Sunset Shimmer had never been in that part of the school; mind you, she was still new to the place so she wasn’t really certain what things had been build. What she knew was that the school had a long story of mediocrity in most things sport or academic and was not very popular beyond the whole ‘public school’ part of it. That meant that parents that couldn’t afford tuition from the other more respectable school across the city, at least had a backup plan for their children.
The sad part was that Sunset knew very well the kind of place Canterlot Public School was before she transferred from her old school. Heck, it was the first reason why she decided to join the place. So far the rumor mill had exploded trying to find the reasons why someone who was a certifiable genius and that could very easy get a scholarship to any school would want to be in CPS as another student.
One theory was that she was on the Witness Protection Program because she had given crucial information about the Russian Mafia. Another, which was very popular among the romanticists, was that she had stolen the girlfriend from the leader of a rival gang. Of course, Sunset Shimmer had laughed her ass off when she heard that one. So just because she liked to use leather jackets she was immediately catalogued as a gang member? It was hilarious and slightly worrying.
It was true that no rumor even had the smallest amount of true, but they were getting closer and closer to her real reasons of her exchange and the way she simply rejected every single attempt of her schoolmates to make her be part of a club. Not only was tiring, but it was ridiculous the way in which they were pressuring her to choose one from the amount of mediocre level clubs. In less than a week she would be able to become the captain of each one of them; with the exception of any that Rainbow Dash wasn’t the captain already.
From all the crazy students that populated the school, she had made something of a bond -or as Sunset will say, a fungus infection- with two other students much to her own surprise and horror, although considering how those two girls acted and behaved, well, maybe it wasn’t so much of a surprise.
Rainbow was crash, in-your-face rude girl that seemed to have no filter from her brain to her mouth and Sunset had been more than ready to shut the lips of Rainbow permanently, although she knew there will be hell to pay and was in no need to get into good ol’ fisticuffs with the athletic girl.
The other was as athletic as Rainbow, but seemed to be as calm as a cold river most of the time, unless she began to get competitive with the multicolor haired girl. The blonde exuded confidence and a sense of tranquility that it had to be developed on some orchard somewhere in Tennessee considering how she talked.
So far she had become a friend of them although she wasn’t sure how it all started; now they just simply began to get together without even Sunset realizing what she was doing. For someone that had become quite the loner, to see two girls that simply didn’t even care about the gloomy and spiky aura around Sunset, that was something to be amazed of.
So it was with some trepidation that Sunset Shimmer had followed her two friends into what seemed an abandoned garage build somewhat removed from the other buildings of the school. The redhead was also surprised that the school was this big considering how little help they got from the government since they didn’t have the high tuition fees of places like Crystal Prep, Pearl Coast or even GlowShine Academy. The place was relaxing and not a bad place to continue her studies so all this seemed bizarre.
“So, what’s the whole deal with keeping secrets and such? I mean, this is Applejack we are talking about; I thought she would tell me what was going on the moment she asked me to come with you girls,” at her sides, both teenagers avoided looking directly into Sunset’s eyes so it was a clear sign they were hiding something, it was pretty damn obvious.
“Oh shoot girl, it ain’t nothin’ dangerous, well, not exactly what mah parents will call safe, but we ain’t gonna do nothing wrong.”
“If it weren’t because I got used to your country style of talking I would be left scratching my head wondering what the hell you just said; what’s the whole point with this place? It looks abandoned.”
“Well, it is abandoned, or at least no one puts any attention to this side of the school; you will see what I mean once I open the door,” Rainbow rolled up some imaginary sleeves and began to push the metal doors that were on the front of the garage. Considering the size of both building and door, Sunset was thinking that the place looked more like a hangar.
Once the doors were pushed open and light finally hit the interior of the place -in who knows how many years- Sunset realized why the girls called her here. It was a metal miracle of human ingenuity and imagination. It was green with caterpillar tracks that seemed to be in pretty good condition.
“Wait, what’s an M3A1 doing here in the school?” at the words of Sunset the other two teenagers looked at each other with similar smiles in their faces.
“Ah told ya she will recognize it, pay up Rainbow.”
“I don’t know what I was thinking,” was the only thing said before the exchange of a small bill.
“You didn’t answer; what’s a tank doing here? I checked the school and there is no Sensha-do club in the school; believe me, I made sure that was the case when I decided to enroll in this school.”
“Well, that’s a very specific investigation ya did there; but is true, there ain’t no real Sensha-do club in the schools since… well, ah think my own ma was still in this school when the Sensha-do club was shut down.”
“So what’s with this thing? What is it doing in the school? Is this the place the club used?”
“We don’t know, AJ found this tank here a couple of days ago,” so if they just found it, that explained why the tank seemed to be in such disrepair; with the paint chipping and many burns and marks that made it very clear that the vehicle had been a part of many matches “we think that the club left it here because they couldn’t sell it or exchange it to another school.”
“No wonder, I mean, this is a light tank that wouldn’t even scratch a Panther’s armor, just look at it, it has a 37mm gun; this thing is mostly useless.”
“But do you think it would be operational?”
“What? Are you crazy Rainbow? You girls have one single light tank, besides, why do you want to revive a club that no one seems to be interested in?” At her question, Sunset saw the fire burning behind Rainbow’s eyes; it was the same kind of fire she saw whenever the girl was on the soccer field.
“Do you know how fucking humiliating is to lose to every single school team out there all the time?”
“Rainbow, curse words!”
“Whatever, so I am a fu-freaking sport genius and the best player Canterlot has; it means nothing when the rest of the team allow three goals whenever I make two. I’m tired of losing Sunset and everyone in the school is tired of it too. Last week the tennis club had a match against Crystal Heart,” Sunset knew of Crystal Heart Academy for Women; it was apparently the even more exclusive cousin of the already exclusive school Canterlot Prep “each and every one of our players were trounced; heck, they didn’t even score one single point!”
“So what’s this whole thing about Sensha-do then?”
“I told you Sunset, I’m the greatest athlete this school has since it was created,” oh, how humble Rainbow was “but I cannot carry a whole team by myself, it leads nowhere so I thought, well, Sensha-do has fewer members in the team, like 3 or 4 by tank so, you know, less people to carry, better ways to win right?”
“First of all, you won’t get anywhere with only one tank in your team; second of all, why not join something else, like tennis? If you say you are such a good athlete, why not join them and win at singles?”
“Please, me, on a tennis uniform? I leave that to Rarity and the like. I don’t know Sunset, I just… when AJ and I found the tank, it just, clicked you know? Like, I wanted to shoot the gun and see the enemy tank get blown backwards… I just want to give it a chance.”
“And you AJ?”
“Ah’ve never been part of a team, but ah know mah way aroun’ a tank so I just went along Rainbow here, besides, what’s the worst that could happen?” if only Applejack knew.
“So what’s the whole point of making me come here? Is this some kind of recruitment? Because if it is I have bad news for you.”
“Come on Sunset, we know you are pretty freaking good at this stuff.”
“Wait… what? How did you know? What do you know?!” Now Sunset was starting to get worried, what was going on? At least the faces ridden with guilt of both teenagers in front of her gave her a pretty clear picture of what was going on.
“Ah may have read a couple o’ things about ya; ya know, the whole ‘Sun of the Battlefield’ and all that.”
“DON’T YOU EVER CALL ME THAT AGAIN!” neither girl were prepared for the kind of outburst and rage that were present on Sunset’s face “do you want to know why I wanted to transfer into this school? Because there was no fucking Sensha-do program! That’s why! So whatever plans you and miss ego here have don’t count on me!” She said turning around without a goodbye, she simply kept on walking leaving her two friends behind. Now it was only a matter of time for other students to know who she was and what she had done. It was a pity since she had started to like the school; well, time to search for another academy.
As she walked, Sunset thought back to the moment where she left the nickname behind, the moment when she had said goodbye to Sensha-do and never again will she be pushed into another tank. This way everyone will be safe.
“Welp, ah guess we blew this whole thing sky high,” for only answer Rainbow’s glare was trying to make a hole right through the blonde girl’s head due to that comment. It was true that the plan didn’t go the way they wanted, but it was a little too much to speak about it in that way. So much for having a sure way plan that could in no way fail; apparently it could if the person you are trying to recruit not only refused the recruitment, but also all but screamed in their faces that the last thing she ever wanted to do was Sensha-so. If Sunset Shimmer -who had been heralded as the future of the sport- wanted nothing to do with tanks, then what possibilities the two teenagers had of reviving the club.
It had seemed so easy when they talked; when they planned it all once they knew who exactly Sunset Shimmer was. Well, that’s how it went with plans; they all looked well in paper until humans were involved in their execution, so in the end everything went up in flames, kind of symbolic considering the flame like hair of the Sensha-so expert that was resolutely against the sport.
“No kidding, I thought she was going to start biting us with how mad she was back there.”
“Nah, she wasn’t mad.”
“Oh, really? All the screaming and walking away must have been my imagination.”
“Sure, she seemed that way, but you heard what she said, that she chose this school because it didn’t have Sensha-do, so that means that she was running away from it.”
“But why? Didn’t your mom say she was like a freaking genius at it or something?”
“Well, yeah, momma has always been interested in tanks; she met dad that way apparently.”
“So… what did she tell you exactly? Because that girl back there didn’t seem very excited about the whole tank sport thingy.”
“She didn’t say much just that she had seen a match last year when she was with her old school. Momma said that Sunset was the greatest general she had seen in a long time.”
“Geez, you would think that with that kind of recommendation things would be a lot easier,” Rainbow was now close to depressed. Without the star of the sport, there was no way they could get enough people to be part of the re-opened Sensha-do club; that is if they were even able to re-open it. She still had her position in the football club, but these last few days had been rather disheartening, first by losing to Cloudsdale Academy 6-5 and then that rather humiliating loss from the football team to Hearth Mountain. To lose against her childhood friend Gilda’s school like that could only be trumped by losing again to crystal prep on the upcoming Friendship Games.
Looking at the big, fluffy clouds high up in the sky, Rainbow couldn’t find the peace such fine weather would usually bring her. She knew that the current situation with Sunset had something to do with it, but in fact it was only a small part of the dissatisfying semester she have had so far. It wasn’t so much the fact that they were losing at everything; Rainbow more or less had gotten used to the fact that Canterlot High didn’t have the recruiting capabilities for the sports team nor the training and installations required to get better at them. She felt unfulfilled more than anything, like when you are full at a restaurant after eating all the bread instead of satisfying your appetite with a good steak. I think it was quite obvious that Rainbow liked to think with her stomach.
As they continued walking through the abandoned hangar and club house, they tried to think of another strategy to get members, not that they could think of something right now, after all, the rejection from Sunset had left them completely lost for the moment. As this happened with the two girls, another set of steps were heard getting closer to them taking them out of their own ruminations.
“My sweet lord, this whole place truly needs a good clean up, just look at all the spider webs; I swear, the school needs to take better care of the place, oh my poor heels, it will take a lot of scrubbing to get all this dust out of them, I knew I should have used my low boots for today,” the highly posh -and also highly whinny at least in the opinion of Rainbow- had a napkin over her nose as if condemning all the dust accumulated through the years with the act.
Both Rainbow Dash and Applejack stood gawking at their classmate and somewhat friend Rarity. To see the prima donna close to the Sensha-do garage was a surprise on itself considering how ladylike she was all the time. Although, now that AJ thought about it, didn’t Sensha-do start in Japan as a ladylike hobby alongside archery and such?
“Wut? Rares, what are ya doin’ here? Ah thought ya had a Tennis Club reunion at this hour.”
“Oh yes indeed, although things went as well as I expected, but enough about me, what are you two doing in this place? Except maybe trying to revive the Sensha-do club?” That smile of the prime and proper girl always spelled disaster to those that didn’t know the mind of the number one information gatherer of the school.
“Ah won’t even ask how ya knew that.”
“Wait, hold on, you two know each other?” Rainbow said as she pointed at the two extremely different girls while these two smiled fondly at each other.
“You betcha all yer Wonderbolts souvenirs we do Rainbow; Rares here has been mah neighbor since Ah was 10.”
“Oh yes indeed, we’ve been having sleepovers at each other’s houses since she moved to Canterlot, oh that was such a lovely time, not that we have been spending too much time these days.” At this, AJ slightly winced at how busy the two had been “now, do not make that face AJ, we’ve both been very busy with our respective hobbies.”
“Still, maybe ah should have tried to get in contact with ya more.”
“Well, that’s in the past; after all, I’ll have a lot more free time since I was thrown out of the Tennis Club.”
“THAT YOU WERE WHAT?! But ya’ve been playin’ since ya were in junior high! What the hell is wrong with that coach?!”
“Pure favoritism if you ask me; apparently the team has been performing so bad that they had to find a scapegoat and it ended up being me. That uncouth plebeian that calls himself coach wanted to give me a warning due to my, and I quote, poor performance against beatable opponents. Pure fallacy since he decided not to let me play against Crystal Heart,” looking at he usually very pale girl grow more and more agitated was something new to the two other girls since they had never seen Rarity lose her composure “so I decided to hand my resignation and went to look for you. Like I said, I know you are trying to get a new team to open the Sensha-do club.”
“Are ya sure about this Rares? This ain’t like tennis so don’t expect much out of it.”
“I’ll be the judge of that, besides, this may let me have my revenge against those pompous girls at Crystal Heart at last, not to mention that I’ll be able to spend some time with my good friend once more, so, what do you say? Am I in the team?”
“Uh… I guess? I mean, we are only three right now, so there’s not much to get excited about, considering that we don’t even have enough for one crew right now.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t be so sure of that Miss Rainbow,” Rarity said recovering her small teasing smile as two figures appeared from around the garage. One was the redheaded girl that had stomped not too long ago, basically being pushed in their direction by one girl they knew well.
“Fluttershy? What are you doing here?” The incredulous look and confusion of Rainbow were ignored.
“Come on Sunset, you know this is the right way.”
“Look, I cannot do this, you know why I gave up Sensha-do and after all that do you still want me to get involved with it?” The face of Sunset was not angry anymore, more like remorseful, as if remembering something bad “fine, be it that way, but if I’m joining, you are joining too.” Even as Fluttershy began to stutter a denial or any other word, she knew that it was not a threat; it was basically an order from the older girl. At that, Rainbow and AJ’s face lighted up with smiles. Sure, it was only 5 people, but it was enough to revive the Sensha-do club once more.
“Oh, look at this, look at that, there is a real tank! Can it go boom and then woosh and then ra-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta? Oh wait that’s a machine gun but the tank has a machine gun well it has the place for one so it is good enough do you think this thing still works or does it need some repair I’m kind of good at those things!” There was only one option for the speed and torrent of words being uttered, there was only one person they knew that could appear out of nowhere like this.
“PINKIE?!” The five teenagers said at the same time as Sunset’s face grew morose once more, comical unshed tears appearing on the corner of her eyes while she looked at the sky, wondering what she had done to deserve this kind of punishment.
Sunset Shimmer looked at the metallic monster left forgotten inside the hangar as one looks at a painting or another member of the ‘modern art’ genre; with the same kind of ‘what the hell?’ look. Well, it wasn’t that extreme since Sunset knew what the very-much-left-to-its-own-luck thing was. It was a tank, hurray for knowing that. Sarcasm aside, Sunset Shimmer wasn’t looking at the tank with lost or amateur eyes like many others that didn’t know about tanks or history in general; she was an expert in almost everything related to them, from the construction day, armament and most importantly, how to drive and fire with one.
It was not the lack of knowledge that made her keep on looking at the M3A1 left behind by everyone, but her eyes were looking beyond the steel and wood of the hangar. She was looking at the past and the sheer irony of what had happened not too many minutes ago.
She felt like laughing, not because it was terribly hilarious, but mostly because the way in which life decided to send her very well thought plans up into smoke and then laugh in her face for good measure. It was so simple, really, leave her previous school and run as fast and far away as she could from the world of tanks and into a peaceful, normal life with not even one vehicle with treads and turret around her for miles.
Sunset’s idea worked in the last few days she had been at Canterlot High, she even had fun which was not something that people or ponies that knew of Sunset in the past will believe, but it was true. Sure, she wasn’t the popular kid in the bunch, but she preferred to be a little far away from the limelight this time, it would help her stress problems.
What a joke, because now she didn’t feel pressure, she felt dread building up in her body due to what could happen at her tenure in Canterlot High, but was it so bad? Many would think that being scouted for one club must be good, especially because you are the only chance the school has of tasting glory, but for Sunset this didn’t feel like an opportunity, it just felt like the first nail in the coffin of her peaceful dreams. Now, instead of dreaming, Sunset had been woken into the reality of Sensha-do due to the noise of turrets firing.
“I hate my life,” she said looking at the rusted carcass of what once was a proud tank, well, it probably wasn’t that proud since it was only a bunch of rivets and metal planks; it wasn’t even that amazing to begin with considering the way the old Stuart or also Honey was never that amazing of a tank considering it was made to be land-leased back at the start of the war; even by the standard of the times it was woefully bad for any kind of Sensha-do battle. No wonder the past Sensha-do club couldn’t get rid of it because it was a piece of junk; even if it had been on perfect conditions there was very little usage the tank had beyond its speed and the small size for hiding.
Sunset had never seen a team use the M3 and its variants on any kind tournament, cup or even friendly matches and the reason was that they had better tanks for recon and hit and run tactics so what was she supposed to do with that tank? Maybe pray for a better tank to be hidden inside the garage, but she was too jaded to think about praying, because there is no way that Sunset will have that kind of good luck.
Sighing once more Sunset decided to stop her whining and start looking at the tank now that she had been convinced to join the re-starting Sensha-do club alongside her friends. She may not be 100% behind the idea of tankery now, but that didn’t mean she won’t do everything on her power to make this work.
First and foremost, the treads would have to be completely replaced considering how damaged they were; the right side was now just fragments only and the left was hanging by the threads. Sunset winced at the mental pun; seems that her mind was working in mysterious ways now.
The paint was chipped and several points across the hull one could see the marks of where tank rounds had directly hit the tank. It seemed to have been hit on several points so it was either all of them at the end of the club or they didn’t have enough money and resources to completely repair it during the last days of the club. Whatever the case may be, the poor Honey seemed in a bad shape and that was only the exterior. Sunset didn’t even want to think about how the whole thing was on the inside.
“Do you think it is possible to repair it?” The dulcet voice of Fluttershy made Sunset turn form her inspection with a pained look on her face; it was more than enough sign to know things weren’t as good as Rainbow may have thought “I’ll take that as a no then.”
“I still have no idea how this thing will be capable of moving again, not that it will be useful on Sensha-do; this thing will fall apart the second it stands in front of a Panzer IV,” it was not a good image.
“Oh my, well, maybe we will find someone to use it as our recon tank?”
“And who will be crazy enough to get behind Rainbow’s idea of restoring the Sensha-do club? Sure, we are five, but’s barely enough people for one tank, or this Honey and a Carro Veloce… I don’t know which is worst,” looking at the exaggerated grieving look on Sunset’s face, the sweet girl could only chuckle.
“Don’t be like that, just have some faith that things will turn out alright.”
“In my life, I have quickly learned that when things get bad, it can only get worst from that point, so no thank you. I mean, I get it; you want me to get over that stupid accident back when, but I don’t know if this is the correct way. Just look around, there is nothing to salvage here that it is worthy! It is a better idea to let these ghosts rest instead of going ahead with Rainbow’s plan.”
“You don’t believe that; I know you Sunset and I know that you will never back off from a challenge like this.”
“Maybe, but all this stills feels wrong somehow not to mention that I feel basically bullied into joining a non-existent club. I don’t want things to be like before the Blue Medal Cup.” Looking at Sunset and the way her face was now showing true grief, Fluttershy took the redhead’s hands.
“Sunset, look at me… I don’t blame you or hold any grudge against you for what happened back then, so is okay, you can do this.”
“But why do you want me so much to be part of this? Do you want me to bring honor back to CH or whatever else Rainbow was spouting?”
“I don’t care about school pride or things like that, I just want you happy. When you took command of a tank, there was a spark on your eyes and I want to see it again.”
“Even if you have to be in the tank with me as it starts rocking and shaking?” Sunset’s smirk made Fluttershy gulp as she became paler due to the mental image of having to be in such circumstances. Knowing that they will have to work hard on that certain aspect of Fluttershy, Sunset simply looked at the abandoned M3 and instead of dread, she felt a little bit hopeful.
She was not going to ask how Pinkie Pie got juice boxes of that particular brand, nor was she going to ask where exactly the pink haired menace had the boxes considering she arrived at the abandoned hangar -well, not so abandoned now- with nothing except presence. Sunset Shimmer also, wisely, decided not to ask Pinkie how she knew she liked that particular blend of pineapple and coconut. In fact, Sunset Shimmer hasn’t been able to drink it since before she transferred to her new home Canterlot City. It was a remnant of her past life since she used to drink something very similar in flavor back at the castle; something that the chefs and staff really liked to drink considering it tasted very tropical and was fresh and refreshing. Now, it was one of the few things Sunset had that made her feel a little connected to her previous life as the Princess personal student, to be fully sincere, she truly enjoyed the flavor now.
Thinking about Canterlot didn’t really bring much nostalgia or a sense of longing from Sunset Shimmer these days, which was odd because not too many years ago, the idea of returning and showing Celestia how great and powerful she was simply… left her mind. Sure, she sometimes wondered how things were back home on the admittedly antiquated world of Equestria, but it was just for a few seconds before something else got her attention, usually something to do with tanks.
These days, due to what happened at the Blue Medal Cup, brought back memories of Equestria and instead of thinking on her plans of conquering that world, now she thought more of what Princess Celestia would have said to her; maybe try to cheer her on or maybe give her some vague hint and mysterious words for her to think and reflect on what happened. Either way, Sunset was sure that Celestia would have said something or would try to do something; that is if she wasn’t too occupied with her new and shining new student.
She wasn’t bitter, just a little melancholic and the sight of the neglected M3A1 only made her think more on those happy memories she had before running away. Now here she was, drinking from a juice box alongside 24/7 herself and her non-stopping mouth, hence the nickname. Thankfully, the show in front of her wasn’t that bad, so that was a plus on her book.
What was so funny? Well, looking at Rainbow holding onto a chain and trying with all her might to bring the M3 Honey into the sun for the first time in years. It was hilariously obvious that even with the strength of an athlete like Rainbow; there was no way in heaven or hell that will allow a single girl to move a monster of metal like the M3. It was even more ridiculous due to the fact that the tank haven’t moved in years and had more problems than simple painting or bullet impacts. Sunset could already see several problems with the metal plates and there was no way that a single human being will be able to move something of that weight on those conditions. Was Sunset going to tell her that? Hell no, this was too fun to make it stop.
“…and that’s when I said ‘oatmeal? Are you crazy?’”
“When do you think Rainbow will notice we brought a crane?”
“Oh, by the time she notices we returned and been drinking juice this whole time.”
“Has she always been like this? I mean, I don’t know her as much as you girls since you’ve been together for at least several years, right?”
“Oh no, I’m not from Canterlot, I was born in Granite Quarry.”
“And where the hell is that place?”
“Oh, right in the Middle of Nowhere, no, wait, there is a new town at the north so is now at the South of Nowhere, they changed the name a year ago,” just by the look of pure sincerity and frankness, Sunset decided to take that on face value instead of breaking her head trying to understand what Pinkie Pie had just said. She was saved further headaches by the arrival of someone Sunset wasn’t expecting.
“What is that thing doing here!?” The usually uptight and slightly somber vice-principal said articulating wildly in the direction of the M3 that haven’t moved an inch. Rainbow at this point was on the floor panting in exertion.
“I don’t know, you tell me, you work on this place,” Sunset wasn’t being facetious, well, she was, but this time she wasn’t. Vice-Principal Luna meanwhile, had to blink several times due to the shock of having her question bounced back on her. Behind her, Rarity had to elbow Applejack right in the stomach as the blonde girl was about to start laughing “If you mean Rainbow, I think she is trying to move a very neglected tank; if it is about the tank, I have no idea, I mean, isn’t this your school? Shouldn’t you know why the tank is here?”
“I’m not talking about Miss Dash here and about that tank; it was used before I even started to work on this school. What I know is that the previous Sensha-do club left it here after their last lost. What I wanted to ask, is what exactly is this whole notion of you and your friends trying to revive the Sensha-do club Miss Shimmer.”
“I don’t know; ask those friends of mine, I’m just here to see how it goes,” Vice-Principal Luna stood there blinking some more due to how calm Sunset Shimmer was, it was quite perplexing for someone who was capable of making even the most problematic of kids in the school get in line with just a look.
“Well, this very same group of friends just brought the news to the office that you lot are planning on getting the Sensha-do club active once more, I just came to see if that was true.”
“Indeed it is, besides, is not like if we could get worst results than the other teams in the school, right?” That was a loaded question and Luna will not dignify herself on answering it.
“I am not questioning results, present, future or past; what I am questioning is this idea of reviving a dead club. Miss Shimmer, the club was shut down because it didn’t have enough members and for a Sensha-do club, five people are not enough for you and your friends to revive it.”
“So you are saying that we need more people then?”
“That and more tanks, so until you are capable of doing that, I am afraid that the decision of the school is that the Sensha-do club will remain shut down, good afternoon,” and with that, the dark haired woman turned around and began to walk away with the other girls gawking at what she had said. This was very interesting for Sunset who smelled something about the whole exchange. This seemed more than just bureaucracy to her, it was as if Vice-Principal Luna was actively trying to keep the club dead. Interesting.
“Well, ain’t that just dandy; what are we supposed to do then and… why are ya smilin’ that way Sunset?”
“Because she just didn’t say that we cannot open the club, what she said is that we need more members before she can make it official.”
“I’m pretty sure you are pulling at strings here darling, but if what we need is lawyering to get our new club re-instated -my word, isn’t that just an oxymoron- then let’s go ahead with what you are planning. Just, a question darling, what are you planning?”
“Pinkie, how many people in our school can you find that want to be part of Sensha-do?” what came next was probably the world record in speed texting.
Sometimes you never know what will appear from the inside of a box; sometimes it can be awesome things like a new mp3 device or maybe a face full of spiders. Thankfully, this time Rainbow was fortunate enough to receive the first one, with one of the boxes left behind in the hangar contained metallic parts. Rainbow had started to read about Sensha-do and stuff related to it, but she was in no way an expert at anything so far and the pieces simply confused her even more.
The group of friends was taking their time, cleaning the abandoned hangar and scoring the place for more information of what exactly happened to the previous Sensha-do club since Vice-Principal Luna was in no mood to give away that information. It was quite unfortunate that Principal Celestia was not in town at the moment; Rainbow was sure that she would allow them to revive the club with no fuss whatsoever. Sunset was suspicious of the reason why Luna was against the club in the first place; maybe it was the cost, but that could not be the only thing happening for her to act that way. She was being even more forceful on this and that did not fit with the image the Vice-Principal had of tough but fair with the students. In any case, the girls were busy now that the Honey was outside and ready for the cleaning and repairing that the thing deserved after such a long time of being abandoned.
Another thing that the girls had been doing, besides waiting for the tow truck to take the tank to a Sensha-do regulated tank repair shop, was to make a list of stuff around the place. So far they have found a catalogue of mod shops, completely legal since it sold parts of tanks, like heated seats and radio equipment; alongside that it had information about special Sensha-do ammunition and paint job discounts; the last one had probably expired by now, or probably the shop had also went belly up too.
“Hey, Sunset! Any idea what these things are?” At hearing her name being mentioned, Sunset stopped moving the broom that had been pushed into her hands by Rarity. She didn’t mind it so much since she also agreed that the place needed to be cleaned. They probably also had to call some pest control just to be safe. Looking into the box that Rainbow was showing her, she smiled knowing that at least they had some good news in all of this.
“Great, they seem to be spare parts for the Honey, nice, they even seem to be never used by the looks of it,” she said taking one of the hoses at the bottom, inspecting it for any hole or deterioration. At Rainbow’s incredulous look she put everything back inside the box “what’s wrong?”
“You can just know that by looking at it?”
“Well, yeah, these are all parts of a Twin Cadillac series 42 and since that is the engine of the M3 Stuart, well, that seems logical.”
“Are you saying that you even know the engines and the parts that belong to it?”
“It took me a while and I’m slightly rusty these days.”
“Dude, I’m glad I asked you to be part of this whole thing.”
“Oh Rainbow, you may be saying something different in a few days considering all the amount of training you girls will be part of. Is this the only thing you found?”
“Well, that and several cans of oil still unopened.”
“Maybe we can take a look at those later on; anything on your side girls?” Sunset raised her voice to call the attention of the other girls who were right now looking through a drawer full of boxes similar to the one Rainbow had been looking at.
“More mechanic pieces that we truly need you to take a look at; probably more pieces of that Honey tank of ours, but with some luck these will give us some hints of what other tanks this club had.”
“I still say we should probably ask around the school, maybe someone still remembers what happened back then.”
“I doubt it Rainbow,” Sunset continued talking as she took a look at the boxes and other spare parts which didn’t really told her much until she took a better look at them. She was much more confident in USA tanks and pieces considering the amount of time she spend driving her ‘little’ Pershing back when she was still an avid reader and fanatic of Sensha-do “besides, there must be an accountant book or maybe even the Club Annotations Book for that kind of thing.”
“The what on the what now? Ah’m kind of new to this whole tankery thingy, so care to explain that for us with less than perfect knowledge of this whole thing?”
“I suppose I can do that considering we will have to do those things if we can get the club up and running again. So, one thing that all clubs need to have is the Accounting Book; basically a place where all the expenses are written down to keep track of important stuff, like how much money they had to use for repairs, new tanks and such.”
“And where exactly does a team get that kind of money? Because I’ve seen some amazingly looking tanks, but I’ve never asked how much they cost; I’m pretty sure they are not cheap,” Fluttershy said as she kept on cleaning the different shelves with a rag. Now that the shy girl had put the question on the air, the rest of the girls that were new to the inner workings of the sport got curious.
“That’s a good question and something that many take for granted. So, since it is a sports club, you know, like the football club or the basketball club, the school pays for most of the stuff, like uniforms, transportation and the like, alongside the balls the team need and maybe replacing old equipment. That’s the same with Sensha-do, with schools having a bigger budget allocating more money to these clubs, especially the ones that have dedicated Sensha-do programs.”
“That must be pretty sweet; are there many of those schools?”
“Is pretty normal, I mean, you have the NCAA schools, but in terms of High School programs, you have places like Manehattan Tech or Baltimare High,” the programs at those schools were pretty much legendary at this point “but for most schools, like Canterlot and others in the area, some of that money comes from the students that are part of the club.”
“Wait, that means we are going to pay for a tank? I don’t think we can even get enough money between us to buy a car less a tank!”
“Some tanks costs even less than a car by this point Rainbow, I mean, I think we can scrap enough to buy a small T-45 if we need to, not that I wish we have to get to that point. No, we can also get scholarships and loans from the NTSA, that’s the National Tankery Society of America; they are the guys that oversee pretty much every single tournament and cup in the country.”
“So, we get in contact with these fellas and then we can get new tanks? But what about the other book? That whole Annotation thingy?” AJ said with the small notepad in her hands which made Sunset smile knowing that at least they will get to know more about the school now that they had found the thing.
“Where did you find it?”
“I looked inside one of the desk that had been put on the back of the hangar, is it important sugarcube?”
“Very, it is basically a list of members, tanks, modifications and plans for the club; think of it like the achievements book and inventory list of the club all at the same time. Now, let’s see, most of the names seems to have been erased or something; everything is so smudgy to read, but… yeah, here we have a complete list of tanks the club had!”
“Awesome! So does that mean we can have more than one tank?”
“Well, first we are going to have to find them Rainbow, because I for one don’t want to be in debt with the NTSA this early on my return, but for now, it seems we have a treasure hunt on our hands,” Sunset kept on reading, trying to find all the information she could about some abandoned tanks from the school club when the five girls heard several steps getting closer. Turning around, they saw Pinkie accompanied by other people that they recognized. Seems that they got new members.
“Rejoice, because you have been blessed since the Great and Powerful Trixie has decided to join your club!”
“I thought your name was Beatrice?” The blonde girl at her side asked immediately making the wannabe magician lose the small modicum of temper she had.
“THE NAME IS GREAT AND POWERFUL TRIXIE!” The blue haired girl said, while Muffins, or more commonly known as Derpy, kept on looking at her with the same calm and quite charming little smile of hers, completely undisturbed by the outrage of the other girl. The rest of those that had accompanied Pinkie began to laugh at the unintended show. Sunset also laughed alongside them knowing that there were things that they had to do before they could even think about opening the club once again. They had the members; they had the information, now they only had to find the tanks.
All and all, maybe it wasn’t that bad of an idea to come back to Sensha-do; there was still a part of her that wanted to get out from here screaming into the night, but she just couldn’t leave her friends -specially Fluttershy- behind; maybe it was time to put behind her fear and embrace the opportunity the world was giving her.
Of course, all of her optimism evaporated from Sunset’s mind once she took a look at the kind of people that ad responded to Pinkie’s emergency call not too long ago. Maybe it was the idea of getting one over Vice-Principal Luna or maybe it was just the high from the impossibly sugary juice-box she drank half an hour ago.
There was a little war that no on in the world knew about, mostly because the war was simply a mental construction created by Sunset’s imagination to represent the two decisions that Sunset could take at the moment. One side was fighting for running as far as she could from Canterlot and once again go into her self-imposed exile from anything that looked like a tank, which reality was harder than it sounds since tankery was as popular as football pretty much everywhere. The other side, the one that seemed to have the most power and drive was the side of her that wanted to be in charge of a tank once more, to feel the rumbling of a cannon being fired.
That side of her was being helped by a powerful ally, in this case the healing words and presence of the nicest and kindest girl she had ever met and this came from someone that originally came from a world that was ruled by those principles. Fluttershy didn’t raise her voice, didn’t demand anything or even used her patented glare to convince her to give Rainbow’s idea a chance; she simply listened to Sunset and her fears and never asked for any kind of retribution or reparations after the accident at the Blue Medal Cup last year. The worst part was that even thinking about ignoring her and the crazy idea of reviving the Sensha-do club made her feel queasy and almost as if she was betraying Fluttershy’s trust. Sunset hated the fact that she had gained a conscious since she left Princess Celestia and her old world.
Looking at the assembled students at the entrance of the garage made her think twice about the whole idea of Sensha-do. It was not only discouraging, but enough to make that part of Sunset that had fun making Vice-Principal lose her patience and think twice about what she had been planning.
It was one thing to have her friends -or at least acquaintances in the case of Rarity- at her side as she started to warm up to the idea of getting tanks and ride once more into the battlefield. It was another to see the students reunited and think of them as a unified front, ready to ride a tank and follow commands. It was impossible, maybe she could simply turn around, count to ten and suddenly all of them will disappear. No, she has never been lucky enough for something like that to help.
On the other hand, it was amazing that this many girls had arrived with the idea of learning about tanks and battle once more in the name of Canterlot High. It was refreshing to think that the ideals of Sensha-do haven’t been lost to the school and even after all these years students still wanted to represent the school. Of course, it still didn’t mean that they were all in the clear since they had possible recruits, but still no working tanks.
“Okay, listen up girls, you all came here because you want to be part of something great, right? You want to revive the Sensha-do club, or at least I hope since it was Pinkie the one that send the message and not even I trust Pinkie with something simple like that,” Sunset half joked making the reunited students laugh merrily. Pinkie was the friendliest girl one could meet, but they all knew of the strange and ridiculous things that could happen around her. Behind the redhead, the pinkette pouted at the joke at her expense, but it was simply playing around since she understood how useful some humor was helpful in breaking the ice.
Fluttershy also politely smiled at the joke as she saw a side that many people haven’t seen yet. There was a fire -pardon the pun- inside the usually grumpy and cantankerous teenager known as Sunset Shimmer, one that could only be seen once she was in the position that she took over by instinct; that of a commander. Well, technically speaking, it was the position of leader that Sunset was a natural at, almost as if she had been groomed for something like that.
“Leaving Pinkie and her pinkiness aside, let me be frank with you and no Rainbow, that was not an invitation to a joke,” without even turning around she could feel Rainbow deflate after having such an opportunity be simply yanked underneath her like that “right now there is no real Sensha-do club; the club was disbanded several decades ago and so far there is only one tank at our disposal. To make a return we will need to find more tanks, but thanks to other members of the new club we have a list of all the tanks that legally still belong to the club and we will be able to get them all back to the garage!” ‘Or at least I hope so,’ Sunset thought as she heard the way the other girls cheered at those words.
Looking around the garage, Sunset tried to get a closer look at those that had answered to the call, finding already some similarities among them, which made the bunch even more bizarre in her opinion. There was no real cohesion among the students due to the fashion and looks among them.
One group, obviously being led by the Annoying and Whiny Trixie, stood almost in a circle, with members of Trixie’s band, both Lavender Lace and Fuchsia Blush. Also with them there was Baton Switch -also known as Sweeten Sour due to how sweet she was in comparison with her sister at Crystal Prep- and Cloudy Kicks. It was interesting to see her without Tennis Match at her side considering how close those two usually were.
The other group was smaller, consisting of Muffins and none other than Mystery Mint. That in itself was a surprise and a rather strange duo considering how… odd Muffin was on a daily basis while Mystery was quite the rocker. A second later they were joined by the ever effervescent Pinkie Pie and the three began to joke as Mystery simply rolled her eyes at something the other two had said in good humor.
The other group -and also the most glamorous- was the full photography and modeling club. Photo Finish holding her ever present camera, alongside Pixel Pizzazz, Violet Blur and their usual photograph target, Amethyst Star. She knew about them since they were the most fashion oriented girls alongside Rarity. She knew about them mainly from Fluttershy who somehow knew a lot of the queens of fashion in school. How someone that was basically geared towards nature and cute critters knew so much about fashion was a true mystery.
Well, if this is the material she had to work with then there was nothing she could do except go forward; maybe it was time to take control of the whole operation like the commander she once thought she couldn’t be anymore.
“Okay everyone, who is ready for a treasure hunt!”
And the research started with a thunderous cheer by the girls in the garage. Soon, they all began to look at the instructions left on the small leather bound notebook that the leaders of the new club had found. Well, no one was the leader so far, but most girls deferred to Sunset at this point, except for Trixie who was Trixie and for some reason was thinking that all power in the new club will fall upon her. She was special in that way.
Every girl soon divided in groups without even the need of orders and they soon went searching on the elusive tanks that had been part of the once proud team of Canterlot High. It was fun to see all the girls these excited with something like that considering they didn’t have any real information about the condition or what exactly the tanks were. Most information seemed to have been erased from the notebook much to the surprise of Sunset.
Usually clubs always took careful notes of what their roster was at any moment, with things like main teams and substitutions something normal in most schools. Also, Sunset understood that every school was different and not only the students that were part of the team were very different from one school to the other, but the tactics, the philosophy behind the battle and most importantly, the tanks.
Tanks were the main focus of all teams and the philosophy of the team was reflected on the line up each club had. Some, like Sunset’s previous school, liked to focus on the power of the heavy and medium tanks like the Pershing. Schools like Cloudsdale had T34s in their line up to use hit and run tactics that, although slightly inefficient against well prepared teams, brought them some victories on the official Sensha-do league and cups.
This time, after reading the little information still relevant on the notebook, Sunset couldn’t even imagine what kind of tactics or battle plan Canterlot High used; it was all just a weird mish mash of tanks of all types that simply left her perplexed. Was the club so bad in terms of support and reserves that they had to get their tanks from sales at different stores or something similar? It was clear that the M3 Stuart was not a mistake and indeed they had one. Probably that was part of the reason why the club went belly up.
No matter, they were still in the fence and they had to find tanks if they had any chance of reviving the club. With that in order the girls quickly began to search all across the school and beyond, into the quiet streets of Canterlot where mostly small family businesses and homes were present. Their quest was one that felt more like a Treasure hunt as Sunset had told them, but most girls were truly interested in the adventure.
“What do you think we will find first? Maybe a Tiger, or what about a Maus?!” began to spout Rainbow who was getting excited at the idea of finding some rare tanks out there. Sunset simply arched an eyebrow at the way the other girl was acting; almost like a little girl that was in a toy shop. This was not something Sunset was used to see; maybe Rainbow was truly getting into the whole Sensha-do mind set.
“If we ever find a Maus, which will be a miracle, almost like winning the lottery at this point; besides, considering the rarity of that type of tank and how poorly Canterlot High did, I don’t think they ever had a truly awesome tank.”
“Come on, what a way to pop the balloon.”
“She’s right Rainbow, Ah don’t think they ever had something of that caliber in that club; momma would have told me that story already.”
“Was your mother also in Sensha-do my dear?”
“Ah’m not quite sure, but she knows her fair share of it; do ya think she was part of the club when it was closed down? Ah mean, momma was a student at CH,” the blonde had a point, but so far it was just a theory that had nothing to do with them. True, it was a mystery, but their attention should be placed on finding more tanks and maybe be able to revive it.
“Well, I hope we are able to find more tanks, this place is not exactly small; I think it would be easier if we lived on a carrier,” listening to the comment from Fluttershy, Sunset had to hide her laughter with a cough while the other girls simply stared with clear confusion at their mild mannered friend.
“I hope it is not the same situation; I don’t feel in the mood to enter a tournament and win it. I like the school, but I don’t want to be pressured to save it,” Sunset said in reference to the Sensha-do story that the two had seen before. It was true that the now legendary fight for survival at Oarai had been modified when it was turned into an animation, but many things had been changed, just like the whole place they lived, which was completely nonsensical and impossible.
While the two girls had to contain their giggles, the other three quickly understood that it was basically an inside joke and the three wondered how well Fluttershy and Sunset knew each other. Shrugging they continued their search across the other buildings of CH, like the gym and the track field, but they were looking at obvious places just to take all possibilities out of the list; but soon, Rainbow’s cellphone went off and with a large smile she showed the message to Sunset.
Several minutes later, the five girls were inside the local theater and were looking at the creature made out of metal in wonder.
“So wait, let me get this straight, this thing here has been used by the theater troupe as a prop?! What in tarnation?”
“Well, it has become a part of the theater at this point,” the man in front of them, Sonnet Globe, explained to them as Trixie and company inspected the tank that seemed to have seen better days. Sunset couldn’t believe the way in which the tank had been painted in so many garish colors, as if someone had decided to use the tank as a canvas for some strange psychedelic painting “we also sometimes use it on our modern re-enactment of Romeo and Juliet; is it true that you will take it from us?”
“I’m sorry, but we need this tank for the Sensha-do club at our school,” usually, Fluttershy was the best when it came to reach an agreement in peace, but this Sonnet guy seemed to have been part of whatever school Rarity learned her best drama queen moments.
“Oh, what a blow to the fine arts; I will love to give you this beautiful prop, but it would be impossible. Everyone in the troupe as gone quite attached. Using this beautiful Sherman for warmongering is so savage, is better as a canvas of dreams.”
“First, the tank was only loaned to the local theater troupe until the moment the Sensha-do club needed it again, which is now,” Sunset quickly interrupted the man, partly because she wanted the tank and partly because she was also tempted to hit him due to how annoying he was “second, the tank is not a Sherman, I’m pretty sure you never even tried to research it and just went with the only tank name you knew. This tank is not even from the American continent, it is Swedish.”
“Wait, Sweden had tanks?” Cloudy Kicks asked as she inspected the interior of the tank, which was surprisingly well preserved.
“They were never officially part of the fight, but the rules allow their usage since they were created on the right time. This is a Stridsvagn m/42 or Strv in short; it is a light tank that was created by AB Landsverk and it is really good tank, well done girls,” she was going to go ahead with her explanation, but a new series of messages caught everyone’s attention. It seems that the club had some hope because now, not only they had the Stuart and the Strv, they had other 3, so it was time to prepare for their first offensive; show Luna that they were ready to revive the club.
It was time to go to war.
Would you believe that one tank was found inside the barn of the Apple family? I think it was hard for AJ to know that considering that she had few memories of her childhood when she used to live there; after she started to go to Elementary school, the family moved to the city since Applejack’s father was not a farmer, but instead took the apples that the family harvested and made one of the most famous beverages in the state with them. Thanks to that, Applejack maintained her family accent intact, but besides helping sporadically at the old farm, she was a city girl.
Opening the old barn and letting the musky and pungent aroma of left over hay pass over them, Pinkie Pie, Muffin and Mystery Mint first coughed and hacked at the smell and the dust storm that was set free from years of being abandoned by the farming family.
It was clear that the place had seen better days and that it had been left unattended for a particularly long time, but this was their best bet to find one of the left over tanks; at least according to Pinkie’s weird gut feeling. While most people will simply take what Pinkie said with a grain of salt, the students of Canterlot High knew the importance of listening to Pinkie talk and her weird premonitions.
Inside the barn, among the hay and dust, there was only silence and loneliness. Through the beams on the walls, light played games with the particles of dust, making weird shadows and figures appear. This light was slightly reflected on something metallic among all the hay that had been left inside the barn; once they removed it, they found out an interesting construction that made them smile in happiness and while Pinkie texted back to her friends the news, Muffin and Mystery called Big Mac over with his truck, ready to tow the tank back to the school.
The Trixie Team meanwhile -named by Trixie herself, although the rest of the team would reject the name each and every time-stood behind, taking are of the tank found at the theater, already seeing how back the situation was with the powerful machine.
Of the five girls currently sitting inside the tank, none of them truly knew how to even manage the beast. It was clear that the girls were excited at the idea of being in command of such a powerful machine, but the specifics of how to control it were lost to them.
Trixie was sitting behind the driver seat, looking outside the tank as they waited for the tow truck, looking at everything and enjoying the feeling of power that brought her to be inside the tank. She imagined herself being adored by multitude of fans as they cheered her on.
Inside the tank, the other two members of her band were busy checking the space across the turret control, in awe at such invention. It was clear that it would require a lot of strength to be able to load the tank.
Baton Switch meanwhile, was resting comfortable at one side of the tank, looking at her phone at the different messages and photos accumulated inside. One of those photos showed a younger Baton accompanied by a girl of similar hair. The photo had been taken several years ago, before the twins took different roads; how ironic that that life had brought them into the road of tanks.
Finally, the girl known as Cloudy Kicks entertained herself by looking at the controls of the tank. In a way it reminded her of a big truck, with levers and pedals that made the monster move and travel across the road. It was nostalgic for her to hold the levers, remembering her father and the years he spent working as a truck driver, traveling across states and regaling her with stories of things he had seen out there in the road.
As a girl that was born on a big family -she had two brothers and a sister, not to mention the list of cousins, aunts, uncles, nephews and nieces-, Cloudy Kicks learned of the importance of family, teamwork and the values that were brought from the other side of the border. Her mother always joked that was probably the reason she drove like that. Imagining the things she could do on the tank and how she could bring the engine to the max brought a smile on her face.
Meanwhile, the last team stood right in the middle of the park several streets away from the school looking astonished at what everyone so far thought it was only a statue. In reality, it was the resting place of what must have been one of the abandoned tanks of Canterlot High Sensha-do club. It was low, really low in comparison of anything they had ever seen before.
Photo Finish had grown among people that either participated in wars or worked around wars. From soldiers to war photographers, Photo had found her calling thanks to an old and dusty Polaroid Pathfinder that had become the relic of the family.
Her own great grandfather had been part of both wars as a journalist and although the Pathfinder wasn’t the camera that he had used then, it was the camera that had survived the longest and now stood inside the family home, to be admired by the new generations.
The rather exuberant and theatrical teenager loved both sides of her family and the decision of joining the Sensha-do club was her way of paying tribute to the history of her family, although in a much safer way.
Pixel gawked at the way the tank had been tagged by multiple hands and apparently no one had cleaned it. It was in a way almost artistic, due to the colors and precision of words and drawings painted across the metal body, but she also imagined how humiliating must be for members of the past Sensha-do team to see the state in which their tank had fallen to.
She was a fashion oriented girl and over everything else was art, but sometimes pride and honor superseded fashion and Pixel was going to show some respect to this tank, first by cleaning it and then by driving the hell out of it on the battlefield.
Of the two assistants of Photo Finish, Pizzazz was the one that talked the less, being usually distant with her peers, but it wasn’t because she thought herself better than the rest of her classmates, but due to deeper problems. While she was now renowned for being always extravagant and full of glitter and fashion, if one looked at pictures of her younger self, they will not be able to recognize her.
Usually wearing overalls, shorts and her hair fluffed and uncared for, Pizzazz was always a rambunctious kid, one that enjoyed the outside. It was the norm for her and her family to go out on camping trips or spend her days watching tanks and Sensha-do matches in TV or live.
The reason why she now hid that wild and carefree part of herself behind the mask of extravagant clothing was only known by her close friends Pixel and Photo, but watching the tank and the promise of being able to ride one for the first time woke up something inside Pizzazz, something that she thought had been left behind.
She was practically doting on the tank now, talking to it and lightly caressing its exterior as if it were a wounded puppy; it was so surprising that the last member of the group stood gawking at the way the other girl was behaving.
She had been part of the Photography Club for a time now and never before have she seen Pizzazz act like that; usually the other girl was quiet and rarely showed her feelings in such a dramatic fashion. Pointing at the girl and without even words, the sunglasses wearing girl smiled at their model.
“Ya, little Pizzazz has always been a fan of tanks, which is wunderbar for our next project and yes, once you break the shell, fraulein Pizzazz has quite the animated personality, now, shall we?” Photo said with a grin to Amethyst as this one kept on looking at her companions with a dumbfounded look. Shrugging her shoulders, the model simply relaxed, knowing that even weirder stuff will happen considering how the club was.
It might have been weird for someone that wanted to be a permanent part of runway shows the idea of driving and fighting on tanks, but she knew of other models and fashion debutants that also dabbed on the activity, like Suri Polomare of Crystal Prep and the captain of the Crystal Heart Team, none other than Fleur de Lys. Maybe Sensha-do had some lessons for the upcoming model, so why not enjoy the moment like the rest of her friends?
“Yes? Fraulein Sunset? We have found da magicks!” even from the other side of the phone, Sunset could hear the dramatics and the flair of the extravagant girl and could only sigh. It was something that she had been doing lately way too many times and it only increased with all the idiosyncrasies that the rest of the girls showed by the minute.
At least now they had more tanks, but it wasn’t enough yet for a fully-fledged team, considering the minimum amount of tanks allowed on Sensha-do was 5. With Photo’s call, now they had 4 and she was out of people that wanted to be part of the club, but just as she thought that, there came the sound of footsteps echoing on the still empty garage making her turn around and find a trio that was well known by the city.
The Canterlot Motley Crew girls were renowned for their attempts to become famous while doing every kind of crazy tricks in front of a camera. They were moderately popular already, but mostly because of how hilarious their attempts usually were, not because they were cool or interesting, so seeing them in person only sent a jolt of dread across Sunset’s back.
“Heya Sunset, are ya still lookin’ fer people?” the bow wearing girl asked while the other two alongside her smiled widely and Sunset already knew they had a plan. She was so going to regret this.
“Yeah, I still need one more team and I think is good that you girls appeared. You are small enough to fit with more than enough space in the M3A1 that we have. Sadly that leaves me a team without a tank so unless you have one on your pockets I don’t know if we will revive the team.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure,” wait, she knew that voice.
“Flash?” the boy with the slicked back hair only smiled at her friend. It had been interesting to know the guitar playing boy the first few weeks in school, but for some reason the two established a friendship that still baffled most cliques in school. While the rumor of the two of them dating ran rampant for those first few weeks, both Sunset and Flash were more than comfortable enough just as friends. Of course, the boy was a bleeding heart and he truly believed on finding his perfect girl; every time he said that Sunset only rolled her eyes, but inwardly cheered for the boy.
“Hey Sunset, heard you needed some help, so, well, me and the boys decided to lend you a hand with that; guys! Bring it here!” he said aloud as the sound of a motor signaled the entrance of a heavy vehicle with something being dragged behind.
“Wait, where did you get that thing?”
“That was from my mom; she kept her old tank and wanted to bring it here.”
“Wait, what? Why?”
“She wants you to revive the club once more, so, think you can do it?” Flash asked as Grease Monkey and Quick Wrench appeared from the inside of the heavy truck. The two boys were part of the vehicle club so if anyone knew how to repair things, it was them.
With a grin that showed how happy she was, Sunset inspected the Crusader III vehicle in almost pristine conditions. It was clear that Flash’s mom did care a lot for the tank. It had its paint intact and the exterior seemed almost pristine. With this, alongside the StuG III that Photo Finish’s team found in the park and Muffin’s Russian T-50 in the barn, they had the beginnings of a true Sensha-do team.
Vice-Principal Luna was quite the opposite to her sister beyond obvious comparisons of dark hair, but what most didn’t know was that unlike Celestia, Luna found the daily paperwork as soothing and relaxing. She spend most of her mornings as she arrived at school taking care of it, all with her cup of coffee at the ready, but just as she was about to take a sip of the black gold, the very foundations of the school seemed to rumble as the sound of a shot shook everything.
Leaving her cup on the table and opening a window, Luna’s eyes widened to ridiculous proportions as she saw something she wasn’t expecting. There, in the yard of the school stood Sunset Shimmer in a Crusader Mk. III as the gun of the tank still smoked from the blank that had been fired. The redhead was wearing her usual smirk as she watched the dumbfounded expression of the Vice-Principal.
“Well, I came to officially re-open the Sensha-do club, have any objection?” It will not be easy and Sunset was sure they will have many obstacles in front of them, but she knew that the Canterlot High Sensha-do Club will bravely fight those obstacles any day of the week.
