> Team Yankee
>  by Eagle
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Stand-To
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The night and darkness that filled the German countryside was quiet. It was still, peaceful and full of bliss. If one sat there for long enough, they could forget that there was a force of war machines stationed there.

They were deployed in a forest, or the edge of one, on the forward slope of a couple ridges that overlooked a peaceful valley, their line running perpendicular across the valley and sights trained at its entrance. The only other thing beyond their line in the forest was a river that ran parallel to their line about halfway across the valley.  Should any Soviet forces make it this far, and they probably would, it was this team's job to stop them.

Specifically, Team Yankee; 1st of the 4th Armored. The heavy tank company was broken up into three platoons, along with a fourth platoon of mechanized infantry. They were equipped with M1 tanks, along with two ITVs, Improved TOW Vehicles, while the Mech platoon was equipped with the M113 Personnel Carrier.  They had been scheduled to receive the new Bradley Fighting Vehicles, but slow procurement of the vehicles, along with the unit being passed up for more important areas, meant they would have to make due.

One of the PCs was sitting on the line, quiet and still. In the black of the night, it looked more like a giant box. Its occupants were, for the most part, trying to get some sleep until the small radio inside crackled with noise and a metallic, static voice that sounded like it echoed through a long corridor.

“BRAVO THREE ROMEO FIVE SIX-THIS IS KILO EIGHT MIKE SEVEN SEVEN-RADIO CHECK-OVER.”

The body of Captain Sean Bannon awoke to this; filled with aches and pains. The bed he had made with gear, ammo boxes, and other miscellaneous items was rather uneven. Over to his side the battalion XO, First Lieutenant Robert Uleski, was already at the radio.

“Damn it. It’s 3rd platoon again,” he said to Bannon.

“BRAVO THREE ROMEO FIVE SIX-THIS IS KILO EIGHT MIKE SEVEN SEVEN-RADIO CHECK-OVER.”

“KILO EIGHT MIKE SEVEN SEVEN-THIS IS BRAVO THREE MIKE SIX SIX-STAY OFF THE AIR-I SAY AGAIN-STAY OFF THE AIR- OUT.”

Bannon sat up slowly, illuminated by the PC’s dim light.

“What time is it?” he asked.

“0234.” 
Lieutenant Uleski, nicknamed ‘Ski’ and ‘U’, was usually a jocular person; enjoying life and joking around a good bit. Being Polish in decent, he usually absorbed a large amount of ethnic jokes aimed at him. He had a good sense of humor and took them well; being able to shoot one back with equal effect and wit.

“Guess it’s time for Garger’s early morning ass chewing,” Bannon replied. “You’d think after three days of this he’d get the idea. Lord save me from Second Lieutenants.”

“Especially this one,” Uleski commented.

“Don’t be so smug, Ski,” Bannon replied. “The only reason I like you is because I didn’t know you when you were a Second Lieutenant.” 

“That’s because I never was a Second Lieutenant. Wouldn’t have any part of it and told the ROTC recruiter so. Naturally, when they found out who I was, they agreed,” Uleski recounted with a ridiculous grin on his face. “So here I am, a full-grown U.S. Army First Lieutenant, guarding the frontiers of freedom and making the world safe for democracy.”

“God, the sun isn’t even up yet and the bull’s already getting deep in here,” Bannon replied, continuing the joke. “I’d better get out before I drown.”

Bannon dug under his makeshift bed for his gear. Field jacket, protective mask, and other assorted items finishing off with the helmet. Putting it on, he stepped out of the cramped PC and began walking through the darkness.

Walking along, Bannon felt better being able to stand upright after being in the cramped carrier. He stretched a bit as he went on his way, popping joints and working on the sore spots. The weather of the early German August morning reminded him more of spring time in Pennsylvania. 

The first vehicle he came across was one of the ITVs. As he approached, the launcher’s hammerhead-like turret moved slowly, indicating the crew was awake. Walking up to the door, he knocked on it three times with his buck knife.

“Yea, what ya want?” a crewmember slurred, opening the door.

“It’s Captain Bannon. Anything going on in the valley?”

“Oh, sorry, sir. No, we ain’t seen nothin’ all night ‘cept some jeeps and a deuce-and-a-half. Should we be expectin’ something?”

“No, at least not that I’ve heard. You checked your batteries lately?”

“Yes, sir, we cranked her up about an hour ago and let her run for twenty minutes.”

“Ok, keep awake and alert.”

Continuing on, Bannon was bothered that he never even knew the names of the crew of the two attached ITVs. All he hoped was that the missiles were as effective as claimed. If the enemy managed to close with them, the two vehicles wouldn’t last long.

The Captain continued to move through the woods, moving limbs and branches out of his face. Eventually, he came to the silhouette of an M1 Abrams main battle tank. It sat still and quiet, the long 105 mm main cannon pointing out of its cover.

“Halt!” a figure near the tank ordered, drawing his .45 sidearm on the intruder.

Bannon recognized the voice as that of SSgt. Joelle Blackfoot; full-blooded Cherokee and commander of tank number 32.

“It’s Captain Bannon.”

“Advance and be recognized.”

Bannon inched slowly toward the figure.

“Wrinkle”

“Bait”

Satisfied with the response, Blackfoot put away his pistol.

“When’s the war going to start, Captain?”

“Whenever it starts, Blackfoot.”

Blackfoot and Bannon continued speaking on important issues. Blackfoot said his gunner was slow to pick targets and requested some more training or a replacement. Bannon explained personnel were limited and vehicle movement, especially direct combat ones, were restricted to avoid revealing their positions. Blackfoot would have work with what he had.

Moving on, he marched on to 2nd Lieutenant Garger’s 31 tank; mentally going over the lecture he was going to give him. Garger was the commander of 3rd platoon. Each platoon consisted of four tanks, with the platoon leader’s track’s first number, such as 31, and the others named 32, 33, etc.

“Halt! Who goes there?”

Instead of training his .45 on him, as Blackfoot did, the figure in the cupola tried to turn his M2 machine gun on him. Since the M2’s firing mechanism is part of the elevation handle and easily activated, Bannon got scared. He thought if it was best to yell, dive for cover, or just hope for the best. Luckily, inept handling of the MG’s controls frustrated the figure until Bannon identified himself.

“So, what shall we talk about today, Lieutenant?” Bannon asked.

“RTO procedures, sir?” Garger replied. 

“No, no. Close, but no. How about radio listening silence,” Bannon said. “You remember our discussion on the subject the day before yesterday?”

“Yes sir.”

“THEN WHY THE HELL DID YOU DO IT AGAIN TODAY? ARE YOU FUCKING STUPID OR JUST SOFT IN THE HEAD?”

Bannon tried to calm down; he didn’t like getting this angry, but this routine was getting old. 

“No sir, I just wanted to make sure the radios worked since we changed frequencies.”

“Did your radio work yesterday before I chewed your ass out?” 

“Yes sir.”

“And did your radio work the day before when I chewed your ass out?”

“Yes sir.”

“Then why did you do it again?” Bannon asked, his voice lowered to the point of a tired person trying to vainly explain. “I mean, by now even you should know that a, your radio works every time you use it and b, every time you do use it, I’m going to come down here and jump your shit. Do you get what I’m telling you? I mean, do you really understand this time?”

“Yes, sir, it’s just, well, I…”

“One more time, I swear,” Bannon finished while he hopped off the tank. “One more time…” 

It wasn’t that Garger was a bad soldier; in fact, he wasn’t doing half bad. Still, half bad wasn’t enough should a real war break out. Bannon and the platoon’s sergeant, Vietnam vet SFC Gary Pierson, had been trying their best to train him to be a proper soldier and Lieutenant. 

Following his inspection of 3rd platoon, he carried on with the same routine to the others. Next he stopped by McAlister’s 2nd platoon and Weiss’s first platoon, who were initially attached to Team Bravo, but had been rotated back in a split decision. The final platoon was the Mech platoon. 

The Mechanized platoon’s leader, 2nd Lieutenant William Harding, and the platoon sergeant, Sergeant First Class Leslie Polgar (another Vietnam vet) complemented each other perfectly. William was the smart LT; doing the leading, planning, and gave the orders. Polgar was the classic ‘Sarge’; doing the training, motivating, and ass kicking (which were all one in the same to him). It was the perfect match.

By the time he reached them, it was 0500 and it was as light it was going to get. Bannon checked up on Harding about the men, equipment, and the platoons M113s. Upon seeing that everything squared away for stand-to, he told Harding to keep the OPs on watch for any Russian movement and began to return to his tank.

On his way back, he passed by the Uleski’s tank 55. That was the one divergence in numbers; the XO’s tank number was 55, while Captain Bannon’s was numbered 66. He decided to swing by and talk to his friend.

“I knew you’d be back before stand-to, just didn’t know the day,” Uleski joked. “You got a murder to report and an emergency report for a Second Lieutenant?” 

“Come on, U, I’m a nice guy. You don’t really think I would have brought harm to that poor boy in 3rd platoon, do you?”

“Oh, I’m sorry. I thought you were my Captain; the one who isn’t worth a damn in the morning until he’s chewed out a Second Lieutenant.”

“Only this morning I’m also looking for First Lieutenants.”

Uleski looked around him, then continued in a poor accent.

“Well I ain’t seen any ‘round here, mister. Ya’ll might wanna try over in yonder hill country,” he said, pointing over East in the Russian’s direction and trying to contain his laughter. 

Bannon just chuckled and continued on. The sun was high in the sky now, and Bannon was fully awake. He took the time to consider the team’s shape, which wasn’t bad.

Since 1st platoon had been brought back, the team totaled 14 M1 tanks. The Mech platoon consisted of three squads and the PCs that transported them. Along with those were the attached ITVs. Finally, there was the support element that had an M113 Ambulance, an M88 Recovery vehicle, and an M113 FIST track, whose job was to call in and spot artillery, under the command of Second Lieutenant Rodney Unger.

He made it back to the 66, where the crew was shaving, eating, and relaxing on the tank. The four man crew consisted of Bannon as commander, the gunner, Folk, the loader, Kelp, and the driver, Ortelli. Bannon joined them in a quick rest on the back of the tank, letting his mind wander on other thoughts.

He wondered how the war would go when, not if, it started. He thought about his wife, Pat, and his two kids, who were also in the country with him. He thought if he would ever go past the rank of Captain, and if he wanted to.

Something quickly ended these thoughts. His eyes shot open and he stood up to the sound of whines and impacts of artillery, but there was something else. A strange fog was starting to cover the valley.

“Get in the tank and get your masks on!” Bannon yelled, though his crew was already ahead of him.

He climbed in and closed the hatch, sliding into his seat and putting his protective gear. He heard the cry of “GAS!” and noticed something odd. The gas was a purplish color; it wasn’t the GB agent the Soviets were expected to use, so Bannon just hoped the masks could filter whatever this was.

He grabbed the radio and tried to call the battalion HQ and send a report as the gas filtered into the tank. The crew began to get worried and when they started feeling sleepy, they began to panic. The masks weren’t filtering the gas at all. 

Knowing he would soon fall to the gas, he tried desperately to try and call HQ, but no one answered. He tried to radio one of the other tracks, but only got static. He finally gave up and fell back into his seat, grimly accepting his fate and waiting for whatever fate had in stock for him in the afterlife.



“Damn buzzing,” Bannon thought in his sleepy vertigo when he was woken by the sound of static and speech from the radio. “I swear, if that’s Garger interrupting my sleep again…wait.”

His eyes shot open. He sat up and took a deep breath. He palmed over his body to reveal his equipment was still there. He slapped himself on the side of the face a couple of hard times to confirm it.

“I’m…ok. I’m really still breathing?” Bannon asked himself before coming to the conclusion. “I’m alive!”

He looked over and saw his three other crewmen were sound asleep in their positions.

“Folk! Sergeant Folk! Wake up!”

He shook the gunner until he woke.

“Huh? Wha-what’s going on, Capt-. Hey, wait, we’re alright, sir!”

“Yea, get the others up!”

Folk went to work yelling and kicking the back of Ortelli’s seat while Bannon reached the radio. The one calling was Uleski, who had already discovered the same thing Bannon had. He reached over to the radio to get an assessment.

“...I SAY AGAIN-DO YOU COPY-I SAY AGAIN YANKEE ACTUAL-DO YOU COPY?”

“THIS IS YANKEE ACTUAL-I READ YOU-SEND-OVER.”

“YANKEE ACTUAL-BE ADVISED-WE ARE ALL OK, BUT THE SITUATION IS UNKOWN-CAPTAIN…SOMETHING’S CHANGED, SIR-OVER.”

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN-OVER?”

“WELL ACTUAL, WE SEEM TO BE SOMEWHERE ELSE-OVER.”

Bannon was taken aback by this. Confused by exactly what he meant, he took a quick glance through his view and noticed they weren’t in a forest. Opening the hatch and getting up into the cupola to get a 360 degree view, he noticed that the entire team seemed to have moved from a forest to a wide field. Just a short ways away was 55, with Uleski in his cupola shrugging his shoulders at Bannon, who dropped back down.

“YANKEE ACTUAL-TO ALL YANKEE UNTIS-RADIO CHECK-OVER.”

One by one, each of the team’s tracks checked in, indicating everyone was ok.

“YANKEE ACTUAL TO ALL YANKEES-ALL PLATOON LEADERS DISMOUNT AND MEET AT MY POSITION-HOW COPY?”

All the troops answered back. Taking off his CVC, he began to exit before he heard the radio come to life again. The voice, however, was different, yet familiar. 

“DOES ANYONE COPY-I SAY AGAIN-IS ANYONE RADING ME?”

“THIS IS YANKEE-WE READ YOU-IDENTIFY YOURSELF.”

“CAPTAIN BANNON?”

Bannon finally recognized the voice as the young 2nd LT Avery, who had been Garger’s good friend and he last saw at the armored training school. 

“SECOND LIEUTENANT AVERY-IS THAT YOU?”

“AFFIRMATIVE SIR.”

“WHAT’S YOUR STATUS-AND WHY THE HELL ARE YOU IN GERMANY-OVER?”

“GERMANY?-SIR, LAST I HEARD WE WERE BACK IN THE STATES AND I WAS LEADING A PLATOON OF TANKS IN AN EXERCISE-OVER.”

“WHAT?-NEVER MIND-BRING YOUR MEN TO THE TEAM AND MEET ME AND THE REST OF THE PLATOON LEADERS SO WE CAN FIGURE OUT WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON-HOW COPY, OVER?”

“SOLID COPY-WILCO-OUT.”

Once again, Bannon began to exit the tank. He told the crew to keep an eye out and check the tank’s status. Climbing out, he noticed the other crews were also in the process of checking their equipment and vehicles; they were well trained.

Bannon leaned on the side of the Abrams while he waited on the others. Uleski was the first to come up, followed by McAlister, Garger, Weiss, and eventually Avery. Garger, despite the circumstances, was happy to see his friend again.

Avery was the first to explain things. He told of how he was leading a platoon of M1s in a simulation when they were hit by what was apparently the same type of gas as the team. When his platoon came through, they were also in a field a short ways away from Team Yankee.

Bannon then allowed the other leaders to give their reports. All of them reported the same problem of falling asleep and waking up here. Apparently, the entire team had moved in their sleep to a new location. Still, it was Avery’s story that caused the most confusion; how could a platoon in the states wind up in Germany like this?

“So, does anyone have any idea as to what happened?” Bannon asked.

“No sir, unless the team’s victors drove themselves here,” Uleski replied. “And still, that wouldn’t explain Avery here.”

“Have we been able to get in contact with anyone else, sir?” Garger asked.

“No, the radio’s been quiet on all channels except for the team.”

“If I may, Captain,” Weiss interrupted, “We don’t know where we are, it’s obvious from Avery’s presence that something is seriously off, and we can’t get in touch with anyone to find answers. Just what exactly are we supposed to do now?”

“Well, I don’t know a bit about the last two, but I think if we figure out where we are, then we can move somewhere where we can find some info,” Bannon stated. “Did anyone see any signs or noticeable landmarks?”

“The only real landmarks are that large forest to our 12 O’clock and the road leading through it, neither of which are on the map,” McAlister explained. “Nor have we spotted any signs.”

“Actually, Captain, when I was moving up to meet your team, I did spot a single road sign, but I wrote it off as a joke.”

“What did it say?”

“I’ll take you to it.”

The group boarded Avery’s tank and Avery gave the driver the order to take them back to the sign. The tank moved a short ways down the road until it reached what looked like a small crossroads with several signs. Upon inspecting it, Bannon noticed the strange names of the places the signs were pointing in, with the closest to the team’s position being one called ‘Ponyville’.

“It’s an odd name, odder still there isn’t a German translation of it,” Uleski commented. “You don’t think some of those German kids are playing pranks on us, do you?”

“I doubt they could pull off something this big, U,” Bannon said. “C’mon, let’s get back to the team.”

The group again mounted up and returned to the company’s location; all of the vehicles sitting idle and waiting for an order, any order.

“Ok, here’s what we’ll do,” Bannon said, laying out the plan. “Avery, your platoon is going to come with us. From now on, you’ll be Yankee Four and the Mech Platoon will be Yankee Five. Uleski, since your callsign is already 5, you'll now be identified as Yankee 7, got it? We’ll move down the road, through the forest, and to wherever this…‘Ponyville’ place is got it?”

“Yes sir,” they said almost unanimously. 

“Ok, mount up and get ready. 66 will lead on. Take care, guys.”

The men returned to their tanks and began giving individual orders. Engines roared to life and vehicles lurched forward. Ortelli nudged 66 onto the road and held her there while the rest of the team assembled.

“YANKEE ACTUAL TO ALL UNITS-FALL IN BEHIND ME ON THE ROAD-SINGLE FILE FORMATION-WEAPONS ON HOLD, BUT KEEP YOUR EYES OPEN-HOW COPY?”

“THIS IS YANKEE ONE-ROGER.”

“YANKEE TWO-AFFIRMATIVE.”

“YANKEE THREE-ROGER.”

“YANKEE FOUR-WILCO.”

“YANKEE FIVE-SOLID COPY.” 

"YANKEE SEVEN-GOT IT."

“OK-ALL YANKEES, LET’S MOVE-OUT.”

> Foxtrot-India-Mike
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

To say that the Everfree forest was quiet and peaceful would be a lie; there’s always some beast howling or some spooky noise filtering through. But today, there was a new noise present in the forest, one that stood out and muffled all others. The sounds were ones that the forest had never heard of before.

These came from an armored company that was making its way down the road at the time. Led by a massive, and threating, tank, the machines hummed and whined as they moved, slowly but surely, down the narrow forest path. It was quite the sight.

Though the forest is known for always being very dark on the inside, Ortelli, wasn’t bothered by it, nor was anyone else in the team; night vision goggles were a very useful invention. Ortelli caught every sharp turn or possible obstruction in front of the tank. He led the team through the woods without much trouble.

None of the forest’s inhabitants dared to even go near the convoy. Many were too afraid to come near those though-looking objects making loud noises. Even the deadlier predators were taken aback by this force of great…things.

Bannon and the others kept an eye out; a forest provided excellent ambush ground for infantry. Every now and then, he would get a bit scared if he thought he saw figures or here something and thought a track had struck a mine. The threat of losing his whole team in a forest like this was starting to get to him. He just hoped that whatever he met on the other side would be worth it.  



“Hm, I hope Shining will get here in time,” Twilight told to herself.

Twilight was pacing around the library, waiting anxiously for her brother. She hadn’t seen him in the longest time, she also didn’t know why. All she was told is that he was very busy with ‘Royal Guard duties’ in the east of Equestria.

Today, he had been scheduled to visit his little sister for the first time in a while, but it was getting close to the arrival time and she hadn’t heard of him. She hated schedules being off even the slightest bit, and something told her he was going to be really late.

Despite being a princess, Twilight still wasn’t being informed about the more secretive affairs. It really irked her that Celestia, Luna, and the rest of the higher ups kept her in the dark about certain things. Maybe she had to prove herself in that specific field.

“Let’s see, Celestia said it had to do with the Royal Guard and something about politics. What could I do to show her I’m trustworthy in that area?”

She began to think of ways to do just that. As she did so, she thought she heard some strange noises from the direction of the Everfree, but waved off any concerns. Strange things were always going on in there, and this was probably nothing new.



“YANKEE ACTUAL TO ALL YANKEE VICTORS-DEPLOY INTO LINE FORMATION AT THE TREE LINE AND WAIT FOR FURTHER-OUT.”

Bannon’s 66 had stopped at the entrance of the forest. Behind him, the convoy broke up and went to the left and right and took up positions in the tree line. Bannon, standing up in his cupola and staring through his binoculars, could hardly believe what he saw.

There, down where the road led, was a quaint little village inhabited by horses. More specifically, they were small, colorful horses that seemed to be interacting with each other intelligently. Bannon got back on the radio and asked Uleski if he could see what he saw or if he was just going nuts.

“YOU MEAN THE CARTOONISH HORSES IN THAT VILLAGE?-YEA, I HAVE EYES ON-OVER.”

“YANKEE ACTUAL-THIS IS YANKEE 3-1-DO YOU THINK WE SHOULD MOVE IN, SIR?”

“NEGATIVE-ALL YANKEE VICTORS STAY IN COVER IN THE FOREST AND HOLD UP-DO NOT MOVE FORWARD OR ATTEMPT TO ENGAGE-WE DON’T KNOW WHAT WE’RE UP AGAINST-OVER.”

“YANKEE ACTUAL-SEAN, WHAT ARE YOU THINKING-OVER.”

Bannon thought of calling Uleski on using his name, but figured the amount of shock was enough to make him stumble.

“ALL YANKEE ELEMENTS-HOLD YOUR POSITIONS AND WAIT FOR FURTHER-I’LL TAKE 66 IN AND SEE WHAT WE CAN FIND OUT-I SAY AGAIN-POWER DOWN AND SETTLE IN, BUT KEEP A WATCH OUT-66 WILL MOVE INTO THE VILLAGE-COPY?”

“GOOD COPY, YANKEE ACTUAL-GOOD LUCK, SEAN-OVER.”

“THANKS, U-WE’LL NEED IT-OUT.”

> 66
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The M1 Abrams is equipped with a 105mm M68 main gun along with an M2 50. Caliber and two M240 machine guns. On an improved road surface, it can travel at up to 60 mph. Its Chobham armour protects it and the crew from most attacks. Knowing all this, it would make sense that the first move by the town’s inhabitants was to run for cover and hope they weren’t seen.

66 didn’t move in at top speed, rather it slowly cruised into the seemingly deserted village. Ortelli slowed it down to a crawl, with the crew keeping a heads up for anything. Bannon kept everyone inside; he wasn’t sure how these creatures would react, but he felt safer inside the tank. 

“CREW REPORT, GOT ANYTHING?”

“NOT A THING, SIR. I DON’T THINK THEY’RE TOO KEEN ON MEETING US.”

“ALRIGHT, GUNNER. KEEP YOUR EYES OPEN, BUT DON’T JUMP THE GUN. NO NEED TO CAUSE AN INCEDENT BEFORE WE EVEN MEET THEM.”

Bannon was about to turn back to his visor when he felt the tank stop.

“DRIVER, WHY DID WE STOP?”

“WELL, A COUPLE OF THEM ARE IN THE WAY, SIR.”

Bannon took a look and saw that two had indeed been brave enough to come out and meet them. One was a light blue with rainbow hair. The second was orange with blonde hair and what looked like a cowboy hat. 

“What do you suppose it is?” Rainbow asked.

“I’m not sure,” Applejack replied. “I suppose I should go get Twi.”

While Applejack was getting Twilight, Rainbow moved in a bit closer and looked over the tank. There were so many odd things connected to the main body. What caught her attention most was the purpose of the massive pipe that stuck out of its head.

“This is amazing!” Twilight said, bringing Rainbow back to reality. “Has it tried to communicate yet?”

“Nope, all it did was roll up into town from the road to the east and stopped when we came out,” Applejack explained. “You got any idea as to what it wants?”

“No, I’ve never read about anything like this,” Twilight said, inspecting the tank closer. “It’s made entirely of metal? This is incredible! A creature composed entirely of metal! Opening relations with a new species is perfect for proving myself to the Princess!”

“She thinks the tank is living?” Bannon chuckled. “Ok, enough waiting. Time to be known.”

Bannon opened his hatch on the turrets roof. He slowly rose up to the cupola while the girls watched in awe. He came up all the way and instinctively grabbed the M2 with one hand while he waved to them with the other.

“Hey!” he said with a smile.

Each of the three had a different reaction. Applejack seemed stunned with her mouth hanging open, Twilight stared in awe, and Rainbow took a rather aggressive stance. Bannon couldn’t help but chuckle again before he spoke.

“You wouldn’t happen to know-”

Before he could even finish, Rainbow shot up towards him with Twilight yelling at her.

“Rainbow no!”

She hit him with enough force to send him back into the turret, but not before Bannon grabbed one of her wings and dragged her down. The rest of the crew was stunned as their commander and the Pegasus wrestled in the confined space. It didn’t take long for Bannon to deliver a swift, powerful punch right to the face, knocking her out cold.

Bannon had to admit that the fight was actually easier than he thought, but he had other things to take care of; these things were now considered hostile. He reached up and shut the hatch while Applejack tried to buck the machine. Aside from a shudder and a loud, metallic clang, there was no damage, with Applejack being rewarded with a sharp pain that left her on the ground.

“ORTELLI, BACK HER UP! GET US OUT OF HERE!”

“ON IT CAP!”

66 immediately shot back and began to backtrack out of the village. Looking back at the purple one, Bannon noticed something lighting up on top of her head; was that a horn? He didn’t wait to find out.

“SMOKE OUT!”

Bannon fired off the tank’s smoke grenades, clouding the area in thick smoke. Switching over to thermal, he noticed the creature stumbling around now; obviously blinded by the smoke. Bannon felt the 66 turn around, and then head back east to the rest of the team at full speed. He also took this opportunity to tie up the still unconscious Pegasus in the tank.



“Wait, what did you say the machine looked like again?” Shining Armor asked his little sister.

“It was big and metal and had some kind of long stick coming out of it.” Twilight explained. “And they had this strange creature driving it.”

“Hm, do they have some new allies?” he asked himself.

“What?”

“Nothing, you said they went east into the Everfree, right?”

“Yea, and they took Rainbow. Do you know what’s going on, Shining?”

“I have a pretty good idea, but I’m not sure there’s much I can do. I’ll send out a patrol to search for them.”

“Who is it?”

“I can’t tell you that, Twi.” 

Shining was gone before Twilight could ask why, leaving her frustrated and worried.



“ALL YANKEES-THIS IS YANKEE ACTUAL-WARNING YELLOW-ALL CALLSIGNS TAKE UP DEFENSIVE POSITIONS AND WAIT FOR FURTHER-HOW COPY-OVER?”

“THIS IS YANKEE 7-WHAT DID YOU DO, CAPTAIN-OVER?”

“DAMNIT, YANKEE 7-THIS IS NO TIME FOR SCREWING AROUND-TAKE UP POSITIONS-DO YOU COPY-OVER?”

“SOLID COPY-OUT.”

The 66 returned to the woods. In the tree line, the vehicles were already moving into defensive positions. Bannon’s tank soon joined them.

“YANKEE 6-THIS IS YANKEE 3-SITREP-OVER.”

“WE CAME UNDER ATTACK FROM ENEMY FORCES-NO LOSSES.”

“YANKEE ACTUAL-PERMISSION TO MOVE FORWARD AND ENGAGE ENEMY FORCE WITHIN VILLAGE-OVER.”

“NEGATIVE-HOLD POSITION GARGER-ALSO, ALL YANKEES BE ADVISED-WE HAVE A PAPA OSCAR WHISKEY-OVER.”

“HOW DID YOU GET A PRISONER-OVER?”

“I’LL EXPLAIN LATER-OUT.”

Bannon sat in the center of the line on the M2. Before long, he saw a group of figures moving their way. They looked like some kind of military formation, but there were only four of them. He decided to try and scare them off if he could.

“YANKEE ACTUAL TO ALL UNITS-WEAPONS SAFE-I’M GOING TO TRY AND SCARE THEM OFF-OUT.”

Bannon took aim over the heads of the advancing soldiers. He waited until they got a bit closed and fired a few bursts from the gun. The effect was immediate; most of the soldiers immediately turned around and rand back when they realized what they were up against.

Only one stood his ground; a unicorn, from the looks of it. He stood there and focused on Bannon’s tank. In turn, Bannon took aim.

“Just turn back,” Bannon said to himself. “Damn you, just turn around and go home!”

The unicorn fired a single laser at the tank. It missed and instead hit a tree behind them, setting it alight. Bannon reacted quickly fired a burst from his gun, cutting down the brave guard. 

Bannon stopped and stared at the corpse for a minute, then at the gun, then again at his hands. These things weren’t human, but they were intelligent enough to be. Killing another sapient being felt…odd. Something in the back of his head told him he’d better get used to it.

> Run through the Jungle
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“But I’m a princess now! Why can’t I know what’s going on!?”

Twilight was in the middle of an argument with her brother when the three guards came in, deeply frightened.

“Sir, we saw it! It was one of those armors, only it looked different!” one yelled.

“Calm down and tell me exactly what you saw,” Shining replied.

“We were going towards the Everfree when we were shot at with guns. We noticed there were dozens of them, so we retreated. Steadfast tried to fight back even though it wouldn't work; he was killed.”

“You said dozens?” Shining asked.

“Yes sir.”

“They can’t have invaded this far without us knowing, could they?” he asked himself.

“Invaded? That’s it! Shining, tell me what’s going on and what happened to Rainbow!” Twilight yelled. “If we’ve come under attack, I should know about it!”

“I-I suppose you’re right,” Shining relented. “Gather up the rest of the Elements and I’ll explain.”

The two stepped outside to get the others, but something caught their eyes. To the east, there was a large amount of black smoke, getting larger and larger by the minute. Thinking of what it could be, Twilight remembered how long Rainbow had been slacking off on raining the Everfree.

“Oh no,” she said. “No no no! Forest fire!”



That tree that the unicorn’s blast had hit was as dry as a desert, as was the rest of the forest. The instant it caught fire, there was no stopping it. By instinct, Bannon and the rest of the team battened down the hatches and prepared to move.

“YANKEE ACTUAL-YOU THINKING WHAT I’M THINKING-OVER?” Uleski called over the net.

“YEA, WE CAN’T GO INTO THAT VILLAGE, SO WE’LL GO BACK THE WAY WE CAME-ALL TRACKS BUTTON UP THIGHT AND HOLD YOU’RE BREATH-FALL IN BEHIND ACTUAL  AND PREPARE TO MOVE FAST-WE’RE GETTING OUT OF HERE-OVER AND OUT.”

Bannon didn’t have time to wait for replies. 

“DRIVER, GET US MOVING AS FAST AS YOU CAN AND DON’T STOP FOR ANYTHING.”

“ALREADY ON IT.”

The tank turned around and proceeded down the road as fast as the sharp turns would allow it, followed by the rest of the company. Since the fire had started from behind the team’s position, it was already in the way and spreading at a quick rate.

Every now and then 66 would bounce a bit as it ran through a burning log or limb. There were several strange animals that were scattered about, but they seemed more scared of the tanks, so they stayed clear of the road. Flames licked at the 66 and the rest of the team as they sped along the way. It was getting pretty hot inside.

Bannon started to wonder if they would make it out in time; they didn’t really teach you how to deal with a forest fire in tank school. He started to worry about how many of the team’s vehicles were ok. He instinctively reached for the radio, but decided against it, thinking it would distract some of the crews from their tasks.

“DRIVER, YOU KNOW HOW MUCH FURTHER?”

“I THINK WE’RE ALMOST OUT, IF MEMORY SERVES ME RIGHT, SIR.”

“LET’S HOPE IT DOES.”

Sure enough, through the smoke and flames, Bannon spotted the exit. After a final turn, 66 had a clear shot at safety. Ortelli gunned the tank’s Honeywell AGT 1500 engine and shot forward, blasting through the exit in a cloud of smoke and flames. One by one, the other tracks came out in the same manner.

Bannon counted up. All the men and machines had made it through the fiery gauntlet. Now he just had to figure out what to do now that he was back where he started.



The pegasi had already started moving rain clouds to fight the fire, but the damage was done. Most of the forest had burned to the ground. All the elements and Shining could do was watch.

“Oh, this is just awful!” Fluttershy cried.

“Rainbow was with them when it happened,” Twilight said, turning to her brother. “Do you- do you think she’s-I mean-”

“No, it’s not likely,” Shining replied. “It takes more than that to stop those machines, unless they just decided to leave Rainbow in the forest, and there’s no real reason to do that.”

“Where do you think they went to?”

“Back east, no doubt.”

“Then we’re going after them!”

“Alright, just-wait what!?”

“Yea, we can’t just leave poor Dashie with those mean machine thingies!” Pinkie said, cutting him off.

“Hold on, girls,” Twilight said.

“Twilight don’t! You don’t know what you’re getting yourself into! I still haven’t explained things!”

Before Shining could stop them, the five were gone in a bright flash.



66’s charge out of the forest left it a ways ahead of the others. While the rest of the team gathered up, Bannon kept an eye out for anything unusual. He also noticed that their prisoner was still sleeping contently on the floor.

“Who the hell sleeps through all that,” Bannon said to himself. “Not to mention for that long.”

Bannon returned his gaze to the field. It was good that he did, because something appeared over a small knoll heading in their direction. It looked like another tank.

“GUNNER IDENTIFY-YOU KNOW WHOSE TRACK THAT IS?”

“NO IDEA, SIR-IT DOESN’T EVEN LOOK LIKE AN ABRAMS.”

Bannon looked closer and noticed what Folk was talking about. The tank’s body was a bit smoother and the turret was rounded. There was no doubt in his mind; it was a T-55.

“THAT’S A T-55-ARE THE RUSSIANS HERE, TOO!?”

“ALL I KNOW IS THAT WE SHOULD PROBABLY GET READY FOR WHATEVER THEY’VE GOT PLANNED.”

“WHAT IF THEY’RE IN THE SAME SITUATION AS WE ARE?”

Before Bannon could answer, a there was a bright flash over to his left. He checked and noticed that, on a nearby knoll, the purple and orange horses had appeared, along with some of their friends. Things just got considerably worse.

“THAT GROUP OF HORSES IS BACK-TO OUR LEFT-9 O'CLOCK-ON THAT SMALL HILL,” Bannon observed.

“I GOT ‘EM,” Folk answered. 

“There it is!” Twilight said, spotting the tank.

“That’s the thing that kidnapped Rainbow?” Rarity asked. “It looks rather…outlandish.”

“Looks like he’s got a friend this time,” Applejack said angrily, spotting the second tank.

“Yea, but it looks different,” Twilight noticed. “I wonder why it’s like that.”

Almost as if one queue, the T-55 pointed its gun in the hill’s directing and fired. The shot hit the bottom of the hill and threw the ponies to the ground. They were shocked and scared from the massive force of the explosion.

“HEADS UP, SIR-THE T-55 IS FIRING ON THE GROUP,” Folk said.

“I CAN SEE THAT," Bannon retorted.

“WELL, WHAT DO YOU WANT TO DO?”

Bannon thought on this for a moment. Surely, this would be a decisive turn in their adventure here. He could either join the T-55 in shooting at the horses that had attempted to attack and kill him and his crew; doing this might make them friends with the other tank, who might know a way home. On the other hand, those horses might hold the key to that. Decisions, decisions.

“OK, CREW PREPARE TO ENGAGE!”

“AYE SIR, GUN READY!”

“ROUNDS READY TO BE LOADED, SIR!”

“READY TO MOVE OUT IF WE NEED TO, SIR!”

Unfortunately for Bannon, Rainbow took this opportunity to wake up and break the thin rope that was holding her.

“You’re going to pay for tying me up!” she said, moving up to Bannon and trying to hit him. “Nopony ties up Rainbow Dash!”

Her punches hurt but not that much. To Bannon, it felt more like a muscular ten year old trying to hit him, especially with all the equipment and gear in the way. Still, he couldn’t focus on his job like this. Not to mention she was getting pretty annoying with all the talk.

“And I swear, if you hurt any of my friends, I’ll-”

Before she could finish, Bannon shoved her hard onto the metal floor.

“Just sit down and shut up, kid!” Bannon yelled.

Rainbow was taken aback by this, but she did nothing but watch as the team go to work.

“LOADER-BATTLE CARRY SABOT.”

“YES SIR”

Kelp began the process of loading the round.

“DRIVER, MOVE OUT-DON’T MAKE US A SITTING TARGET.”

“COPY”

Ortelli moved the tank forward once again.

“GUNNER IDENTIFY-TARGET-T-55 TANK.”

“IDENTIFIED”

“SABOT UP”

Bannon was about to find out if the crew’s year of training and the five million dollar tank could do what they were supposed to do: close in and destroy the enemy.

“FIRE!”

“ON THE WAAAY!”

The tank’s main gun shot back with the recoil. The SABOT round sped out and flew to its target. Folk was rewarded with a hit right in the center of the T-55’s left side. Immediately, the tank stopped and shuddered. It then quickly caught fire and the ammo inside began to cook off.

Twilight and her friends watched in awe from the small hill. The machine that they thought was their enemy had just killed what looked like their one of their own. And that one had been shooting at them, so it only meant one thing.

“Did that thing just save us?” Pinkie asked.

“I guess so,” Twilight answered, “but, why?”

The M1 then rolled up close to their hill. For a minute, the elements thought they would be next, but they were surprised when the hatch on top opened. They were even more surprised when Rainbow popped out of it.

“Hey guys, you gotta come check this out!”

> Cavalry to the Rescue
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bannon kept an eye on the T-55 for a short time; wanting to be sure it was dead. When he was convinced it was, he decided to follow the Pegasus up top. Standing up in the cupola, he once again faced his would-be enemies, with another three joining them.

“So, as I was saying earlier,” Bannon said with a rather smug look on his face, “do you happen to know where we are?”


“You…saved us?” Twilight said with a confused look as the five walked up to the vehicle. 

“Well, yea,” Bannon replied. “I guess we did.”

“That makes you a hero!” Pinkie exclaimed, appearing next to Bannon in the cupola and crushing him in a hug. “Thank you so so soooo much!”

She already took up what little space remained in the cupola, rushing him even more while Folk began to freak out audibly down below.

“Ah, Christ! How the hell did she get in here!?”

“Oh, sorry about that,” she replied, hopping out and onto the turret.

“How in the hell did you do that?”

“Don’t worry about,” Twilight said, flying up next to Pinkie. “Not even we know how she does it.”

“Alright, I guess we should try introductions again,” Bannon said, turning to Rainbow. “Now, I’m not gonna get jumped this time, right?”

The Pegasus blushed slightly from embarrassment and looked away a bit.

“Uh, sorry; I can be a little…over protective.”

“That’s putting it mildly,” Bannon said, causing her to go darker. “Hey, relax. It’s ok. Not like you could do much to me, anyways.”

“H-hey! I can be pretty tough!”

“Ok, ok. I’ll save it for later,” Bannon said with a chuckle. “But back to meeting everyone, I heard inside you said your name was Rainbow Dash, right?”

“That’s right!” she exclaimed, regaining her composure, “the fastest flier in Equestria!”

“Well, it’s an honor,” Bannon replied, hiding the slightest hint of sarcasm. “Ok, and you are?”

“Twilight Sparkle,” she said, turning to the others, “and this is Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Fluttershy, and Rarity.”

“Captain Sean Bannon. It’s a pleasure to meet you all.”

“And a pleasure to meet you, as well,” Rarity said. “And thank you again for rescuing us.”

“Hey, don’t worry about it,” Kelp said, appearing out of the loader’s hatch, “it’s what we do.”

“Wait, there’s a crew?” Twilight asked.

“Sorry I forgot to mention, Twi,” Rainbow apologized, “kinda got caught up in everything.”

“Well, let’s save the rest of the intros for latter, we need to get back to Uleski and the rest of the company.”

“How many more of these things do you have?” Twilight asked.

“We have eighteen, along with a few other, different vehicles.” 

“Wow, and just one was tough.”

“Well, we’re all friends now, right?”

“Right!”

“Ok, hop on board. We’ll give you guys a lift.”

“Ooooh, we get to go for a ride? Sounds like fun!” Pinkie said, climbing back down into the tank.

Rainbow, Twilight, and Fluttershy all flew up and into the cramped space. Rarity took it upon herself to teleport in, which Bannon noted as final proof that magic was real here. Applejack was left outside; being unable to climb onto the large machine. 

“Having trouble?” Bannon asked.

“Yea…uh, maybe a little bit,” she replied while shying away, her legs still sore from her earlier attack.

“Hang on,” Bannon said, jumping down. “I’ll help you up.”

Bannon picked her up from underneath in the way one might pick up a dog or cat. For Applejack, it felt odd; and a little…invasive. Being handled in such a way felt wrong; Bannon took no real notice, and lifted her onto the back of the tank.

“Uh…thanks, ah guess,” she said, blushing a bit.

“No problem,” Bannon replied obliviously, climbing back up, “Hop in.”

The inside of a tank is cramped enough without six miniature horses stuffed inside. Needless to say, all of them felt like sardines. To compensate, Bannon stayed up in the cupola, and allowed Twilight to stand in the loader’s.

“DRIVER-TAKE US BACK TO THE COMPANY-FULL SPEED”

“YES SIR”

“GUNNER-RADIO YANKEE EIGHT AND LET THE XO KNOW WE’RE ON OUR WAY BACK”

“GOT IT”


“How fast can this thing go?” Twilight asked.

“On road surfaces, it can go up sixty miles per hour,” Bannon answered.

“Sixty!? Don’t you think that’s a bit much?”

“No way, no way. Trust me, when you drive out at full speed, under all that armor, with so much firepower, you feel like you can do anything,” Bannon said, “nothing else like it.”

“How does it even go that fast?”

“I explain latter,” Bannon said as the tank started rolling. “Just sit back and enjoy the ride.”

The tank soon picked up speed and ran down the road. Bannon relaxed and decided to take in the peaceful scenery. Twilight started to lose it, bit by bit.

“How you feeling?” Bannon asked. “Pretty neat, huh?”

“How much farther is it!?” Twilight yelled over the noise, frightened.

“Alright, and how are we doing down there,” he asked the five inside.

“Ok, though we’re getting thrown about a good deal!” Rarity replied.

“Just hang tight, we’ll be there in no time!”



Since the run through the forest, Uleski had re-organized the team and waited for word from his Captain. He became worried when he thought he heard an explosion or two in the distance. For a minute, he thought about taking the team in his direction to investigate and, if it was what he feared, assist the captain. Luckily, his fears were assuaged when Sergeant Folk radioed in and explained the situation.

He didn’t quite understand what he was being told at first. Part of him said Folk was playing a joke and wanted to call bull on him. This was also blown away when he saw the 66 coming down the road, one of those horses popping up from the loader’s hatch.

“I’ll be damned,” Uleski commented as 66 came to a halt. “I really did think you were pulling my leg, Cap.”

“Does all of your kind swear like excessively?” Twilight asked as she attempted to get off the tank.

“Not all, just us,” Uleski replied.

Twilight, unable to get out via the normal means, decided to teleport out onto the ground where Bannon had dismounted. She immediately became wobbly, and had trouble standing up. The others were able to pull themselves out, one by one. 

“So, these are the cute little horses I was told about?” Uleski asked.

“We’re actually ponies,” Pinkie corrected. “We’re a lot different.”

“I can see the difference.”

It was also at this time Bannon noticed one of the six was missing. Turning back, he noticed Fluttershy was still having a difficult time trying to get out. Climbing back up, he lifted her up top first, this time more as one would pick up a child from under the arms, and set her back down before he again got off.

“Sorry,” she whispered, floating down and hiding behind the group.

“Hey, there’s nothing to apologize for,” Uleski said, “these things weren’t meant for...ponies, right?”

Twilight nodded in approval.

“Yea, its ok you had some trouble. I couldn’t get it right my first time.”

Her only reply was to whimper and fall back some more.

“Oh, come on. I’m not a mean guy,” Uleski tried to explain, kneeling down in front of her. “Hang on; I think I’ve got something you all might like.”

He fumbled around his gear for a minute, looking for something. With a sharp “Aha!” he produced a small, warm can of Coke he had been saving. Bannon had to make a mental note to ask Uleski just where he had gotten that from as Uleski popped the top and handed it over to Fluttershy.

“Oh wow!” she said, still in her hushed voice. “This is great!”

“Hey, can I try?” Rainbow asked.

One by one, each of the six took a sip; Pinkie took her particularly long gulp last.

“Awe man, you drank it all!” Uleski complained upon getting the empty can back from her. “And that was my last one, too.”

“Worry about that latter, U. Right now we have to find our way back home,” Bannon said.

“Yea, you’re obviously not from around here,” Twilight said. “How did you end up here in Equestria?”

“Not sure. One minute me and the rest of the team is inhaling what I thought was poisonous gas, the next, poof! We wake up here.”

“That is odd,” Twilight said. “I don’t think I know of any teleportation or portal spells that can cross between worlds, but I’m sure Princess Celestia does.”

“Is this princess the leader of your country?”

“Yes, as well as being very powerful with magic. She and her sister, Princess Luna, are able to control night and day,” Twilight explained. “They’re both over one thousand years old. If anyone knows a spell that can send you back, it’s her.”

“Huh, magic is really out of control here,” Bannon commented. “Ok, lets mount the team up and move back to the village.”



Right as Twilight and her friends left, he also received a message from the princesses telling him that Twilight had written to them and that they were on their way. He would have to wait until they arrived to go after his little sister.

When they did arrive, he had to update them on everything. He told them about the new machines driven by strange creatures. He told them about the forest fire. And finally, he told them about how the Elements had left to go after Dash. All the evil things he said about the new creatures seemed to be contradicted when one came rolling up with Twilight riding it.

“Hey, Shining! Look who we met!” she called out as the tank stopped next to him.

“Wha? But…I…they…” 

All Shining could do was mumble out half-sentences in confusion while the two Princesses looked on curiously.

“Shining, I’d like you to meet Captain Sean Bannon,” Twilight introduced. “Captain Bannon, this is the leader of the Royal Guard and my older brother, Captain Shining Armor.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, captain,” Bannon said formally.

“I…he…captain…fire…sister…how?”

“I can see you’re not much for words right now,” Bannon said. “It’s alright; I mean to speak with your leaders, anyways.”

“Wha? Ok, what’s going on?” Shining asked.

“Yes, I would like to know what is happening, as well,” Princess Celestia chimed in.

The ponies that were there immediately began bowing. Bannon just stood there at attention and stared; keeping it formal, but not too formal. This was returned with confused, and surprised, looks from the ponies. An awkward silence continued until Twilight broke it.

“Um, Captain Bannon, why aren’t you bowing?”

“Well, she’s not really my ruler,” Bannon stated blankly, but respectfully. “In fact, my country elects our own leaders. I’m not obliged to bow to anyone; thought I’ll be happy to offer a handshake.”

“What!?” Luna spat out angrily. “Creature, thou are in the presence of the sun goddess! She is the ruler of the land!”

“I didn’t vote for her!” Uleski called out from his tank, deciding to joke about at the worst possible time.

“Thou are in our land, now!” she continued, angrily.

“I’m still an American citizen, and I go by its rules,” Bannon replied. “Besides, it’s not like I want to be stuck here. That’s why I’m talking to you.”

“Foolish little-”

“Relax, Luna,” Celestia interrupted, deciding to finally return the hand, or hoof, shake. “I can understand that these creatures live in a much…looser system of government; but, it seems to respect the average citizen.”

Luna was taken a bit aback by this, but heeded and stepped back.

“Thank you, mam,” Bannon said. “And please, just call us humans.”

“Well, it’s nice to meet you. Now I can tell you are from another world, correct?”

“Is it really that obvious?” Bannon joked, causing her to chuckle a bit.

“Well, I do have some old spells for crossing dimensions,” Celestia stated. “We don’t use them, as we don’t want to interfere with things in other dimensions; but, since you’re already here, I suppose there’s no other option.”

“Thank you, Princess.” 

“There is something I would like to know; how did you and the ponies become acquainted?” she asked. “It surely couldn’t have been as easy as sitting down and talking after you captured Rainbow.”

“Actually, they saved us from another machine that was trying to attack us,” Twilight said.

“What!?” Shining exclaimed.

“Yes, it looked like a model we know in our world.”

“Interesting,” Celestia said. “I believe we have some explaining to do. Everypony gather round.”

Bannon signaled for the team to power down so they could hear; he’d rather they hear it now than explain later on. Uleski and the other leaders gathered around next to him, and those that could dismount also took a seat. Others sat and listened on their vehicles. 

“You see, Equestria is divided up into provinces, each of which is different in some way or form; culture, produce geography. The largest one in terms of both land and population is the easternmost one of Russage, with its capital at Stalliongrad.”

The similarities to their counterparts didn’t go unnoticed by the tankers, but they kept silent so she could continue.

“They were very good at manufacturing, the greatest in Equestria in fact, as well as producing food. A few years ago, a pony by the name of Leonid Brezneigh came to be the governor of the province and began enacting strict laws. He began to consolidate power for himself and his government; eliminating competition and restricting freedoms. He responded by stating that he would equally distribute all resources among the populace. Indeed, many of the ponies there agreed with him.”

“Communism,” Bannon blurted out calmly.

“Excuse me?”

“We have a mirror version of this country and system in our world. Russia is the main state of the communist Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. They go against much of what our country stands for. That’s why we’re in a Cold War right now.”

“A Cold War? I’ve never heard of a war like that. What does it mean?” Twilight asked.

“I’ll explain later. Let’s finish the first story.”

“Yes, well, Luna and I asked him repeated times to end his reign and step down. In response, his province seceded from Equestria and began building up their military power. We attempted to bring them under control quickly, but they had an important advantage over us. Their engineers were able to create the machines, which we call armors, to combat our troops; similar to your vehicles.”

“We call them tanks,” Uleski corrected.

“Wait, tanks? You named it after my pet tortoise?” Rainbow asked, not aware of the coincidence. 

“What? What are you-never mind,” Bannon responded. “We’ll sort that out later.” 

“Yes, these…tanks, as you call them, were made in certain designs and out of certain metals and other materials that make them near impervious to magic. With all these odds stacked against us, we have suffered several defeats. They have actually launched their own invasion, and are threatening to overrun the rest of the country.”

“It’s interesting how similar they are to the Russian tanks in our world,” Bannon said. “The model we engaged was a rather old copy.”

“Yes, so far they have three models out, which we named, from oldest to newest, Bronze, Silver, and Gold.”

“The one we engaged must have been a bronze, it was pretty old,” Bannon said. “We call them T-55s. With all the other similarities I’m finding, I’ll bet my money that the other two models are T-62s and T-72s.”

“Where did you battle this one?” Shining asked.

“A little ways in the field to the east of the forest,” Bannon replied.

“Hm, it was probably a scout,” Shining thought. “They usually send lone units out ahead of a larger force. Which means an attack may be coming this way.”

Bannon thought on this for a minute. What he said made good tactical sense, and considering how long ago it was, an assault force was probably close by. Bannon again found himself in a similar situation as to when he had to rescue Twilight and company. This time, the choice was much clearer.

“Ok, team, you heard him!” he yelled. “We’ve got enemy tanks closing in! All units mount up and move back through the forest towards the field. Set up defensive positions in the tree line, or…at least what’s left of it. I’d rather pull off an ambushed from prepared defensive positions than fight out in the open.”

“Sir yes sir!” The men replied in separate bits.

The team’s vehicles, once again, roared to life and prepared to move. The ponies, for the moment, were all in a state of shock. Without being asked, without even knowing much about them, Team Yankee was going to fight their battle. 

“Captain Bannon, what are you doing!?” Celestia yelled over the noise as Bannon mounted 66.

“Moving up to make a defensive line,” he replied. “I want to be ready for when they come at us.”

“I mean, why are you going to fight for us?”

“Hm, I guess because you’re nice and peaceful, cause I don’t like the way that guy controls the lives of his citizens, cause you hold the key to me getting home,” Bannon rattled off. “I’ll explain the philosophy when it’s done with. Feel free to tag along and see what the Abrams can do.”

66 began to go forward, again followed by a convoy of powerful vehicles. As they moved off into the burnt remains of the Everfree, the ponies began to pick their jaws off the ground. Not needing to talk it over, they quickly decided to follow.



“Ok, just keep back when the shooting starts,” Bannon explained to the Elements, Shining, and the Princesses in their large dugout a short ways from the burnt up tree line, but with a good view.

“Thank you for doing this,” Celestia said.

“You can thank me when we win this and I come back alive.”

“Yes, how do we know you will be able to stop the attack?” Shining asked critically.

“Well I won’t be able to if you don’t let me go and finish preparing for it,” Bannon shot back. “Would you prefer we stand by and let them roll over you without trying?”

Shining didn’t answer, nor did the others. Bannon returned to the 66, where the crew was finishing preparations. There wasn’t much left to use for cover, but being blackened by ash, and moving some logs in the way, and the natural darkness of the forest, covered it pretty well.

The 66 and 55 were deployed on the left and right sides of the road entrance to the forest, respectively, along with the ITVs. The 1st and 2nd platoons were deployed on the left, while the 3rd and 4th were spread on the right. Since the line was rather straight, and that there was a large field in front of them, the Mech platoon probably wasn’t going to be needed. Another loss was the FIST team track; without artillery, it was more of a liability.

Bannon focused on going over all the tanks need. Ammunition count, camo, systems. He didn’t want anything going wrong in the first real battle. He was almost done when the scouts spotted large columns of dust coming fast.

“ALL YANKEES-CHECK IN”

“YANKEE ONE-READY”

“YANKEE TWO-CHECK”

“YANKEE THREE-CHECK”

“YANKEE FOUR-READY”

“YANKEE FIVE-WAITING”

“YANKEE SEVEN-READY”

Everyone was ready.

“ALL YANKEES BE ADVISED-WARNING RED-REPEAT-WARNING RED-ENEMY VICTORS INBOUND-TYPE AND NUMBER UNKNOWN-LOAD SABOT AND HOLD FIRE-OUT”

Bannon was sure he covered everything, but he still felt strange. He felt worried for his men. He worried about who would come back from this fight. Everything was on his planning and the individual crews.

Uleski was also worried, but on something else. He was outright scared about what would happen. Not just about the others or the outcome, but the fear of dying; it was an absolutely terrible feeling that he never felt before that took him by surprise. His stomach turned tight and hard like iron, his palms began shaking, sweat started to come off his head. Subconsciously, he was begging and praying for it to stop; to just get it over with just to end this fear.

Over the horizon, the enemy came. Bannon counted out the enemies and identified them. He had earned his money on the earlier bet. Leading the way were four T-62 tanks in a wedge formation. Following them were at least two platoons of T-55s. He also spotted, in the back, what looked like two ZSUs, no doubt for shooting at pegasi, and what looked like another platoon of BTRs. Plenty to go around. 

“ALL YANKEES-FOUR TANGO SIX  TWOS-EIGHT TANGO-FIVE FIVES-FOUR BRAVO TANGO ROMEOS-TWO ZULU SIERRA UNIFORMS-CLOSING IN ON OUR TWELVE-66 WILL ENGAGE THE LEAD T-62-55, GET THE ONE NEXT TO IT-ITVs, GET THE OTHER TWO-ALL OTHER UNITS MAY CHOOSE THEIR OWN TARGETS-PREPARE TO FIRE ON MY MARK-OVER.”

“YANKEE ACTUAL-THIS IS YANKEE 3-1-INTERROGITAVE-HOW CLOSE SHOULD WE LET THEM COME-OVER?”
“YOU’LL KNOW WHEN WE OPEN FIRE-OUT.”

Bannon swore to himself. They couldn’t afford for Garger to screw up, else it might cost a platoon, or even the whole company. If he did mess up here, Bannon decided, it would be the end for him, even if he did survive the battle.

The formation of tanks came closer, closing the distance and coming within range of the tank’s guns. Bannon could see some of the ponies sitting up in their tank cupolas, wearing the same kind of tanker’s cap as the Russians; they also seemed a bit…greyer and darker as compared to the bright colors Bannon had seen. Surely, they had no clue what was coming; apparently, they had missed the carcass of the T-55 from earlier.

“GUNNER-IDENTIFY-T-62-UP FRONT”

“IDENTIFIED”

“SABOT UP”

Bannon could feel the crew getting tense. In fact, he felt the whole team getting tensed up as the range closed. He wanted to make the first volley as devastating and effective as possible. Finally, he decided the enemy was close enough to do that.

“ALL YANKEES-WEAPONS FREE-ENGAGE AT WILL”

He immediately dropped back into his position as the tank’s commander as Folk fired the first shot of the battle.

“ON THE WAY!”

The 66 fired at its target; as did the rest of the company. The SABOT round found the T-62 dead center; penetrating the hull and causing an explosion that launched its commander out from his position in the cupola. Most of the other tanks also found their targets, and the enemy company was now down to about half strength.

55 also found its target, thought it didn’t stop the tank immediately. Another shot found the engine compartment, starting a large gas fire. Soon, the whole tank was a bright fireball.

Bannon’s fears about the ITV’s vulnerability and the TOWs ineffectiveness proved to be just worries. The two missiles shot out to their targets and closed the distance fast. Both found their targets dead on, stopping both of the remaining T-62s in their tracks.

When the battle began, six of the ponies in the cover had the prior knowledge to cover their ears, but they forgot to inform the other three. The tank nearest to them fired its gun, sending dust everywhere and frightening them. Shining jumped enough to fall out of the hole, Luna went into shock with a stunned, wide eyed expression glued on, and Celestia fell back in surprise; though she quickly continued watching in awe and horror.

For Garger, everything fell into place then and there. All the concerns about the menial little details went away, and everything spun like a well-oiled machine. He, his tank, and the 3rd platoon would do just fine.

Weiss and 1st platoon were also doing well. He felt like everything he had done, all the training and preparing he undertook, had led up to this moment. It felt like he belonged here, right now, doing this. 

“GUNNER-TARGET-T-55 TANK MOVING UP”

“IDENTIFY”

“ROUND UP”

“FIRE”

“SHOT OUT”

66’s next victim, unlike the rest of the company which had either stopped or started swerving in confusion, was continuing forward. It was brave, but such lone bravery in a situation like this was suicidal and futile. The round was a head shot, nailing the turret itself and causing the tank to swerve off to the left before stopping.

“GUNNER-TARGET-ZSU IN THE BACK TRYING TO RETREAT-LOADER-LOAD HEAT”

“IDENTIFY-HE WON’T GET AWAY”

“HEAT LOADED”

“FIRE”

“FIRING”

The ZSU was attempting to escape, which was probably a good idea. There wasn’t much the Gatling gun could do against tanks. Still, 66’s HEAT round found it with a loud explosion.

The scene over the field was truly horrific, with large explosions, smoke and fireballs, charred and/or broken bodies that had managed to climb out. Strangely, it didn’t affect 2nd Lieutenant McAlister. For him, it was just work, like sitting in an office doing paperwork.

The scene was, however, affecting Avery. With the massive volley, he couldn’t tell if his shot had hit, and he didn’t want to. There was some kind of fear mixed with horror for him about not just going into battle, but also about killing another intelligent creature. That was enough to stay his hand a bit.

Only Sergeant Polgar of the Mech platoon was angry, hoping they would at least make it within range of the infantry’s Dragon ATGMs. Lieutenant Harding understood that there wasn’t much for them to do at this point, but Polgar was still angry about being left out. He hated being in a fight he couldn’t influence, especially when his friends were involved.

“GUNNER-TARGET-BTR-FAR RIGHT”

“IDENTIFY”

“HEAT UP”

“FIRE”

“OUT”

The last of the BTRs fell.

“GUNNER-YOU’RE CLEARED TO ENGAGE AT WILL-JUST MAKE SURE NOT TO SHOOT ANY DEAD TRACKS”

“YES SIR!”

Folk responded happily as if being handed the keys to a car. Bannon surveyed the sight of the field as the gun went off again. Not seeing too many more targets, he climbed up out of his commander’s hatch as 66’s gun fired one more time.

The entire enemy force had been wiped out to the last. The field was dotted with plumes of black smoke and bright balls of fire. Everything had gone off perfectly. Team Yankee’s first real battle was a major success.  
	

> The Thunder Run
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Alright…ok”, Bannon said slowly, taking in everything. “Anyone got targets?”

“No sir,” Folk replied.

“YANKEE ACTUAL TO ALL YANKEES-ALL TARGETS DOWN-HOLD FIRE AND REMAIN ON STANDBY-OUT”

Bannon forgot to ask for a reply, but he wasn’t too worried. The enemy had no chance; they had only got off one or two shots in their direction. No one had been lost. Everything, for the moment, was perfect.

“Ok, I’m going to check up on our little friends,” Bannon said as he took off the CVC and climbed out. “Folk keep an eye out and let me know if anything pops up.”

Bannon hopped out and down from the tank. He took a minute to survey the battlefield. Most of the field was covered by the burning, blackened, and shattered hulks of vehicles. Some were still burning, their ammo cooking off slowly. Most of the hostile ponies couldn’t be seen, but here and there a corpse, blackened by burns or shattered by some other force.

It was an interesting scene, to say the least. It got to him a bit, but it felt easier when he understood that it wasn’t his battalion. 

“But, what happens if- No, when it is?” he asked himself. “Guess I’ll have to try my best when it does come.”

The ponies in their little dugout were a bit more shocked. Bannon saw the look on their faces as he approached and was worried that one of them had been hit. He didn’t see anything wrong with them, though.

“You all ok?”

“My, that was…horrific,” Celestia responded. “Still, I feel better that nothing happened to the town.”

“Uh huh, and you?” he asked Luna.

“I’m…stunned,” she commented, the shock throwing her into her normal voice. “I certainly underestimated you.”

“You’re welcome,” Bannon replied. “And what about you, captain?”

“Well, it’s certainly more effective than what the guards try.”

“I kind of thought I’d be used to it after seeing it the first time,” Twilight added in. “But now, it just feels worse now that there’s more. I just don’t understand…”

“It’s simple, you don’t get used to it,” Bannon explained. “But, you don’t worry over it. We’re the ones that do the fighting, not you.”

“Right, thanks for helping, too,” she added. “I don’t think we could have saved Ponyville by ourselves.”

“It’s alright; I think they’ll think twice before coming here again.”

“You think they’ll give up now?” Fluttershy asked.

“Not likely,” Bannon answered. “Now that they know we are here, or at least that they’re vulnerable to something, they’ll start trying to find ways to stop us, in turn. Hopefully, that’ll be a while from now.”

“Which means we should keep attacking while we have the advantage,” Shining realized.

“Looks like someone know strategy and tactics,” Bannon said. “So, do you know where the attack came from?”

“Yes, Russage has a single base inside the country that they operate from. They launch all attacks from there.”

“Well, that’s our next target. Where is it?”

“A ways beyond from here, just keep going east and there will be a long, flat plain up until you reach a small ridge. It’s just beyond that, near the border.”

“Ok, you guys stay here. We’ll move out and handle it.”

“You’re going right now!?” Luna asked. “You just finished one battle!”

“And now we have to win another,” Bannon replied as he started back towards the tank. “We’ll stop and rest when we can afford it.”

“But are you sure you can do it?” 

Bannon could have sworn she sounded genuinely worried for him and the team.

“Don’t worry about us!” Bannon shouted back, climbing back onto the tank. “We’ll kick them out of your country for good!”



The first thing that woke up Sean was a phone. He shot up quickly to answer it; his wife, Pat, was a bit slower in getting up. Hanging up, he sighed and got out of bed.

“Are you going in already?” she asked.

“Yes. Gotta. Wouldn’t look good for a CO to be late, would it?”

“Will you be home for breakfast?”

“No, I won’t”

“Should I hold supper for you tonight?”

“No, no need,” he looked back at her, and the return gaze said that she understood. “Pat, the battalion is moving to the border in an hour. I don’t know when we will be back.”

“Is everyone going?”

“Everyone. NATO is mobilizing and the civilians are being sent home.”

“Are they really going to evacuate?”

“No doubt, starting at 0900.”

If it hurt Sean that he had to let his wife know, the kids would be worse. He was going to war and they were going back stateside. He couldn’t help but say a quick goodbye to his two sleepy children.

“Captain. Captain, wake up.”

“You be good when you’re with mommy, ok? I'll try to be back with you guys as soon as I can.”

“When will we see you again, daddy?”

“Captain Bannon, sir! Could you please focus?”

Bannon shot back to reality. He was sitting in the cupola, while Kelp was calling him. The tank was moving fast over a long plain towards another fight, no doubt. 

“Kelp, you think we’re doing the right thing, here?”

Bannon had been mumbling to himself while he was daydreaming, so Kelp knew why he asked this.

“You’ll be fine, Sean,” calling his captain by the first name, hoping to ease him, or at least take his mind off it. “We’ll all be fine and back home in no time.”

Kelp went back down his hatch while Bannon surveyed the scene. The team was deployed in a tactical wedge formation, with his and Uleski’s tanks sandwiched between 1st and 2nd platoons on the left, and 3rd and 4th on the right. The Mech platoon was bringing up the rear.

“YANKEE ACTUAL TO ALL YANKEES-MISSION LAUNCH FOR OBJECTIVE DOOR-ADVANCE TO FIRST CHECKPOINT-OVER”

“COPY YANKEE ACTUAL-ADVANCING TO PHASE LINE ONE-OUT”

“YANKEE TWO-TWO-INTERROGATIVE-DO WE KNOW THE ENEMY’S SIZE AND IF THEY’RE EXPECTING US-OVER?”

“UNKNOWN-BUT WE’RE ATTACKING ALL THE SAME-OUT”



The invasion had gone just fine, now the Russagian general had to just wait for the attacking unit to report back. It had been some time, and he starting to get impatient when one of his men reported a large force coming in their direction.

“What? Why are they returning!?” he yelled. “They couldn’t have possibly been defeated by the Equestrians!”

He took a look towards the incoming force with binoculars. His rage turned to confusion, then to outright horror. Whoever’s tanks those were, they weren’t his.

“Get everyone to their positions! Send out the metal to stop them! And someone find a radio and report to high command that the enemy has them, too.”



Bannon dropped back down into the tank and squinted to get a look at the ridge.

“YANKEE ACTAUL TO ALL UNITS-I SEE MOVEMENT COMIGN OVER THE RIDGE-WE’RE IN ENEMY TERRITORY, SO WEAPONS FREE ON ANYTHING THAT ISN’T PART OF THE TEAM-OVER”

“ROGER ACTAUL-YANKEE SEVEN HAS YOUR BACK-OUT”

That feeling came back to Uleski. It wasn’t as bad as before, but it was still there. This time, the fear was mixed with irritation; he really just wanted it to be gone once and for all.

“OK, CREW REPORT”

“GUNNER READY”

“LOADER READY”

“DRIVER DRIVING”

“OK, HERE THEY COME-LOADER-CARRY SABOT”

“ROGER THA-”

The last of Folk’s reply was drowned out by a loud explosion right in front of the tank.

“SABOT UP”

Bannon grabbed the radio again.

“YANKEE ACTUAL TO ALL VICTORS-IDENTIFY MULTIPLE TANKS CLOSING IN FAST-ALL STOP AND ENGAGE”

He immediately went back to his own tank’s work.

“GUNNER-IDENTIFY-T-72-FIRE-FIRE SABOT” 

“ON THE WAY”

The entire team stopped in a crooked line and began to fire away at the twelve tanks coming at them. They were a bit more difficult, as they had more room to maneuver and saw their enemy.  As 66 fired, Bannon was rocked by a large explosion on the side of the tank.

“WE’RE HIT! IT DIDN'T PENATRATE!" 

He quickly noticed there was almost no damage. Other enemy shots were just bouncing off or exploding harmlessly. Bannon also remembered that the Equestrians didn’t have any vehicles that he knew of.

“THEY MUST NOT HAVE ANY KIND OF AP ROUND”

“SO WE’RE PRETTY MUCH SAFE?” Folk asked.

“YEA, BUT LET’S NOT PUSH OUR LUCK”

“AGREED”

“GUNNER-TARGET LAST TANK-HE’S TRYING TO RUN”

“IDENTIFIED”

“FIRE”

“OUT”

The last tank exploded, not having stood a chance.

“ALL YANKEES-CONTINUE ADVANCE TO THE RIDGE-HOLD THERE AND WAIT FOR YANKEE FIVE TO CATCH UP-OVER”

The M1s rolled up in a line and stopped at the ridge. They had to wait there for the slower M113s to catch up. Moving the tank up just enough to see the other side, Bannon saw even more tanks coming at them.

“ALL YANKEES BE ADVISED-LARGE ENEMY FORCE COUNTERATTACKING-HOLD REVERSE SLOPE POSITION ON THE RIDGE AND DRIVE THEM BACK”

The tanks moved up to where there was just enough to see over the ridge and opened fire. The return rounds impacted on the ridge. Bannon was about to call a target when his vision was obscured by smoke.

“ALL YANKEES BE ADVISED-ENEMY IS USING SMOKE-SWITCH TO THERMAL AND CONTINUE ENGAGING”

Bannon switched the thermal view on. There were plenty of large heat blobs to choose from. The team did just that; picking away at the enemy, who apparently didn’t know about thermal optics, either. By the time the Mech platoon had caught up, the enemy counter attack had been defeated.

“YANKEE ACTUAL TO ALL YANKEES-PREPARE TO CHARGE ON MY MARK-WHEN WE REACH THE BASE, I WANT IT SURROUNDED-YANKEE TWO-FLANK AROUND TO THE LEFT; YANKEE FOUR-FLANK AROUND RIGHT-YANKEE FIVE-MAKE SURE TO DISMOUNT AND SECURE THE BASE ASAP”

“YANKEE TWO-ROGER”

“YANKEE FOUR-ROGER”

“YANKEE FIVE-ROGER”

Bannon turned back to Kelp.

“LOADER-LOAD HEAT”

“ROGER-HEAT UP”

HEAT would work better in the close quarters of the base.

“3-2-1-MARK!”

As a group, the team surged over the ridge and drove at full speed towards the base. There were a few remaining tanks there that fired on them; they were quickly destroyed by return fire from the team. The Yankees moved out as planned, encircling the base like a pack of wolves surrounding their prey.

The Mech platoon reached the opening gate and rolled through behind Bannon and Uleski’s tanks. They quickly pulled over and unloaded their infantry. Now came the time to match up the average conscripted pony, who had little knowledge or training with their new guns, against the average American infantryman. 

If the ponies were stunned by the large machines coming at them, they were shocked to see just who, or rather what, operated them. It only got worse as the infantry dismounted and began to clear each building in room-to-room, house-to-house fighting.

The Americans, who had been trained in CQC and had the advantage of having their tanks right there for support, quickly overwhelmed the enemy for no loss. Whenever a machine gun or sniper fired from a building, a tank would blast it away. Indeed, the team captured a large number of prisoners, including the general who commanded the invasion force, for no losses. Polgar was visibly happy at getting into the action himself.

Now, it was done. Bannon had the large Russage flag flying in the center of the camp replaced with the Stars and Stripes. The prisoners, who were only confused even further by the new banner, were tied up and placed in a small, one story building for holding. But as all this wrapped up, Bannon saw a massive amount of dust and smoke being kicked up back to the east. 

> Jousting
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“ALL YANKEES BE ADVISED-ENEMY COUNTER ATTACK FORCE APPROACHING FROM THE EAST-SIZE UNKNOWN-ALL TANKS FORM UP ON THE EAST SIE OF THE BASE-I WANT THE MECH PLATOON AND THE ITVS TO DIG IN AND DEFEND THE BASE ITSELF-ACKNOWLEDGE-OVER”

“WILCO-THIS IS YANKEE 1-1-DO WE HAVE ANY ESTIMATE AT ALL ON THE ENEMY FORCE-OVER?”

“ACTUAL TO 1-1-THERE’S A LOT OF THEM-HURRY ON GET INTO LINE FORMATION OUTSIDE THE BASE-OVER AND OUT”

Little by little, all the tanks gathered in a line outside the base where the plains continued onwards. The large dust clouds, as well as the sound of several motors, came closer and closer. Clearly, the bad guys were not about to let go of their foothold in the country so easily.

At the base, the Mech platoon quickly dug some temporary cover for the infantry and vehicles. The ITVs and PCs were dug into hull down positions while the infantry dug a line of foxholes. If any armor got close to them, they would have to rely on their Dragon ATGMs; and if it got down to the wire, their 66 millimeter M72 LAWs.

It was about an hour before the enemy formation finally came into full view. It was basically a mass of several tanks, of all different types, along with BMPs that carried infantry for taking back the base. Support elements, such as the ZSUs, wisely stayed back. And there were dozens of them, possibly around one hundred vehicles in all.

The feeling surfaced yet again inside Uleski. This time, however, it also made him frustrated. He wanted to be done with this so the feeling would stop bothering him. He wanted the feeling itself gone and never returning. 

“YANKEE ACTUAL-CAPTAIN, YOU THINK WE’LL BE ABLE TO STOP ALL THESE GUYS-OVER?”

“DON’T WORRY, U-WE HAVE THE ADVANTAGE IN TRAINING AND TECH-WE JUST HAVE TO USE THEM RIGHT”

“WHAT’S THE PLAN SIR?”

“I’M THINKING WE SHOULD ACT AGRESSIVLEY-MOVE OUT AND MEET THEM”

“YOU SURE THAT’S A GOOD IDEA? THE BASE WILL BE LEFT TO JUST THE MECH PLATOON”

“IF WE ATTACK THEM FAR OUT AND KILL ENOUGH OF THEM BEFORE THEY GET TO THE BASE, THE REST MIGHT TURN TAIL AND RUN-AT THE VERY LEAST THEY’LL HAVE TO STOP THE ATTACK ON THE BASE TO DEAL WITH US”

“COPY THAT"

“ALL TANKS-LINE FORMTATION-PREPARE TO COUNTER-CHARGE-DON’T STOP TO SHOOT, JUST KEEP MOVING TILL YOU REACH THEIR LINES-COMMENCE CHARGE ON MY MARK”

The tankers sat and waited as the enemy came closer and closer.

“MARK!”

At Bannon’s shouting of the order, all of the tanks shot forward. They all gradually came up to full speed and picked out individual targets. The team kicked up its own dust cloud as it moved forward towards the enemy.

Polgar just watched as the tanks moved forward. He was worried that he would, again, be left out. And this time, he was genuinely worried about the others, as it seemed almost suicidal to attack such a large force.

The enemy tanks were confused by the move at first. Some slowed down, thinking they should go on the defensive, while others continued on, and throwing the formation into chaos. Still, they knew their enemy was coming and immediately opened fire, their rounds falling pitifully into the dirt, being far out of range.

The enemy’s reaction only furthered Bannon’s idea that they were not trained to handle tank-to-tank warfare. Choosing targets wasn’t difficult, as they were so clustered together. It was like firing into a swarm of birds flying around in one area, they were bound to hit something.

“FIRE-FIRE SABOT”

All of the rounds found a target. Even if the tanker’s original targets missed, it would hit another track behind it. One would really have to try hard to miss. 

By the time of the second salvo, the enemy had moved to a range for some of their weapons, as well. Their firing was much more uncoordinated, with each unit taking individual shots that guaranteed a continuous wave of shells. Again, they continued to bounce or explode with little effect, though it became more telling as the range decreased.

“GUNNER-ENGAGE AT WILL UNLESS I PICK SOMETHING OUT”

“AYE, SIR!”

Bannon watched as 66 continued to lob out rounds. The enemy formation was confused, but they continued to move forward. Both combatants were charging at each other like medieval knights in a tournament. 

Eventually, the range fell to a very close level, and then, the lines of both meshed through each other and blurred. The team’s tanks ran were engulfed by the wave of incoming hostiles. It quickly turned into a free-for-all, with each track doing its individual work. 

Bannon spotted two T-72s coming head on at 66. The gun fired and killed the left one first; the reply from the surviving tank didn’t tell much. The two tanks passed each other and took aim at each other’s rears. 66’s shot hit the engine, starting a massive fire. Once again, the T-72’s shot failed, but it caused quite the rattling. 

Each of the M1s focused on killing as many Russage tanks as quick as they could. All the while, each was being smothered by hits. The crews tried their very best.

With such a high volume of fire at such a close range, damage was inevitable at this point. One tank had rushed out too far and, after coming under what seemed like a machine gun of HE shells, stopped and just sat there for a while. 4-2s fire control computer was damaged from the rattling, and a few lucky, or unlucky, hits knocked a tread off of Blackfoot’s tank, though it’s turret was operating and continued to fire away.

“YANKEE ACTUAL TO YANKEE FIVE-BE ADVISED-”

Bannon stopped as he was jarred from another large explosion that rocked the tank’s inside.

“Damn,” he swore before picking up the radio again. “BE ADVISED-WE CAN’T STOP ALL THE ENEMIES-PREPARE TO RECEIVE HOSTILES-HOW COPY-OVER” 

“GOOD COPY, ACTUAL-WE’RE READY FOR THEM”

A large force of ten tanks, two T-55s and eight T-72s, along with twelve BMP-2s came as a group towards the base. Polgar would finally get his desire to fight. The Mech platoon would now have to show its effectiveness.

The ITVs fired first, firing their long range TOW missiles at the tanks. Both hit T-62s on their turrets and both turrets, in turn, exploded skyward. It didn’t slow the rest of the group down by much.

The ITVs fired a second time, this time killing only one of the T-55s. They were followed by the infantry launched Dragon missiles, which reached out and killed two more T-72s.

The enemy formation began firing in the base’s direction, though the platoon was dug in well for protection. Still, one round found one of the dug in M113s. Its aluminum hull crumpled from the hit and began to burn brightly. 

Another salvo of missiles claimed three more T-72s. Polgar then ordered the missiles to focus on the BTRs. He wanted to kill as many of the enemy infantry as he could while they were still sitting in their vehicles.

Still, the BTRs released their infantry at different intervals. Some got out as soon as the first missiles had been fired; others insisted they be driven right up to the front line. Regardless, all of them came under fire from the small arms of infantry dug sitting in their foxholes. M249s chattering dragged on for long intervals, M16s fired individually; grenadiers fired their grenades at clusters of soldiers.

The next four missiles all found BTRs. The last two tanks rolled up close to the front, trying to find targets. The old T-55 was hit in the engine and the turret by LAWs and was abandoned immediately. The T-72 was immobilized by one LAW, and then fired its main gun in the operator’s direction, killing him before succumbing to a barrage of LAW rockets. 

The remaining BTRs met a similar fate, bit by bit, along with their infantry. When everything settled down, Plogar took a look at the devastation his platoon had created, and couldn’t help but get a sense of pride. He also noticed the battle in the distance was easing off.

Bannon did notice that several of the enemy tanks were beginning to turn tail. Still, he ordered Folk to focus on enemy units still engaging them; though, that number was quickly reduced to none. The team’s tanks regrouped a bit and continued to fire until the Russagians were out of sight entirely. 

“YANKEE ACTUAL TO ALL YANKEES-REPORT”

“YANKEE ONE”

“TWO”

“THREE”

“FOUR”

“YANKEE FIVE STILL IN PLACE”

“SEVEN”

“EVERYONE RETURN TO THE BASE-DON’T BOTHER PURSIUING, WE’RE TOO WORN OUT-AND HAVE THE M88 COME AND PICK UP BLACK AND HIS TANK-OVER AND OUT”



Luna hadn’t expected the humans to come back. It astonished her that they were able to stop the seemingly invincible invaders, attacking their home base right after seemed vain. To her happy surprise, they found most of the team was fine when they arrived at the base.

“I was rather concerned when I saw all the burning machines,” she explained to Bannon. “But then I saw that strange, new flag flying, and I rightly guessed it was yours.”

“Yep, that’s ours, and those burning tanks out there was also our work,” Bannon replied. “Still, this was tougher than our last fight.”

“I can see that,” Celestia observed, looking out over the field where the counterattack had taken place. “You certainly had many more to deal with this time.”

“Well, it’s more than that,” Bannon explained. “We…actually lost some people this go round.”

First there was the PC and its crew, who took an unlucky shell hit. One of the tanks had been smothered with hits and a few more unlucky ones started an uncontrollable engine fire; luckily, it spread slowly, so the crew made their escape before the tank was engulfed. Along with those, two of the Mech platoon’s infantrymen were dead, and a third was slightly wounded by a grazing bullet.

Though they had never got to know the ones who died, the group felt even more saddened. The prospect of these visitors fighting their fight was stunning, now that they were dying; it made them feel somewhat guilty. Between the two burning American vehicles and the line of covered bodies, they were shaken to the core.

“I’m sorry this happened,” Twilight stuttered. “I mean, we never really wanted it to…a-and we never meant for you all to be here-” 

“You guys don’t feel bad,” Bannon cut in. “This is what our job is, and it comes with certain…hazards. But, we expect these kinds of things to happen. It’s unavoidable.”

“Surely, it can’t be taken that easy,” Rarity replied.

“Well, no. I always told myself that I’d have to get used to people dying, of seeing bodies of my men, writing letters back home to their families. I kept trying to prepare for it when the time came; but, now that it’s here, I still feel…down. But, like I said, it’s what we do, and if we still have work to do, then we have to grieve later and focus on what’s at hand.”

“Hopefully, you won’t have to,” Celestia replied. “Now that they’ve been kicked out of Equestria, maybe they will surrender peacefully.”

“Well, the South didn’t exactly surrender after Gettysburg,” Bannon thought.

“Do you think that’s possible, captain?”

“It’s highly unlikely that they will. It’s probably best if we stick around and see what happens.”

“Well, during that time, we will do our best to provide you with what you need.”

“That may be a problem; I don’t think you can for some of our needs. We’re running low on fuel and ammo, and I doubt you know how to manufacture that.”

“Well, no. But, I can open a portal to your world where you could get some more.”

“Alright, that’ll do. It’s going to be hell trying to explain this to Reynolds.”

Celestia’s horn lit up for a few seconds and then flashed a bright light. There was a large, purple circle that was large enough to drive any kind of vehicle through. Peering through it, Bannon could make out the German countryside.

“Captain!” Folk called back from the tank. “Sir, I’m picking up the battalion commander on the radio!”

Bannon jogged back to 66 and jumped in, grabbing the radio quickly.

“BANNON-CAPTAIN BANNON-COME IN YANKEE SIX!”

“COLONEL SAWYER, SIR -I READ YOU FIVE-BY-FIVE!”

“BANNON-JUST WHERE THE HELL IS YOUR TEAM-HAVE YOU NOTICED THAT THERE’S A WAR GOING ON!?”

“YES SIR, WE NOTICED”

> Cultural Exchanges 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Thank God they made it,” was all Bannon could say at the moment. “We’ve finally got help.”

With a portal open, the rest of Team Yankee’s battalion could finally get through, and with that supplies. What was even better for Bannon was that he finally had a way home; he wasn’t able to go there yet, but still it was there. 

With the rest of Equestria safe for the time being, Team Yankee was allowed to go and meet up with the rest of the battalion. The battalion was composed of three other companies; Team Bravo, another armor-heavy company, and companies C and D, which were made up of infantry. Personally, Bannon felt they would be better off without Company C, as their commander, and by extension the troops, were incompetent, disrespectful, and overall inefficient. Unfortunately, Colonel had to bring along his little pet of a company commander, the one Bannon was presently sitting next to in the small tent that would be used for the briefing.

Bannon was actually more scared than anything else; Colonel Sawyer already let him know he was not going to take this lightly. The old man had a real General Patton mood on all day every day, minus Patton’s tactical genius. He was just thankful the Princesses were both here to speak on his behalf.

“Hey, Bannon,” the staff S-3, Major Jordan, nudged, “the old man’s here.”

Looking outside, Bannon saw a command jeep driving down the road. The four antennas attached to it flung about wildly, never being tied down. The most identifiable marking was a large black ‘6’ superimposed on the blue license plate, thoroughly violating every security measure the Army had.

The jeep came to a halt in front of the tent, an older Lieutenant Colonel stepping out. Walking into the tent, all of the men stood to salute him. The colonel returned the salute and the men returned to their seats as he took his own at the end of the table.

“Captain Bannon,” he began. “Where the hell have you been and what the hell have you been doing?”

“We’ve been stuck here when the war back home broke out and we’ve been fighting ever since.”

“Just what in that thick skull of yours made you think that was a good idea?”

Bannon lost it at that. He hadn’t planned on this to happen; he didn’t even think it was possible. What made this guy think he even wanted to be here when his family back home was in danger?

“What do you mean? You think I planned this? Like I had some secret to escape to a land of pretty ponies and drag my whole company with me while everyone back home died?” Bannon asked, standing up angrily. “That’s just damned stupid!”

“Calm down, captain! Otherwise the only thing waiting at home for you will be a court-martialing!” 

Bannon sat back down and relaxed. He kept telling himself that he couldn’t have outbursts like this. There was always something no one could control that happened to him; not enough of this, too much of that, this guy’s got a disease, this guy got his foot blown off, the men on the flanks are retreating, the rear HQ is getting shelled. And, of course, you and your men are transported to an entirely different dimension. It really got to him when stuff that people can control happened, especially when it happened because of mindless idiocy like Garger’s at first. This just felt insulting.

“Captain, I understand you had no intention for this to happen,” Reynolds explained. “What I meant was why did you think it was a good idea to intervene in this war?”

“Well, it looked like they were in some serious trouble, sir. I did think it would be within our ideals to help protect them from a dictator.”

Reynolds rubbed his head.

“Even if it is, captain, we’re already in a war. Do you know how bad things are in Germany? NORTHAG is getting crushed and the Russians are nearly at the Dutch border. We need everyone and everything there, and we can’t afford to piss off another country that we have to fight. Our hands are just too full.”

“I understand, sir, but we kicked them out of this country rather easily, and their leader is coming to meet with us today to talk about peace.”

“We think that’s what he’ll want to do, Bannon,” Reynolds replied. “He might just be coming to declare war on us.”

“If I may, Colonel,” Celestia interrupted. “I do believe my nation owes your Captain here a debt for rescuing us. Even if you have made new enemies, you have also made some allies.”

Reynolds raised his eyebrows.

“Would you kindly not talk in riddles, ma’am.”

“Since your Captain aided us with our war, I am willing to offer my assistance to yours.”

Bannon was surprised at this; he didn’t think they would be so willing to help. Even if their magic was useless against vehicles, it could still help in other ways; and he was pretty sure the Russians didn’t have flying horses. Maybe there was something important hidden in there.

“We’ll see about that when things are cleaned up here,” Reynolds replied. “Now when’s this guys supposed to show up?”

“Now, actually, he’s flying down right now.”

“Flying, what’s-”

He was interrupted as a large dark brown pegasus strode angrily into the tent.

“Oh right, wings,” Reynolds sighed. “So are you Leon-”

The Pegasus walked right by him and up to Bannon, getting into his face.

“You! You are the one responsible for this!” he snarled. “How dare you intervene in my liberation of this country!”

Bannon didn’t take lightly to this, standing up and making the most of his superior height.

“First of all, can the ‘liberation’ crap,” he shot back. “I’ve heard that line back on my world a million times by people like you, so you can drop the ‘man-of-the-peasants’ gig, you power-hungry maniac.”

The pegasus’ face grew bright red in anger, searching for a response.  

“It doesn’t matter, you and your men will pay the full price in your vain attempt at rescuing this monarch!” he growled.

“Are you threating the guys that just kicked you out?” Bannon asked. “You really are delusional, huh?”

“I will have my vengeance on you, and when this world is united, yours is next!”

All of the humans seemed stunned by this response.

“Is that a declaration of war?” Reynolds asked. “I don’t take threats against my men and country lightly.”

“I will have my revenge on you, all of you!” he said. “And you, and your ‘Yankees’ will be first!”

The pegasus walked back out and took off into the skies, flanked by some guards.

“Peace, huh Bannon?” Reynolds asked. “Well, I suppose we’d better get out of this hole you’ve dug us all into.”



This had been the first time the team had actually been able to stop and interact with the town and its residents. Many were still a little too afraid to come out and interact directly, even if these humans had just rescued their town. The men didn’t mind, though; they were going to relish their break as much as they could. 

Most of them did one activity or another to pass the time. Avery and Garger spent a good deal of time sitting on the back of the 41 tank, eating and catching up for the first time in a long time. Pinkie had been the most welcoming at first, with the men willing to buy food from the bakery to get a break from the rations they always ate; there was some problems with the currency at first before she decided to just give them away as a thank you present. Blackfoot fashioned a makeshift pillow out of his rucksack and took a nap on a bench next to his track.

The thing that struck the ponies most of all were the activities themselves; many were talking like normal ponies would, but it was what they were talking about that was different. Their world apparently had far more issues than Equestria.

“And Reagan just looks straight into the camera and says ‘We begin bombing in five minutes’,” McAlister said, gaining some hearty laughs from his crew, as well as Weiss’. “I can’t believe you’ve never heard that, Weiss; he said that back in ’84!” 

Apparently, Rainbow thought this would be a good time to start a conversation. 

“Who’s Reagan?”

“He’s our president,” McAlister replied, “the leader of our country.” 

“What was he talking about?”

“He was making a joke about passing a law to outlaw the Russians.”

Rainbow tilted her head sideways with a confused look.

“Uh…how was he planning on doing that?”

“By bombing them,” McAlister replied with a chuckle.

“What?” Rainbow asked, surprised. “And you guys are wondering why you’re at war with them; you’re leader is nuts.”

“Wondering, no; we’ve been at each other’s throats for decades,” Weiss explained, stunning Rainbow even more. “Be honest, we’re all tired of living in fear of it. It was bound to happen at some point, and now it has; might as well have a laugh or two over it.”

“Unlike with IC,” McAlister’s driver added. “Man, he messed up with that.”

“IC?” Rainbow asked.

“Iran-Contra,” McAlister said, turning back to his driver. “All the same, his defense spending is part of the reason we aren’t driving Pattons anymore.”

“He gets a lot more crap than I think he should,” the loader added. “They keep complaining about his physical fitness; why does it matter?”

As that conversation deteriorated, Rainbow diverted her attention to Weiss and his crew.

“Damn it, you spoiled the ending!”

“Yea, and when Marty gets home his family is actually pretty good,” Weiss said. “Like his father is an author and his mom is really hot and everything.”

“Aw, c’mon, LT,” the driver moaned. “I haven’t seen it yet; you can’t stop talking about it for just a minute?”

“No,” Weiss chuckled.

“So they made a time machine out of a DMC-12?” the loader asked.

“Yea, something about the specific design allowing it to travel through the…something.”

After listening to that, Rainbow decided it wouldn’t make much sense, either.

One of the other sources of attention was a makeshift football game between some of the tankers and the Mech platoon. The crowd of ponies sat next to the humans on the sidelines, watching the game with them and getting startled whenever the men started cheering. They did have a similar game in Equestria with a similar ball, but since they had hooves instead of fingers, some of the rules and moves were radically different.

Another, smaller spot of attention was a throwing match between Hebrock of 24 tank and Rhoads from 22. They gained a small crowd by tossing another football between each other, the catch being that they had to stay on each other’s tanks. Finally, Rhoads threw a higher pass and Hebrock reached out to catch it. He accomplished this, but also fell off the back of the tank and into the grass which blessedly enough was rather soft. He groaned and got back up, stretching out a bit to make sure he was ok.

Of all the ponies in town, Lyra was the most sociable with the troops. For some strange reasons, she felt a strange attachment to them; even to the point of stopping and talking with each tank crew. They were, in turn, happy to see someone from the town willing to be so sociable with what were basically aliens.

The last track she wanted to visit was Uleski’s 55 tank, which was parked a ways away from it. Trotting over towards it, she noticed that the four crewmen seemed to be working on their vehicle.  Coming closer, she also heard a strange sound emanating from its direction.

“Ok, Newman, hand me the spare antenna!” gunner Gwent called to 55’s loader over the song, who handed him the tank’s spare radio antenna to replace the shredded one.

“Gwent, how’s the antenna replacement coming?” Uleski asked.

“Nearly done, sir!”

“Good,” Uleski replied, turning to driver Lorriet, who was on the ground inspecting the wheels, track, and sprockets. “Lorriet, how’s everything looking down there?”

The driver gave a thumb up as he continued looking closely for any loose or damaged parts.

“Hey!”

Uleski turned around from his position on the front near the barrel to see the pony walking up to his vehicle. He motioned for Gwent to kill the portable stereo resting on the back of the tank next to him as he jumped down. He always loved to see the faces of people who saw that and asked ‘how the hell did you get that?’ But, be it this or that can of coke; he’d mastered the art of acquiring items others couldn’t. 

“Nice to meet you,” he said. “1st Lieutenant Uleski, at your service miss…”

“Lyra, and…what was the sound coming out of that? Was that music?” 

“Hm? Oh, yea; the boom box. Yep, that’s our music.”

“How does that thing make music? I’ve never seen anything make music like that?”

“So you’re a musician, huh?” Uleski asked. “Well it doesn’t really ‘make’ the music; it just plays it from a recorded cassette.”

He jumped back onto the tank before she could ask anything else.

“You want to hear some more?” he asked from the cupola.

“Yea, it sounds great!”

“Ok, let me take a look at my little collection,” he said, going into the tank and popping back out with another cassette tape. “Perfect! Hey Gwent, stick this in and hand Boston back to me.”

“Ah, good choice, sir!” he said, putting the tape into the machine and turning up the volume.

“Not too bad, huh?” Uleski asked to Lyra, who had been dancing in her own world through most of the song.

“Huh? O-oh yea, it was pretty good,” she said, blushing a bit from her act. 

“Hey, don’t feel embarrassed; good music does that to its listeners. You didn’t hear me singing along badly to it?”

“I couldn’t hear, honestly.”

“Well trust me, you didn’t want to,” he chuckled. “I’d hate to make you sick of our music because of my voice.”

Lyra laughed surprisingly hard at this.

“You want to listen to some more?” 

“Yea!”

“Alright, let’s see if I can find something a little different. Hm…ah, here we go; this’ll be fun!” he said, handing Gwent yet another tape.




Bannon spent most of the remaining time talking over supplies with the rest of the staff. The biggest shortage was actually the radio antennas of the tanks; the HE rounds that did explode on their sides tended to shred them and he had to actually get up in his cupola and yell to the others which way to go. Though the spares on each track were being used to replace them, they had no reserves of these left. Unfortunately, there was only enough left in the battalion’s supply to augment half the team.

Most of the personal care issues were being fixed, despite the battalion being unable to do it. The town had been very willing to help with what they could. The men of the team treated themselves to a nice bath in the Spa, the owners of which also offered to help clean the laundry. Even if it did get crowded, the troops weren’t looking for an all-around treatment, just enough to make them smell human again. Not to mention the tips they left were rather generous, or would be once the currency issue was straightened out. 

Many of the ponies offered to let the troops sleep in their homes on whatever bed was available, right down to the couches; this was probably the biggest blessing to the tired men. Most of the food they ate at the time was also cooked by Ponyville’s residents, giving them a break from the cold and rubbery food they usually acquired.

Thankfully, fuel, ammo, and the most serious requirements were being met well. Spare parts and fresh shells were being loaded onto the tanks and any armored plates that were too damaged were being replaced by the mechanics. 
The last and most important issue was on the replacements for those lost. That, too, was being solved, in both men and material. And the deceased, of course, were returned to the States. 

That left Bannon where he was now, sitting in the library late at night, trying to think of what to write to the families of the deceased. It certainly was not the best part of the job as the dozens of ideas flew through his head became more and more angry.

“Your son passed away while bravely defending innocent…ponies?”

“No,” Bannon said to himself. “It’s got to sound more serious.”

But just how serious was this whole thing, anyways?

“Your son passed away defending a bunch of alien horses that no one knew about in a war no one cared about. Unfortunately, those efforts were not enough as we are still currently at war with them; thanks for your cooperation.”

“Damn all,” Bannon sighed. “How the hell do I explain this? These people lost friends, sons, husbands; all for what?”

His soul-searching was interrupted by Twilight.

“Captain, do you mind if I ask a few questions about your world now?”

“I’m busy,” he replied sharply.

“Why not? I’ve been waiting patiently for you to finish working; you can’t stop writing a letter for five minutes?”

“No, it’s too important.”

“Well, maybe I can help write it,” she suggested. “I’ve written dozens to Princess Celestia-”

“You know how to tell this mother that her son was killed fighting your war?”

Twilight stared at this.

“Oh, I’m…I’m really sorry; I-I didn’t know it was that kind of letter.”

“It’s alright,” Bannon replied, still starring at the blank sheet on the desk. “It’s just…hard is all; I just don’t know what to say.”

“Well, I’ll let you…take care of that. Maybe…uh. Actually, I’ll just go to bed; I’m sorry for interrupting you, Captain.”

“It’s ok, you didn’t know; sleep well.”

“Oh, and captain; could you thank his family for what he did?” she asked.

Bannon wasn’t really expecting this, but understood.

“Of course, you sleep well.”

As she trotted upstairs, her request finally gave Bannon an idea of what to say.

‘Your son for many reasons, even if he didn’t know it; he died protecting a world from aggression, he died fighting for his friends next to him, and he died doing what he believed was the right thing to do. I am proud to have had him as a soldier in my company. The innocents he was defending, as well as myself, wish to thank you and him for your service during these difficult times. And please remember that no matter what happens, no matter how long this war lasts or it's outcome, we will always remember his sacrifice. Please take care. 
Sincerely-
Captain Sean Bannon, Company Y commander.’