All Quiet on the Equestrian Front

by Tempest Wind

Panzerjäger

“War is hell. You can’t photograph a flying bullet, but you can capture genuine fear.”

Nine

Panzerjäger

—
“Round up!”

“Target Panzer, ten o’ clock.”

“Engage.”

The Riptide rocked gently, as the 75mm shell left the barrel, as Applebloom slung open the breech and rammed in a fresh shell. “Don’t be too greedy with ‘em! Ah’m down to Five AP!”

“How much of the other, Apple Bloom?” Zecora questioned, above the echo of tank cannons sounding out across the winter morning.

“Ah’m down to Fifteen HE an’... the heck? What’s a Heap?”

“HE AP maybe?” Sweetie Belle questioned.

“Those are HEAT shells you dunderhead!” Dinky snorted, as she began twisting the turret to address another enemy tank. “High Explosive Anti-“

“Tank! What the flying fuck issat?!” Scootaloo screeched, jabbing a wing towards a large gray behemoth of an armored vehicle, which had crested the low rise.

“Engage! Quickly!” Zecora roared over the din of the tank formation, as other Celestia and Riptide drivers did the same.

Armor Piercing shells simply slammed home into the behemoth tank’s front plate and turret, having failed to penetrate, as the massive cannon on the front swung to face one of the surviving Celestias. With a mighty belch that sounded more at home on a Changeling Flak Gun than a tank, the large shell tore through the turret of the Celestia, leaving the vehicle dead in the water weapons-wise.

Zecora swore as she grit her teeth and watched her crew perform their duties. The advance had been going so well, too. They’d sheared straight through the Changeling line hours ago, across a frozen river of all places, and shoved their way past the light Panzers and massed Anti tank guns. Casualties hadn’t been light, but with the new Celestia tanks taking the brunt of the enemy AT fire, they hadn’t been heavy, either.

But this? This was new.

Applebloom slammed another AP shell home as quickly as her hooves would move, as Dinky blasted away at the enemy tank’s turret mantlet, Scootaloo fumbling with the controls to keep them mobile as they began backing away towards the Equestrian lines. Any tank that could disable a Celestia in one hit was not something they wanted to fight with.

The rounds continued to bounce off the thing’s frontal plate, as it cut down Celestias and Riptides like hot knives through butter.

“Son of a whore bitch!” Dinky raged vulgarly, shifting down to gaze at Applebloom from the gunner’s seat. “Gimme those HEAT rounds!”

“You got it! Round-“ she halted mid sentence as a massive force slammed into the front of the Riptide, making it lurch horridly, and sending the crew bouncing about like sardines in a shook can.

“Fuck! Damage report!” Zecora barked, bringing a hoof to her head with a grimace.

“It glanced off!”

“That was a ricochet?! That fucking pissant cocksuck ricocheted?!” Dinky bellowed, as the crew sounded off their state of affairs.

“Let’s not get hit by a shell proper then! Scootaloo, full reverse! Dinky, Sweetie, Button it up!”

“Hell with that sarge, I’m eating that fucker for breakfast!” Dinky barked, as she watched Applebloom load one of the so-called HEAT shells, as quickly as she could manage.

“Corporal that’s-!”

There was an awful clang and shearing of metal, as the Changeling behemoth belched it’s fire again. Dinky stared in shock, her scathing reply to her tank commander dying on her lips, as she stared at the massive hole in the side of the turret, where the commander’s basket had been.

“I-oh-oh fuck! Fuck!” Applebloom swore, bringing voice to what Dinky was unable to.

“Sh-shit I’m losing engine pressure!” Scootaloo warned, frantically tapping the gauges in a vain attempt to keep the meters up and not crash-falling.

“Radio is knocked out! I can’t get in contact with anypony!” Sweetie warned, as Corporal Doo remained staring at the hole in the side of Betty.

Her crew screamed in panic around her, as she gingerly waved a hoof where Zecora had been sat seconds ago, now simply open air.

The changeling beast echoed again. Load HEAT.

“Pressure down to Thirty PSI! What the fuck are we doing?!”

“What the hell does it look like ah’m doin’ dammit?!”

They hadn’t heard her, so she barked again, kicking a hindhoof out to Applebloom’s shoulder. A bit too roughly, but she’d be fine. Had to get her attention. “I SAID, LOAD FUCKING HEAT! The furious unicorn mare screeched aloud, cranking the gun turret, which whined and groaned, as she snapped out of her daze and back into action. “Sweetie, ditch the fuckin’ radio and start buttoning that panzer with the co-ax! Scootaloo, keep this thing fuckin’ reversing! Applebloom, hurry the fuck up! Move fillies! Move!”

They were not dying to some godsforsaken tank in some godsforsaken field with half a godsforsaken tank of their own.

It was enough. Scootaloo restarted the engine that had stalled, and the wounded riptide lurched backwards, as it’s machine guns chattered gamely away, plinking uselessly at the massive Changeling tank. Applebloom shoved one of the as of yet unused shells home, as Dinky sucked in breath and took aim at the tank.

Her breath hitched and her mind froze for a moment, as the enemy tank’s gun began to swivel back towards the riptide it’d thought it knocked out. She knew exactly how she was going to kill the bastard. “ROUND UP!” Came Applebloom’s frantic reply, as Scootaloo prayed to the goddesses, whilst the engine sputtered Black smoke and died all over again.

It’d been just enough to get the tank into a good firing position, the gun aimed and loaded.

Dinky took aim at the half-fractured front-left turret plate, nearly shattered from repeated 75mm shells that failed to fully penetrate. Her hoof tensed around the gun.

Now or never.

The Riptide rocked, as the gun discharged one final time, it’s crew staring in tense silence as the shell slammed home- then through the side plate.

A half second later and it began to cook off, it’s ammunition rattling as a gout of fire tore out of the command hatch, the changeling crew cooked alive in seconds. A mighty explosion- maybe the engine- rocked the monstrosity again, lurching it to one side. Dead.

Dinky sat back in her seat, shaking horribly as the adrenaline wore off. Patting herself down, she finally levitated a cigarette and match out of a pocket, and wedged it in her mouth. She started to light it, then remembered that she possibly had a fuel leak- if that black smoke was any indication, and simply rolled the stick about in her mouth, trying to calm her own frayed nerves, as the crew did the same. A Celestia tank- the one that’d lost its gun after a strike to the turret, rolled up alongside, probably checking for survivors.

The crew looked at each other, then up to Dinky, who took a deep breath, and nodded, before pulling herself out of the gunner’s hatch, the command hatch clearly ruined. Shakily clambering onto the roof of her riptide, she took a moment to survey the battle damage.

Five other riptides knocked out of action, and two Celestias. All from one single enemy tank.

One that they’d honestly gotten really fucking lucky taking out.

Dinky slid off her tank, trotting across the snowy ground, and over to the Celestia, pulling herself up the side and onto the turret’s roof. The tank’s Commander, Some tan earth pony with a seafoam green and white mane pushed her hatch open, looking at Dinky with exhausted eyes.

“You’re lead tank now.” Dinky began simply. “We’ll wait for infantry to pick us up. Keep pushing long as you can. Copy?”

The mare gazed for a second, then nodded, sliding back into her command basket, as Dinky shut the hatch for her, and hopped down, back towards her own tank.

Goddesses, she was tired all of a sudden. Sweetie and Applebloom were sat on top of the turret, watching the remaining tanks from the formation begin to lurch back into movement. Meanwhile, Scootaloo buried herself in the smoking engine compartment, making sure to come up for air, and wrap a soaked cleaning rag around her muzzle to ward smoke away as she worked.

“Hey, Dinks.” Applebloom greeted, as Dinky clambered back up, sitting with the two. All three of them were staring at the enemy tank. Not much else they could do, with the engine dead. Odds were they’d still be down an engine when the infantry arrived.

“Hey.” She replied, finally lighting her cigarette. She took a couple drags, then offered it to Applebloom, who took a couple puffs, and passed it to Sweetie Belle. Sweetie did the same, then passed it back to Dinky, who removed her tanker’s cap, running a hoof shakily through her mane.

“That was one tough tank.”

“No fuckin’ shit?”
—

Dinky chugged a cup of nearly frigid coffee, a neutral frown on her face, as she gauged the two GI’s reactions.

“Infantry showed up a couple hours later.” She finally began again, staring down at the cup of coffee for a moment. “They had an engineer that’d been an auto mechanic, and he helped us get our engine back up and running. We were down to three cylinders from our original eight, but we limped her home. I uh. Well, I got promoted to Sergeant, so I guess I’m Tank Commander now. We’re still waiting on a replacement gunner.”

“Damn. And the bugs have more of those… things?”

Dinky nodded, downing the rest of her coffee. “Yeah, they’re called uh… tigers, I think. We just call ‘em trouble, though. That or ‘oh fuck’.” She snarked. “And yeah, they’ve got more of them. They’re not invincible. Even if it kinda feels like it.” She sighed, and shook her head. “Anyways, that’s enough story time for one day. Piss off, ya kids. Go find another tanker to bother.” She chuckled, waving them off with a hoof.

The two ponies said their goodbyes, and then were gone.

“Hey Dinks?”

“Hm? What’s up, Applebloom?”

“How ya holdin’ up?”

The earth pony mare sat down across from Dinky, carrying fresh, warm cups of coffee- one of which she passed to the unicorn tank commander.

Dinky nodded thankfully, sipping once at it, then holding the cup between her hooves, as she looked down upon it, a frown tugging it’s way across her lips. She was quiet for several seconds, before shaking her head.

“I don’t know, Applebloom. I really don’t know.”

Comments

[Stellar_]

"Best job I ever had."