//------------------------------//
// The Battle of Neighton 
// Story: The Equestrian Civil War 
// by Sleepyted 
//------------------------------//

Mud.

It seemed to find its way all through one’s fur and cake in like nothing else. And when it was raining it just made sure every bit of loose dirt became more of the vile substance.

Honour Bound was slowly hocking mound of wet dirt after mound in a constant and never-ending routine that she had been for the past few hours like a few hundred of her fellow royal guards. They had been ordered to build some trenches. She knew it was about the small rebellion that had formed after the Canterlot Incident but not really what they were looking out for.

“I’m telling you; this is just a way for them to keep us busy and to increase military spending.” One of her squad mates stated, clutching a shovel in his own hooves, his equipment and armour off to the side to make it easier to dig.

“Can you just shut it with your conspiracy theories, I’m in enough pain digging for the past week to have my ears bleed from your constant rambling.” Hard Pass stated, grumbling to himself as he pushed another shovel-full of dirt into a heshen sack before another sealed it up and threw it lazily into a pile of others.

“You can’t deny that things are only supporting the industrialists and big wigs.” Cloven Hoof stated, continuing his ramblings. 

“How? Factories are refusing to work and imports have slowed, it’s just causing issues with this whole rebellion.” Honour stated. 

It was planned that a triple layered trench line would be dug along the eastern side of Neighton, a medium sized city between Canterlot and the coast. Almost three quarters of a million ponies called it home, the large group Honour was with all coming from there. So, when the mayor of the city was told to be ready in case of rebels deciding to cause some issues, he decided to build a trench line all around the city.

“Why do we even need to do this, its just a bunch of farmers with muskets. We have bolt actions and mounted automatics.” One young stallion stated, pointing towards a box that had said automatic machine gun along with the ammo and cleaning supplies.

Honour looked towards her issued Lavender Rifle over the edge of the half-dug trench she was in along with her saddle strap that held the ammo and other items given to her and her comrades.

“We wont even see these ‘farmers’, they don’t even exist, it’s a big excuse to increase military spending. I keep telling you guys.” Cloven said, earning a glare from the rest of the group.

“There are already enough issues on the boarder with the changelings, there’s enough guard spending there alone why waste more where it’s not needed?”

“Hey do you guys hear that?”

Honour paused, listening intently along with everyone else around her. At first nothing was out of the normal, gentle wind blowing and the distant sounds of nature, but after a few moments something unnatural came through. It was a gentle rumble and scraping metal, very faint and in the distance.

Looking out over the edge of the trench she couldn’t see anything out of the normal until Hard pointed towards the east. “Over there, what is it?”

Squinting all Honour could make out was the moving shapes far away. She wished she was a Pegasus with their good eyesight in moments like this. 

“I think that might be some tanks?” Cloven said in a bit of confusion. “I though those guys were coming through tomorrow.”

“They should be, maybe were done packing up and set off early to the changelings.” One pony suggested.

Honour hopped out of the trench and over to the collection of gear from her squad, pulling a pair of binoculars from one of the kits, she could worry about who it was later.

Looking down and taking a moment or two to adjust the focus of the lenses to the distance. What she could see after taking a minute to process was what appeared to be a few dozen Equestrian Muletilda Class Light Tanks. Each one was a rolling box of steel, a rotating turret with a 2-pounder gun and a fixed machine gun. It was a marvel of Equestrian Engineering and it amazed Honour that the thing could even move with how heavy it was.

“Should we tell the captain or something?”

“Nah, one of the sentries would have done that before we saw them.”

“Have you ever been inside a tank?”

“My cousin is a tanker; he says they’re small and stuffy. Once said that the gunner let one rip and it lingered for hours.”

“So, no worse than you in the barracks”

“Fuck you dude.”

Honour was putting the binoculars down until she saw a quick movement from the tanks. Bringing them back up quickly she saw a plume of smoke come from one of the tanks. She barely had any time to understand what was happening before a loud whistle went over them, making everyone flinch before an explosion happened about a hundred feet behind their general position. 

More plumes of smoke and more explosions of fire and dirt around the lone of the trench.

Everyone around, both working on the trench and otherwise all dove for cover, hiding in the shallow cut of the countryside. Their ears were ringing and dirt rained from above. No one knew what was happening, too afraid to look over the line at the tanks.

“What they fuck are they doing?! Why are they shooting?!”

“I don’t fucking know!”

All ducked down further when the sharp whistle of an explosive shell went just over their heads and exploded behind them and sending a wave of mud splattering over them as they hid. The large shells were soon joined by bursts of the mounted machine guns from the tanks. Ponies along the trench line started to shoot out themselves, the sound of bolt action rifles just lobbing lead in the general direction of the attacking tanks. 

Honour didn’t have time to grab her rifle before she had gone for cover, still clutching the binoculars in her hoof as she huddled behind cover. Looking either side of herself at the guards in the trench with her, everyone covered in mud with some clutching their rifles while most only had their shovels at the ready since their equipment was piled up out of the trench line.

‘Come on Bound, think!’ The mare thought to herself looking around at something, anything she could do.

“Do we have any anti tank shit?”

“Squad five has it all!”

“Where are they?”

“Two clicks north, fucking useless right now.”

Taking a deep breath to calm herself Honour had to focus, taking stock of equipment and ponypower around her. There were small arms, a few boxed up mounted machine guns, a box of grenades, armour and a bunch of shovels. Grenades couldn’t take out a tank, there wasn’t enough explosive in them so they were out. The rifles were next to useless unless a 1 in 1,000,000 shot could be made through a viewport or someone stuck their head out so that was next to useless as well. Shovels would just scratch the paint.

Her mind did a 180 and went back to the grenades. They had only a small amount of boom in each one but what if they used the whole crate at once? That should make a big enough explosion to at least do a bit of damage. But there was the problem of a few dozen tanks and they only had one box for the squad.

Honour was pulled from her thinking by a smack on her side, looking over to see Cloven shoving a rifle at her, one in his other hoof. Taking the weapon, she looked at him in confusion for a moment before looking back down at the weapon. Pulling the bolt back half way she saw it was loaded, she assumed with the 5 shots, but with her gear being over the trench she couldn’t really reload it if she shot.

Taking a hesitant peek over the trench she saw the attacking tanks were approaching but at a much slower rate than before, seeming taking more time to aim with their weapons now. Ponies were lined up going down either side of the trench lines, some hiding in cover while others peeking over and taking a few pot shots down towards the armour. 

Honour bound found herself suddenly thrown several feet to the right violently, her head filled with a painful ringing and mud splattering over her face and covering her eyes. Once she had stopped rolling through the slop of dirt she quickly tried to wipe her eyes, taking a minute to get it out since her own hooves were just as messy. The first thing she was greeted with was what could only be the chunk of a pony, the bright yellow fur matted with blood and muck, the raw red flesh and meat seeming to steam in the cold air.

The mare had to look away, but not being able to stop vomit from exiting her maw. She had to keep moving, she couldn’t just stay here and hope these tanks would go away on their own. Getting back up to her hooves she looked for her squad, she spotted their defensive unicorn, a young mare with a maroon coat and red hair. She was currently pressing her bloody hooves tightly onto the chest of an unmoving pony, blood everywhere from a MG shot that tore right through him.

Running over, Honour grabbed the unicorn by her shoulders, pulling her away. “He’s gone Misty, there’s nothing you can do!” 

“N-No! We can still save him!” She begged, almost pleadingly to prove that she was right. 

“He’s dead and there’s nothing we can do! We have to keep going or we’re all going to die!” She stated, yanking the crying mare from the dead body.

Misty looked defeated, holding her hooves before herself and seeing her normally clean coat matted with blood. 

“I might have an idea but I need your help.”

“W-what can we even do? We weren’t trained to fight tanks!” 

“I know! But we have to fight or we’ll all be dead!” Honour stated. “How far away can you keep a shield up and how strong?”

“W-what?” Misty asked, confused before trying to compose herself. “I’m only able to put one up around myself and a small area, and it would barely be able to take a shot from a cannon before it knocked me out.” 

‘Crap, what the hell are we going to do?’ Honour thought to herself before Misty spoke again.

“B-But I do know a ‘Wall Flower’ spell…” She suggested. “It helped me go un-noticed through school… it makes you unremarkable and hard to focus on. It’s not invisibility but it would be more effective than just trying to take shots. We wont be able to use it to help everypony escape, they would notice too many ponies with the effects.”

“I’m not thinking of going back but to charge at them.” Honour said, getting a horrified look from the unicorn.

“What in Tartarus are you thinking?! You’ll get shredded before you even clear the trench line.”

“We have to try something! If I can even take out just one of those things it could save dozens of lives. I’m not just going to sit on my plot and wait for them to come here and crush us all.” Honour stated. “Cast the spell, I’m going over and if you want me to have any chance, you’ll do it.” 

Taking a nervous gulp Misty Charged up her horn, a soft glow covering Honour before dissipating. “T-There, it only lasts a few minutes so you have to be quick….”

With a curt nod Honour took a deep breath and climbed over the trench line she had been spending days trying to dig and towards the crate of grenades. She expected at any moment a bullet would rip through her or get blown up but it never happened even as gunfire continued to a deafening degree. Throwing open the crate she saw the small round explosives, quickly grabbing 3 which was all she could carry without her belt or anything.

Turning towards the tanks she broke out in a gallop, waiting for a machine gun to aim at her and dispense her with a small burst but it never came. Her lungs burnt after not too long, the tanks seeming miles away and that she would never make it. While it barely took a minute it felt like hours to the mare, left gasping for air as she got close enough to the armour to see each rivet and weld.

The paint had been changed, where there was once a large sun to symbolise Equestria there was now a crescent moon hastily painted over it. These were the rebels and they had a lot more than muskets like Cloven suggested. 

Taking hold of one of the grenades she bit onto the pin, yanking it out hard but still keeping a firm grip on the handle. She had to keep up with the slowly moving tank but eventually her eyes fell on one of the hoof holds along the sides that were meant to help the crew get on.

Awkwardly climbing up with a grenade in her grip she climbed on the tank, looking around for somewhere she could do the most damage. Seeing a hatch on top of the turret she climbed up further. 

Trying to keep her balance she reached out and grabbed onto the handle on top before throwing the heavy metal open.

Inside from what she could see was a bat pony looking through a small periscope but as soon as the lid was opened he looked up right at honour. A look of confusion then fright came over him. There seemed a moment of hesitation on both sides before the thestrial reached down towards a pistol at his belt. Honour quickly threw the grenade down, handle popping off and quickly slammed the hatch shut again. She didn’t know what to do next she kept the hatched shut tight, putting her weight down on it. She felt somepony inside struggle to open it. It only took a couple of seconds but soon the grenade detonated.

The hatch pushed against her with a small amount of force as she heard almost a pop come from inside and the tank immediately swung to the left, throwing the mare off the top. Landing in the mud with a grunt she could only watch as the tank swung off and rammed into the side of another tank, causing it flip onto its side and itself stop.

Gasping for air that she didn’t realised she needed Honour ran over to the tank on its side, kept from righting itself from the first tank constantly ramming into it. Sprinting over she pulled the pin on the second grenade, heading back towards the same hatch on the second tank. Throwing it open she just threw it in without looking, forcing it shut again. 

Once again she heard the same pop and with the last grenade she looked for another tank she might be able to take out. Seeing one not to far away she ran over, climbing up the side once more. But this time it seemed the crew knew something was coming and the hatch opened before she was even up on the turret, a bat pony popping out with a pistol in grip. Looking for a moment his eyes fell on Honour with the grenade in her grip. She barely had any time to realise what was happening before she heard a loud bang and a massive pain in her chest.

Falling back and off the tank she dropped her grenade, lost in the mud around her. She was left gasping for air, her hooves clutching at the pain. She looked down and found that she had a new hole in her torso, blood splurting out as she quickly tried to clutch the wound to keep the life giving fluid inside her. But as much as she tried she kept getting colder and colder, the sounds of the battle getting more dull.

Soon everything went black