Chapter 1
Somewhere in the Griffonian Empire...
The battlefield is still smoky and dark, there's hardly any survivors during that artillery barrage 10 minutes ago. The ruins of the destroyed Sherman tanks were everywhere, along with some Panzers; but mostly Shermans. At the last years of Griffonian Empire, they fought back ruthlessly, sending Childs and teenagers into the battlefield. Also, the Griffon Tanks technologies were way more advanced than the Allies. Usually, the Allies have to suffer great causalities to take a town or a battlefield from the Griffons. The deeper they cut into the Griffonian Empire, the stronger the resistance gets. Now the Allies are facing the most brutal, merciless, hardened resistance yet...
Upon a hill near the battlefield, a Griffon Officer was raiding on a motorcycle, scouting the silence battlefield. He doesn't have much watch out for since this place is technically dead. However, this thought is what got him killed.
The officer went past several destroyed Sherman tanks, but he missed one. A M4A3E8 Sherman tank with its barrel painted a word, "BLOOM". As the Griffon officer went by, a figure slowly emerged from the shadow of the tank, a knife in her hoof. The orange mare slowly approached to the officer, which didn't notice any suspicious things going on.
Just when the Griffon officer passed right by, the mare jumped, she landed on the officer, tackled him onto the ground. She then raised her knife and stabbed the Griffon in his throat, then, with a few stab on his head, the Griffon is dead.
Then the orange mare panted while searching through the motorcycle. She found a StG44 and a few clips. She got them and climbed back into her Sherman tank "Bloom".
Dark. Cramped. Crowded. A filthy machine with filthy men. There’s two main areas - THE TURRET BASKET -- A big cylindrical cage that spins with the turret. And the BOW -- The front of the tank where the driver and a machine gunner sit. The sound of piss hitting tin...
Smolder “Rock” is draped casually across the cannon breech. Garble's sister from Dragon Land, she’s serious, calm, centered. You’d never guess she’s killed a thousand Griffons. She finishes urinating into an ammo can.
Spike “Wikey” sits in the driver’s seat sipping wine from a bottle. A Dragon from Ponyville. He’s been drunk since the war begun. He once went into combat sober - And vowed never to do it again.
Next to Spike, the transmission housing between them, is the body of RED. A blood soaked jacket pulled over his head. His blood spattered inside the tank.
Ocellus “Cocoon”, a changeling from the hive, is wedged into the battery compartment fixing a short. She’s cunning, viscous, and World wise.
The orange mare, Applejack "Warmommy" drops down into the Commander’s hatch.
"You get that fucker?" Ocellus asked.
"I knocked him off." Applejack answered.
Spike offers the body of his dead friend a drink, pushes the bottle into his shoulder. Whispers to him...
"Wikey. Stop. Leave him rest." Smolder said.
"He’s dead. Or did you forget? Drunk damn fool." Applejack sighed.
Spike shoots them a dirty look. Keeps whispering to his dead friend. Applejack watches Ocellus work.
"Goddammit. Ain’t you done?" she asked, a bit impatiently.
"Keep ridin’ me." Ocellus said, while continuing to work.
"I’m not riding you. If I was, you’d know it. More where he came from." Applejack said before turning away from her.
Applejack tosses Smolder the Knight’s Cross - she hangs it in the turret - Where more Griffon combat decorations hang like Christmas ornaments.
"You get some canned food for this?" Applejack asked. She tosses Spike the dead Officer’s Luger. He inspects it.
"For this? Yeah. A case or two." Spike muttered while holding the Luger.
Applejack lights a cigarette. Then scratches another notch in her knife with her GI can opener. It’s tense - They are behind Griffon lines and acutely aware of the danger they’re in. But danger becomes routine. After years of it...
Ocellus smirks - KNOWING she’ll get a rise...
"You still talking? Can we get out of here? Everyone shut up." Spike groaned.
"You shut up. You’re a goddamn bottle of wine. Stink like wine. Think like wine. Alcohol never solved nothing." Applejack spat. Smolder chuckled.
"Neither did milk. Let’s go. (Speaks in Dragon language) Let's go. Let's go ya." Spike said.
"Wanna talk Dragon? Find another tank. A Dragon tank. This is an Equestrian tank. We talk Equestrian." Applejack snorted.
"Who put a nickel in you? You talk Griffonian. You can talk Griffon and I can’t talk Dragon?" Spike snapped back.
"I use my Griffonian as a tool of war." Applejack said, crossing her hooves.
Ocellus grabs her crotch...
"Here’s my tool of war." she said.
The changeling realizes this isn’t about Wines or Dargon. It’s about the dead -- The stallion with his head blown off in the Bow Gunner’s seat. Ocelllus hands Applejack some coffee she warmed on a Coleman stove.
"Thanks Cocoon." Applejack said, sounding a bit depressed.
"Stop ragging on everyone. You didn’t kill him. The Griffons did." Ocellus comforted her.
"That’s true. But I sure didn’t keep him alive." Applejack sighed.
"His number came up. That’s all. We’ve been lucky. Until now. Settle down." Ocellus said.
Applejack adds sugar to her coffee. Stirs it with a greasy callused hoof. She opens the Griffon’s map case -- and discovers several maps...
"Thank celestia. We got a map." she sighed.
After a few moment of studying the map, Applejack folded up and put it aside.
"We’re here. Battalion Area’s to the South. This hardball road here’ll get us back. Sound good?" she asked.
"You got the stripes, jack. You figure it out." Ocellus said.
Applejack pokes her head out of the Commander’s hatch and listens carefully to the coming dawn. At first it was quiet, but later, she heard a distant scream from the sky. Louder and louder. Her finely tuned instincts kick in. Applejack drops back inside - Pulls the hatch shut with a CLANK...
Then, the sound of ROARING LOCOMOTIVES -- Another artillery barrage is on the way...
BOOM-BOOM-KABOOM! -- Shells explode around the tank. Rocking it. For the moment the men are safe in their steel beast.
"Cocoon? Anytime, sugarcube." Applejack said while patting the changeling.
Ocellus turns a last bolt then extricates herself from the batteries.
"‘Kay. Crank her up, Wikey. Whip this beast!" Ocellus called from the turret.
Spike pushes the starter button. Expectant faces. The engine RUMBLES but doesn’t catch.
MORE EXPLODING SHELLS -- Incredibly loud. Shrapnel PINGS off the hull. They endure it with their trademark stoicism. They’ve been through it before - But a direct hit can kill them...
"Choke’er up. She’s cold." Applejack ordered.
Spike opens the choke. Tries again. The engine rumbling. But it won't start. The crew shared worried faces.
"There’s condensation on the plugs." Spike said to Applejack.
"Plugs’re good. Don’t flood it."
"Drunk or not I can start a damn tank." he grumbles, he pushed starter button again.
VROOM! -- The engine ROARS to life. They are relieved. Low key and businesslike, they don their headsets - It’s now unbelievably loud in the tank. Ocellus joins Applejack and Smolder in the turret basket.
"Move out!" Applejack said in a stern voice.
Spike double-clutches and shifts into first. The tank lurches. Smolder presses her eye to the gunsight...
Applejack rotates the turret with her hooves switch, looking outside through a periscope.
"Forward! Pick it up! Forward!" Applejack commanded.
The tank RATTLES. CLANKS and SHUDDERS. Ammo cases, weapons, C- rations vibrate. They're in the belly of this beast.
KABOOM-BOOM-BOOM! -- Shells explode dangerously close. The tank shudders. Spike clutches, shifts into second. Stomps the gas. The tank builds speed. Applejack sees the road.
"Drive! Left. Left. Left." Applejack said calmly but sternly.
Turning the tank with the two big steering levers. Spike whips it onto the road, upshifts into third gear. The tank builds speed - Moving surprisingly fast.
Spike can sure drive a tank. Eyes riveted to his periscope. Gas, oil, blood and piss sloshing over his boots. The fallen stallion's body in the seat next to him.
Leaving the CRASHING artillery behind...
Out of immediate danger, Applejack opens her hatch and takes his normal position - Exposed from the chest up in the commander’s hatch. She grips a captured German assault rifle, grimly scanning for threats with her cold hard eyes.
The Bloom has escaped. Her crew is neither grateful or relieved. There is work to do. The war is not over...
(~)
BATTALION AREA
A farmer’s field has been overrun by a travelling circus of death - An Allied Armored Battalion. A couple thousand men. A couple hundred vehicles. The TIRED MEN load TIRED VEHICLES for another day on the attack. Months of spearheading into Griffonian Empire.
A booming artillery battery pumps rounds into Griffon targets miles away. The BLACK DRIVERS of the Redball Express Trucks unload heaps of supplies from their trucks.
MECHANICS, CLERKS, COOKS and MPs move with purpose. INFANTRYMEN clean weapons. A CHAPLAIN gives last rites outside the surgery tent as MEDICS line up more litters of WOUNDED MEN.
A hundred Griffon POWs sit listlessly behind barbed wire. A BULLDOZER plows a heap of dead Griffon into a pit.
A ROW OF FIFTEEN SHERMAN TANKS -- Their busy CREWS ready them for another day’s push into Griffonian Empire. The tankers stop working and stare in amazement.
Here comes the Bloom -- Driving up fast, it deftly spins and parks perfectly alongside the newer, cleaner tanks. Sergeant Shining Armor, commander of the battalion shakes his head.
"Thought you were dead AJ." he smiles.
"The Devil watches over his own." Applejack grinned.
She jumps down. A pair of medics approach the tank with a litter. Applejack and Spike haul the stallion’s corpse out of the tank and lay him onto the litter.
"Take care of him. He was a good man." Applejack said.
The Medic sees the top of Red’s head is gone. He turned to Applejack, a bit unamused.
"You said you had wounded. We’re not graves registration." he said.
"Take good care of him. Or I’ll take good care of you." Applejack replied calmly but coldly.
Applejack pats her assault rifle with menace. The Medics trade looks and depart with the body. Spike crawls under the tank and passes out in the mud.
A lieutenant approaches Applejack. Young and fresh, he has just a month with the outfit. He’s intimidated by AJ, this tough tanker hard tempered by war’s hammer.
"Sergeant I was afraid you were dead. I’m awful sorry about your man." he said with his head down.
"It’s...." she sighed.
"Where’s the rest of Third Platoon?" the lieutenant asked.
"We’re it." Applejack said with a frown.
"Wait what?! What happened out there?" the lieutenant was a bit shocked.
"Another goddamned green Lieutenant happened." she spat.
"What do I tell the Captain?"
"Tell him we drove straight into a strongpoint. Two Kraut tanks were dug in like pillboxes. I got ‘em both. After they got everyone else." Applejack said with a angered tone.
"We’re moving again. Headquarters section’s already folding. You’re in my Platoon now. We’re assigned to check out a town while main unit bypasses." the lieutenant said.
"A goddamned flank guard mission?"
Applejack nods at the Bloom. Looking even more ragged in the daylight.
"Lieutenant, I gotta short in the master switch box. Steering linkage is rattling. Engine’s losing compression. Oil’s in the radiator. Bogies need rubber. There’s a 75 gouge on the turret that’ll take twenty pounds of welding rod to fill in. She’s a mess. So’s my crew." she said to the lieutenant.
"Make ready to depart the company area on my order." the lieutenant said before spins on his heels and walks off.
Applejack looks at Smolder and Ocellus, staring at her from atop the tank. Just crushed. Beaten, exhausted. Spent.
"That bitch's douchebag. We working for that fool now?" Smolder grunted.
"Don’t you worry about him. You work for me. Restock ammo and rations. Wake up Spike. Have him top off the water and gas. Do what you can about the mechanical issues." Applejack said before walking away.
"Where you going?" Ocellus asked.
"The latrine to take a shit. I ain’t shit in a week." Applejack replied.
Sandbar, a shiny new Private with a dufflebag intercepts Applejack.
"Sergeant Applejack?" he asked.
"Maybe. What the fuck are you?" the tanker demanded.
"Private Sandbar. I was told to report to you. I’m your new Assistant Driver." the newbie said with a shaky voice.
"Lookit you. Crisp and green like a new dollar bill. Puppy breath and all." Applejack said.
AJ then lights a smoke. An outgoing volley from the nearby Artillery Company makes Sandbar flinch.
"Don’t worry about outgoing. Incoming mail’s the issue. Griffons can drop an 88 shell in your mouth from two miles out." Applejack said in a half sarcastic half serious tone.
Applejack then directs him to the Bloom.
"That’s home. Do what you’re told. And don’t get too close to no one." she said before walking off.
Sandbar approaches the tank. Smolder and Ocellus scrutinize the newcomer. Spike slides out from under the hull, bathed in mud. The three feral tankers eye Sandbar. Spike grabs Norman’s dufflebag and searches it. The newbie is too afraid to stop him.
"Which way’s the front?" the newbie asked in a shaky voice.
"All around us. Kid, this is Griffonian Empire. We’re surrounded by fucking Griffon shits." Smolder said, trying not to laugh at this stupid question.
Norman sees a young tanker running in circles holding an M1 rifle above his head. Yelling," I'M A SHITHEAD! I'M A SHITHEAD! I'M A SHITHEAD!"
"What’s that about?" he asked curiously with a sympathetic tone.
"He was cleaning a machine gun and didn’t unload it. Nearly killed a Sergeant. Lucky he didn’t get stomped into the mud." Smolder said with a 'that's what you get' face on.
Sandbar swallows hard. Looks around. Spike angrily looks up from Sandbar’s dufflebag.
"Where's the cigarettes?!" he demanded.
"I...I don't smoke." Sandbar said, a bit scared.
"Well then you're a bastard!" Spike spat as he threw Sandbar's dufflebag on the muddy ground. Leaving Sandbar with a stricken face.
"You go to tank school?" Smolder asked.
"I’ve never seen inside a tank. I’m a clerk typist. I was going to Fifth Corps HQ. They pulled me off the truck and sent me here. It’s gotta be a mistake." Sandbar explained.
"Ain’t a mistake. Army does what it does." Ocellus said.
"Kid, you from Applelosa?" Smolder asked.
Norman shakes his head: “No”.
"Manehattan?"
"No."
"Canterlot?"
"Uh...no, I'm actually from-----" kid was cut by Spike.
"-- No one gives a damn where you’re from."
Spike offers him his canteen. Sandbar politely takes a swig. Spits it out.
"Ugh! Taste like hornet stings." he said while spitting.
"You don't drink." Spike said, a bit coldly.
"Nah-uh, especially this."
Spike snatches back his canteen.
"I hate you."
Ocellus pulls open the Bow Gunner’s hatch.
"Here boy. Here’s your seat. Get a bucket of hot water from the kitchen and get it clean. Amish clean." she said.
Norman’s face drops when he peers inside...
"Ugh...what the...."
(~)
Minutes later. Sandbar kneels awkwardly over the transmission as he scrubs off blood with a rag. He pauses to stare at the big belt fed machine gun - Also spattered with blood. He cleans it gently. As if afraid of waking a dangerous animal.
Sandbar removes blood spattered pin-up girls. And a photo of Red’s wife - The tough cattle ranching mare who has no idea her stallion is dead. He reaches for a photo of Red in cowboy regalia astride a horse -- And freezes...
WHAT HE SEES -- Blonde hair, an ear, a single blue eye. Half of Red’s face.
"HOLY!!!"
(~)
Tanks are being readied for combat. Gas tanks are filled. Equipment is oiled and clean. Ammo loaded. Busy green creatures scrambling over big green turtles.
On the Bloom, Ocellus and Smolder load ammo into the turret. Applejack and Spike tighten track links with wrenches.
Then they saw Sandbar scrambled out of the tank, he tumbles over the side. Landing on his hands and knees, he vomits his lunches and dinners into the mud...
Coughing and sputtering he looks up in time to see a 6x6 truck roll by, filled with a heap of corpses. Griffons, dragons, ponies, changelings, and yaks. Their legs and arms sticking out. It looks like they are waving “Hi” to the young soldiers...
Sandbar wants to cry. The Bloom’s crew stares at him. Blank faced. No sympathy.
"Get back in there. It’s not going to clean itself." Smolder said with a blank tone.
Sandbar stands, brushes off the mud. About to climb back in the tank, he pauses and stares with his mouth agape.
Two TIRED GI’S escort and SS SERGEANT. His hands tied behind his back with bailing wire. His head is SWOLLEN like a watermelon. Puffy slits for eyes, blood slicked hair. He’s taken a serious beating.
"Why ain’t he sleepin’?" Applejack asked the tired GI.
"G-Two wants a prisoner to question." he said.
"I’ll question him." Applejack said in a freezing, killing tone as she went up to the POW.
"Hey! Hey! Newbie!" Smolder shook Sandbar's shoulder, "Warmommy's gonna play with him. Watch. Real fun."
Applejack stepped in front of the beaten POW, (speaks in Griffonian)"Was ist deine Lieblingsfarbe? Du magst Hühnchen oder Rindfleisch? Bist du ein guter Tänzer? Du magst dicke Mädchen?" (What’s your favorite color? You like chicken or beef? You a good dancer? You like fat girls?)
The stoic prisoner blinks with confusion...
THWICK! -- Applejack buries her knife in the Griffon Sergeant’s chest. Smack in the heart. And works it side to side.
The GI’s shake their heads with weary dismay. Smolder and Ocellus pull Applejack away. Spike cackles with delight.
"Okay, that kind of thing’s gonna get you in a lot of trouble." the GI said.
"We ain’t here to ask them questions." Applejack snarled.
Sandbar was both scared, confused, and blank. After a brief moment, he finally understood what these soldiers means by saying, "This is war kid. Get use to it."
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This is amazing, my favourite movie and my favourite series mixed together perfectly, i hope you enjoy writing this as much as im going to enjoy reading it
Thank you for supporting my new story! I'll make sure to update it often. But since I got classes sometimes story will have to wait.
awesome story cant wait for the next chapter
Probably should up the rating to teen at minimum. Seeing as the source material wasn't exactly a "family picture" to begin with.
Crossover with the Fury Movie heh? I like the idea. To be honest, I was planning on making the story about this too but I had no idea what the story will tell. But you did it! And if you need some help, don't hesitate to PM me brother! I'll always got your back!
Thank you bud!
Think it might be a good idea if you fixed these and run it through a Google docs spell check.
Ps not sure if you specified the tank as a normal Sherman with a 75 mm or a firefly like in the movie
If it's a firefly well you could be historically accurate and have it kill a tiger easily even from the front, or change the gun to a 75 which would i believe act similar in the movie.
Or get a bigger enemy tank like maybe a king tiger.
The Sherman in the story is a M4A3E8