//------------------------------// // Chapter 2: Brotherhood (And Sisterhood) Of Arms Part I // Story: My Little Battalion: Tank Battles Are Magic // by CyberFan479 //------------------------------// The Harmony Tankers, with their new tanks, rumbled down a narrow passageway bordered by several tents and buildings on their way to the training yard. Twilight was at the front of the line of tanks, in the less mobile Vickers Medium and was slowly trundling along. Rainbow Dash was getting impatient. "Come on Twilight! Get a move on!" Rainbow Dash shouted over the radio. There wasn't much point of having a tank that was speedy if there wasn't any room to drive along. "Ow! Rainbow Dash, there's no need to shout! I'm going as fast as I can!" "Well, it's not fast enough! I want to go fast! I NEED to go fast!" Rainbow Dash was practically screaming at that point. Distracted, Twilight shouted back on the radio, "Save your speeding when we get to the training yard! Be patient!" "Well speed up so I don't have to be patient for much longer!" Twilight, now seething with anger, was about to retaliate when something else grabbed her attention. A large grey tank was slowly driving through an intersection on the passageway in front of her. "Look out!" Twilight warned, slamming on the brakes, forgetting that her warning would only have been heard over the radio. The 3 ponies behind Twilight as well as Fluttershy managed to stop before slamming into the back of each other. But Rainbow Dash couldn't stop in time and slammed into Rarity's tank, which slammed into Applejack's tank, which slammed into Pinkie's tank, which slammed into Twilight's tank, which slammed into the grey tank that was already halfway across the intersection. Luckily, nopony was hurt and the tanks seemed to be intact. But the Harmony Tankers were badly shaken up. Twilight climbed out of the turret hatch to check if everyone was in fact okay. Just then, the turret hatch of the larger tank also opened. A bat pony with a blue coat, a mane that appeared to be split down the middle with one side being white, the other being red, and silver slitted eyes emerged from the tank. A look of concern in his eyes. "Geht es dir gut?" For a moment, Twilight thought that she was a lot more shaken up than she had originally thought. Then, she realised that it sounded like Germane. "Sorry, I can't understand you," "Apologies, I'm used to shpeakink in my national language. I asked whezer you are alright," said the bat pony in a thick germane accent. "Don't worry, we're fine," Twilight replied, "My name is Twilight Sparkle, and this is my team, the Harmony Tankers." "My name is Night Wing, and zis is my pride and joy, my Panzerkampfwagen Tiger Ausf.E tank, also known as zee Tiger I." "It's nice to meet you!" Twilight replied, "I'm uh... sorry if I damaged your tank." Night just laughed, "No vorries! Zis tank won't efen get a scratch from your puny little tank! Ahem, no offense." "None taken." "Anyvays, could you reverse so I can move? 'Der Führer' is vaiting for me." "The who?" Twlight asked, confused. "Der Führer," Night Wing repeated. "The fury?" "No! Der... " Night Wing realised that all this was rather hopeless, "Oh nevermind! Just let me through!" Twilight climbed back inside and put her radio headset back on, "Ok girls, back up." "What's the hold up?" Rainbow Dash's voice came over the radio. Twilight barely managed to hold in the growing rage inside of her. "We've collided with another tank." "Is everypony ok out there?" Fluttershy asked in concern. "Yes, everypony is fine, and our tanks look okay as well." "Alright then! Fluttershy, you back up first so I can back up too." It took a while to untangle the mess, but soon the intersection was clear and Night Wing rumbled away. "Finally! Can we get going already?" "Alright, Rainbow Dash," Twilight replied, her voice dripping with annoyance, "We can go now." After several minutes of driving, and a few more arguments, mostly between Twilight and Rainbow Dash, the Harmony Tankers finally arrived at the training yard. It was a large open space consisting of a firing range, a driving track to practise on, and a 'training field' to practise tactics and manoeuvres. There were a handful of tanks occupying the firing range, a few more on the driving track and six of them, apparently in a team, was coordinating what could be likened to an elegantly choreographed dance. "Ok, we'll split up. Applejack, Fluttershy, you go practise on the firing range. Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, you can try the driving track. Rarity, you're with me." "Yes! Race you to the track, Pinkie! I'll win!" "Ohhhhh no you don't! I'll beat you there!" Twilight watched as they raced away. Applejack started driving towards the firing range, but stopped when she realised that Fluttershy wasn't following her. "Hey Fluttershy, what's wrong?" "Oh! Um... I... I'm not sure about this..." Fluttershy's quiet voice was heard over the radio "About what?" "Well... about... about... nevermind..." "Come on Fluttershy, talkin' about it is the first step to gettin' over it." "Erm... well, I'm... I'm not sure about having to shoot this. I heard that they could be loud, powerful, and dangerous. What if I hurt somepony with it?" "Relax Fluttershy, I checked with them about that. These things will only damage the tank and not the pony inside. Even if somepony does get injured, there'll be some medics to help." Applejack's words did help Fluttershy calm down a bit, but she was still a bit uncertain. "Don't worry Fluttershy, I'll be there for you," "Thank you, Applejack." "No problem, Fluttershy. Now, lets go." Applejack started moving again. This time, Fluttershy was following her. Twilight and Rarity approached the team that was practising and strategising in the middle of the 'training field'. A familiar tan brown tank came into view, along with another similar looking tan brown tank, a grey tank that was slightly larger, a much larger tan brown tank with a giant cannon, a pale brown tank with what appeared to be a large box in place of a turret and a green medium-sized tank with an angled hull. As they got closer, there was a sudden loud bang and a projectile flew towards Twilight and Rarity. Shocked and frozen in fear, they only watched as the shell flew towards them, and missed Rarity's tank by inches. Snapping out of it, they remained still and watched as a navy green pegasus jumped out of the larger tank, his silver mane tucked under a green beret. He stormed towards the green tank furiously, and began to shout words that were inaudible to them, occasionally waving his fist or pointing in their general direction. A cobalt blue unicorn emerged from the other tank, he looked pretty sickly and his powder blue mane was frazzled and disheveled. Thinking it was safe to proceed, Twilight and Rarity drove towards the group of tanks and climbed out of their tanks. "Cirrus Breeze! You are clearly unfit for duty! I order you to go to the sick bay immediately!" boomed a voice, which appeared to belong to the green pegasus. "No... no. I'm fine... Ahh-ahh-ahh... chooo! " the other voice wasn't as loud or clear. It sounded quite stuffy, as if the pony had a cold, which the blue unicorn clearly does. "Hey Cirrus, I think it's best you go. Besides, the last thing the team needs is a tank that's constantly wasting ammunition." said a third voice, coming from the grey tank. The voice came from a butterscotch yellow pegasus with a sunset yellow mane, in his hands was a tank shell. "And the LAST thing we need is a tank that might accidentally take out another one outside of battles, like how you nearly did just now!" the green pegasus added, "Now go!" With a reluctant groan, the unicorn re-entered his tank, not before sneezing again, and drove off. The green pegasus walked towards Twilight and bowed down to her, "My apologises, Princess Twilight Sparkle. I don't know what my teammate was thinking, handling a lethal weapon while clearly unfit for duty." Twilight was slightly taken aback. She's barely started breaking out of the habit of bowing down to the other three princesses, let alone having another ponies bow down to her. "Uh... rise soldier," Twilight began, "There's no need for formalities in here." "Yes, your high... uh Twilight Sparkle." "Hey Twilight! Nice to see you again!" shouted a familiar voice. A green unicorn with a uniform still as crisp and starched as ever climbed out of the tan brown tank. "Golden Heart? Do you know them?" asked the green pegasus. "I sure do Silver Lining, my big brother!" replied Golden Heart. "You have a brother?" Rarity asked, slightly in disbelief. "Oh! I didn't mention that? Oh right! I didn't! Twilight, Rarity, this is my brother, Silver Lining," Golden Heart introduced, "He was a veteran in a the Canterlot-Badlands War and the leader of our team, Battalion 21014." "You fought in the Canterlot-Badlands War?" Twilight asked. "Yep, Major Silver Lining of Equestrian Royal Army, team leader of Fireteam Delta. It was one heck of a fight, I'll tell you that." "So if you're in the army, then why are you in this tournament? Don't you have to be on duty?" Rarity asked "Well, I was 4 years ago. But I got dismissed from the army," Silver's face fell for a moment, "But that won't stop me from leading a team into battle, even if it's not for peace and order," his grin returned, bigger than ever. "Well, it's nice to hear that," Twilight replied, turning to the yellow pegasus in the grey tank, "and who are you?" "Name's Butterscotch Hooves, but you can call me Butterhooves if you... whoops!" the tank shell momentarily slipped out of his grasp before he managed to securely catch it. "Butters! That's the third time today you nearly dropped that thing! Don't you know how dangerous that thing is?" boomed Silver. "Sorry! It must have slipped out of my hands... again..." Butterhooves replied sheepishly. "Remind me why you're on my team again..." "Well... I'm great at scouting!" "True..." "And I'm great at taking out scouts!" "Good point..." "And I'm a great 'arty hunter' too!" "Alright, alright, I think I've heard enough already." "Yay!" Rarity observed Butterhooves closely, he sounded quite similar to somepony she's quite familiar with. It sounded rather far-fetched, but it was worth asking. "So, Butterhooves," Rairity began. "Yes?" "Are you... related to somepony named Derpy Hooves?" Butterhooves blinked, and stared at Rarity for several seconds, before showing a wide grin, "Of course! She's my cousin!" "And he's my cousin too!" Twilight and Rarity turned to the faint brown tank where the voice was coming from, a grey pegasus with a pale yellow mane climbed out. What really set her apart from the others were her eyes, one was looking straight at her but the other appeared to be looking in a completely different direction. "Derpy?" Rarity just couldn't believe that Derpy, of all ponies, would be here. "That's my name!" Derpy replied exuberantly. "But... but why? Why are you in this tournament?" "She just couldn't let me have all the fun," Butterhooves replied, "Right cousin?" "Yep!" "Besides, she really puts the hurt on the enemy tanks, with that dead-on accuracy of her's," Silver added. 'Accurate? With those eyes of her's?' Rarity thought in disbelief. "He's right. I've never seen anypony handle a SPG this well," a light brown unicorn with a black mane emerged from his tank, a slightly smaller version of Golden Heart's tank with an enclosed turret. "I'm Quick Shot, former member of the Royal Guard. But I quit because standing still for hours on end just... wasn't me. I'm one of the most accurate gunners around here, that's why the T49 is my tank of choice. Also, I..." "Whoa there! Slow down, Quick Shot. I think they've heard enough already," "But sir! I've barely started talking about my life story," Quick Shot objected. "And what was that about not wanting to talk about it when you first enlisted?" Silver questioned. Quick Shot paused for a moment, "Umm... alright then." Silence descended over the group of ponies. Derpy decided it was a good time to break the ice, "I chose this tank because it reminded me of a muffin!" Silver caught on, "I got this tank, because it was like me! Strong, powerful and perfect to lead a charge." "I chose this because it was fast and very helpful to the team!" Butterhooves responded. "And Cirrus..." Silver looked around, "Well, he's not here to tell us why he chose his tank..." "But from what I know, it's probably because of its outstanding versatility and well-rounded weaponry," Golden Heart finished. "So what about you two?" Silver asked. Twilight and Rarity looked at each other, unsure of what to say. "Do you want the long answer or the short answer?"