Pony Tankers: Snow and Steel

With Cream Soda engrossed in performing a checkup on the tank and Sage wandering off somewhere to gossip, Emerald found herself left totally alone. She'd wandered inside the house she and her crew were 'borrowing' for their stay in Riverpool, and habit led her to plop herself down on the couch in the middle of the common room. It wasn't a well-furnished place by any stretch of the imagination, and Emerald could tell the average wealth of ponies living in this town couldn't have been all that much. It was a far cry from the luxurious accommodations she'd gotten used to in Canterlot.

Being a unicorn, it wasn't at all unusual that Emerald came from an affluent background. Before her time in the army began, Emerald's parents were teaching her to continue the family business of gem cutting. They owned several small mining operations out in the countryside, and those gems all went to some of the finest jewelry and manufacturing centers in the nation. It was a promising future, one full of success and money if Emerald played her cards right, but it didn't strike her as particularly fulfilling. Sitting on the couch and staring off into space with her hooves in her lap, she could still remember the shock on her mother's face when she showed her the enlistment papers.

The family drama that ensued was nothing short of a nightmare, but Emerald got her way in the end - on one condition. Her parents insisted that she go through officer school, taking the proper place of a unicorn in the armed forces as a leader for the less educated ponies slogging it out in the mud. Emerald didn't mind that restriction at all, and in fact she'd planned on pursuing such a role anyway. Her notion that earth ponies were inherently less intelligent had been thoroughly tested ever since the war began several months ago, and as she stared out the window and watched Cream work, Emerald found herself pondering it once again.

Sure, earth ponies tended to work manual jobs, and they lacked any sort of understanding of the finer arts that unicorns were known for, but Emerald would be lying if she said she understood any of what they did. Farming was utterly alien to her, construction was a vague concept instead of a solid process. Even in her area of expertise, working with radios and communication, Emerald found herself surrounded by earth ponies as often as she did unicorns. As her mind wandered toward her previous position once again, so too did she tread over the same catastrophe that put her where she is now.

Emerald was so lost in her thoughts, letting that cold anger slowly warm up and rise to the surface, that she didn't even notice Cream Soda stumbling inside to take a break - at least, not until the mare spoke.

"You just gonna sit there and look all mopey?" Cream asked, half-jokingly, before hobbling over and collapsing onto the far end of the couch. Emerald could tell the mare was chilled to the bone, forcing her stiff legs to bend and carry her forward. The wind had picked up outside, making the old house creak and shudder around them, and she could see clouds of loose snow blowing around haphazardly.

"That was the plan, at least for the moment. Why, you want to join the party?" Emerald asked, looking over and raising an eyebrow. She was as bundled up as she could be, wrapped up in her heavy jacket and trying to use the gap between the couch cushions to keep her hooves warm. Cream was still shivering, coated in motor oil and dusted snow in equal measure.

"Nope," Cream quickly answered, wiggling her numb forelegs to try and encourage better blood flow. "Just taking a break before my hooves freeze off. I wouldn't mind a little help out there, you know."

And there it was. Emerald suppressed a long-suffering sigh, then looked away with a frown. "No thanks. I'm no good with mechanical work anyway."

"Fine. I'll just wait until Sage comes back from... well, wherever. She seems to understand team effort better than you, anyhow," Cream said, her voice carrying a drop of venom despite the effort it took to even speak clearly past her chattering teeth. Emerald knew it was just a foalish jab - a comment made while Cream was miserable and cold. Nonetheless, it got right under her skin in a heartbeat.

Emerald leaped up off of the couch in an instant, all four hooves landing on the old wooden floor with a stomp. Glaring at Cream Soda, she thrust one forehoof at her in an accusing point. "You watch your bloody mouth! In case you forgot, one of us was a captain once - the other was a glorified delivery mare!"

Cream seemed to forget how cold she was, rising from the couch on her slightly shorter legs and glaring up at Emerald. Emerald knew she'd struck a nerve, and for a brief moment, she felt proud. "What the hell does it matter what rank you used to be? You got busted all the way down to the bottom! I outrank you now!" Cream shot back, her voice full of righteous anger. Emerald knew she didn't have an adequate rebuttal for that one, so instead she grit her teeth and stepped forward to try and scare the shorter, younger mare with her size alone.

"Oh, my apologies, corporal," Emerald spat, using the word like an insult all its own, "I forgot the army's desperate enough to put rank stripes on any dumb mule who can write her own name and push a few pedals! At least I went to school to get mine!" Cream reeled at the name-calling, briefly looking equal parts shocked and hurt. She recovered quickly enough, but Emerald could tell she'd hit yet another insecurity. She was worryingly good at this, she realized. Before Cream could piece together a response, Emerald shouted again. "You sit and wait for the blasted cyclops to get back, see how much help she is!"

Turning on the spot, Emerald made to storm out of the room and head down the hallway to the makeshift sleeping quarters they had set up the night before. On her way out, she kicked with a hind leg and snapped the leg off of a flimsy old side table placed next to the couch. It collapsed onto the wooden floor with a pathetic plonk, and Emerald didn't look back to see if Cream followed her. The lack of hoofsteps was telling enough on its own.

Emerald stomped her way down the hall, then slammed the door to the bedroom closed behind her, the force of her outburst sending another rattle through the old home.

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

Emerald spent quite a while hiding in the privacy of the bedroom, lying on the bed in the corner amidst the pile of empty sleeping bags and pillows. She heard the front door closing a few minutes after she locked herself in, and a glance through the closed blinds over the window revealed that Cream had gone back outside and gotten to work again. After a few more minutes, Emerald made use of her magic to float her infantry saddlebags off of the floor and bring them onto the bed with her. She set them at her side and raised the flap on the left half, reaching in with her telekinesis and pulling out a folded letter. It was one she'd written and never sent, still nestled inside the envelope she'd bought fresh from the commissary back at the HQ.

Slowly and carefully, so as not to crease the paper more than it already was, Emerald slid the letter out and unfolded it again. It wasn't much, barely more than a couple of sentences, but she still felt a twinge of pride at her excellent hornwriting. That was one of the things her parents had taken special care to train her for, always reminding her that she'd need to give a good first impression for new business partners once she took over the family trade. The letter was almost as old as the war itself at this point, written just a few days after she lost her rank. Emerald had yet to muster up the courage to send the letter home, to reveal to her parents that she'd failed, and at the moment there was no way for her to send it anyway. A part of her was glad, and that same part spoke up as it often did to suggest just burning the letter. Why come clean now? Wait until the war is over. Maybe by then, Emerald thought, she'd have had a chance to redeem herself.

The rest of her subconscious reminded her of how foolish such an aspiration was. Her parents would find out eventually anyhow, especially given the lack of letters she'd sent back otherwise. Then again, maybe they already knew. Emerald wouldn't have been surprised if her screw-up made the papers, and perhaps her parents got one look at the headline and gave up on her then and there, and that explained the lack of mail from home.

Laying her head back and staring up at the ceiling, Emerald heaved a sigh and tucked the letter back into its envelope. It floated back into her bags, then her bags floated back down to the floor with a quiet thump. The wind was still periodically howling outside, strong gusts coming and going seemingly at random and battering the old houses like they always had. Lost in her wandering thoughts as she was, Emerald didn't even notice when the front door opened and slammed closed again. She did notice, however, when two sets of hooves started getting closer to the room she was hiding out in.

Emerald had just managed to sit up and make herself somewhat presentable when the door swung open, revealing Flax's scowling face. Emerald gulped, having a strong feeling that she knew exactly what this was going to be about. Behind Flax, Sage was standing in the hallway with the same infuriating, impassive look on her face. Emerald hastily crawled out of bed, smoothing the wrinkles out of her uniform with her magic on the way, and snapped to a salute once she was standing in the middle of the room. Flax didn't look impressed.

"At ease, Emerald," the mare said, her expression softening by the tiniest of margins. "Actin' prim 'n' proper now ain't gonna help ya out of the hole ya dug yourself into." Emerald slumped, letting her forehoof drop back to the floor with a clop. Instead, she just focused on trying to make eye contact despite Flax's withering gaze. "I shouldn't have to be playin' foal sitter to a bunch of grown mares in the military, but here I am."

"Ma'am, with all due respect, I-" Emerald tried to speak up, but Flax silenced her with a snort.

"There's plenty more than respect due from you, Emerald. I know ya had a rough day today - hell, everyone did - but that don't excuse what ya said to Cream. We're supposed to be a team, and rely on each other, and if I can't trust you, you ain't got no place in my crew. Fightin' like that's only gonna get us killed sooner or later, and I'm not puttin' up with it." Flax paused to step closer, raising one hoof to point right in Emerald's face. "And you got some 'splainin' to do, captain."

Of course, Emerald knew exactly what Flax was referring to. She'd avoided divulging the details of her demotion so far, and she'd hoped to keep it that way. Unfortunately, it wasn't meant to be. Emerald heaved a sigh and looked away, then stepped back from her commander. Flax looked ready to chastise her again when Emerald finally spoke. "Yes, I was being honest before when I said I got demoted. Cream told you correctly when she said I used to be a captain. Of course, being in the signal corps, it didn't mean the same thing it does for the mudsloggers."

Sage stepped into the room next, sneaking in past Flax's shoulder and fixing Emerald with a look of immense disappointment. Looking back at the older mare, Emerald almost felt like she was being stared down by her mom all over again. "Had a change of heart, have you, lass? About time."

"Back off her, Sage. She's cooperatin'," Flax admonished, glancing aside before turning her attention back to Emerald. "You were sayin'?"

"Thank you. I was saying," Emerald continued, pausing to give Sage one last glare, "that I was responsible for handling communications running up the chain of command. It was easy, especially before the war, but... my responsibilities changed once the invasion started."

"Yeah, war changes a few things. Go figure. So what'd ya do?" Flax asked, sounding as though her patience was already running thin.

"I was getting to it, if you'd have an ounce of patience," Emerald snapped. The scowl on Flax's face made her reconsider immediately. Perhaps now wasn't the time to be snippy, even if she was interrupted for the second time. "Apologies, ma'am. To make a very long story short, I was demoted for a mistake on the job. My... I got some of our troops stuck without support, and they paid the price. The brass above me had to pin the blame on somepony, and the alternative was even worse. Now I'm at the bottom of the ladder, and probably a disgrace to my family's name."

Of course, Emerald was omitting a lot with that simplification, and she knew it. Flax seemed pleased enough, which was a relief, even if Sage still looked unconvinced. In truth, Emerald had abandoned her post at the radio in favor of eavesdropping on a superior officer. Even now she didn't know what, exactly, had possessed her to do it. He had been issuing orders to another officer in a similar position, a pony who worked in the very same tent as Emerald. She could've simply asked the mare later, had it truly been important. Now, though, it was too late. In exchange for her momentary lapse in judgment, Emerald had to live with the mother of all demotions and the knowledge that an entire platoon had been lost because of it. To top it all off, she didn't even have anything to show for it. She had heard tales of ponies in the past disobeying orders and saving the day, only to get demoted later. They had inspired her, given her something to dream about as a sort of hero fantasy. Emerald had only come to understand how foalish that dream was after somepony else paid the price.

"You aren't the first pony to lose their rank," Sage reminded her. Emerald held back a sarcastic remark about telling the obvious. "And ye won't be the last. I suggest you start worrying about what comes next, instead of what happened. War's not over, lass."

"Yes, pa-... Sage, I know. I took my lashings and learned my lesson. I'm still the property of the Equestrian military for the time being," Emerald retorted, though her tone softened slightly. So long as she could heed the mare's advice without fully giving her the win, she'd do it. The last thing she wanted to do was give somepony like Sage something to hold over her, like so many others had apparently done already. Come to think of it, Sage seemed quite adept at maneuvering social situations. Perhaps it was something for Emerald to pay closer attention to - it would certainly be nice to earn the same kind of respect and patience from Flax.

"Well then," Flax interjected, derailing Emerald's train of thought. "If you're done moping, you owe Cream an apology." Emerald scowled at the mere notion of being told to apologize like she was some school filly. Flax apparently expected that, grinning like an evil kitten. "Don't worry, I told her to say she was sorry, too. Y'all can make up and play nice and we'll all be happier for it. Ain't that right?"

"Aye, it is. Even if I'll miss the entertainment from watching you lot bicker back and forth," Sage answered, snickering and raising her hoof to answer Flax's offer for a hoof-bump. With that, they both turned tail and filed out of the room to head back outside. Emerald was left alone for the moment, slack-jawed and wondering when she'd been transported out of a warzone and into some kind of strange drama act. Flax and Sage's conversation continued as they trotted down the hall, but their voices were too muffled behind the door for Emerald to make out. Instead, she turned around and peeked through the window to see what had changed since the last time she looked nearly an hour ago.

The sky had darkened somewhat, and Cream was nowhere to be seen - at least not from here. Several panels on and around the tank's engine deck were left open, protected from snowfall by a tarp, and a myriad of parts and tools were scattered about in some form of organized chaos. Emerald had never had any affinity for the mechanical, and even after her schooling she struggled with the electrical, but... maybe, just once, she could give it a try. If nothing else, playing nice with Cream while Flax was around to see it would be a good start on digging herself out of the hole she found herself in.