General Ironsides kept muttering various curses under his breath as he looked from screen to screen in his command center aboard ZOCOM HQ. Ever since the war had started, he had relocated from Canterlot proper and with what he was seeing, his caution was well-founded. Prince Blueblood was MIA, most likely KIA, and all of 400 survivors of the 1st Armored Division had barely made it back to GDI lines, with maybe a dozen having survived unscathed. Each camera feed and piece of combat camera footage spelled out the same story; Blueblood should never have gotten General Steam’s division and he should have never taken the bait Rarity set for him.

“Over twenty thousand…” the old stallion muttered with a tired sigh, “Stupid bucking glory hog.”

“General, new estimates just came in. Filtering to non-essential terminals.” a synthetic mare voice chimed in.

“Thank yo-” Ironsides began before he realized he was about to thank an AI. With Nod targeting high-ranking GDI officers whenever and wherever possible, GDI had to come up with a new way to make sure that data could be transferred between commanders, GDI HQ, and even top staff NCOs in the event of an assassination or battlefield casualty. Their answer was the Ethereal Vision Agent, or EVA, a magical AI construct that worked mostly on enchanted crystals like most of GDI’s gear. While Nod had cornered the market on technological advancement because of how few unicorns were part of Nod, GDI focused on magical prowess in almost every aspect of their military because of the overabundance of them. This had led to them considering themselves something of a “higher class”.

“New data inbound, General.” his EVA stated. “Video log transmitted from Brotherhood territory today at 1000.”

“Brotherhood? What’s o-just show it to me, EVA.” the stallion ordered. His reply came in the form of Prince Blueblood appearing on his main screen. He was bloodied, beaten, and bound on a medical table facing the camera. Behind him were the tattered unit colors of GDIs 1st Armored Division strung up between the flag of Nod, and the flag of Rarity’s 3rd Special Operations Division. Rarity herself stood on the beaten prince’s right, with a dragon that Ironsides didn’t recognize on the left.

“Greetings citizens of Nod!” the white mare announced, putting on her best fairground ringleader’s voice. “Today we bring you a GDI general brought low by yours truly, and as a gift from Kane himself, you all get to watch him die!”
_________

Ironsides eventually found out that the broadcast was shown all over Nod territory and only censored on public screens. If a Nod citizen was watching it on a television, then Spike burning Blueblood to a crisp with his dragonfire was completely uncensored. The General was used to gore; he had fought in plenty of skirmishes with the gryphons and changelings over his many years in the guard, but seeing a member of the royal family turned into a charred skeleton over the course of a few seconds was hard for even him to watch.

The sound was no better. He wasn’t sure how Nod had done it, but they’d managed to capture the sickening -sounds- associated with the act, as well--the popping of blistering flesh, Blueblood’s screams--even the ragged breaths he’d tried to take after he ran out of breath and inhaled the searing air before the flame had abated. Those had been the worst. He’d never heard such a sound before, and prayed to whatever was listening that he never would again. It wasn’t even a death-gurgle so much as it sounded like someone boiling a can of baked beans after cutting a hole in the top.

The only solace Ironsides took from the whole display was that Spike’s fire was so fierce that it made it impossible to see what had happened, only its brutal aftermath.

“EVA, have the Princesses seen this footage?”

“Negative, sir. Would you like me to alert them?”

“No… no, not yet. Celestia would be in hysterics without me to help… buffer the blow, as it were. Where are they right now?”

“Princess Celestia is currently aboard ZOCOM HQ on a security inspection. Princess Luna is with her.” EVA replied as the general bolted from his chair and out the door.

“Send a message to each of them to meet me in the general briefing room please, and make the subject ‘We Found Blueblood’. I’d rather contain Celestia’s inevitable breakdown to someplace that’s easy to clean up, rather than my office or an unsecured hallway.” he muttered, continuing his walk to trot through the halls.

It is said that in the history of Equestria, the sun has only gone dim on a few occasions, specifically when the heart of the alicorn who is bound to it by ancient magics is hurting. The first recorded instance was immediately following the Nightmare Moon Incident over a thousand years ago. The second instance was after Appleloosa became a tiberium crater. Today, the third instance happened as the sun lost some of its luster and the Princess of the Sun could not hold back the tears. Many in the castle heard her cry, and as the news was broken to the rest of GDI proper, the rest of the country joined in mourning a life cut short along with 22,255 others in one stallion’s pursuit of glory and victory.

One elder, however, did not mourn. He was just happy that Blueblood was no longer suffering and that he hadn’t entrusted any intel with him that had any possibility of being remotely important. He quietly took a long, slow walk back to his office and did his best to ignore how the sun was dulled, hoping that he wouldn’t receive any more bad news today. With a resigned sigh, he practically fell back into his chair once he had reached his office and picked up the report that Prince Blueblood’s murder had interrupted.

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN SWEETIE BELLE ESCAPED!?”
_________

10 Hours Prior to the “Blueblood Broadcast”

It had been a little over 7 months since the war had unofficially started with the first Nod ambush of a GDI convoy. Much had changed since that fateful day; few ponies smiled much anymore, many others were dead either due to the war or because of Tiberium, and it seemed as if much of the world was being split up, not only into Nod and GDI territories but by the Blue, Yellow, and Red Zones as well. For one pony however, there were only three changes that truly mattered.

The first was the heavy militarization of her home, Ponyville, which culminated with the finishing of the construction of the Blue Zone Wall which surrounded much of it and the farmlands it depended on. The second was the schism within her own family; her older sister had gone over to Nod before the war had even begun, effectively turning her into the “enemy” as far as GDI was concerned. And the third was a direct result of the second. In a Blue Zone filled to the brim with MPs and a hefty military garrison, Sweetie Belle’s house was receiving special attention, becoming one of the better guarded civilian buildings in Ponyville next to the Town Hall itself. After the tragic accident that befell Rarity’s boutique where she used to live, having gone up in flames along with a number of secret blueprints GDI had tried to get their hooves on, GDI Intelligence wasn’t willing to take any chances with her. Given that their currently unsavory PR wouldn’t allow them to just get rid of her however, she was put under house arrest along with her parents.

Looking out her room’s window on the second floor, Sweetie couldn’t help but feel… lonely. Her friends had volunteered to become cogs in GDI’s war machine, Scootaloo having joined the air force while Apple Bloom joined the army. She hadn’t heard from either of them in months, making her worried and, deep down, somewhat guilty. And Rarity… well there wasn’t much of a chance she’d be seeing her older sister any time soon. With a sigh, Sweetie went back to practice sewing. With some luck, she would have a nice dress ready for Rarity if - when - they saw each other again.
_________

In everyday life, both as industrial tools and objects to either draw attention to a certain part during a presentation or just to dick around with cats, lasers aren’t really visible. The beam’s end point can be seen, sure, but the beam itself can’t. In the case of Nod’s laser weaponry however, the beam superheats the air it goes through, creating a bright red stream of plasma that last for merely a nanosecond, long enough to catch the attention of anyone with functioning Mk. I Eyeballs due to its sheer brightness.

As Corporal August Turf found out the moment his skull was flash-fried by a laser while on post though, even in the dead of the night, that flash of light could be hidden by the cover of a watchtower’s floodlights.

“Target’s down, Boss. You’re clear to move.”

From the shadows around Wall Outpost 13, three figures moved in without fear of being lit up by a lucky guard on a tower. From a distance it was impossible to tell anything was going on as its occupants were eliminated with expediency and efficiency.

“Outpost is clear, Boss. The scanner is coming up clean.”

“Good. Fixer, get on the console and disable the perimeter alarms.”

Inside the outpost’s main building the lights flickered intermittently, briefly revealing the 3 figures currently waiting there. All three of them were clearly ponies, wearing a heavier-looking version of the Shadow suits worn by Nod’s infamous operatives. Instead of the Lazarus Cloak common amongst them, their jet-black suits were heavily armored and covered with storage packs. To the untrained eye, or someone who couldn’t really differentiate between Nod’s armor types, they might as well have been Black Hand troopers. Two of them, a small buffalo with a laser rifle and a unicorn with a grenade launcher on his back, covered the doors while a second unicorn interfaced with a console.

“Alarms are down, Boss. And I managed to hook up a feedback loop on their radars. They’ll be seeing data 3 hours old by the time they figure out something’s up.” said Fixer, disconnecting himself from the console.

“We won’t be here that long, but I’ll let Sev know he can fly in low. They sent their routine call right before attacked, which means we’ve got an hour to pull off phase 2 of this operation before our cover is blown.” said Boss, reaching for her helmet’s earpiece. Before actually contacting their team’s sniper however, she looked at the unicorn with the grenade launcher. “Scorch, start setting up the bombs. Fixer, set the message to play seconds after the bombs go off.”
_________

It didn’t take long for Sev to meet up with the rest of the squad. After all, a pegasus’ flight speed was significantly faster than any pony’s running speed. He landed atop the southwest side of the Blue Zone Wall which surrounded Ponyville, in between two of GDI’s automated turrets, made docile by Fixer’s technical wizardry. Waiting there were Boss, surveying a map of the Ponyville Blue Zone, and Fixer, messing with the electronics of one of the turrets

“Well Boss, that was the easy part. What now?” asked Sev, his laser sniper rifle currently retracted into its compact form. Boss’ attention remained on the map.

“Intel says the General’s house burned down a few weeks after the war started. They want us to make sure nothing remains of the schematics the General was working on back then and, if possible, secure whatever survived. After that we’ll head here, this house by the lake, where the VIP is being held. Sev, you and I will head the ruins while Fixer and Scorch finish setting up our little surprise. Once we’re done, they’ll spring the trap and join us in securing the VIP.”

Finding the scorched ruins of Rarity’s boutique wasn’t particularly difficult. Ponyville had been and remained a rural town, with the boutique being located at a midway point between the crowded town’s center and the open outskirts. It had grown quite a bit in the last couple years, what with the new Princess to cozy up to living there and the exodus from Yellow and Red zones driving masses of ponies from their homes once tiberium infested the planet. The area around the ruins remained rather open and, given the lack of anything particularly important there, rather unguarded. It took Boss and Sev approximately half an hour to get there while avoiding GDI patrols. Sev set up a sniper’s nest atop of a building, making use of Ponyville’s rustic architecture to conceal himself. Meanwhile, Boss approached the scorched building.

Having been made of wood, the boutique hadn’t had much of a chance to begin when the fire broke out. As it was, the second floor had collapsed and been consumed by the flames. However, given how large portions of the burned ruins had been cleared out it definitely looked like GDI had dug around looking for something. The Nod operative had one advantage over GDI’s search teams, however. She knew exactly where to look.

“Sev, I’m accessing the basement. Keep me informed of anything going on up here.”

“Will do Boss.”

The basement entrance remained uncovered. After all, it wasn’t as if there were any doors to keep it closed and GDI had definitely scoured it fully when searching through the ruins. Given the burn marks all over, it was obvious that this was where the fire had originated. Wasting no time, Boss walked to where the safe was located, right under a number of fake ceramic floor tiles. Removing the tiles, he found the small safe door, a number pad requesting an access code. Inputting the code he’d been provided, the undamaged and untampered safe opened up, granting access to its contents. The fact that there were none made Boss’ heart stop for a second.

“Listen up squad, I’ve bad news; looks like GDI beat us to the General’s project stash. However, the situation remains the same. We’re to secure the VIP and leg it back to friendly lines, then inform command of what’s happened here. Scorch, Fixer, please let GDI know we’re here.” Boss said over the radio. Both she and Sev then proceeded to move out as explosions went off in the distance.
_________

“-WE’RE NOT GONNA HOLD ON MUCH LONGER!”

“Private, calm down and explain what’s going on.” said the major, receiving reports of explosions outside the wall around the area of Outpost 15.

“THEY’VE GOT BUCKING URSAS ROLLING UP! BY CELESTIA, SEND HEL-” the transmission cut off all of a sudden, coinciding with another explosion outside the wall.

“EVA, what are we looking at out there?” asked the Major, not looking forward to the answer.

“Perimeter turrets report the presence of a battalion-strength mechanized force. They are prioritizing Nod armored units. Sensors are picking up infantry close to the wall along with structural damage as a result of explosions.” said the AI in her characteristic artificial, monotone voice.

“Any air support?”

“Negative. Radar is not detecting aerial units.” replied EVA.

“EVA, wake up the Colonel and give the order to mobilize. I’ll be taking command of the garrison until the Colonel gets here.”
_________

“ ‘ey Boss, looks like they took the bait. I’m seein’ lotsa movement coming from their bases and towards the gates!” said Scorch, moving on to their rendezvous point. “By the way, Fixer asks when he should be a cheeky bastard.”

On their own end, Boss and Sev were making good time going straight through the town, keeping to the rooftops. With the scare they’d just given whomever was in charge, the MPs were being redeployed into their combat units or being sent to secure something or another. The end result, however, was the same. They cleared the streets and made life easier for both Shadows.

“Tell him that as soon as GDI forces outside are at company strength he can show them the magic of sharing. Once he does, you show them the magic of caring.” Boss replied, turning to Sev as they approached the target area. A wide, open strip of terrain with a small lake was located right at the northwestern outskirts of Ponyville. And at the lake’s shore rested a humble-looking house. Right where the VIP was located.

“I need you to scope out what’s out there. We don’t want to run straight into a platoon if we don’t have to.”

“On it Boss.” answered Sev, taking to the air and making use of his sniper rifle’s thermal scope. “Boss, from the looks of it we’ve got two Timberwolves parked outside and a whole lot of grunts. I count fifteen from here and… you’ve got to be kidding me. There’s a bucking Predator coming around from behind the house.”

“They sent a tank to secure the VIP?!” Boss said, thinking quickly. “Alright. We’ll wait for Fixer and Scorch to get here and then handle this.”
_________

“Major, incoming transmission from Captain Tiara.”

“Patch her through.” she ordered, the captain’s high-pitched voice coming through. “What’s the situation out there Captain?”

“Oh you’re just loving this, aren’t you?” said Captain Diamond Tiara. “Waking us up in the middle of the night? Making us roll out without even a bath? Do you know what my hair looks like right now?! I swear, if you hadn’t used real explosives to convince us that there was something going on-”

“What the buck are you talking about?! Have you engaged the Nod forces assaulting the wall?!” the Major asked, her patience hitting its limit almost immediately.

“Yeah, yeah. ‘Nod forces’. Hardy hardy har. Do not think I’m not going to report this to the Colonel. And I swear Babs, if you EVER do something like this miserable excuse for a drill, I’m going to-”

“TIARA! Have you or have you not engaged the enemy?” asked Major Babs Seed, well beyond irritated at this point. Despite her turnaround years ago, Tiara still had a bad habit of letting her old self take over whenever she didn't get enough sleep.

“No, we haven’t engaged any of your imaginary enemies out here. Now can we go back to sleep now or do I have to get the Colonel to cut your pay?”

Major Seed remained silent for a moment. “EVA, what’s the status of the engagement at the wall?”

“Automated turrets continue to engage Nod armor outside the wall. Please standby… Enemy reinforcements have appeared consisting of motorized infantry and IFVs. Limited armor has arrived as well. Turrets are retargeting.”

It took a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of a second for Major Seed to comprehend what was going on.

“DIAMOND, GET OUT OF THERE!”

By then it was too late.
_________

Fixer just couldn’t stop giggling madly. It took Scorch popping him in the helmet for the unicorn to recover his senses.

“Heheheheheheheh, sorry about that. GDI’s grunts outside are toast, and the turrets are focusing on those behind the wall now.” said Fixer, rubbing his helmet where an armored hoof had just struck.

“Oh babeh, this is what I live for!” replied Scorch, his hoof coming down on a red button on his suit. In the distance where the sounds of battle were taking place, a massive wave of explosions rocked Ponyville, having originated right under the Ponyville Garrison’s hooves as they marched out into battle. “That there’s one problem fixed.” he said as the two of them met up with Boss.
_________

“Sweetie, get down here this instant! The sergeant says we have to get in the basement right now!” came from downstairs.

“I’ll be there soon, dad! Just give me a second!” Sweetie Belle yelled back. In all truth, she wanted to stay up there and see whatever was going on out there.

“Well hurry up or one of the soldiers is gonna go drag you down here!” her father answered. She knew he wasn’t kidding either. It wouldn’t be the first time they’d have had to push or drag her somewhere she refused to go. This time however, with what was happening outside, she felt something was about to change. Then she saw it. Just for an instant, a red flash of light pierced down from the heavens. Then another. And another. And another. It had taken all of a second for the three red beams to come down. She also recognized what those beams were, having seen them in the news before.

“Brotherhood…” she said under her breath and immediately went to work. She put a bag over her back and went to her closet. Hidden under random useless things were plastic tubes with blue caps on them, the GDI logo plastered at the top. Sticking all of them in her bag, she ran downstairs towards the back door, where the laser beams had struck. Outside, the smell of charred flesh hit her like a truck to her olfactory system. Taking a second to pull herself together, she went around the house trying to find where the Brotherhood soldiers were. As she came around to the front, it was as if the world slowed down. An armored Nod soldier lay atop one of the GDI guards, having crushed the mare’s skull with an armored hoof. Twisting around, he was aiming his weapon at the two guards at the door but they already had theirs trained on him.

“No!” she thought she screamed, but she felt more than heard herself as her magical aura enveloped the heads of both GDI troopers. With a single, sharp movement, she willed their heads to turn towards her faster than they could react. With a sickening crack both guards fell to the ground dead, their necks irreversibly broken.
_________

“Boss, I’ve got her in my crosshairs and the stun setting ready. Just say the word.”

“Hold you fire, Sev.” Boss said over the radio. She immediately recognized the VIP, but had to make sure. “Are you-” she started before she heard an older mare shriek.

“Sweetie Belle!? WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!?” Cookie Crumbles screeched. Her father was right next to Sweetie’s mother and shared her horrified expression.

“Yeah, it’s her.” Boss muttered to herself, “Sweetie Belle, General Rarity sent us to rescue you. Please come with me.”

Taking a second to stare back at her parents, Sweetie Belle walked towards Boss’ side. “I’m sorry mom, dad, but I need to help Rarity.” she said, nodding at Boss. Nodding in return, Boss gave the order to pull out, running away with the General’s sister in tow. Behind them she could hear the wail of a mother’s cries and the echo of a father calling for his daughter, but Boss honestly didn’t care.

GDI had already taken away her father, and the father of her child.

Usually when a Shadow Team worked on getting out of an area undetected, it took them about 5 minutes give or take. With a VIP that had no stealth training, that time quadrupled. Nevertheless, they managed to get over the walls undetected and back to the pickup zone within the hour. Once aboard their cloaked carryall, Boss removed her helmet and gave Sweetie Belle a gentle smile.

“Little Strongheart?” the young unicorn murmured in disbelief.

“The very same, dear friend.” the diminutive buffalo replied, “Fixer, call it in to General Rarity; Sweetie Belle is secured but all plans might be in GDI custody.”

“No they aren’t!” Sweetie interrupted, “I have them right here! I made copies and burned them when I burned the basement… though… well… I wasn’t able to get in there right away after sister disappeared. They shouldn’t have copies of their own, but I tried to make sure they didn’t. At least they don’t have the originals, right?”

Little Strongheart quirked an eyebrow up as Sweetie Belle produced several schematics from her bag and skimmed what she could before Fixer interrupted her again.

“Boss, I got the General on the comm. What should I say?” the gearhead of a unicorn asked. Boss mulled over her thoughts for a few seconds before grinning first at Sweetie Belle, then to her team and then back to the young unicorn standing in front of her.

“All mission parameters met.”
_________

2 Months Later

“Your brother said something about a new heavy tank in the works for today’s demonstration, Colonel.”

“He’s right, sir. We’ve got a nice new toy for the 2nd Armored to try out if ya put your stamp of approval on this project.” the orange mare replied as she handed him a data crystal. Once in the older pony’s magical grasp, it came to life, showing him schematics for what could only be described as a house-sized mass of “BUCK YOU”.

“Mammoth program, eh? I’ve got to hand it to you Colonel, this is truly a marvel your R&D department has pumped out for us. I can’t wait to see the live-fire test today.” General Ironsides said with the first genuine smile he’d had since the war started.

“Why thank’ya kindly, sir, but I can’t take all the credit. Mac was the one who developed the original idea way back before the first shutdown of the armored programs. Ah’m just glad we managed to get things back up’n runnin’.” Applejack replied with a small tip of her hat.

“You and me both… you and me both…. now then, shall we?”

“Of course, if’n you’ll just follow me real quick…”

After being ushered into a somewhat smaller bay facing out onto a compact laboratory that had been so packed with wires, screens, technical readouts he could only pretend to understand, and other odds and ends did the thing actually become visible. It was situated in the middle of the room, and looked like a great, steel tuning fork. All of the wires in the room led to the thing, but half of them seemed to be plugged directly into the wall, as well.

“Watch your step, General, some of those wires are uncovered.” A female voice came from somewhere in the room, though he couldn’t see where.

“And I thought Celestia’s office was cluttered...’”He picked his hooves around them as carefully as he could, working his way toward the small alcove the voice seemed to be issuing from.

“Is it? Just look for the big yellow bits of tape that aren’t covering the wires as best as they could. Electrical tape isn’t really a bother for me since I can just walk over a shield, and the ones working the factory probably need it more.”

There were a few noises from the other side of the weapon. Its casing was a simple brushed steel at the moment, but there seemed to be patches of paint on a few of its surfaces, as though the mare working on it was trying to decide how she wanted it to look. Splotches of brass, silver, white, black, and even a bright green paint were spaced somewhat evenly around the thing, testing the colors’ resilience to whatever they were going to be put through.

“I’m willing to bet that Apple told you about what I’m working on?’ her voice asked, a long, braided black-and-yellow tail dancing about from underneath the meat of the thing. “It’s going to be amazing when it’s finally ready for production. I can tell you that much. Pushes metal at speeds we can’t even measure yet. Least, that’s the, uh… theory. Dr. Mal Practice, by the way. It’s a pleasure to finally meet you in person, General.”

The tail stopped its mad flickering about, and a single hoof reached out, pushing the mare from the hollow in the weapon. She took a moment to get situated, but stood and smiled delightedly at the General, her coal-colored pelt coated in grease and sweat, matted down in places by how long she’d been under the weapon.

“A pleasure… though as much as I enjoy talking magical or tactical theory from time to time, when it comes to our weapons research, I need tangible results.” the elder stallion deadpanned.

“Well that’s why you’re here, right? I’m just getting these last touches on it before the field test so that my little lady doesn’t completely drain all the power from the facility and cause a base-wide blackout like the last...” she seems to tick off numbers for a moment. “Six times I’ve tried to charge it.”

She stumbled around the room for a moment, and the stallion realized she was missing most of one leg. “Got most everything hooked up now, I just need a moment to try and find a, uh… proper projectile. I’m sure we could test-fire it without one, but I’d rather have the thing there if we needed it.”

“Considerin’ what we’d like to put this on first, how’s a one-twenny mike mike sound, doctor?” Applejack asked with a grin.

“... an explosive?” The mare seemed to consider for a moment. “I… maybe. We’re all going to be behind a blast shield in case it decides it doesn’t want to fire, right?”

“Aren’t blast shields mandatory at any ordinance live-fire test…?” Ironsides asked with an eyebrow raised, “Oh my Celestia, we hired the one mad scientist that Nod didn’t catch.”

“Oh, right. Yes, of course they are.” The mare seemed to blush for a moment as she continued putting the finishing touches on the weapon. “I’m only really worried about it because of the explosive. Long as that doesn’t go off, we should be fine, unless I put one of the capacitor gems in wrong. If that happened, we’ll have to start the build over, and re-work all the wiring. Shouldn’t be too bad, though, we’ve done it once already.”

A slightly mad grin settled on her face as she moved to clap her forehooves together--and stopped, huffing once she remembered that she was missing one and set the one that was there on the ground. “I’m so excited my baby’s finally going to get to DO something. We’re putting her on the thing they’re working on in the factory, right?’

“Eventually, hopefully. But if power sources are going to be a problem, we may have to reserve this tech for defensive emplacements.”

“That would be a terrible waste of mare-hours. You have to put her on that behemoth, or she’ll never get to be the prettiest pony at the Gala.” The mare seemed almost hurt at that point, but continued around the room. Her horn ignited, and she flipped a switch from across the weapon, turning around to glance at the readouts she had nearby. “Good, good, go--no, that’s not right, but it’s close enough, good, good…” She smiled at Ironsides. “She’s ready. Just have my assistants move her to the firing range and bring whatever you want to see her chuck downrange.”
________

Applejack and the General were led outside once Mal had her aides begin moving the massive prototype out of the lab. Once the two officers were out and onto the Manehatten Weapons Testing Facility, Ironsides heard and felt the approach of a moving building.

The four-treaded vehicle lumbering towards them was impossibly large, its treads themselves were twice the height of General Ironsides, the turret alone looked like it was the same mass as a Predator tank, and the rocket pods on either side of the turret had looked like they held enough ordinance to wipe out an entire squadron of Nod helicopters.

“General, I’d like to introduce you to the Mammoth Mk. I Heavy Tank. She’s outfitted with two 120mm cannons, double missile racks that can take out infantry or aircraft, and armor so tough that even a dragon can’t tear into it.”

“That remains to be seen, though I won’t mind seeing her weapons get a proper show.”

“Well ah can promise, you’re gonna enjoy what she has to offer. Got your headphones, General?”

“Way ahead of you, Applejack.” he replied with a slight smirk as he willed the plugs into his ears. Applejack donned her tanker helmet and said something into the mic that Ironsides couldn’t hear, but he didn’t need to in order to know what she had just ordered.

The Mammoth tank was roughly 100 meters away from General Ironsides when it began to turn to face the practice target down-range headon. The target was a full kilometer away at the foot of a ponymade berm topped off by a magical shield in order to keep debris and shrapnel from raining all over the countryside. When the Mammoth fired both cannons in rapid succession, the General was staggered by the overpressure created. When the rounds hit a Predator tank that was beyond repair, the tank ceased to exist.

“Sweet Celestia’s left cutie mark!” Ironsides exclaimed as he shook his head clear from the pressure created by the tank firing. Though only half of his words were even audible over the noise as the Mammoth fired her missile pods. One missile each from the two pods rocketed down the firing range and what little debris was left of the tank in the two craters that had been made was enveloped in another fantastic explosion.

“New weapons designs, sir.” Applejack said as Ironsides removed his earplugs, “Unicorns down in Arr n’ Dee managed to work their mumbo jumbo into crystal triggers. Magical explosives punch a helluva bigger hole in armor than regular ones!”

“I can see that. How about the railgun?”

“Don’t you worry your silly, handsome old head about that,” Mal interjected, nearly making the old stallion jump. In any other circumstance he would have wondered just how she had snuck up on him with only three legs, but then he remembered that his ears were still ringing a little from the weapons test he had just seen.

“Worrying is part of my job description, doctor… now, where’s the weapon?”

“A safe place, hooked up and charged, and loaded. It’s set and aimed at an extreme-range target, so whatever happens, we should be safe, unless it decides to flout the laws of magic entirely.

“So how do we watch it?” Applejack asked.

“That’s what these are for,” the doctor told her. She brought a collection of crystals out of her saddlebag and tossed them onto the ground. One they hit the dirt she willed them to life, showing multiple views of a testing bunker and the railgun prototype on its mount. With no warning from the good, and most likely insane, doctor, the prototype began charging up. The massive crystal batteries charged the two parallel coils to the point that the unshielded rails were sparking with magical energy. A split-second after Ironsides thought it was close to blowing up, a 120mm shell was shot down range so fast that it left a vapor trail visible clear from three kilometers away. Before either of the ponies watching could track, the bunker it was trained on disappeared in a cloud of destruction. Once the fog dissipated, the armored practice bunker that a Predator tank had only been able to damage, was now nothing more than a crater in the dirt.

“Sweet Mother Faust….” Applejack murmured. “Doctor, how hard…?”

“How hard did it hit? Hard. Harder than anything we’ve tested before, which makes me think somewhere in the 80-megajoule range. Isn’t it great? If we can tune it just right, we’ll hit the whole 80, but… that’ll strain the capacitor gems too much over the long term. We’ll probably have to end up settling for 75 or so with the prototype and first-gen models.”

“75 what-now?” Applejack asked.

“Megajoules. How we measure explosive force.” Mal sounded like she was explaining something simple to a foal. “Just one is like taking one ton of metal and accelerating it to 160 kilometers per hour, and then seeing it hit a wall. Take that, multiply it by 75 times, and you have roughly what we’ll be shooting at Nod’s troopers; preferably a dragon’s face.”

“Woah mamma….” the orange mare whispered with her eyes wide before words from her superior snapped her out of it.

“Well now….” Ironsides muttered at the sheer destruction he had just witnessed, “With gear like this, we may actually pull this war out of the gutter.”

“We can only hope, General. I just can’t wait to get mah hooves on one’o them Mammoths once production starts… hey Doc, how long until we can get them fancy railguns on the tanks, anyways?”

“Well, we could start the integration process immediately, but every shot would render the tank immobile for a minute or two. I’m talking totally draining the spark batteries, to the point it’d have to be restarted manually by every unicorn on the crew. So, the answer you’re probably looking for is ‘in a month or two, because we need to figure out how to make it not do that’. Now I know it works this well, I’ll be putting all of my efforts into it, so you don’t have to worry about it at all. You’ll have the best firepower in the Equestrian theater as soon as I can.”

“Get it done, Doctor. The faster we get Mammoths--specifically railgun equipped Mammoths--to the front lines, the sooner we can hold onto the fronts opened up by the Black Hand and their damnable dragon allies.”

“And once we start holding those fronts…” Applejack added with a slight grin.

“The sooner we push the Brotherhood right back to Mareajevo and bury Kane’s ‘temple’ on top of his corpse.”

Author's Notes:

Yes, we did a giant homage to Delta Squad from Republic Commando (all the authors are fans).