"PINKIE! Can you stop spontaneously inflating your gosh-darn mane? This is the fourth time it's happened! We're already crammed enough in this loud, oil-leaking excuse of a machine and we don't need you to invoke our claustrophobia more."
"Darling, it's called a tank. It's protecting us from the bullets out there. Do you know how hard it is to clean blood off a white coat?"
The Celestia Tank was a beast on tracks, slowly paving across the dirt and underdeveloped roads to Equestria on the way to the frontline at Tall Tale. It was barely enough to fit 5 stallions in the machine during testing, much less allow for 6 mares to comfortably sit inside it without at least some bickering or arguments over space. Pinkie's floofy mane had annoyed Applejack enough times in the turret. During testing, it had become such a problem that her mane would get in the way of the reloading process that what would be an average of 8 rounds a minute had lowered to a measly 3. But Pinkie insisted on keeping her mane like that just so she doesn't look like an emo doomer pony.
As expected, Rarity called dibs on being the radio operator, which was conveniently moved from the assistant driver's position to the back after Rarity may or may not have paid for a special modification to this tank model. She'd rather not touch the grimy and rusty controls of the tank that would roughen up her coat.
"Rarity, I think if you get shot you'd be dead, or at least in pain enough for you to not stress over blood stains on your white coat," said a Cyan blue pony from the drivers seat.
"What's that Rainbow Dash? I can't hear you over this loud and brutish engine sound. Honestly, they should make engines more quiet. I signed up to defend Equestria, not go deaf." Rarity sat right next to the engine and could barely hear a thing.
"I SAID, DON'T YOU THINK WE HAVE OTHER PRIORITIES RIGHT NOW OTHER THAN GETTING YOUR COAT DIRTY WITH BLOOD?" yelled Rainbow Dash, turning back to the purple-maned pony. "Rarity, please. We're in the middle of war right now, I'd rather we just go in and get out."
"But I heard that war was an adventure! The way those big stallions put it, operating this tank is just like shooting my confetti cannon!" Pinkie bent down from her seat in the turret and nearly smacked the gun breach into Applejack. "It won't be that bad Dashie. Besides, we're in a tank, we can't possibly get hurt."
"Ohhh I'm just worried about the poor, poor animals. Their homes are getting destroyed because of machines like this." The yellow pony shuddered at the thought of small critters fleeing their homes to flee the Changeling war machine. She hadn't touched her machine gun at the assistant driver's seat since they started riding. She had complained that it was too loud.
"Lighten up Fluttershy. We can get through this together. We're friends after all. And think of it like this, we're off to show those Changelings a lesson on friendship no doubt about that. Just remember your training and we'll be able to go back to Ponyville again."
Fluttershy relaxed her wings. She knew she could rely on commander Twilight Sparkle to knock some sense into her and calm her senses. After all, she was the commander. Twilight Sparkle had gotten them through the toughest of times, Nightmare Moon, Discord, Tirek, Chrysalis. She was a natural leader.
"Alright girls, we're ETA Tall Tale in about 1500 hooves. I want everypony on their job. Applejack, pre-emptively load the gun with HE. Pinkie, get that gun breach in line and point it in front. Get ready on my command. Rainbow, shift down to Second Gear and start cruising in around 500 hooves. Fluttershy, get on that machine gun and start loading in a belt. And Rarity, signal to the rest of the company that we're reaching the rendezvous. Let's do this, for Equestria!" Twilight Sparkle opened up the hatch and hovered her binoculars in front of her eyes to get a better look at the surroundings. After all, how could anypony hold them with hooves?
"What the hay happened here?"
Twilight looked at the desolate urban landscape. It looked like something only the author, A.K. Yearling could think of. Bodies were littered on the ground, festered with flies. They had been clearly decaying for days and had been unattended to. Changelings and Ponies were both unrecognizable in this state. This possibly couldn't be Tall Tale. Tall Tale was a city. A metropolis. A city renown across Equestria. But all that lay in front of them was rubble. It seemed endless.
"Yeah, where's the Bread festival? I was really hoping to get my hooves on some of that. That ride was soooooooo long Twilight, you should've been there."
Twilight ignored Pinkie's antics.
"I don't think we're having a Bread festival Pinkie. This... place. Rarity, radio in with the platoon. Where are th-"
Suddenly, Twilight heard sounds. It was the sounds of cranky engines sputting their last lives left.
Oh thank Celestia, it's our platoon. But before she could reach for a flare to signal to them, the sound revealed itself from a pile of rubble off to their right. Those weren't Celestia tanks. It was a convoy. A convoy of Changelings in half-tracks, trucking right in front of them. She stared in awe, paralyzed at the sight. They didn't notice the Celestia tank, probably because they didn't expect a tank right now. The Changelings were sitting in their half-tracks drinking their love rations while the ones marching beside it were chanting marches. Victory marches. They strutted along the street, carefree, not taking the chance of looking to their left to see a tank with one surprised purple pony looking on in awe.
"Twilight, they're asking what we're doing at Tall Tale. How do-"
Twilight ducked under the hatch quickly.
"Rarity, please, be quiet. Turn off the radio. Okay, everypony listen. There's a Changeling convoy right in front of us. They haven't seemed to notice we're here yet, so we have two options. We fight them and probably die, or we let them slink by and-"
Suddenly, there was a faint German shouting.
"HALT! Commander!"
The rest of the Changeling convoy stopped to see what the problem was. The convoy commander got out of his truck, clearly annoyed that he actually had to attend to his subordinate's needs.
"What's the problem here?"
"Sir, there's a tank right at our 9 o'clock. They haven't seemed to notice it. Perhaps it was abandoned?"
And in fact, when the commander looked, there was a tank conspicuously to their left. Standing there. Menacingly.
"Hm. It's a Celestia tank. It's one of the Ponies more... capable tanks. Tell the engineers to inspect it. Perhaps we can capture it for our eventual march on Canterlot! But, I call dibs on touching it first. After all, I did see it first."
"Whatever you say."
The commander signaled 3 other Changeling soldiers to follow him to inspect the tank. Hopefully they can salvage this machine. The Celestia tank had been hindering the Changeling Invasion and this would be the first record of a captured one. Maybe they'd get a medal. Those sweet, sweet, shiny medals.
"I think they spotted us Twilight, ohh, we're going to get captured Twilight. We're going to be taken to the Changeling Lands we're going to be tortured we're- we're-
"Snap out of it Fluttershy! I say we just kill these chumps."
"Rainbow slow down! Alright. Here's what we're going to do. Girls, just remember your training an-"
"What does this little trigger do gu-"
A huge shake was felt in the tank followed by a thunderous sound. Everypony was rattled.
"PINKIE WHAT THE-"
But before Applejack could finish her sentence which probably could've included at least 17 profanity-related terms, German shouts could be heard outside as well as now small arms fire chipping at the tank's armor, pitter pattering off the armor without making any significant progress.Rainbow looked outside her driver's view.
"Well, good news Twilight. Pinkie just vaporized those guys. Bad news, we got a hundred more on us."
"Oh Celestia. Alright, Applejack, Pinkie, get that gun firing. Rainbow, whatever you do, do not close the distance. We're fine here as is. Fluttershy, get that machine gun firing. And Rarity, get that radio back on and ask them platoon where the hay are the others!"
Everypony nodded, including Fluttershy. Even though she was a sobbing mess, she could fire that gun, although reluctantly. For every Changeling soldier she tagged, she whispered an apology to them. Why was war like this?
Eventually, the Changelings started to throw grenades at the tank, getting more accurate and dangerous by the second. Twilight got out of my turret and manned the machine gun on it, spraying at the Changelings that dared got closer. One by one, they fell like flies. Flies getting massacred by a machine gun along with one big High-Explosive shell. Eventually, the grenades started hitting, shaking the tank and throwing everypony off. And Rarity's conversation wasn't very reassuring, even from only hearing one side of it.
"HELLO, YES, THIS IS TANK 1007! WHERE THE HAY ARE YOU?"
"..."
"WHAT?"
"..."
"YOU KNOW HOW RUDE IT IS TO LIE?"
"..."
"OH MY CELESTIA! TWILIGHT, pardon my language, WE'RE BUCKED! WE ARE ABSOLUTELY BUCKED! I need my couch right now. I can't weep in this hunk of metal."
"WHAT'S GOING ON RARITY?"
"ORDERS WERE TO REINFORCE TALL TALE WERE FROM 3 DAYS AGO! THE REST OF THE PLATOON IS AT MEAD RESORT! THE CHANGELINGS ARE PUSHING THEM BACK FURTHER! I'M AFRAID WE'RE BEHIND ENEMY LINES!"
"WHAT?"
"I SAID, ORDERS WE-"
"I KNOW WHAT YOU SAID RARITY!"
Twilight closed the hatch to rethink the plan. Explosions kept going off, disrupting her thinking every couple seconds or so. At least everypony was doing their job.
Eventually, the call for retreat by the Changelings happened. The soldiers started to fly away, some limping and crawling from their injuries. And some just lying there, unable to move from their injuries, looking at the orange sky, breathing and holding on for dear life.
"Ah think we won Twilight. My arms are starting to ache from carrying shells. How long was it? Felt like an hour."
"3 minutes and 24 seconds."
"What?"
"Darling, we've been fighting for only 3 minutes and 24 seconds."
"Wha- how?"
"What matters is that it's over right? We won the battle. Can we just please go home now Twilight?"
"Afraid not Fluttershy. We're deep behind enemy lines. We're stuck here, let's make the best of it. Applejack, Rainbow, Fluttershy, we're heading out. Pinkie and Rarity, hold the fort down. We're going to see if the Changelings left any vital supplies and we'll take it. Rations, ammunition, fuel, anything. If we're stuck behind here, we might as well."
The four ponies exited the tank one by one. They started scavenging the dead Changelings for anything that they might find valuable, picking through their clothes and backpacks and scouring through the half-tracks and trucks.
As Fluttershy was nervously treading across the blood stained street, she noticed a still breathing Changeling. She looked at him. She saw his eyes. Those eyes were something. Full of regret. Full of pain. Full of everything that was not from the propaganda. If it weren't for his appearance, his eyes could convince her that he was a pony, just like her. Fluttershy extended a hoof to the Changeling. The Changeling looked at the hoof and his eyes slightly widened. He gratefully took the hoof.
"I know we're supposed to be enemies but that doesn't excuse good manners so um. I know you're hurt right now, oh where are my manners? My name's Fluttershy. What's yours?"
The Changeling took out a cigarette and lit it, then inhaled deeply for what seemed to be an eternity. And let it go. The big gray, cloudy puff floated off into the musty atmosphere. Fluttershy assumed maybe he didn't speak Ponish.
"I don't know how to speak German, so I don't know. Do you speak Ponish?"
The Changeling replied back. "A bit. My name ist ehmm Steiner. Erich Steiner."
"Hello Mr. Steiner. Do you want me to tend to your wounds, you don't seem to be looking very good. I mean, all that blood is looki-"
"Ja, yes. Ist ehm very painful."
"Alright, luckily I packed some bandages with me." She took out the bandages and started wrapping it around his torso. It seemed that his torso got tagged a bit with some machine gun fire. The injuries were fairly minor compared to what the others did to the other Changelings in his convoy. "So, do you like have a family or something?"
"Ja. Back in Larkorix. All the way up north. Very quiet. Very peaceful. Not like here. I like family better. Son there is good boy."
Fluttershy looked up from her bandaging. "Oh that's lovely. Do you actually want to be in this war? It seems really awfully dangerous."
The Changeling laughed for a brief moment, but his torso wouldn't let him continue so he recoiled and lie down, waiting for Fluttershy to finish the bandaging.
"Nein! Of course not. None of us like zhis war. We have saying back in Larcorix. 'Besser ein Ei im Frieden als ein Ochs im Kriege!' Better an egg in peace than an ox in war. I don't want to kill some ponies like you. The day I got my draft notice, I try to burn it. Unfortunately I almost burn the house down!" The Changeling smiled wholeheartedly.
Fluttershy couldn't help but smile a bit too. "Alright, I think I'm done, can you stand up?"
The Changeling got to his feet and lo and behold, he wasn't completely disabled. "Danke Fluttershy."
"Hey Fluttershy, I wanted to just apologize to you about my behavior back in the t- who they hay is this?"
"Oh! Rainbow, this is Mr. Steiner. He's quite a nice fe-"
But Rainbow Dash was not having any of it. She whipped out a pistol and pointed it right at the Changeling. "Fluttershy. Step away from him. I got you covered."
But the yellow pony leapt to the defense of her newfound friend. "No Rainbow. You don't have me covered. This is a good changeling. He's a prisoner of war now, we can't kill him! It's the rules!" The Changeling looked at Fluttershy surprised at how Fluttershy was going to defend him in front of her friend.
"The hay's gotten into you Fluttershy? THAT is the enemy!" She gestured at the Changeling with her hoof. "HE's invaded our nation. HE's hurting our friends. HE's the villain here Fluttershy. We need to drop all this friendship stuff. That's going to get us killed out here, if we keep doing what you're doing and collaborating with the enemy!"
"HE IS NOT THE ENEMY!" Fluttershy's face now resembled genuine anger. "You're just stuck in your own world Rainbow. There are two sides of the story. That's what we learned, and that's what we're going to stick by."
"What's going on here?" Twilight and Applejack came over to check the ruckus. They finished scavenging and were on their way back to the tank before they noticed the quarrel. "What are y'all fightin' over now?"
"Fluttershy here is collaborating with the enemy. We should just get it over with and shoot him."
The Changeling spoke up. "I am no enemy here. I never like the Queen. I love Equestria. Equestria go-"
"SHUT IT! You do not speak here. AJ, Twilight, get Fluttershy on our side before my trigger hoove starts getting itchy."
"You're not going to hurt him. Let him just walk off." Fluttershy was now pleading with Rainbow Dash.
"No! He just tried to kill us Fluttershy! You're going to have to learn one way or another that what we signed up for, this war, it's no place for friendship. You know this. You're afraid and optimistic. You need to stop that otherwise it's going to get you killed, it's going to get us killed! The second we let him go, the Heer is going to pick him back up and put him back in circulation."
"Let him go Rainbow Dash. He's a POW, a prisoner of war. It's in the rules. We can't kill him." Twilight Sparkle always memorized the rules and war was no different. If they kileld the Changeling, they risked charges, charges she couldn't deal with right now.
"Are you sure Twilight? Rainbow's got a point here. You're just going to let a murderer walk free? Buck the damn rules! You think those sly snakes follow them too?" Applejack was a bit annoyed at Twilight's "rules", if they even existed.
"It's a war crime Applejack! I'm not saying we should let him walk like this. Fluttershy, disarm him and we'll be on our way. We'll leave him here. He's too wounded and it won't be until a while we see his face again on the battlefield."
"What's going on here? Oooooh, are we having an argument? I love arguments!" The ecstatic pink pony jumped onto the scene followed by Rarity, glancing at all of them concerningly and clearly annoyed that she'd been dragged out and got her hooves icky.
"No Pinkie, it's just we don't know what to do with this here Changeling. I guess Twilight is right though, even though I might not like them rules, it sure as heck is better than getting those court martials." Applejack reluctantly agreed with her sensible friend and she wasn't one for revenge anyways.
"Well at least he should get me a hooficure. You don't know the state my hoovsies are in right now after they've been stuck in that tank and now trudging along this- is that blood getting on my hooves?" Rarity bent down to inspect them, growing to an almost ghost-like pale shade of her white as she realized what she's stepping in.
"Guys! Back to the point! This subcreature is killing ponies! He's filth! Why does he deserve to live?" Rainbow Dash lashed out at her friends, who seemed to be mishandling the situation for not what it was. This was war. This was more serious than hooficures or debates and arguments. "It's like none of you guys get it! This is war, not an adventure! Not another one of those Cutie Map missions, this isn't like what we faced off when we went against Discord, and this sure isn't like what happened with Chrysalis years ago. This is war. Th- this. This is... war. Ponies' lives are being killed. Blood is on their hooves and it's like- It's like you guys don't even pay attention. Ponies are dying. Lives are being ruined. And- and..."
Rainbow's voice faded. None of them understood. Maybe Applejack and Twilight but they didn't seem interested. She looked down at the ground. The blood-soaked ground. She was stepping in Changeling blood. It was the same as Pony blood. It was all the same. Gruesome, depressing, and downright despicable.
"Are- are you okay Rainbow Dash?" Fluttershy flapped to her side and started patting her. "I get what you mean. War is serious. All of us have lost something. Times are... different. It's taken a lot away from us. We've left our homes to fight here. To defend our home. And yes we should try to stop those who try to destroy Equestria, but Mr. Steiner is here. He's not doing anything. He seems like a real nice Changeling once you get to know him. And it's that what counts. He hasn't done much. We've all gone through a lot, and we can't keep doing this. We can't always put this facade of war on us 24/7. It'll deponyize us. It's eating you up Rainbow and it pains me to see you like this. Take the mask off, breathe. Come back to us. To your friends. You don't need to keep hating and hating and hating. Find reasons to love. And you can start with Mr. Steiner here."
Rainbow Dash looked up at her friend. She really has a way with words. Then she turned to the Changeling. The Changeling that had once looked so alien now looked more warm. More friendly. She embraced him. Hugged him for dear life. And cried.
"I'm just... very sorry Mister. It's just... I don't know. Everything's spiraling out of control. I went into this war to try to prove to myself. That I could do something other than just being a stunt flyer. Save Equestria. But I can't even do that now. I'm a failure. We're lost behind enemy lines. We're running out of rations that we had to scavenge and... and... I've lost so much." Rainbow Dash couldn't hold it in.
It was the Changeling's turn to speak.
"Das ist okay. You are okay. Nobody ever said you had to prove yourself. We've all lost so much. I tried to prove myself as something as well. What will my son think of me if I was so old hag opting out of Chrysalis's war? It's all about Chrysalis's war, not our wars. And look at what her war's gotten us. Death. Too much. Too many bodies. Too much lost potential. I forgive you Rainbow Dash." He hugged her tighter, even though his torso was killing him more than ever.
"Thank you Mister." Rainbow Dash picked herself up and wiped herself off.
"Danke to you all. You go win the war now. Make sure when you get to Vesiapolis, you hang Chrysalis!"
Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Twilight Sparkle, Pinkie Pie, and Rarity now trudged back to their tank, packing all the supplies and getting ready to get the tank moving again. Fluttershy stayed behind with Steiner.
"How are you feeling?"
"Gut. Gut. Danke Fluttershy. You've shown my too much kindness, ja?"
"Oh, don't worry about it. After all, that's my element of friendship." Fluttershy took pride in that. Even through tough times like these, she could still allow kindness to shine through.
"When I get back home, I read up on your friendship Equestria things. It seems valuable." All Steiner could do now was reminisce about home. "Here, take this Fluttershy. My address at Larkorix. If you get time, come by and visit. Village nice."
He handed Fluttershy an improved slip of paper with crude ink.
"I will whenever I can. I wish I could spend more time with you here, but I have to go. Stay safe Mister Steiner." Fluttershy flapped off towards the tank to regroup with her friends, waving him one last goodbye.
"You too friend. You too." Steiner weakly waved back before lying down, waiting for the Heer medics to pick him up when they eventually do investigate what happened to his supply convoy. Hopefully soon.
Fluttershy started to fly back to the tank. Although her scavenging wasn't as productive as the others, she had at least saved someone. And that's what counted. Wars may change her friends, but as long as she had hope, she could keep it alive.
Inside the tank, the rest were starting everything up again. The supplies they had just gathered was enough to get them running for maybe a couple more days? A couple more days was all they needed to get them back to the frontlines hopefully.
"Where to now Twilight?" Rainbow Dash partially recovered from her breakdown and was now ready to get back at it and drive the tank to probably incoming doom. But as long as they were in this together, they'd at least have a chance at surviving it.
"Well, we now go back. Get to Mead Resort. Regroup with our platoon, maybe beat Chrysalis from behind. We'll drive through the forests south of us and cut to Mead Lake. Following the railroads and main roads could get us spotted and the Changeling patrols could be packing a lot more punch than just small arms fire next time." You could appreciate Twilight's commanding and reassuring nature in her voice.
"And then we get there, get praised as heros, go to Canterlot, and get our medals?"
"A bit ahead of yourself Rainbow Dash. For now, we drive. Drive straight at our problems. This war may have taken a lot from us Rainbow, I know it's hard, but they'll never take away our friendship. Nothing can. Not even this damn war."
And so they drove.
Author's Note
Although I wished I could've written more, things got in the way and I guess I just got too ambitious. But I tried to wrap things up in a neat and tidy way hopefully in a way that's still enjoyable.
Also, this was a fun little thing. Don't take this as a thesis for war or the ethicality of murdering POWs. Please.
Have fun!
