Battle Ponies 4

by Silver Melodies

Complications

Applejack sat in her tank, smoking a cigarette. She was just burning time until the green light was given, and didn’t have anything else to do. Her tank was armed, polished and fully functional. Inside, with her were two other ponies to load the cannon and man the minigun on top. She knew their names, of course, but didn't spend really any time with them outside of the tank, so she wouldn't call them friends. Lyra and Bon Bon.

She glanced around her tank. It was small, but not too small. There was the seat in which she sat to drive and fire. There was the barrel of the tank so they could load the ammo. There was a hatch on top for the gunner to sit in. Other than that and a bunch of electronics, it was... empty.

Applejack watched as her smoke drifted lazily up and out of the tank, through the open hatch. It was a good day.

Her radio crackled to life. “All units! All units! Green light has been given! I repeat, green light has been given!”

Applejack stomped out the cigarette and sat up straight. As Lyra moved into position to man the gun, Bon Bon crouched next to cannon, ready to reload it once it had been fired.

With that, they were off. Applejack glanced at the many different cameras in her tank, so she could see. She was leading the charge, but behind her was a massive amount of tanks, humvees, and helos. This was it. They were going to take this city, once and for all.

“Yay! Let's go!” Pinkie Pie shouted through the mike.

Applejack called up their scout. “Twilight! We're on our way! Did ya clear the way?”

“Well, sort of. I got attacked, so most of them are still here. I did dent their main force at the front, but you'll have to push through the rest.”

Applejack cursed. “Damn it Twilight! We can't jus' call this off! See if ya can clear more!”

She ended the transmission. They had been counting on Twilight to weaken the enemy so punching a path through them would be easier. Looks like it wasn't going to be that way.

She opened up transmissions to all other units. “Alright, listen up! Twilight wasn't able ta clear a path like we had expected! We'll be met with more resistance than we had expected. So let's kick these bitches back ta hell!”

Everyone cheered. Pinkie Pie's voice could be most heard over the radio. “Alright! Let's party with GUNS!”

Applejack smiled. This was going to be hard, but at least Pinkie was optimistic. Hearing her being so happy was kind of... relaxing.

The whole trip there was uneventful. They plowed through the roads, the tanks crushing anything in their path as the humvees just drove around the destruction and the helos flew over it all. Every time her tank crushed something, it made her more giddy. This was it, it was time.

They approached the beginning of the soon to be battlefield. Instantly, gunfire rained down on them. Applejack pivoted the cannon towards the nearest building and fired. A deafening boom followed the cannon shell flying towards the target. The explosion took out the whole wall and sent many enemies reeling for cover. Bon Bon reloaded another shell and Applejack fired again. She didn't have time to stop, so this time it was at the next building. Then she hit the main resistance. Several enemy tanks came barreling down the street, guns blazing.

She swerved to the right to avoid the cannon fire. She ran over a couple of cars and plowed through the street lamps. She turned and fired again, hitting a tank dead on. The enemy fired and hit her. The whole tank rocked, and Applejack gritted her teeth. The tank couldn't take to much fire or it would become inoperable.

She slowed down her charge. Several friendly tanks and humvees passed her, letting her take a moment to look around. The enemy was dug in, very heavily. Several tanks drove through the streets as the enemy helos flew overhead in a vicious battle with the friendly helos. The buildings were all well fortified as well. Gunners on every floor, raining hell on the EAP. And lastly, a fortification at objective B containing many cannons which were also raining hell.

“Twilight!” Applejack called again. A humvee passing in front of her exploded as a tank shell found its mark. She started moving again.

“Yeah?”

“Ya coulda taken a few more a them!” Several bullets pinged of her tanks hull.

“What do I do now?”

Applejack plowed right over an enemy jeep. “Ya need ta try and neutralize the enemy artillery at objective B.”

“Done.”

Applejack turned her attention to the enemy. There was no way she could plow through all those, even with help. So she took a detour. “Hold on!” she called to her passengers.

She turned left and went around a building. The enemy found her and began to fire. After passing a few more, she turned and ran right into a building. Lyra ducked inside the tank as Applejack whooped. “Yeah!” The building's walls gave way before her tank, allowing her to push through without much resistance.

She burst out of the building, checking for immediate enemies. She noticed, through an alley way, that one particular building was was manned with RPGs and LMGs, both tearing up their forces.

“Rainbow Dash!”

After a moment of static, the mare responded. “Yeah?”

“Ah'm marking a strong point. Take yer team and neutralize it!”

“Okay!”

She took off as more bullets attacked her tank, once again going through the enemy buildings. It was kind of unnecessary, but she did it anyway. At the least, she was damaging enemy fortifications. That always helped.

“Applejack!” It was Rarity. “I've spotted an enemy convoy moving up from the south. Permission to engage?”

“Granted!”

She exploded from the building, landing right on a team of unfortunate enemy soldiers, crushing them all down. Oh well. She turned down the street towards the backs of the enemies. Sure enough, they were all focused on the incoming friendly wave of metal.

“We got hostiles on the roof! Left side!” Lyra shouted.

Applejack saw them. She swiveled her cannon to fire. But heard a dull splat sound. She looked up to see Lyra falling back into the tank, a bullet hole through the chest. Bon Bon cried out. “No! Lyra!”

Applejack could tell she wasn't dead, but she was dying. She'd need medical care, fast.

An RPG came rocketing out of a nearby building. It missed the tank but hit close to it, jerking the tank. Applejack fired at the enemies in the building. One explosion and crumbling wall later, most of them were dead or had taken cover.

She tried to fire again, but nothing happened. “Bon Bon!”

The poor mare was still holding her friends dying body. That was tough. “Come on! If we can't get out of here, then there's no way she'll live!”

Bon Bon gently laid her body on the ground and shoved a shell into the barrel with some agression. Applejack fired again before they could retaliate, blowing what was left to pieces. But that wasn't all of them.

Enemies began to close in on all sides. Helos fired at her position, so she ducked back in between the buildings. But infantry were everywhere. And without a gunner, there wasn't much she could do with only a cannon.

As they began to hoist their RPG's, something began to mow them down. Applejack looked up and saw three friendly helos. Rockets fired from their canisters, shredding into the enemy, knocking them out of the sky and off the ground. Their miniguns mowed down what was left. At least, for now.

“Hey AJ!” A cheery voice commented. “Thought you could use some help.”

“Land now!”

Pinkie landed her helicopter. “Bon Bon, stay here.” She grabbed Lyra and hauled her to the chopper. “Take her back! She needs medical attention, fast!”

“Okie Dokie Lokie!”

Once Lyra was strapped down, Pinkie took off and headed back to their makeshift medic's tent. escorted by her two buddies.

AJ ran back for her tank and hopped inside before she could get shot at. Once she was back in her seat, she saw that her allies were plowing down the street. She joined them in the charge.

“Apple... cough... Applejack?” Twilight.

Applejack tried to find her radio. “Yeah?”

“If you didn't know... cough, cough... the cannons are... cough... down.” She didn't sound too good.

“You alright, sugarcube?”

“Just fine.” She let out another cough.

“Alright, objectives A and B have been neutralized. We're en route to your position. ETA, five minutes.”

Applejack plowed down the street, steamrolling all the cars and unfortunate infantry who were still on the road. Like she cared.

She was just about to get to Twilight's position when something made the ground in front of her give way. As one mass, the whole convoy of armor dropped into the new hole.

“Shit!” Applejack held on tight as she hit the ground below. Once her ears stopped ringing, she looked around. They seemed to be in the... subway? She turned to Bon Bon. Unfortunately, she hadn't braced herself, resulting in her cracking her head open against the wall. Blood dripped down onto the ground below. Applejack checked for a pulse. None.

She gently lifted the dead body out of the tank. She laid her on the ground, careful to avoid sharp debris. While she didn't know her all that well, she mourned the loss of a life.

She looked up. The enemy must have rigged these defenses just in case she had gotten this far. Damn it. She looked around again. Most of the armor had survived, so they should be able to make their way out, but a few were damaged beyond repair. The surviving crew members got out of their tanks and into the still working ones to help out.

AJ found some one who seemed to be looking for someone to help. “Hey! You!”

The stallion turned to her. “Yeah, you! You load cannons?”

He nodded. “Okay, come on!”

The stallion climbed inside. AJ and the others lined up in a single file formation. They slowly crawled through the subway. They had to get up there fast. Without armor, it was losing fight for her friends, AJ knew.

Author's Note:

Alright, this is going better than I thought it would. Next up is... *drumroll*... Rainbow Dash! Yay!