Pony Tankers: Snow and Steel

Cream rolled her shoulders for what had to be the tenth time in the last five minutes. She was trying to cool her nerves, to settle her mind. The fighting was over, at least for now, and all she had to do was guide her tank back out of the railyard the way it came in. The atmosphere in the fighting compartment, though, was heavier than ever. Flax hadn't uttered a word since she returned from her brief outing to Apple Bucker's remains, and nopony else had dared to try and break the silence - or rather, relative silence. The rumbling of the engine, the squeaking of the suspension, and the rattling of the tracks made for a cacophony of background noise. It wasn't anything like the gentle purr of the four-cylinder engine in her supply truck, but Cream was already learning to tune it out.

The only remaining tank besides their own, Snooper, had taken up the rear while they maneuvered through the destruction left behind by their advance. Cream couldn't see much through her small viewports, but she saw enough to know that this outpost had been woefully unprepared for an armored attack. A few corpses lay around on the narrow streets, cut down by machine gun fire, shrapnel, explosions, or some combination of the three. Cream could only do her best not to run over them on her way out, now.

Come to think of it, she never even saw the armored train they'd initially come here to take out. The pessimistic side of her mind told her that meant this was all for nothing, but she attempted to find a... well, not a happier answer, but one that wasn't so bleak. Apple Blossom and her crew hadn't died for nothing, after all. They still made a racket and put a damper on the Crystal Empire's ability to use this railyard, not to mention destroying valuable supplies. Cream heaved a quiet sigh. It wasn't much reassurance, but it was the best she could come up with to try and cheer herself up.

"Hang a left here, we can just use the front gate now that it ain't guarded," Flax suddenly said, speaking over the intercom and startling Cream out of her thoughts.

"Got it, ma'am. Do we... head back to base, once we're clear of the yard?" Cream asked, taking her hoof away from the right brake lever while her other hoof pulled back on the left to begin the turn.

"Yup. We gotta let everyone know what happened as soon as possible, and... I gotta pick up where Blossom left off."

"Will do," Cream mumbled, unsure if she even remembered to use the intercom this time. Instead, she just focused straight ahead.

The front gate of the yard came into view soon enough, little more than a gap in the brick wall with a wooden gate to give the illusion of security. Cream simply carried on in a straight line, letting her machine smash through the wooden obstacle without so much as slowing down. With the gate liberated from its hinges, Snooper was free to follow right behind - Cream could just barely make out the shape in the tiny, dirty mirror placed on her machine's front right fender. It had barely been of use when it was new, and now it sported a large, horizontal crack and a smattering of ash and snow covering part of its surface.

Carrying on across the wide plain between the yard and the forest, Cream finally eased the throttle forward and shifted in her seat as her machine picked up speed. The speedometer steadily climbed toward the highest reading, but she knew it never quite made it even on a downhill drive. Now, running with the throttle wide open and the cover of the trees fast approaching, Cream's ear twitched as she listened to the engine working behind her. It sounded... off. It wasn't anything major, or at least she didn't guess it was based on the sound, but it sounded like it was running rougher than normal. A glance across the instrument panel revealed no warning lights or unusual gauge readings, so Cream dismissed it for now.

Instead, Cream focused on the sharp incline that was rapidly approaching. She eased back on the throttle a little, hoping to lighten the impact, and braced herself against her seat. Glancing around at her friends, she saw them doing the same. Wait...

Cream mentally paused, zoning out for a split second. Were they really friends? Probably. They'd certainly had their share of "bonding time" over near-death experiences, but she didn't really know any of them that well. Sage and Flax were friends, but they seemed closed off to her and Emerald. Emerald was another story entirely. That was all the further Cream got, though, before being shaken out of her thoughts. The tank rattled and clanked as it met the almost sheer wall of dirt, its treads biting into the soft surface and beginning to climb. The front end rose awkwardly, pitching up a few feet before finding traction on the top. The engine whined a little louder, and Cream quickly shifted to a lower gear to allow her machine to complete the climb.

After a few seconds of slipping and sliding, not to mention plenty of dirt and snow excavated from beneath the tracks, Cream was bounced in her seat by the front half of her tank slamming back down onto level ground. Glancing through the viewport to her right, she saw Snooper having similar success. Maybe she could talk to their driver and pick up some more insight once they got back home...

)()()()()()()(

Cream had zoned out once again during the two-hour drive back to Riverpool. The road was long and winding but devoid of interesting landmarks. On top of that, she'd already seen it once on the way out here. Add that familiarity to the extreme wave of tiredness that always came after a battle, not to mention the darkening sky outside, and it was all Cream could do to keep her eyes open and on the road. Even despite her best efforts, her attention was wandering.

Cream glanced aside, pretending to keep one eye on the road through her vision slit while looking around at the interior of her machine. Conversation had been sparse, to say the least, and everypony seemed to be doing their best to wind down. Flax had finished off a cigarette or three since leaving the railyard, each one signaled by her opening the pistol port at the back of the turret and discarding the butt... Emerald had first busied herself with doing her best to do a maintenance check on her MG without removing it from its mount, then spent the rest of the drive brooding... and Sage...

Actually, Cream didn't know what Sage was doing over the last hour and some minutes. The mare sat right behind her, up in the turret, so it was difficult to get a good look. Whatever she'd been doing was quiet, at least, so Cream didn't have any reason to assume she had suddenly turned into a chatterbug.

A rough crunching sound tore Cream from her thoughts, and she flinched as she realized she was beginning to doze off in her seat. Sitting bolt upright, Cream pressed her face up against her viewport and saw that she'd let her machine drift to the side and into the ditch on the side of the road. She overcorrected one way, then evened out with a little swerve to set herself back on course. The swaying and shaking didn't go unnoticed, however.

"Just making sure we're all awake?" Emerald snarked, looking over from her reclined position. She'd leaned her seat back and shut her eyes, keeping her radio headset over her ears just in case. Now, she was propping herself up on the elbows of her forelegs.

"Yep! Gotta keep us ready, right?" Cream said, looking back with her winningest smile despite the obvious lie. Emerald let her off the hook as easily as she'd tried to catch her on it, merely rolling her eyes and settling back down. Cream breathed a quiet sigh of relief and settled back into her chair now that they were rolling along smoothly again.

The countryside was still rolling by at a good clip, and Cream had yet to let off the throttle since climbing that slope at the start of their journey. The engine still didn't sound perfectly healthy, but none of her gauges gave any indication of a problem. By now, she'd decided it was something to check once they parked for the night; after all, it had been a day or two since the last checkup. Then again... she'd never given this machine a proper checkup, now that she thought about it.

Cream realized she only knew how to even do such a thing after her friend in Morning Dew's crew, and she'd only learned that two nights ago. Everything before that was just guesswork and assumptions based on what little she knew about maintaining her truck. A mild sense of dread fell over Cream as it dawned on her that she could've completely glossed over an issue without even knowing it. But... it was probably fine. The engine was noisy because it's never been running for this long at one time before, probably, and it was adapting to drawing from the secondary fuel tank now that the main was getting low. That made some degree of sense, at least to Cream, even if she didn't fully understand how the system worked to begin with.

"Emerald, wake up," came Flax's gruff voice from up above. Cream glanced aside, despite the words being directed at somepony else.

"Yes, ma'am?" Emerald asked, after snapping to attention and raising her seat. She looked like she'd been seconds away from a nap.

"First of all, keep your damn eyes open. Second, get on the radio and check in with Amber. See how they're doin'."

Though Emerald was careful to hide the gesture from Flax, Cream saw the unicorn mare roll her eyes. Suppressing a giggle, Cream turned away and looked at the road again while listening in to the radio call as it began. Emerald was inaudible to Flax and Sage, sitting far enough away that her voice was drowned out by the engine, but Cream had the luxury of being right beside her in the cramped hull.

"Platoon lead to tank twelve, how copy?" Emerald asked, repeating a line she'd used hundreds of times by now to establish comms. A moment later, she continued. "Requesting a status report - anything new on your end? We're about thirty minutes out from HQ."

Cream waited while Emerald received her answer, unable to hear the other side of the conversation even from so close. Emerald's general lack of interest betrayed the message before she even spoke - Cream could tell nothing exciting was going on in Amber's tank either. Then again, had anything actually happened, they probably would've said something rather than waiting for Flax to check in...

"Copy that. Relaying your message," Emerald said, before swapping her headset over to the intercom. When she spoke again, Cream heard her voice through the headset instead of slightly muffled. "Amber's doing fine, but she says she's going to need time to repair once we get back to Riverpool. Reported a couple of non-penetrating hits from anti-tank rifles during the engagement."

"Much obliged," Flax said, her voice devoid of any real satisfaction or gratitude. "Back on radio silence. We don't need any Shinies between here and there playin' the same game you did and listening in on us."

"Understood," Emerald said, settling back into her seat and rubbing her eyes with one hoof. With the exchange apparently over, Cream saw the opportunity to bug Emerald instead. She leaned over, just a little, and stuck out her elbow to bump the other mare's side. "What?" Emerald hissed, forgoing the intercom to speak somewhat privately.

"Nothing," Cream said, acting innocent, "just getting you to help me stay focused, too."

"Seriously?"

"Yep. Is Amber's radio pony Germane too, or is it just her? And if they are, are they even harder to understand over the radio than they are normally?"

Emerald gave an exaggerated eye-roll, crossing her forehooves over her chest and slumping back. "No, it's just the commander. Perhaps somepony higher up the chain realized how big of a mistake it would be to put someone who can barely speak Equestrian in the radio pony's seat."

"I'll bet they did! Wonder how many ponies like her are in the army as a whole, though," Cream continued, using this new line of thought to keep herself entertained. A smile had already found a home on her lips, and though Emerald seemed to be resisting the urge to do anything but frown, Cream could tell she was already feeling a little less dour.

"Not many, if I had to guess. If you recall, that region was one of the first to be overrun when the invasion began - just a few days after the first shots, and the papers were already talking about a mass retreat in the region." Emerald looked thoughtful, pulling up details she'd almost entirely discarded. "That does make me wonder, though... what are the rockheads doing with all those ponies? All the intel I've ever been given or overheard says they're short on troops across the board."

"What, you think they're pressing them into service?"

"Huh? No. No way they'd get those ponies to join up so soon after blowing up their towns. I just wonder what else they're doing, or if it's even a stable occupation of the area. The front has been quite static since that initial push."

"Some kind of resistance, then? Or... maybe the Crystal ponies are using the locals for labor?"

"Those make more sense, especially the latter."

"Then again," Cream said, taking one hoof away from her controls to point at Emerald for emphasis, "what if that intel is wrong? I don't get to see or hear much, but even I know our recon ponies miss the mark as often as they hit it."

Emerald looked uncomfortable with that line of thinking, hesitating a moment before answering. "Possible. Worryingly likely, even. Our only advantages so far have been more ponypower and more land to give, I'd hate to see one of those go out the window so soon."

"Are those really all we have going for us, though? These tanks seem to be doing pretty well, for example."

"Maybe... doesn't do us any good if we don't deploy them just right, though, does it? Even in the beginning, I overheard plenty of units making radio calls while desperate for supplies we couldn't give them. It was bleak, and... probably why I was so eager to make a hero of myself."

"That was all before I joined up, but I've heard stories. I'm just glad we patched it all together before it fell apart for real," Cream said, feeling a shudder run up her back at the thought of 'what if'. Thankfully, Emerald had an answer that reassured her.

"It wouldn't have. We'd be hard-pressed to bungle things worse than we already did, but the war wouldn't have ended overnight. I didn't know all the details, but I knew enough to feel confident. I still do. After all, this whole mission is happening because we're back on the offensive, isn't it?"

Cream opened her mouth to respond, but cut herself off when a new sound reached her ears. It sounded like the distant rumble of thunder, but... different. Heavier. Stronger. Her blood suddenly ran like ice in her veins, and she peered through her forward and starboard viewports to try and get a fix on the sound. Evidently, Flax noticed it too. The hatch in the turret swung open, and Cream heard a creak as the mare stood up in her seat to get a better view. The rumbling was at an unnatural pitch and rhythm, and it seemed to be coming from everywhere straight ahead.

With a sinking feeling, Cream realized that she recognized the sound after all.

Guns. Lots of them.