Tank Endures

by WhoHacksFTW

Tank Displaced

Tank woke up, as always, slowly and steadily. He thought about the fact that his owner has been sick for quite a time but she always pulls through in the end. The century old tortoise has seen this time and time again, this instance will be no different.

The purple alicorn has been the one feeding him for the time that Rainbow Dash has been sick. It used to be the soft spoken yellow pegasus he used to live with that did this when his owner couldn't do it. The tortoise liked her, it was almost as if she could understand me better than Rainbow. He took a minute to think about where the yellow one could have gone. Perhaps she had moved away like the orange one and her dog.

Having gone through his thoughts he sauntered to his food bowl. The bowl was empty. Sure this has happened when Rainbow was the one feeding him, but never when it was purple. It was always full when he woke up when it was the alicorn in charge of it. He tilted his head and decided that he could eat at his terrarium. He usually avoided this because it made the purple one annoyed when she had to replace the vegetation but it was her fault he didn't have food.

This was Tank's favorite spot on the grounds of the property. It was a giant terrarium that looked more like a jungle than even the Everfree forest. It was magically enchanted to keep it's temperature and humidity at 85 respectively as well as let Tank come and go as he pleased. He loved this place almost as much as Rainbow Dash loved flying. Luckily for him it was full of edible vegetation and natural streams so he wouldn't go hungry anytime soon.

Twilight Sparkle, ageless alicorn of magic, was crying in the rain near a simple tombstone. The tombstone had a simple yet heartbreaking inscription in it.

Once Twilight composed herself she looked to the will of Rainbow Dash and read the requests of the deceased.

In the event that I'm not awesome enough to get immortality (Looking at you egghead) and I end up croaking from this, these are my requests.

#1 I want to give my cloud house to Scootaloo, she deserves it.
#2 Discord can get a pie to the face. That's for all the times he's done it to me!
#3 I want to donate a quarter of my bits to the the Ponyville orphanage and another quarter to Sweet Apple Acres.
#4 Tank, Twilight should take care of Tank.
#5 Put the rest of my bits to be split up among the charities Gryphonia, I still haven't finished helping Gilda even if she left first.

Well, I think that's all the things I need to worry about. Seeya in the afterlife egghead!

At that final parting line Twilight's composure broke once again and the crying renewed once again. After the grief had been put to the side Twilight Sparkle teleported to the home of Rainbow Dash. Once she had arrived at the decadent Romane styled cloud mansion Twilight started looking for the tortoise she was there for. It proved to be harder than she thought to find the pony-sized Tank, taking into consideration the 'house' was more a mansion this wasn't hard to fathom.

Tank, now being several times heavier than the average pony, could no longer fly with his owner but Rainbow didn't mind this one bit. Tank's favorite times with Rainbow were when she decided to go more his speed and just start telling stories about her adventures with the other five mares she's friends with. Tank was reminiscing about his owner when the purple alicorn finally found him in a shallow, magically simulated stream in the middle of the terrarium. He was shaken out of his nostalgia by a purple aura enveloping him and lifting him up. He was not scared as he knew this aura but he couldn't help but wonder why the alicorn looked to distraught and disheveled. She was not wearing any of the shiny metals that she usually wore and she looked to have been crying.

Tank didn't like seeing sad ponies so he decided to try to cheer up the purple one by stretching his long neck and nuzzling the saddened pony princess. Once the aged giant did this a small smile graced the face of twilight and she looked to be a bit happier. Tank, his mission complete brought his head back close to him and nodded.

After an hour of searching for the large tortoise Twilight was starting to get frustrated. 'Where could Tank be?' she thought. In a shot of inspiration, she remembered the jungle-like terrarium Dash had asked her to enchant 60 years ago. She realized that Rainbow had said it was one of Tank's favorite places to spend time in and it made sense, it was the perfect habitat for the gentle giant to relax. Now she just had to remember how to get there.

It was around 20 minutes before Twilight found Tank. Upon seeing the reptile she almost broke into tears again, the tortoise was a reminder to her about Dash and Fluttershy and the story of how dash had gotten him. She closed her eyes to try to hold back the encroaching threat of tears when she felt the leathery smooth skin of Tank rubbing against her cheek. She smiled weakly and picked him up in her magic, hardly noticing his weight.

Twilight Sparkle walks her way out of the Terrarium and out of the mansion. Once out she starts flying her way to her castle with Tank in tow. Tank, having been unable to fly for the last 70 years, looked as he was having the time of his life during the short flight to the castle. She was sure to bring Tank's food and water bowl and once they got to the castle she entered the room through the balcony. Twilight noticed that tank was looking around as if searching for something. Or somepony. Twilight started to tear up again.