Twilight walked down the ruined streets of Haliflanks with around fifteen members of her platoon including her squad. She relayed the orders they were given earlier. They were supposed to cut off a small rebel convoy that was going to attempt to leave the city, Blueblood said that army intelligence told him that there was an officer trying to leave with extremely valuable intel on where the Rebels got so many tanks, weapons, uniforms and other equipment. Twilight looked over to Turner. "Sir, do we know what is guarding the enemy convoy?" Turner paused for a second then looked back to Twilight. "Honestly Private, I have no idea. Though we should be prepared. Fuse! Over here!" A Buck with a Panzerschreck slung on his back and a large pouch filled with explosives hanging off his side. "Sir! What do you need?" Turner looked at the bazooka slung over his shoulder. "How many rockets and anti-tank grenades do you have?" Fuse opened his pack and rifled through it. "i got about five rockets and three grenades, also got a few mines too." Turner shook his head. "Give the grenades to a couple others in the platoon and leave the mines. we probably don't have enough time to set them."

Fuse walked through the platoon, giving the grenades to a couple other members of the platoon. Fuse walked up to Twilight holding one of the grenades to her. Twilight quickly placed the explosive into her satchel, noting she was running low on G43 clips. The platoon kept marching through the destroyed streets. One soldier stopped near a corner, holding up his fist to tell everypony else to stop. He peeked over the corner before shipping his head back behind the corner. "Their around the corner, get down and get ready to ambush them." Twilight, Turner and Wafer all jumped into a crater as the rest of the platoon ducked into doorways, destroyed buildings and behind piles of rubble. Twilight could hear the whirring of tanks and the rumble of trucks, she clutched her rifle and aimed towards the corner.

Her breath hitched in her throat as the first tank turned the corner. It was a smaller tank, a T-70, they couldn't stand a fight versus a Panzer IV as it's cannon and armor were too weak, but they preformed admirably against infantry and in urban areas where bigger tanks can't maneuver as well. The T-70 turned down the road Twilight was in and started scanning the rubble. Twilight was still as it's 45mm gun moved over her position... and kept moving. The tank clearly didn't notice the soldiers surrounding it. The T-70 maneuvered around the crater Twilight was in and moved another meter or two when there was a loud yell.

"FIRE IN THE HOLE!" A 88mm rocket from Fuse's Panzerschreck screamed over Twilight's head and struck the back of the lead T-70. It exploded and caused Twilight, Turner and Wafer to duck down in the crater. Gunfire exploded in the street as the Royal army troopers let loose on the Rebels caught in the crossfire. Twilight saw one of the other recruits that was handed a grenade run out a throw it at the last T-70. The MG on the tank let loose a hail of bullets that struck the young soldier in the chest. he fell over on the pavement as rounds struck his body till the AT greande he threw detonated on top of the tank, silencing the gun altogether.

A truck in the middle of the convoy tried to ram past the first T-70 but Wafer and Turner shot out the tires causing the truck to skid into a building. The driver fell out, holding his hand to his head and stumbling around. Wafer ran up and started yelling to put his hands on his head. Turner and Twilight ran up to the back of the truck as the platoon mopped up the last of the Rebel resistance. They opened up the back of the truck and a buck wearing a similar uniform to Blueblood's jumped out the back. Twilight snapped her rifle up and shot the buck in the ass, ccausing him to drop to the road yelling in pain. Turner looked over at her. "Good shooting! Now, check what's in the back of the truck that's so damn important and i'll take care of our friend over here." He gestured to the buck writhing in pain.

Twilight hopped into the back of the truck and took a detailed look. Crates stacked high with the Zebra Republic stamped on the side filled the trucks. Twilight opened one and peered inside. Her eyes widened as around 100 PPSH SMGs stared back at her. She opened another box that contained belts of Maxim ammo and drums of PPSH ammo. She found a slip of paper shoved in one corner of the box. "Manehattan Harbour Zebra Freighter Shifting Sands, shipping manifest?" She read closely seeing lists of boxes of normal Zebra goods that would come to Equestria and three boxes of 'Tractor Parts' and boxes of 'Canned Goods' caught her eye. She never heard of Zebras shipping these kinds of items before, and why would they suddenly appear now?

Twilight stepped out of the truck and found Turner rounding up prisoners and casualties. Twilight felt saddened when she noticed three impromptu stretchers that were laid out, covers protecting the bodies of those lost in the short firefight. She walked up to Turner. "Sir, I searched and found crates of Rebel ammo and weapons, also this strange shipping manifest from a Zebra freighter." She handed the slip of paper over to Turner who studied it himself, pulling out a pen from his pocket and marking the strange items on the list. "Command is going to love this! This finally explains where the Rebels got this equipment in such a short time. They were probably planning this for months or years before war broke out!." He looked back to his platoon that surrounded him, waiting for there orders. "Alright Fillies and Gentlecolts! Back to base!

War Room
Canterlot Castle

Celestia stood, with Luna at her side, as three generals looked over a map of Equestria, occasionally moving red and blue blocks indicating positions of divisions and companies. The city of Haliflanks stood on one flank, where three blue division blocks stood on the outskirts and no red blocks were in sight. In the center, Two blue divisions stood off against three red division blocks outside of the city of Fillydelphia. And lastly the city of Vanhoover was filled with red and blue company blocks with a question mark pinned right in the center of the city.

Celestia looked to the three generals. "Alright, what's the current situation." General Golden Star of Third Army started. "Your Highness, I am pleased to inform you that Halifalnks is secure! Our counter attack in the city itself drove the rebels to the outskirts and out mechanized division tore any who attempted to escape to pieces. Casualty rates are 20% for Royal army, and 75% for the Rebels." Celestia had a small grin on her face. Her little ponies took back their city with a fairly low cost of life, though she felt saddened at the losses of the rebels. She hated the whole of this war in the first place.

"Good job Golden Star, let them know I'm proud of them for beating the Rebels from our territory and with as few deaths as possible." Golden looked down for a minute. "Something else General?" He looked up at Celestia again. "Yes, Your Highness. You see, I ordered Alpha Company of the 8th armored to cut off the rebel retreat. 1st Battalion of that same company encountered heavy resistance when completing their objective and was nearly wiped out." Celestia paled. When an armor company was nearly wiped out something BAD had happened. "What happened?" Golden pointed at a small area on the northern end of the city. "A team of Katyushas were shelling the city, so I ordered Alpha to take them out. Unfortunately a group of Rebel T-34s were defending the trucks and poor tactical choices of some members caused them to lose the element of surprise. We only lost a tank or two when the report gets iffy, as the crew commander who gave it was ordered to chase down the trucks with two others before they escaped. A trio of KV-1s ambushed the main force and knocked out one of the three that were sent out." Celestia sighed sadly at that news. A whole battalion, nearly wiped out due to shoddy intel. It was heart-breaking for the kind hearted ruler.

"General Iron Ore, how's Fillydelphia holding up?" General Iron Ore straightened up at the sound of his name. "Your Highness, Second Army is holding position outside the city and we are pushing the Rebels back with each attempted attack. From what i hear from my officers, Fox company of 4th Division should be awarded medals for valiantly holding Hill 102 when cut off from reinforcements and supplies for two days. They suffered moderate casualties but the company commander is damn proud of what his soldiers have done." Celestia smiled. Equestria needed Heroes. "Give the entire company Defender Of Equestria medals, especially post humorously, they deserve them more than anypony." The General saluted. "Yes Your Highness!"

"General Shining Armor, how goes Vanhoover?" Shining rubbed his temples as he gestured to the map. "Quite frankly, Your Highness, I don't have a damn idea. One minute i'm hearing we took central square, the next it's lost. Since the battle for the city started, First Army has a casualty rate of around 85%." Celestia was horrified. The city was a deathtrap. "How much of the city do we control?" Shining sighed again. "Your Highness, anywhere from 30 to 60%. Each city block is a deathtrap. There is no grand movement of companies and divisions, it's platoon to platoon, squad to squad, pony to pony combat even! One day we lost contact with a whole company, just to find scattered remains of each platoon in two areas separated by five blocks! Honestly, we should abandon the city. It's to costly to try to fight for and it's in utter ruin due to all the artillery and fighting." This got an immediate reaction from Luna. "I did not return as co-ruler of Equestria to watch it be lost to a bunch of disgruntled locals armed with two-bit hunting weapons."

Celestia turned to look at her sister. "Luna, these Rebels launched a preemptive strike with thousands of soldiers and dozens of tanks. We have no idea how they were able to gather so many supplies and soldiers in such a short time!" At that moment a messenger entered the small room. "Your Highness, sorry for the intrusion but Captain Blueblood has sent some very intriguing intelligence." Shining waved over the soldier and took an envelope he held, and dismissed him. He opened the envelope and read it's contents, his eyes widening as he read the bottom of the page. "That explains everything!" He yelled. "Your Highness, the Rebels have been smuggling in weapons and tank parts the whole time! It's why they are pushing so hard to take Haliflanks and Vanhoover! They have some of our largest ports, and you will not believe this, the Zebras are the ones smuggling in the equipment!"

Celestia looked back to the map, thinking about her next course of action. "What is the status of the Royal Navy?" Golden Star cleared his throat. "The RES Detrot, Celestia, Manehatten, and Luna are all in port and rearing to go. We have still yet to locate the RES Trottingham and Cadence, your Highness." Celestia frowned but looked back at the map. "Order 7th division to hold the main road leading out of Vanhoover, when they are in position I want all of 1st Army to complete abandon the city and for the Navy to shell and destroy the docks in Vanhoover and all ships docking within." A chorus of "Yes, your Highness" rang out as the generals broke away from the table and began planning their respective parts of the plan.

Luna looked to her sister. "This war is taking a toll on you dear Sister. I'll speak to the Zebra ambassador and bring this arm smuggling to the prime minister of the Zebra Republic. They will answer for this." Celestia shook her head. "Bring it up, but don't go pointing fingers. We have no idea where those weapons are coming from. All we know is that they used a Zebra ship to get them into Equestria." Celestia looked down at the map. "I just hope Twilight is as far away from this war as possible."

"So, Twilight where are you from anyway?" Twilight looked up from filling up her empty G43 magazines. Wafer was standing in front of her, Windstorm next to him, cleaning out his rifle. Twilight looked back to the bullets in her magazine as she answered. "I'm from Canterlot originally, though I moved to Ponyville a couple of years ago." Wafer's eyebrow raised at this. "Really? Your not as snobbish as most Canterlot types I've met. I'm from Detrot, not the greatest city in Equestria but it's home to my family and that's good in my books." Windstorm laughed. "You're from Detrot! I can't believe it! You are WAY too nice to be from Detrot!" Wafer gave a small grin. "Yeah i guess, Ma always told me to be a nice buck to everyone i meet that gave me niceness as well. Met plenty of assholes in Detrot, not nearly as many assholes in the army." Windstorm chuckled. "Hear you there. Since we're spouting off where we're from, I'll just say it, I'm from Clodsdayle." Wafer's eyebrow raised again. "No kidding?"

Time Turner walked up to the trio. "Alright Gentlecolts, and Lady." He tipped his hat too Twilight. "We've been ordered by General Golden Star himself to pick up and haul ass to Vanhoover. We're to hold the outskirts so that 1st Army can pull out. Prepare to move out and to hold a patch of dirt from Rebel soldiers for a day or two." Windstorm groaned as Turner left. "What's the problem?" Twilight asked. "Defense mission, we are FUCKED!" "How so?" asked Wafer. "Delta is ALWAYS the first line of defense, seeing as we are the engineer company, the need the Pioneers to keep all the defenses up and running so nothing breaks during the middle of an attack." Twilight and Wafer both shared a look. "Oh shit...." They both said.

Author's Note

Chapter Seven is done with! Now we know the extent of the Rebel front and where the battles are being fought. Next Chapter, Delta Company will hold their ground outside Vanhoover to let First Army out.

-CanadianPony OUT!