Chapter 12
Night came and went. Vinyl Scratch’s stomach was doing somersaults; she was standing on the balcony of the Ponyville town hall, next to a kangaroo commando by the name of Private Dillingham. The kangaroo had spent most of the night looking through the scope of his 14.5mm calibre Jacks Anti-Armour Rifle, grunting “Yes” or “No” to any question Vinyl threw to him, regardless of whether or not the question was answerable by a yes or no.
Vinyl had long since given up speaking to Dillingham; she was now focused on watching the north-western horizon though a pair of binoculars, any minute now, elements of the XX Corps were going to be rolling over that hill, and the gryphons wouldn’t be far behind them.
They had spent the majority of the day yesterday fortifying Ponyville to the best of their ability, it wasn’t going to be enough, and a single cruiser tank sitting in ambush positions wasn’t going to be enough to repel who-knows-how-large-a-force-of-gryphons.
Wireless had been getting nothing but static all night. However at dawn, they received an update from Ambassador Goyle, It wasn’t as bad as they thought it was going to be. A miscommunication had indicated to elements of the Kings Own South Island Dragoons and 2nd South Island Tank Regiment that a Gryphon Airborne Infantry Division had overrun the XX Corps headquarters, and upon moving to respond were ambushed by a gryphon mechanised battalion and were forced to fall back.
In actuality, XX Corps repelled the assault, but lost Wireless contact with their superiors, leading with the Kings Own South Island Dragoons headquarters sending back bad intelligence, which eventually handed itself to Ambassador Goyle.
Of course, this was still bad, because gryphons were still coming this direction, and a single cruiser tank in an ambush position still wasn’t going to be enough.
Dawn, the first kangaroo tanks rolled over the hills and into view.
“This is Starman to... anyone! Come in!” cried a voice over the wireless receiver.
Dillingham picked up the transmitter and spoke aloud into it. “This is Private Dillingham, 38/42 Commando; I need a situation report for Captain Blackthorn, Starman.”
“We’re in the shite right now! How’s that? We’ve got three M3s left, Two VC Fireflies, and 4 Mark VIIIs, and an entire mechanised company is right on our tails!” Starman called frantically.
“Understood, get into town and take up an ambush position in the streets. Fireflies up front, those 78mm cannons will earn their keep today!” Dillingham said.
Vinyl looked through her binoculars at the familiar, M3 Light tanks and Mark VIII Cruiser tanks. This “Firefly” was new. It sported sloping armour plates on the front; its cylindrical turret mounted a gun that was much larger than the 37mm on the M3 and even the 76mm on the Mark VIII.
“RF 78mm High Velocity Cannon. It’s an improved copy of the Gryphon 18 pounder,” Dillingham said, it was the most talkative he’d been all night. He looked through the scope of his Jacks Rifle and discovered another sight. “Three Sen Gun carriers! Mounted infantry platoon! No, scratch that, Two Sen Gun Carriers and a Medium Machine Gun Carrier.”
Vinyl looked at the kangaroo, he’d become rather talkative in the last minute and a half, but then as she thought about it, he was probably trained to call out targets.
The kangaroo tanks and infantry carriers drove their way into town, parking along the major streets, Kangaroos piled out of their carriers and started putting up more sandbags around their tanks, South Island Armour was much faster than Gryphons, they had ten to fifteen minutes at the most before everything hit the fan.
Much to the dismay of many town-ponies, kangaroos had commandeered their homes, setting up their Sen LMGs and Armstrong Medium Machine Guns in the windows.
“This is probably not the place where you want to be standing,” Dillingham said finally.
Vinyl looked at him oddly. “I’m not going anywhere.”
“Let me rephrase that, I don’t want you standing next to me with your head glowing like that! They’re gonna see you, and I don’t want to die without being able to do something,” Dillingham said.
Vinyl was slightly annoyed at first, but then she figured that he had a point, she departed from the balcony without a further fuss.
“Vinyl?” called a voice from the other side of the street; Twilight and Rainbow Dash were standing at the other end of the street, beckoning to her.
“What’s up?” she asked as she crossed the road to where they were standing.
“I think that maybe we should sit this one out,” Twilight said. Rainbow Dash nodded in agreement.
“What?” Vinyl asked. She was surprised by her friend’s line of thought. Twilight and Rainbow Dash had been the major proponents of helping out, and now they wanted to sit on the sidelines?
“These are all professional soldiers, Vinyl; they’ve been trained to do this! We haven’t, if they have to worry about us, they’re going to get distracted. If they get distracted, they’re going to end up dying,” Twilight said solemnly.
“I’m not going sit by and do nothing,” Vinyl said, checking her revolver’s ammo for the fifth time in the last five minutes.
“I’m not asking you to,” Twilight said. “Come with us. I’ve got an idea.”
...
Dillingham kept his eyes open... any second now.
He’d been repeating that over and over inside his own mind every few seconds.
A gryphon light tank rolled over the hill. Dillingham pulled the trigger, with a roaring boom! The bullet exploded out of the barrel, impacting the light tank and piercing the front armour right through the driver’s side, the driver had definitely been hit, as the tank did a hard left, carrying them off on a new course away from the town.
Score one for South Island.
The second tank over the hill was a heavy. Not so lucky, the Jacks Rifle was useless against heavy armour, he ignored it and waited for another tank to come over, another heavy. Dillingham let it pass; the third was a light tank. He fired again, this time, piercing the turret; the bullet ricocheted along the interior of the third tank, stopping it in its tracks, the next one over as another Light tank. Dillingham fired again, this time blowing out the suspension, and stopping the light tank dead, he unloaded a second round into it as the turret had begun to transverse towards him.
The heavy tanks he’d allowed to pass had taken notice of him. Time to move! He abandoned the heavy Jacks rifle; it wasn’t going to do him any good in the streets against heavy armour. Dillingham dashed back inside where he’d left a Spring Projected Grenade, Anti Tank, or SPGAT and a bag filled with ammunition and dashed out into the street and forward into another building at the edge of town.
“Glad of you to join us, Dillingham,” Captain Blackthorn said sarcastically as he cocked his SPGAT.
“I love you too, Captain,” Dillingham said with equal sarcasm. “Got four before the heavies spotted me.”
“Better than nothing,” Blackthorn said. “Hardly a dent though.”
“There is nothing I can do to make you happy is there Captain?” Dillingham asked.
“Nothing short of winning the war by yourself and dying violently in the process,” Blackthorn said jokingly, he peaked out the window and watched as a Gryphon Heavy Tank passed underneath.
“Now!” Blackthorn called out, pulling the trigger and with a small pop sent the SPGAT charge flying out the window, and impacting the turret, Dillingham followed, hitting the turret as well, both shots penetrated the weak top armour of the tank. Killing the crew and bringing the tank to a halt.
“Gotta love gryphons,” Dillingham said. “Their primary strategy is to attack from above. So naturally, they’ll make the top armour of their shite tanks the weakest.”
“Well we already knew that they were stupid, Dillingham.”
...
Rainbow Dash, Twilight, and Vinyl had made their way to the edge of the Everfree forest.
“For the record, this is the second worst idea you’ve ever had,” Rainbow said plainly.
“What was the first?” Twilight asked.
“You haven’t done it yet,” Rainbow Dash said with a shrug.
Twilight shrugged back, she pulled out her revolver and fired all six shots into the air.
That was when they heard the roars of Manticores.
“Run!” Twilight shouted.
...
Treads whined as two VC Firefly tanks rolled backwards through the High Street, both fired their 78mm cannons in synch with each other, pelting the heavy armour of a hostile tank chasing them down, one shell bounced off scattering harmlessly, one penetrated, stunning the crew, sending the tank driving head long into one of the shops and exposing the weaker side armour, 78mm shells could handle that, both tanks fired again, penetrating the tank and exploding on the interior, Blocking off the street to hostile infantry.
Gryphon mechanised infantry had since dismounted and were charging the town with anti-tank weapons. Speed had always been a key component of South Island tank design; a well placed anti-tank rocket could gorge a medium tank like it was paper.
Despite Blackthorn and Dillingham’s jokes about gryphon intelligence, stupid was one thing that they were not. They knew to keep their heads down, and while they were all capable of flight, mechanised infantry were trained to fight on the ground, as the shoulder mounted heavy weapons that they utilised made flying practically impossible, firing an anti-tank rocket from the air was asking for their shoulder bones to break.
Medium Machine Gun fire had forced the gryphons to keep their heads down, and behind tanks for cover, the kangaroos had thought ahead, and had placed sections of infantry with Sen Guns inside buildings, when mechanised infantry passed through the street, a window would pop open and the gryphons would be cut down. By the time anyone had noticed what was going on, the windows had shut, and the kangaroos redeployed.
The gryphons had them outnumbered, but the kangaroos had them outbrained.
They heard a roar.
All around town, both gryphon and kangaroo ceased fighting. Everyone looked west. Manticores flew over buildings, enraged by the noises that they’d heard from town, the gryphons made the mistake of shooting at them, enraging the beasts more. Within moments, no kangaroo was to be found, so with no other options before them, the manticores went after the only targets they had, the gryphons.
Many of them ran, the dumb ones abandoned their anti-tank rockets all together and flew away only to be cut down by their own autocannon fire for desertion. Many of them tried to fight, only to be gutted by the manticores sharp claws and stinger tail.
The manticores chased the gryphons out of town, sending the company into full retreat. The two VC Firefly tanks manoeuvred out of their hiding places to take shots at the gryphon armour in retreat, and take care of any manticores that got it in their heads to come back towards town. Few did, they were far more interested in the gryphons.
It had taken the kangaroos several minutes to realise that they had actually repelled the assault. When they did, everyone started cheering in triumph.
The town ponies that had hidden during the attack poked their heads out from their holes. The fight was over. Ponyville had been defended.
...
Twilight, Rainbow, and Vinyl were standing in the high street, looking over the huge mess that had been made here. Twilight noted that major sections of Ponyville constantly needed rebuilding. In the last two years, the town had suffered an infestation of parasprites, nearly demolished by a dragon, had the post office and Sugarcube Corner explode. Catch fire, and now was the victim of a gryphon attack. Several burned out wrecks of tanks were scattered through the streets, most of them were gryphon, but several kangaroo tanks had been claimed. The M3 Light Tanks, Starman, and Jolly Roger. Along with Mark VIII Cruiser tank, Hobart’s funny.
Iron Hoof of Cromwell had been badly damaged, but deemed salvageable by the tank’s Royal South Island Engineers crew.
“We need to stop having messes to clean up,” Rainbow Dash said.
“This is why we can’t have nice things!” Vinyl Scratch said with a grin. Both Rainbow Dash and Twilight looked at her in confusion. To which she told them to just forget it.
“This crisis is over,” Twilight announced. “Now it’s time to start preparing for the next one... knowing you, Vinyl. You’re going to want to leave again,” Twilight said with a small chuckle.
“Nah,” Vinyl said. “I’ve decided that I’m staying right here... forever!”
She knew that Twilight had been kidding, but Vinyl had finally decided, like she had in her fillyhood, that she didn’t want to move around any longer. “Sorry, you girls are stuck with me!”
Vinyl pulled her friends close, messing up their manes with her hooves.
Oh how good it was to have friends.