Mares und Panzer

by Indulgence

Mannschaften

‘It was a long time ago now, we were visiting the family up North, bored to tears as per usual, so me and a couple of my cousins snuck off. Somehow in our wandering we ended up in the local tank grounds and, with nothing better to do, chose to stick around. That was the first match I ever saw, not a particularly good one mind you; it was an exhibition match game between Hollow Shades and Tall Tale, so kind of a walkover, but after that I was hooked.’ Toffee grinned to herself in her retelling, caught up in recollection, set in a row with two other earth mares on the back of the vehicle they had found the day before. It had taken quite some effort to extricate the mammoth machine from its premature grave (involving a recovery crane, a toe tractor and several unicorns worth of magic besides), but the Rhino was now safely rehoused in the garage, watched over by the taller if lighter framed Panther.

‘I had no idea!’ Coquette exclaimed with genuine shock, ‘it seems so… I dunno, unlike you.’

‘Exactly. I’m a local and a home student’ Toffee explained to the third of their number. ‘So if I’m not here, I tend to be stuck helping out on the farm. Suffice to say as a massive understatement that farming’s not really my thing, whatever expectations might dictate. I guess I like tanks just because they’re so different from all that, so different from what everypony expects. I did a few of my written course assignments on the tech and the sport last year actually.’

Dawn nodded, at the same time absently flicking through the last few pages of the driver’s manual in front of her. Similarly skim read, a collection of semi-antiquated textbooks were set aside in a pile, together at least providing some kind of guide to their subject matter.

The trio were seated at the back of the ER-152, leant up against the rear face of the armoured structure at its front. Before them meanwhile the war machine’s engine cover at its stern was drawn open, revealing its jumbled mechanical innards, from which the sounds of busy tools were clearly audible. These collectively came to a halt and half of Blossom appeared at the aperture, levitating with her a host of unfathomable devices. ‘That should about do it’ she declared, her magic drawing a rag across her aspect, moving to wipe away the oil and muck which it had accumulated during her labours.

‘Really?’ Toffee leapt to her hooves in asking, sheer excitement more than clear. ‘So it’ll work?’

‘I’ve drained the cells, so they’ll need refilling, and the plugs also need replacing, but in theory yes’ the unicorn ventured. ‘It was made to last, with reliability in mind. That only goes for the engine though, the gun and everything else is another story I’ve yet to look at, plus all that stuff will likely be new to me so no promises. If the armour is going to stand up to anything meanwhile the hull’s going to need some major metal work done too. At the very least though it should run though, I think.’

‘Yes!’ With her happy exclamation the farm mare skipped up and down on the spot, unable to contain herself, before remembering her now amused audience and shrinking back. ‘Oh… I mean nice one.’

‘Thanks.’

‘I told you there’s nothing that mare can’t do’ Coquette whispered to Dawn in the midst of the other’s celebrations. ‘She’s quite literally amazing in her own quiet way, although it generally goes without the notice it deserves. You missed a spot Bloss’ she changed track, getting up and taking the rag still floating in the hazel unicorn’s magic, moving further to catch the last few stray spatters on the tip of her target’s nose.

Blossom’s reaction to this was mixed, neither retreating nor obviously wholly comfortable as the pair’s eyes came together for a prolonged moment. Into this several aged engines intruded, startling them apart, their guttural voices filling the eaves of the garage as the recovery tractor trundled in, dragging with it a full trailer.

---

‘Okay Toff, what we got?’ Dice prompted, singling out one from their reconvened number, collectively stood before a new rank of varied machines.

For her part Toffee quite clearly did not appreciate her new found position as go to savant. She therefore shrunk back in the face of the swarm of eyes which homed in her way. ‘Erm…’ she began uninspiringly, shuffling where she stood.

Come on, you more than anypony know how that feels.

Internally Dawn agreed, bringing a smile to her features along with an encouraging nod, succeeding in coaxing a little reply in kind from the struggling caramel earth mare.

‘The little one is a Type-7 Tornado, or PT-7, a light reconnaissance tank.’1 Bolstered, the farm mare pointed to the least of their discoveries.

Compared to the rest it truly was “light”, lacking in all ways the scale of its kin. Upon a small angular hull sat an equally cramped and boxy turret, all studded by rivets at their edges. Likewise in contrast to the huge cannons of the others in the line-up its looked more like a peashooter, only stretching beyond the prow in length because the turret sat quite far forward. The treads beneath it meanwhile rose higher at its front, giving the machine the look of riding a wave.

‘Doesn’t look like much.’

‘It’s true that it’s not got much armour and it’s weapon doesn’t really cut it anymore against other tanks’ Toffee continued, more in her stride, picking up the unimpressed voice’s argument. ‘In speed though, that’s where it excels. The other’s a “Little Lion”, more correctly a Cheetah Three or EC-3, a medium tank kind of in the weight gap between the PC-7 and UP-1.’2 She gestured from the Panther to the last of the four machines: a weird mix of the angular and the curvaceous.

The last tank’s tracks stuck out a bit further than most from its hull which did not run their full length, looking therefore more like a squarish axle between the protruding pair. Similarly in difference not one but two guns were set in its turret, an extended diamond shape with all pointed sides.

‘All in all we’ve got an interesting spread, if we can figure out who gets what…’

‘Dibs on the Tornado Type… the fastest one’ Lens Flare called out, as spokespony for sports.

‘We’ll take the one we found’ Ruby Necklace equally followed, laying a claim to the Little Lion.

‘Hold it!’ Dice held up a forehoof, trying to call but a semblance of order before full anarchy broke loose. ‘We don’t even know how many each will take to operate.’ She again looked expectantly towards one source of information.

‘Little Lion takes five, so that’ll work as is, and so does the Panther. The Rhino meanwhile has a crew of four and the Tornado’s is only three’ Toffee listed off.

The council rep nodded. ‘We’ll take the Rhino then’ she stated, receiving affirmation from the fellow nerds at her back and annoyed huffs from elsewhere. ‘Decide the rest amongst yourselves.’

Chaos ensued, all present making a mad dash for a vehicle. Three of the quartet were however ostensibly already decided, leaving only the Panther left to be fought over, in front of which two opposing groups appeared. Dawn without realising it found herself as part of the smaller of these, facing down the forms of Rook and co. Neither side backed off, although it seemed inevitable who would win out in the standoff.

‘It’s cool, it’s all yours.’ Taking everypony off guard, the navy-maned rebel leader spoke her surprising words directly to the pale cream centre of her adversaries. ‘There’s too many of us anyway.’

‘What!?’ Helix was the first meanwhile to vocalise a disbelieving complaint in response. ‘What the hay gives?’

‘Cool it Hel.’ Rook turned her calm words to her second, but kept her face straight ahead. ‘We’ll get the credits either way, plus: “tout donner, tout sacrifier sans espoir de retour”.’3

‘What?’ the pink-maned partner repeated, with the addition of two raised eyebrows, whilst beyond her only Blossom seemed to understand the leader’s words, breaking into a small grin. ‘You serious?’

‘Perfectly’ Rook confirmed. ‘We’ll practice with one of the tractors for now.’ With that she turned, taking her cohort with her, giving Dawn a parting smile.

‘Result!’ Coquette celebrated, raising a forehoof to bump with Toffee’s as they approached the tank, whilst the other half of their party lagged behind.

‘Did I miss something?’ Dawn sent her question quietly to the unicorn on her left, a little confused. ‘What did she mean by… whatever that meant?’

Blossom took a turn in raising an eyebrow. ‘It’s a quote from a play, a weird choice actually, although it is Rook we’re talking about. She’s got quite the preference for the obscure, the unclear, and the overly serious on occasion. Even without knowing that though her meaning was pretty clear. She…’

‘Fine! Buck you too then!’ Although still a sudden interruption the tone of the shouted words and their vulgarity were becoming almost familiar from the rose pegasus which yelled them. ‘It’s your loss!’

Drawn to the noise like most others, Dawn caught the end of whatever had happened, finding an angry Split Second storming in heavy strides their way.

‘You lot have got a space with you right?’ the disgruntled pegasus asked roughly, sending a passing glower back over her shoulder at the sneering opposition of Lens Flare. ‘Am I cool to join up with you guys since the second-raters are closing ranks?’

‘Sure thing!’ Coquette called out, cutting in on any reply the pair actually asked may have had. ‘Toff says we need another pair of hooves to be “combat effective” anyway. Welcome aboard!’

---

‘So we got a plan then?’

A few minutes later a quintet of blank expressions answered Split’s question, the five of them now stood on their tank’s hull, around its turret like a table. In the background the other groups were in a similar state, all without much more than a rudimentary clue, debating their course.

‘Sorry to rely on you so much Toff’ Blossom started in the quiet, ‘but you really are the expert out of all of us when it comes to this. What positions have we got to fill?’

‘We’ve got driver and communications in the hull’ Toffee answered with a tap of her hoof on the armoured surface, ‘and in the turret cos we’ve got five we can have a gunner, a loader and a commander.’

‘Well that’s gotta be you then.’ Coquette was definitive with the support of other nods. ‘Like Bloss says, you know what we’re supposed to be doing so you’ve got to be the boss.’

‘Hay no!’ The caramel earth mare was however far less enamoured with the idea, immediately shaking her head to that effect. ‘I really don’t want to be in charge, I’ll help whoever is but please not me. If you’re all fine with it I’d much rather drive; I’ve plenty of experience on the farm’s tractors and the principles are the same.’

They went quiet again, nodding acceptingly but muted without a concept of where to go from there.

‘I read the manual’ Dawn gingerly put forward, ‘and it suggested that unicorns made the best loaders because the gun’s mechanism is easier to work with the help of magic. There was also something about pegasus as gunners, something to do with natural sensitivity from judging air currents.’

‘Cool!’

‘Works for me.’

Split and Blossom both affirmed with nods, helping Dawn to tentatively continue. ‘I don’t think I’m really good enough to be on comms, so would you mind taking that role Belle since you know everypony and are great with knowing what to say?’

‘Will do.’

‘Are you sure?’ the tallest unicorn queried, always the most aware, ‘I mean are you cool to be in command? You shouldn’t feel like you have to be if you don’t want to.’

‘I’ll give it a go’ Dawn reassured, though in truth it was more for herself than her friend. ‘I really dunno where I’ll fit into this to be honest, but if you all have stuff that’ll work then I’ll fit in where I can.’

Author's Note:

Title: Teams (German)

Notes:
1) 7TP, light tank (Poland)
2) Sentinel AC III, cruiser tank (Australia)
3) The Righteous by Albert Camus