Another day at school done, Leon got on his computer, entered his World of Tanks password, and was on his account on the double quick. He, Luna, and Eddy were supposed to play a lot of games today, aiming for as high an amount of credits and experience as they could get.
He waited and waited, but for a while, neither of the other two players came on the game. After thirty minutes, he got sick of waiting.
Come on, where are you guys?
Suddenly, he heard a beeping sound as someone connected to the system...
"Hey Eddy, Luna..."
"Sorry, Leo," came the regal voice on the other end of the connection, "Edward is too sick to play today."
"Aw, nuts." Leon slumped back in his chair.
"Do not fear," Luna continued, for we - er, I - have brought someone else to join the fun."
"Oh?" He sat back up. "Who?"
"Uh, hello? is this thing on?" asked a familiar, scholarly voice.
"That wouldn't be Twilight Sparkle, would it?"
He could almost imagine the Princess smiling. "Yes, she has joined us today. She needed a break from her studies, and I convinced her to install World of Tanks and Minecraft. By the way, do you know who built a wall of bedrock around me the other day while I was... otherwise engaged?"
"You mean afk." Leon thought about that. "It wasn't me; builders can't get bedrock. Must have been an admin."
"Hello?" Twilight asked again, "Can you hear me?"
"Yes, I can hear you," Leon answered. "Sorry about that."
"It's ok. Now, I've completed the tutorial and used some gold to buy some higher tanks than I would have had, but I'm not too familiar with them."
"Wallet warrior," Leon muttered.
"What?"
"He means someone who uses money to advance through the game or has a premium account," Luna supplied.
"Oh, I see."
"Here, sending an invite to a platoon," Leon said as he did just that.
"Got it."
"Me too."
The platoon tab turned up with Twilight's username (TwilightSparkle123); seconds later, Luna joined.
"Okay, so we have a Panzer IV, a Matilda, and... a KV-1?" Leon noted. "Uh, Princess, you realize the Soviets hated monarchy, right?"
"Yes, unfortunately." There was genuine regret in her voice. "I've read about that. Worst thing that I could immediately imagine befalling a royal family, being wiped out like that."
"Are you talking about the Russian Revolution?" Twilight asked excitedly, "because I bought some books a few days ago..."
"I think we should focus on the game," Leon interrupted. "Sorry, but aren't you on break from your studies?"
"Sorry. The urge to learn and share knowledge and all that."
"Not at all; I share that feeling quite often."
"Can we get to playing the game?" Luna asked.
"Uh, sure. Hitting the button." Leon clicked the "Battle!" button, and the screen changed. The map was Arctic Circle.
"Ugh..." Leon slammed his fist on the table upon seeing the players and their tanks. "Not another fucking loltractor?"
"Leon!" Twilight shouted.
"Wait, Leon, it's on the other side," the Princess noted.
"Oh, really?" Leon looked more carefully. "Yep. I bet his team's gonna blow him to shreds themselves. Happens half the time."
"Why would anyone kill their teammate?"
"Because, Twilight, the loltractor..."
"The what?"
"The nickname for the Leichtractor. Anyway, it's a tier one tank. It's a tin can, a tutorial tank more than anything. and the only way to bring it to a tier five match is if either the matchmaker gets drunk, or, more likely to the point of certainty, it platoons with someone else."
"I still don't see the problem."
"The problem is that it's a joke at the expense of the players on that team. The loltractor can't do much more than bounce shots off of opposing tanks, while those same other tanks can blow it up in a single shot. And anyone who plays this game should know that."
"Well, it doesn't excuse blowing up your own teammate. You'll get banned for that."
"Only if you break the rules repeatedly in a short amount of time. And some people could care less; this is a game, after all."
The screen switched, and the timer began counting down.
"Damn loltractor," someone on the other team said in all chat.
"I feel sorry 4 u guys," someone on Leon's team said back.
"Maybe he's just new?" Twilight asked on the chat.
"Hey Twilight," Leon asked over the headset, "how can you type with hooves? it's not like you can feel the keys you hit, and your hooves are so hard they'd probably break the keyboard if you tried. And they can't be used for a mouse."
"Well, for one thing, we ponies can use an alternate keyboard with bigger keys as well as a bigger mouse. Also, unicorns and alicorns can use magic for regular keyboards, like the one I'm using."
"Okay, thanks."
"No problem."
"Let's go!" the in-game voice announced' the timer had reached zero.
"Aw nuts!" Leon said again, this time in exclamation. He reached for his mouse, hit the "w" key, and began rolling out.
Sure enough, a green message showed up on the right, above the minimap; Funcee (M4) destroyed ally 4tehlols[evil] (Ltractor). Leon laughed, hard; he was laughing so hard he didn't look where he was going and rammed a large rock. Fortunately, you didn't normally take damage from hitting parts of the map, but he forced himself to stop laughing when he realized he'd almost plunged off a cliff. He'd done that more than once before. Usually, someone ended up laughing at him for doing so.
He reversed and headed north, trying to hide behind rocks and in shallow areas. The northern-central area of the map was more fluid than the south, which usually wound up being a contest of who had the better tanks and who ran out of patience the fastest; there was a narrow cliff area with a turn upwards into the enemy base, and, naturally, the hillside and rocks provided cover for both sides.
A shell exploded just behind him. He turned to the right and drove behind a rock, out of harm's way for now. He turned the tank around; just as he did, the enemy who had shot at him was revealed; it was a Churchill I. It wasn't as heavily armored as the KV (or so Leon thought), but it's quick-firing 57mm gun could chew up other tanks like it was no one's business.
He peered out from his hiding spot and lined up a quick shot. The shell struck the tracks and penetrated, although it did little actual damage and the track didn't break. Luckily for him, the other player was focused on another target (or had just decided to ignore the hit) and fired on it. That gave him another free shot; a 75mm shell slammed into the side of the Churchill. This time, the damage was substantial; the enemy backed off and began looking for a place to hide. He didn't find one, as an artillery shell busted his track, and once that happened, he didn't last long before blowing up.
A loud explosion and shower of dust alerted Leon to the presence of the eye of an enemy artillery player; his hiding spot wasn't safe anymore. He wasted no time in abandoning the site. A moment later, an artillery piece on the other side exploded. Whether it was the one that had just fired on him or not, he couldn't tell; there was more than one arty on the opposing team. Regardless, that enemy player was out of the fight.
Another shell, this one clearly fired by an enemy tank, struck his side as he raced to find a better place to hole up. His track broke instantly and he skewed a little before coming to a complete stop.
Aw shi - Before he could complete the thought, loud roar blasted forth from his speakers, and a shell arced past him, blasting the tank that had hit him. The enemy vehicle exploded. A KV-1 with a smoking 152mm gun stood just behind him.
"Thanks, Luna, I owe you one."
"My pleasure, now get that track fixed and get back in the fight."
"Yep." Leon clicked on the repair kit he had in stock, clicked on the track icon, and just like that, the track was repaired. He immediately took off, managing to get up the hill to the north.
By now, the red team's base was in sight. There stood the remaining artillery unit. He shot at it, but two other people fired as well, and one of them got the kill. Leon forced himself to shrug. He was ticked off he hadn't got the kill, but at least he'd gotten some damage in. Now it was only a matter of capping the base.
He drove into the circle around the flag, and sure enough a timer began to count down. While it did, he checked the list of players. The score was 7-5 in his team's favor. That was good, but he'd seen other matches where the losing team had pulled a rabbit out of their hat.
They tried to this time. A Ram-II chugged up from the southern ridge, opening fire on those trying to capture the flag. One player, in a Cruiser III, hadn't a ghost of a chance; he was hit and blew up before he could do anything to counter the enemy. Turning to the newcomer, Leon turned and fired. Unfortunately, his shot bounced off the target.
The Ram's turret turned toward him. An artillery round landed next to it, but did nothing other than shower it in digital soil and rock. Leon fired again. This time, the round broke through the side armor and broke the monster's track. That didn't stop it from pumping a round into him. Unlike the two rounds he'd thrown at it, the one shot the Ram fired reduced his health by one-fourth.
Another shot, this from Leon's right, hit the Ram from it's left.
"Don't worry Leon! I'll save you!"
"Twilight, no!"
The Ram-II turned again, this time toward Twilight's Matilda, and blasted it to smithereens with a single shot. Leon heard a loud clop from his headset.
"THE POWER OF THE MOON SHALL RAIN DOWN UPON THEE, EVIL BRUTE!" With that, Luna blasted the offending vehicle, reducing it's health by one-third.
"Luna, that kinda hurt my ears."
"Oh, sorry," came the answer, and the Princess really did sound sorry.
"It's fine, now let's get that monster."
They both kept shooting the Ram. Other tanks joined in. After it's first few seconds of success, the Ram had no chance. It was scrap metal before Leon knew it.
"Yes! We claim ownership of you!"
Leon didn't bother correcting her. The match was over not long after that without further incident.
"Well, that was a fun game," Twilight said. "Wanna go again?"
"OORAH!"
"The fun shall be doubled!"
Leon didn't know why, but he was sure all three of them were smiling as they joined the next battle.
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