Everfree Forest, Pony Gulch One. Not much can be said about this dismal, poor excuse for a territory; only that for as long as the two oppositions stationed in the clearing of where Ponyville once stood, they have always fought. A battle as old as time itself; South against the north, waves against the stone, fire against water, Red versus blue. History has always provided such ample clashes of opposites. The only difference this was that this time, this conflict was completely, utterly, and absolutely pointless in every conceivable way.

In the large clearing between the circle of dank, dark woods was only the rolling hills of what once was inhabited Ponyville, which had been wiped clean of any structures except for two stone bases that looked almost identical in everyway. But, they were very different. Only an idiot could not see the difference between these structures. You see, one had red flags hanging from it while the other had blue. Each was stationed as far as they could be in this gulch; red taking the west, and blue capitalizing the east.

For the longest time, this war zone was a stallion only zone; a manly place for only the manly. But, that was quickly dashed when fillies and mares began to outranked and prove far more competent than any of the stallions… if only by a small margin. Since then, Pony Gulch One had quickly become a female dominated area… and no one was complaining.

This day, nothing was any different then any other day. The sun was high, the wind was dead, and as always, no one was doing a single thing. At Red Base, they awaited the return of their commander with what news came from command. But until then, Private First Class Spike and Private Big Macintosh –Mac for short- stood atop their base with Spike leaning his back against one of the stone walls. Moments passed with relative silence except for the chirps of the birds that hid inside the Everfree forest; no one ever looked for those birds since it was the only thing that kept them from absolute silence. It was in this constant silence that Spike looked to Big Mac with his bored green eyes and his arms crossed in front if his maroon breast plate. "Hey…"

Big Mac, as if waking from a deep slumber, snapped his eyes to attention to his dragon partner, "Yeah?"

"Do you ever –I don't know- wonder why we're here?"

For a short silence, Big Mac looked up to the sky with a serious look, as if delving into his thoughts, "That's one ah' life's great mysteries, huh?" He turned his face back to Spike at this, "Why are we here?" now, he turned his whole self to his much smaller dragon friend, ""I mean, are we a product of... don't know, some cosmic coincidence, or is there really a God, watchin' everythin'? One with plans fer' us and all that." Again, his eyes drifted off to look at the vast land before him, "don't know, Spike, but keeps me up a' night…"

The words sunk into the two of them for some time before Spike gave a chuckle. "What?"

"Huh?" Big Mac replied.

"I meant, why are we out here, in the middle of a forest?" Big Mac gulped and looked away from Spike with a fluster, "What's all this about God?"

"They were nothin'…" quickly dismissed Big Mac.

Spike gave a shrug and looked off into the distance for a second before looking back with a raised brow, "you wanna talk about it?"

"Nnnope…"

"…You sure?"

"Eeeeyup, I'm sure."

Sure enough that Big Mac wasn't in the mood to speak so much right now, Spike decided to work off his own conversation. "But really. Why are we here? The way I look at it, we're in the middle of a forest, in an empty clearing, with nothing good about it."

Big Mac grunted a little to show that he was listening.

"When you think about it, we only have a Red Base here is because there's a Blue Base over there," pointing one of his claws over to the distance, he continued, "And they only have a Blue Base is because we have a Red Base right here."

Big Mac must've gathered his nerves again, because he looked at Spike. "We're fightin' them, right?"

"Well, yeah. But what if we all just left and the blues stayed? They'd steal our base and then they would have two bases here… in the middle of nowhere," twirling a single claw, Spike frowned, "Yippy…"

"Yeah," Big Mac agreed, "I signed myself up so I could fight some changelin's. But before ah' can even get shipped off 'fer a fight, Queen Chrysalis goes and get's herself destroyed and gets me stuck here in the middle of nowhere…"

---

Clearly, this recognizance wasn't going anywhere so Private Twilight Sparkle of Blue Team laid her sniper riffle next to her laying body while she was sitting inside the cover of one of the outlining trees. She could've taken a shot at the Reds while their defenses were lowered, but even she knew the likeliness of her hitting anything what any sort of gun was as likely as the moon rolling Equestria over. If anything, the sniper was only good for a telescope in her hooves.

Behind her, fluttering softly in the air was Private First Class Rainbow Dash, clearly bored as no other, "What're they doing?"

Begrudgingly, Twilight looked up with a sigh, "…What?"

"I asked what're they doing," Rainbow Dash said again, this time reaching for Twilight's sniper only to have Twilight jerk it away with a snarl.

"God damn you Dash!" Twilight cursed, flinching at her own word for a second, "I'm tired of answering that question!" Twilight hissed while snapping her eyes away, sure that if she didn't, she would only get even more angry.

"Hey! Don't get snippy with me!" Rainbow Dash snapped back, resting her back against the trunk of the tree they hid in, "You're the one with the feathering riffle, I can't see squat! Don't go bitching at me because I don't feel like flying behind you and bucking myself all day!"

Twilight only snarled in displeasure, but rolled her eyes as she looked back at the aqua blue armored foal. "Look, they're just… standing there. That's it. They always just stand there. They never do anything, they never have done anything, and quite frankly I'd put money on that they never will do anything! All they ever do is just-just… talk! That's it…"

For sometime after Twilight's rage, the two feel into a quiet moment. But, perhaps out of curiosity or just to spite her partner, Rainbow Dash spoke up. "What're they talking about?"

"…I bucking hate you…" Twilight cursed as she slammed her face into the tree branch below her head.

Moments went by with both the red and blue teams remaining quiet; or rather as quiet as the reds and blues could ever be. However, for Spike and Big Mac their small talk continued on with Twilight Sparkle returning to watching them through her scope. "I'm not tryin' to say it's a waste…" Big Mac said, "but we could be usin' all these tools and such for more useful things… like findin' other species that we can beat."

"That's what I'm saying. This is why the two of us should be in charge. We're not getting anywhere with—" But Spike quickly bit his tongue before he could finish that thought.

It was a bad idea to ever speak about the sergeant, Big Mac knew that better then anyone as well as Spike. Just then, a sound of hooves clapping against the grassy knolls that surrounded the base drew both of the soldiers' attentions to the ground bellow. "Speakin' of the sergeant…" Big Mac mumbled as the unmistakable blond hair and red armor of their commanding officer came to his sight.

Tipping the cowpony hat dawned upon her head, Sergeant Applejack looked up to her subordinates with a cheerful smile, "What're you ladies doin' up there? Get yer' flanks down here and welcome me!" she called to them.

The two sighed and started their way down the stone ramp that had been built from the roof to the battle field bellow. "Comin' sis…" Big Mac assured his little sister.

"Now Big Mac, what did I say about callin' me sis on the field?" Applejack taunted, still looking relatively cheery.

"Sorry, Sarge…" Spike chuckled a little at Big Mac's slight awkwardness of the response.

"Now that's better," Applejack nodded, seeing that her two comrades where standing before her. "Well… bet'cha wonderin' why I called the two of y'all down, right?"

Spike and Big Mac exchanged confused looks at each other before Spike perked a brow up at Applejack. "I thought you called us down to welcome you?" Spike assumed with Big Mac nodding.

"Naa, that'd be just plain stupid… Any of ya' wanna guess what news I got for ya'?" Applejack played with them teasingly.

"Uh…" her big brother sighed with a shrug of his hefty orange armored shoulders, "Is it that the war is over and we can all go home?" he asked in a somewhat hopeful tone.

For the first time, Applejack's expression fell flat into a disapproving frown. "Yeah, Mac. That's it. War's over, we won, and yer' the hero…"

"Hey, I thought you said you never lied?" Spike pointed out.

"Ain't no lie. Just saying a future statement in the present," Applejack replied back as her smile returned and returned a look to her brother, "Now I know we've been here awhile… 'bout four years next month. But fer' once, I got some good news from Command."

Both Spike and Big Mac looked less then enthusiastic about that. Like Applejack said, they have been here together for around four years with little to no action ever happening except the days when an Ursa would wander across the battlefield. But even then those were so slim they could count them on Spike's claws. "So, I want you two to fix up the base an' make up a new bed, 'cause we're getting a new couple of hooves around here," Applejack informed them.

It was Big Mac that was first to react to this news. "A new recruit? Well that ain't too bad."

"Is it a boy or a girl?" Spike pressed hopefully; preying to whatever god there was that would finally give him a female dragon here.

"Ya' know?" Applejack tapped her chin with some thought, "they di'n't say… set up for either. I'm personally hopin' for a pegasus or a unicorn. Those dirty blues over there already own the sky and the fire power, we need ta' even out," Applejack frowned for a moment after shooting a dirty look over to the blue base, "Anywho…" looking back, she smiled again, "speakin' uh' fire power… Zecora! Bring it in!"

Rolling over one of the hills before red base came a fairly bulky truck with a striped pony working the mechanism in the front to pull it along. Zecora parked it beside Applejack before stripping the straps on her back and dislodging her hooves from the pumps, taking her spot beside her leader. "Ladies, say hello to our new best friend… well, Mac's since Spike can't work the controls."

"Aw man…" Spike grumbled.

"Don't fret. This thing is outfitted with a mounted machine gun tailor made for a fella' with fingers. Lucky you Spike," Spike brightened up before Applejack went back into explaining the vehicle. "This filly comes with all the bells and whistles too. Four inches of armor plating, some kinda' suspension, and suited fer' one driver, one gunner, and one passenger. Say hello to the M12-LRV… I call it the Draconequus."

Everypony eyed the vehicle up and down, marveling at the first real wonder they've had in the longest time; leaving Spike off to the side with a ponder about him. "…Why Draconequus?"

Applejack looked back to Spike and sighed, "'Cause M12-LRV is a mouthful and Draconequus is a bit easier to say… Plus it sounds fierce."

"Yeah… but it seems a bit too small to be fierce, Si—Sarge," Big Mac added while prodding at one of the control peddles.

Applejack became a little irritated by these comments, evident by her growing scowl. "Fine. What should we call it?"

"I don't know… how about Bucker?" Big Mac suggested.

"…Mac, yer' supposed to give it an animal name… not an action," Applejack pointed out sternly.

"Yeah. I mean. Why not just go all the way and call it the Runner?" Spike added.

Big Mac shook his head, "No. Ya' see, Bucker works 'cause of the powerful gun and its strong body."

"Then wouldn't a tank be more fitting for that name?"

Applejack agreed with Spike as she gave her brother a smirk, "How about we go even further? Let's call it the Hammer?"

Both Applejack and Spike began to laugh while Big Mac frowned and Zecora remained blank with silence.

…

Struggling in the tree they had hidden in to see what the red team was up to, Rainbow Dash tried to snatch the sniper away from Twilight. "Let me see, let me see!" Rainbow Dash whined while Twilight kept her at leg's distance from her, still looking through the scope.

"Look, I'll explain it to you. Just be quiet before they notice us!" Twilight snapped in a relative hush. Rainbow Dash agreed and sat back against the tree, waiting for a description. "Alright… let's see… Uh-huh… Yeah, it looks like they've got some kind of truck… Looks serious," Twilight gently put her sniper down and started to get up, "we better head back and report this."

"Woah, woah, woah!" Rainbow Dash quickly pushed Twilight back into her position and have her the sniper back. "Car? They have a car? Come on!"

Twilight rolled her eyes and put the sniper back down, giving Rainbow Dash a disappointed side glance. "What are you complaining about? Command is sending us a tank."

Scoffing, Rainbow Dash put her arms into a fold in front of her aqua armor. "Psh, can't pick up colts in a car…"

"Oh- What? You know, you just have this amazing ability to just bitch and moan about everything, don't you?" Twilight snapped, "We're about to get a tank, a vehicle mechanically superior to any kind of car, and all you can think about is getting colts? What kind of colt are you planning on getting around here?" Rainbow Dash gestured to the red base, particularly Big Mac, only to get a sharp slap on the hoof by Twilight, "That doesn't count! Besides… I think he's with that red armor pony. And you know what? What kind of colts are you planning to pick up with a truck like that?"

"…What kind of car is it?" Rainbow asked after some time.

Her patiants getting far too tested, Twilight looked through her scope again. "I have no idea. I'm no vehicle expert…" she grumbled to herself while fixing on the truck, "I can't put my hoof on it… but if I had to guess, it looks something that packs a strong kick to it."

"…Like a Bucker?"

"Yeah, that's it." Twilight nodded and put her rifle down once more, getting very tired of pressing her cobalt armor to the branch of the tree.

…

"'Right, 'right," Applejack wiped a single tear from her eye and pushed her back up against their new truck back at Red Base, "Unless anypony—Sorry, anyone…" remembering Spike's species, Applejack corrected herself, "has any objections, we're stickin' with the name draconequus. That alright with you, Macintosh?"

"Eeeyup…" her brother answered in defeat.

"Yer' sure? We could still call it the Tackler."

"It's fine…"

"Killer?"

"Really, it's alright."

"Crawler?"

"What about Dancer?" Spike joined in.

"Don't help Spike…" Big Mac warned.

"Slasher!" Applejack shouted out suddenly.

"Come on y'all…" Big Mac moaned painfully, trying his best not to put his hoof to his face.

"Spike, what's that action that lions do on their meat?"

"Pouncing?"

"Yeah. How 'bout that, Mac? Pouncer? Kinda has a n ice ring to it."