Ringing. Everypony else shouting and firing at the Imperial troopers, but there was silence. Movement caught Dash’s eye and she turned to look into the eyes of Bon Bon. She was saying something. Dash tilted her head in confusion.

“…Rainbow, can you hear me? Rainbow, come on, talk to me here.”

Once all the sound came back to her, Dash asked, still recovering from being stunned, “What the hell happened?”

Bon Bon pointed toward the Imperial lines. “They hit us with light artillery. Blasted holes in our defense line.”

“And the captain?”

“Gone. They probably fired a bunch of guns at his position.”

“Who’s in charge now?”

“I don’t know. But, we’ve just got to hold the line. There’s just a few more trucks that need to escape.”

“Good, good,” Dash muttered.

She stood, and Bon Bon steadied the mare when she staggered. Dash nodded in thanks. “Where’s Fluttershy?”

Bon Bon pointed. Fluttershy was currently performing medical treatment on one of the watchponies who had been wounded in the artillery attack. Sighing in relief, Dash looked for her rifle. “What happened to my rifle?”

“Here,” Lyra, who had come through the bombardment unscathed, held out the weapon, “you dropped it in the bombardment.”

Dash took the rifle from Lyra, looked at it, and, finding it in working order, loaded an en-bloc clip into it.

Lyra turned her head, and her eyes widened. Bon Bon and Dash turned their heads to look at what Lyra was looking at. “Oh shit,” Dash said, “they’ve deployed tanks.”

“And we don’t have any Lancers,” Bon Bon responded.

“We’re fucked,” Lyra muttered, giving voice to the thought that the three mares had in their heads.

“Tanks incoming!”

Bon Bon’s shouted warning sent the watchponies into a panic. Dash saw this, and shouted, “Reform ranks and hold the line! We need to buy enough time for the evacuation to finish!”

As they scrambled to get back into position, the Imperial tanks opened up on the defense line. Their machine guns raked the line as they closed the distance.

Bon Bon yelped in pain, and Dash looked back at the mare. The earth pony lay on her back, and Dash ran over to the mare.

She had a hand on her stomach, and blood was pooling beneath her as Dash looked her over. She had taken five machinegun rounds to the stomach, and blood trickled from the corner from her mouth. “Bon Bon.”

The wounded mare locked pale blue eyes with Dash’s magenta eyes. “Funny,” she mused, “I thought that both Lyra and I would survive the war together and continue working at my shop.”

She coughed, and more blood began trickling from her mouth. “Fluttershy,” Dash shouted, “get over here! Bon Bon needs a medic!”

Fluttershy sat, eyes wide, frozen in terror. “FLUTTERSHY! NOW!”

Dash’s angry bellow shocked Fluttershy from her terror, and the pegasus bolted over to the other two mares. Upon seeing Bon Bon’s condition, one of her hands shot up to her mouth. “Oh no…”

“Fluttershy. Can you help her?”

The medic nodded, “I’ll do my best.”

Her expression became calm as she began working, and she looked at Dash, eyes filled with anger. “Make those Imperials pay.”

Dash nodded and saluted, and ran back to the sandbags.

Lyra looked with scared eyes at Dash. “Is Bon Bon going to be okay?”

“I don’t know,” Dash admitted, “she didn’t look good. But she’s in good hands.”

Dash and Lyra readied themselves and popped up behind cover to discover the biggest of the Imperial tanks facing them front on. “You’ve got to be kidding me,” Dash groaned.

A cannon fired, a tank round punched through the tank’s side, and internal explosions sent the tank’s turret flying.

Dash turned her head and let out a sigh of relief. The Mosippa had come to their aid.

************

“That’s the biggest threat to our guys gone,” Wolfram chuckled. “What a shot, Rarity.”

The seamstress beamed at the compliment, but admitted, “I was aiming for the front of the tank, you know, where the crew is.”

“Causing a magazine detonation in a tank also makes the tank unusable… permanently,” Isinglass added, a devilish smile forming on her face.

“Alright,” Wolfram ordered, “time to take out those small fry!”

Braeburn responded, “Aye! Loading!”

Rarity began turning the turret to aim the cannon at her next target, and Wolfram ordered, “Marble, don’t forget to use your machine gun against infantry that come into your sights!”

“Yessir!”

Looking through the glass in the cupola, Wolfram watched the Imperial troopers fallback in a panic as they reacted to the arrival of the Mosippa to the square. The watchponies, on the other hand, used this unexpected arrival to rally and keep the Imperials away from their side of the square.

The cannon fired, and one of the two remaining Imperial tanks went up in flames.

“Can a tank destroyed like that be used again?”

Isinglass shrugged, “It depends whether or not the Imperials want to take the time to do a complete rebuild of the tank’s internals and weaponry. But they probably won’t, considering what I’ve read of Imperial tank designs.”

Rarity inquired, “And what have you read?”

“The Imperials care more about quantity, not quality.”

“So that means that while each tank is likely individually inferior when compared against one of ours, they have more on the field at the same time, and they will most likely end up replacing a destroyed tank rather than repairing it back up to combat status, right?”

“Basically.”

Firing again, Rarity saw her aim rewarded with the magazine detonation of the last remaining Imperial tank. Isinglass muttered, “I didn’t think that was possible on such a light tank…”

“Anything’s possible on the battlefield, Is,” Wolfram said, “the place where gunpowder and steel rule.”

Marble called out, “The Imperials are in full retreat! With the destruction of their last tank, they no longer have the means to breach our defenses directly!”

“Good,” the tank commander acknowledged, “I’m unbuttoning now!”

Rarity was shocked and she barked, “Unbuttoning?! While we’re still in the tank?!”

The stallion leaned down and looked into the main part of the turret. “Watch what I do.”

He opened the cupola hatch, and stood up. “This is what I mean.”

Rarity looked over at Braeburn, who had an unamused look on his face. Rarity chuckled nervously.

The stallion then smiled, patted Rarity on the back, opened the hatch above him, and stood.

Following their examples, Rarity looked up, and did the same.

Looking back at Wolfram, Rarity saw that the stallion wore a relieved expression.

“You’re relieved that the battle is over?”

“Yes,” the stallion replied, “we’ve managed to help the evacuation and drive the Imperials back at the same time. Ponyville is, for the moment, ours still.”

“Yeah,” Braeburn agreed, “it’ll be a real shame when the Imperials take Ponyville. Double Jay’ll have a very big reason to fight the Imperials when this mess is all over.”

“I suppose she will,” Rarity agreed.

“Is, take us over to the Town Watch, I’d like to talk to the Watch Captain.”

“Of course.”

************

Dash and the other watchponies cheered as the Mosippa drove up to their defensive position.

The tank stopped, and the assembled watchponies were surprised as to who they saw in the tank with Isinglass and Wolfram Script.

“Rares,” Applejack said, breaking the silence, “you were helping in the tank?”

The seamstress nodded. “As the gunner! The destroyed tanks are all my handiwork!”

“Ah see.”

“And you, Applejack, have you been wounded?”

Applejack smiled, and tapped a fist against her plate armor. “Eenope. Full plate armor does wonders for defense.”

Pinkie bounced up, worry on her face. “Marble,” she asked, “are you okay?”

Marble nodded and replied, a small smile on her face, “Yeah. We caught the tanks off guard, and I didn’t see any lancers among the troops that we just drove back.”

“I hate to interrupt your guys’ reunions,” Wolfram said, “but I’d like to talk to the Watch Captain.”

Applejack rubbed the back of her head and spoke, “About that…”

“He’s dead,” Dash spoke up. “There was an artillery attack before that last attack. His position was hit first. And artillery being artillery, you can imagine what happened to him.”

Wolfram sighed, and ran a hand through his hair. “Wonderful, so what do we do now?”

“We get out of here,” Dash replied, “we’ve covered the evacuation. And we won’t hold Ponyville against the rest of the Imperials that are coming. Applejack, Pinkie, get everypony into the trucks that the townsponies left for us. Wolfram, cover us with the Mosippa.”

“Ya got it, RD,” Applejack replied.

Pinkie said, “Yep!”

“Yes ma’am,” Wolfram acknowledged. “Mosippa, let’s cover the Town Watch as we fall back out of town.”

“Certainly, darling,” Rarity agreed.

“Eeyup,” Braeburn said.

Marble nodded, “Mm-hmm.”

“Let’s do this,” Isinglass stated.

Author's Note

If you have any suggestions, feedback, concerns, or want to ask me any questions, leave them in the comments below. Thanks!