. The only thing we can be sure of is that they’ll use the Turtle, which incidentally is our biggest problem anyway, quite literally.2 Beyond that it’s anypony’s guess.’ ‘Okay, let’s consider that then.’ ‘It’s a close relation of the Tortoise family, you know like the ones Baltimare uses which we saw on the train, but made by a different company, so also close to Canterlot’s Tigers. Like the Hexer it’s another prototype design, gifted by Minister Sparkle to the school because, as far as I can work out, she had no concept of friendly competition, or friends for that matter. Designation is ET-ex or Tortoise Ex-Type…’ ‘Hang on; I thought you said it was called the Turtle?’ Coquette looked up from screwing the radio’s rear plate back into place. ‘It’s just another nickname, nopony knows the difference anyway.’ ‘FBS!’ the golden earth mare muttered, returning to her task. ‘Anyway, you could say it looks like a super-heavy tank and a land battleship had a foal, and then it mutated into some kind of demonic titan straight outta Tartarus. You remember the huge dual 152 millimetre howitzers the Hexer used on us?’ Dawn nodded. ‘Well this thing’s got a pair of 280 millimetres as it main guns, plus a pair of secondary turrets armed with 128 mils at its rear. The thing’s a beast, insanely large and insanely armed! Scale wise it’s about twelve times the size of a Hunting Tiger, and three times the height!’ ‘With all that it must be stupidly slow’ Blossom observed absently, mostly focused on her pages, ‘which makes it pretty redundant for all its grandeur bearing in mind your first point. Why make such a pointless machine?’ ‘Partly it came about because of the Hexer. By rumour it had something to do with a longstanding rivalry between earth and air style proponents, but…’ ‘Hey Dawn!’ The interruption came from the Hydra’s electric blue commander as she materialised behind the team’s captain, herself spinning around at the sudden appearance. At her back the darker form of Helix also stood, in the midst of pushing her leader forward. ‘Hi’ Dawn managed to respond, as surprised as everypony else. ‘What’s up?’ Uncharacteristically it took a second nudge from her comrade for Rook to keep talking and her words equally seemed to lack their usual showmare confidence. ‘So, er… this may sound out of the blue, but there’s been something I’ve been meaning to tell you…’ ‘Hold it!’ With an angered sounding yell a pink bolt of lightning shot down out of the sky, reforming as Split next to the two others so recently teleported. ‘Don’t you dare!’ ‘Buck off princess!’ Helix growled, moving to confront the new arrival. ‘Can’t you see they’re trying to have a conversation?’ ‘Not before I’ve had my say!’ The athlete totally ignored the interjection. ‘Dawn, you know how I said I wanted to talk about something? Well, I really li-mmph!’ A ball of magic muted out her speech. ‘Hay no! I got here first!’ Rook snarled, stepping forward to clash face to face with her rival, for once actually wearing the ferocious expression her air and those of her comrades tended to suggest. The two scowled at one another, exchanging murderous looks. This would be where a good captain would say something to cool things down you know. ‘What’s this ab…’ Dawn tried, but was interrupted. ‘How do you suggest we settle this impasse then?’ the navy-maned unicorn questioned icily, never dropping her eyes from her target. ‘Bare hooves round the back of the sheds would do it’ Helix suggested darkly. ‘Not exactly helping Hel! Exclusion is not something I want to aim for.’ ‘A duel then’ Split stated straight back. ‘A duel for her.’ What?!!! ‘With our tanks I assume, so we’re on some kind of equal ground?’ ‘Agreed.’ The two nodded coldly at one another, the pegasus then turning to the table. ‘Not happening’ Blossom answered the absent question without even looking up. ‘I didn’t even ask you yet!’ Split complained, anger mounting. ‘And, more importantly, why the buck not?’ ‘I’m busy.’ ‘Likewise’ Coquette seconded. ‘Seriously?!’ ‘I just don’t want to get involved’ Toffee added in more quietly. ‘Well buck you too then!’ The pegasus wheeled on the spot, searching for options, flames further stoked by a snigger from Helix. ‘Hey, Lens!’ ‘What?’ The Tornado’s three mare team all walked up, having been on their way past, fronted by their rainbow-haired commander. ‘You want another rematch? You know I’ll just win again!’ ‘I need a favour.’ ‘Ha, that’s rich!’ Lens snorted. ‘I don’t owe you anything.’ ‘Fine, I’ll owe you, big time, I just need you all to crew the Panther for me so I can grind Miss Doom and Gloom into the dirt where she belongs!’ ‘Almost tempting, but not quite’ the other pegasus replied, her crew members likewise shaking their heads. ‘There’s no way anything’s worth taking orders from you.’ ‘That’s not what I’m asking. You’re in charge.’ Split’s words caused everypony’s jaws to hit the floor. ‘No need for coms, I just need a driver, a loader, and you at the top giving directions. All I want is to work the gun!’ ‘Really? Are you sure you’re not ill or something?’ ‘Who cares’ Silver came in, ‘let’s do this!’ Without any further pause, both sides departed for the maintenance area, leaving the table’s four occupants back to themselves. To repeat: what?! ‘What the buck just happened?’ Dawn asked generally to anypony and everypony, failing to regard her unusual expletive. The three others sat around the table all looked up from the jobs they had put all their focus into, Coquette kicking off with: ‘it’s been going on for a while now, nothing as… vocal as this mind, but simmering under the surface.’ ‘We didn’t wanna bring it up’ Toffee came in, ‘you already have so much to think about. You deal with so much stress for everypony that we didn’t think it was fair to make you deal with this too, at least until after the championships.’ ‘They both have a thing for you’ Blossom finally straightforwardly answered. ‘Put politely: they’re both pretty crap at elucidating it, Rook’s particularly good at being inscrutable, but they’ve had their obvious moments, so I’m honestly surprised that you never noticed until now. What Toff says is a good summation though. We did decide that it wasn’t fair on anypony for us to push it or interfere.’ ‘And look how well that’s turned out’ the coms mare sighed. Revving engines and clouds of dust followed in the wake of the two war beasts as they rolled out of their cave. The pair moved out, snarling at each other as they took up opposing positions on the practice pitch. There was a pause and then the duo roared at one another, beginning on some unknown signal. Each shot and manoeuvred, quickly throwing up a veil of obscuring dust over their brutal competition. ‘I don’t get it’ Dawn found herself stating as she watched on. ‘Am I supposed to feel good about this?’ She pointed to the shrouded melee, shocked mind leaving her words thoughtless. ‘How is being fought over supposed to be in any way pleasant? I like both of them, a lot, as friends, so what the buck am I supposed to do after this, whatever the outcome ends up as?’ The particularly loud thunder of the Hydra’s three gun broadside rumbled out of the cloud, flashes just as quickly flaring in the billowing dirt. A louder reply came back, obviously from the Panther, and the two sparred on invisibly. ‘Maybe if I’d just seen it…’ ‘Come on, can you just not be you for a minute’ Coquette cut the cream earth mare off, ‘or rather can you bring a bit of Commander Dawn to the table instead of just laying responsibility at your hooves. We’re to blame’ she pointed around the table, ‘as are those two out there, them for not saying anything and us likewise, not you.’ Blossom nodded. ‘For now though I think you should take a walk.’ Dawn looked to the whirling smoke and dust. ‘But shouldn’t I…’ ‘No, you shouldn’t have to watch this, and they’re idiots for trying to make you. Whatever’s going on behind those clouds, it’s messy, and there’s nothing you or anypony can do about it until they tire themselves out. So take a walk, clear your head a bit and let them clear theirs. We’ll make sure they give you some space.’ ‘But…’ ‘The shed’s pretty empty’ Toffee suggested, passing over a few sheets. ‘You can go check out how the work is going along, and then just go from there.’ Together the trio all wore encouraging smiles, supportive and sorry, helping Dawn over a last glance back at the ongoing combat. ‘Thank you’ she returned with a small smile, turning to seek shelter in the maintenance bays. Out of the corner of her eyes however she did catch Coquette and Blossom as they sent a sideways glance Toffee’s way, an askance look which got a more confidently flippant reply and an added wave of a forehoof. --- What are you going to do? ‘Not listening’ Dawn silently thought back, looking up from the paper to the armoured vehicles before her, channelling all her attention away from what was screaming in the back of her mind. Before her were the two turreted Rhinos, in that moment under the care of RCA’s engineers, affixing mounts and ejection systems to the sides of the machines’ squarish heads. These would be ready to receive the rocket tubes set to one side awaiting their design’s approval, simpler and therefore already fabricated, assuming they got it. The ordinance itself was meanwhile being cooked up by the alchemy department, so as long as the plans got the okay all was ready to be on time for the final battle. What are you going to do? ‘Shut up!’ She moved onto the next tank, or rather the exploded out constituent parts which had been one. The Tornado was in a total state of disassembly, its tracks unwound, its wheels removed and old turret hovering from a crane’s hook high above. The purpose of all this was not easy for an untrained eye to recognise unless the machine’s hull in the middle of this mess was recognised for its unpainted state. This central component was new (again not easy to spot), exchanging rivets for stronger seamless welds and with far sharper angled faces. There were likewise new skirts of armour to protect its drive train and a much meatier engine set to one side (something that Lens and co were still celebrating) so it could maintain its speed with all the extras. All this work had begun as soon as they had got back, the extensive overhaul by Toffee’s estimates essentially converting the machine from a Type Seven to a Type Nine.3 What are you going to do?! Dawn just huffed, stamping a hoof as she continued with her review, surprised as she reached the Little Lion and was met by the sound of work echoing from within. Despite its agility the cruiser had taken quite the beating in their last match, its repairs only just finished, and they had yet to get down to the additions it was set to receive. Intrigued, she hopped up onto its hull with the aid of a fuel can. She made for the turret, its open hatch the source of the noise, but as she reached it a figure popped out, tossing back her translucent mane. Crystal was initially oblivious, simultaneously floating a band to tie back her hair whilst using a cloth to desperately clean the grime from her hooves. A moment later however she noticed, startling herself in a mirror image to the other mare a fractional second before. ‘Oh… Hi Dawn.’ Her silver irises went mostly to removing the muck from her forehooves. ‘Hi Crystal.’ The earth mare, given a tiny bit more time, recovered from the shock marginally quicker than the unicorn, but only just barely, similarly dropping her gaze. Her reaction more than the surprise itself was what brought her embarrassment however, suddenly aware of the differences between their meetings in combat versus out of it. This was little helped by the serious working look the delicate mare in front of her was wearing, made even cuter by a small smudge of oil on the side of her nose. ‘What’s up?’ the Tornado’s commander asked, finally succeeding in drawing up her eyes. Dawn took a moment for thought before she answered. ‘Er… just reviewing how everything’s coming along. How are things going?’ ‘Pretty good. The locking mechanism on the left breach has been sticking a bit, so I’ve been working on that, but otherwise we’re all done.’ ‘Not quite.’ ‘Why?’ The other commander turned meek again with her question, doubting herself. ‘What’ve I forgotten?’ ‘No no, you haven’t forgotten anything’ the captain countered quickly, ‘it’s just that we’ve upgraded everypony else, so if it’s ready we’re not going to leave your Lion out.’ She could not help but smile, enjoying the unicorn’s features as they brightened. ‘We’re going to up your armour, so we’ll be adding extra layers to your prow and skirt plates over your treads.’ ‘But… not that I’m questioning or ungrateful or anything, but weren’t we not getting anything like that in order to remain faster?’ ‘That was the case yes, but I’m also going to get Bloss to take a look at your engine to see if she can coax some more out of its performance to overcome the added weight. The finals are going to be an annihilation match, so everypony is going to have to hold their own against larger forces, plus…’ Dawn stumbled, finding that she had unintentionally put herself in a corner. ‘Erm I… I-I don’t want anything to happen to you.’ You and your big mouth! The Panther’s commander felt herself turn pink, furthered as she watched a similar reaction on the part of the other leader. Thankfully a particularly loud blast rolled in from outside, breaking the loaded silence which fell to follow. ‘What’s going on out there?’ Crystal queried, consciously changing the subject. ‘Rook and Split came storming in here a while ago, and then charged straight back out again. Are they practicing against one another?’ ‘Not exactly. They’re… “duelling” over me.’ ‘What?’ Dawn turned away, taking a seat as she sighed, looking out through the shed’s doors. ‘Yeah, that was my reaction. Apparently they both “have a thing for me”, and now they’re fighting over it.’ Crystal climbed from her commander’s perch, sitting down next to the pale cream earth mare. She had however returned her gaze to her forehooves. ‘And? What do you think about that?’ ‘In a polite word: it sucks. I like Rook a lot…’ The unicorn’s ears dropped slightly. ‘…and it’s the same with Split. They’ve both become what I thought were friends to me, but this just makes all that seem weird. I feel stupid and I feel powerless.’ ‘I’m sorry.’ The other snowy mare at her side kept her eyes on her hooves. ‘Don’t be; nothing to do with you. Thanks though. I just wish they’d come out and said something you know, rather than let things get this far and then jump to each other’s throats.’ Just a tad hypocritical there, bearing in mind present company! ‘On top of all that I just don’t get it, this is all totally new for me. I don’t understand what they’re thinking or what they can see.’ ‘Erm… it’s pretty obvious actually.’ The captain turned to the pure form next to her. ‘You’re kind and you’re caring. You know how the both of them are, but you’ve never judged either of them in the way so many others have, or done that to anypony else for that matter. From the start you’ve done and cared so much for all of us, but at the same time we’ve all been allowed to see your other side as well. You’re strong, you’re brave, you’ve put yourself on the line for others without a second thought. I know cos it’s you you’re likely not going to agree with anything I’m saying, but trust me it’s true. Bearing all that in mind it’s not surprising that they feel the way they do, plus it probably doesn’t help that… that you’re pretty cute too.’ These last words sent the earth mare’s gaze crashing straight back to her forehooves, bearing a hotter pink shade than ever. ‘Dawn?’ ‘Y-yes?’ ‘You should know that I like you too.’ A set of lips came to brush lightly against Dawn’s cheek. Instantly she whirled back round, finding Crystal with her head inclined timidly toward her forehooves, shoulders noticeably hunched and face screwed up around closed eyes as if expecting a very different reply in return. The heavy quiet had come back, all sound seeming to pause in of that moment as the captain looked at the other commander, feeling guilty at her partner’s anxiousness, but at the same time finding the sight infinitely adorable. She was drawn in, leaning over as she closed the gap between them, laying a kiss as tentatively on the unicorn’s cheek as the one it succeeded, before she likewise receded shyly back. Crystal’s features softened, biting her lip as she looked up. The pair broke into little smiles as they looked into one another. They remained quietly gazing, finding their forehooves intertwined between them. ‘Hold on!’ ‘Wait a minute!’ Loud calls from the building’s doors sharply drew away their attention, where a crowd was forcing its way in. The shout came from Coquette, alongside Blossom and Toffee trying and failing to be an immovable rampart, but finding their collective barrier forced continually backward. Behind them Rook and Split refused to be detained, both caked in a mixture of sweat and dirt from their angry conflict, storming heedlessly forward. This group came to an abrupt stop, spinning around the trio which had tried to prevent its progress. A varied collection of faces all bore up at the two mares holding hooves, expressions arranged on all points along the emotional spectrum.