Equestria: The Afterlife

by Timzocker201

Ch5: Field Studies

Author's Note:

Chapter five is a go!
This time around we have the first battle, albeit not really a fair one. what I mean by this? read for yourselves!

And of course, just as always, Chapter 6 will be out as soon as 7 is done, so stay tuned ^^

POV: Twilight

After we watched Rainbow Dash’s training, Markus and I walked back to the Library. During the training, I asked Markus almost every question I could come up with and he answered them as good as he could, so I was looking forward to writing Princess Celestia about my newfound knowledge. There was one question left to be asked though:

“Markus, how did you know how to improve Rainbow’s flight performance? I mean, no offence, but: you don’t have wings.”

Markus looked at me and raised an eyebrow.

“Didn’t I tell you my lifestory already? I was in the Luftwaffe as a Pilot, so I know how to fly and I studied Aeronautical Engineering, so I know a thing or two about aerodynamics.”

I cocked my head slightly to one side, as I heard an unknown word come from his mouth.

“What’s aerodynamics?” I asked in anticipation.

Markus shot me a shocked look and stared at me for what seemed like ages.

“If Rainbow would have asked this, I wouldn’t be surprised, but this question coming from you Twilight… Aerodynamics is basically the way air behaves under certain circumstances.”

“I’m sorry… We didn’t need to research things like this, since we’ve got magic.”

Markus turned his head forward again. “Magic is not a viable excuse to omit the search for kno---“ Markus suddenly stopped, his gaze turning upon me once again.

“I take it you don’t know about Chemistry and Physics either?” He asked, raising an eyebrow.

I looked at the ground, my ears hanging low in shame, as I had to answer “No…”

Markus held his chin for a while, before he spoke up again. “Well, I might have an interesting idea: how about you teach me about the ways of magic and I teach you about Chemistry and Physics in return?” He smiled at me, as he uttered those words.

My ears immediately perked up again and I looked him straight into the eyes, with a wide smile on my face. “YES! YESYESYESYESYESYES!” I was so happy, I started hopping in excitement. Knowledge from another world AND the opportunity to teach magic? I could never have said no to this.

When we arrived back at the library, Markus hesitated to go in. He said there was someone inside and it wasn’t Spike. He slowly opened the door and was greeted by a cloud of confetti served fresh from the cannon.

“SURPRIIIISE!” Pinkie Pie stood in the middle of the library, with about half of Ponyville gathered around her. Markus made his way into the library and looked around. If he was surprised at all, he was very good at hiding it.

“I’ve got to say Pinkie, you really are a natural. Rallying half of Ponyville in just under 6 hours is truly amazing.” Markus smiled towards Pinkie Pie and chuckled slightly.

“Well, duh! I am the Element of Laughter!” Pinkie Pie hopped around Markus for a while, before she announced the party to begin.

During the Party, Markus mostly leaned against a wall, occasionally talking to a few Ponies who were of course very surprised that he knew their name. After a while I went over to him.

“Why are you just standing at the sidelines? It’s your party after all!” I smiled at him, hoping to cheer him up.

Markus smiled back at me, but then returned to watching the crowd.

“I’m not really a Party person. Never was, actually. I think it’s partially due to my work experience. In crowds like these, friend and foe become one and the same; you can’t tell who is who until they are too close to react. It’s a nightmare for any soldier who’s been in counter insurgency operations in my world.” He gazed off into a non-existent distance, visibly in deep thought. I wanted to ask him, what he meant by counter insurgency operations, but seeing his reaction to his own words, I decided against it.

Pinkie Pie meanwhile hopped over to us. “Hey, don’t just stand there! Have some fun! Here, we are going to play >>pin the tail<< and you are first!”

Before Markus could even react, Pinkie pulled him in the middle of the crowd and blindfolded him. She turned him a few times and let him go. Markus seemed like he wanted to say something, but shrugged it off and just went with it. He closed in on the poster; walking straight as if Pinkie’s spinning did nothing to him, and placed the tail on-point into the target area. A loud collective gasp became audible, followed by cheers throughout the room.

“How did you do that?” Rainbow Dash, who joined the party after a while, emerged from the crowd. “Not even a Wonderbolt could do that, especially not after Pinkie spun him like this!”

Markus looked at Rainbow Dash with a cynical smile on his face. “I thought you didn’t take advice from someone without wings?” Rainbow blushed on this, turning her gaze away. Markus chuckled, tapped her cheek and, as she looked back at him, booped her muzzle. Markus smiled and began to laugh slightly, Rainbow and us other guests soon joined in.

Over the next month, He taught me about the >>laws of nature<< as he called them, while I taught him magic in return. He also spent a lot of time with Rainbow Dash, watching her fly and giving her advice on her performance. Rarity made Markus some clothes, supervised by himself, which turned out to be much to his liking. So much so, that he wore those instead of his uniform!

Whenever he wasn’t with Rainbow or me, he spent his time visiting Zecora or helping Applejack with her Applebucking. I can’t deny that I admire both his persistence in learning, as well as the speed at which he learns. He mastered levitation in just a few hours! Some spells that took me a month or more only take him a few days to learn. It’s almost scary.

He started looking deeper into magic and I taught him as much as I could. I have to admit, I’ve come to like him very much. He always keeps a level head and still manages to show kindness and affection whenever needed. I think Rainbow and the others have also grown attached to him. He is by now as dear to us, as a friend could be.

After a month of calm and peace however, a letter from Princess Celestia arrived, summoning Markus to the Royal Palace in Canterlot.

“I wonder, what the princess might want from me. I still have two months left to settle in, so it’s probably not a call to duty.” Markus put on his Woodland Uniform and started rummaging through his bag. “I think, I will leave my G36 here at the library. I don’t think I will need it, so just my Pistol for safety should suffice.”

He turned to me, spreading his arms slightly. “How do I look?” He asked me, smiling slightly. I mustered him from top to bottom. Apart from the missing vest and his rifle, he looked the same as on the day we found him.

“Like a swamp monster from the Everfree.” I chuckled and smiled, then began to laugh slightly. He looked at me with a forced angry face, before he started to laugh himself.

We headed off to the station and soon arrived in Canterlot, where two Guards were already waiting for us and took us to the Palace.

We were brought to the throne room and the guards announced our arrival. The doors swung open and my eyes widened in joy. “Shining!” I ran towards my brother, who greeted me with a warm hug.

“Hello Twilight, long time no see.” Shining grinned at me, then looked behind me.

I loosened the hug and introduced him and Markus. “Shining, this is Captain Markus Becker of the German Bundeswehr.”

Markus made a slight bow. “It’s an honor to meet an equal, Captain Shining Armor.” Markus then turned to Celestia and made another deep bow. “I have answered your call, your highness. What is it that you wish of me?”

Celestia rose from her throne and gestured us to follow her. We went into a room with a large round table in the middle and stood around it.

“Yesterday our northern border patrols spotted a large gathering of armed Minotaurs closing in on our border. Shining Armor sent out a few guards to intercept them, however he underestimated the enemy and now his guards are engaged in combat. We both came to the agreement that we need someone with actual combat experience to help us…” Celestia looked at Markus expectantly.

“So you decided to call upon me, as I’m the only one currently in Equestria that has seen actual combat.” Markus finished. Celestia nodded to him and cast magic upon the table. The table flickered and a holographic map emerged from it, showing the northern parts of Equestria.

Markus looked at it shortly, but then quickly averted his gaze and closed his eyes, before taking a deep breath and overdramatically turning his head towards Shining Armor.

“Shining Armor, what is this?” He said in a calm, demanding voice and without opening his eyes.

“A magical Holomap.” My brother answered. “It is used t-“

“Yes, I see that. I mean what. Is. THAT!” He reopened his eyes and pointed at a small valley, where a horde of red dots pushed against a handful of blue dots. “The formation is a mess, the gaps between your units are large enough to squeeze an entire army through AND you are about to be encircled…”

Shining Armor took a step back and looked at Markus with anger visible on his face. Markus meanwhile was yet again stroking his chin in thought.

“Is there anything you can do to help us?” Celestia asked with a hint of concern in her voice.

Markus looked up at her and then back at the map. “What troops do we have in there?” He asked Shining Armor, who reluctantly answered.

“We have a hundred Swordsponies, a hundred Spearponies and fifty Mages.”

“What does the enemy have? Does he have Mages?”

“No, they only have spears and swords and some bows.”

“What about their leader? What do we know about him?”

“To our knowledge they don’t have one, it’s just a loosely assembled raiding party.”

“Do our Swordsponies have shields?”

“Yes, they carry large shields with them, but they rarely use them in combat as using both sword and shield at the same time is too difficult for most to master.”

Markus now looked back at the map and started telling his plan. “All right, I want you to disengage and regroup here. Afterwards you pull back here.” He pointed at a bottleneck where the valley was only a few hundred hooves in width. “There, I want you to offset yourself from the middle of that bottleneck slightly to our side and let the Swordsponies form a shield wall along the width of that valley. The Spearponies are to form up behind them and hold their spears between the gaps. Meanwhile the Mages are to form up into two groups: one will provide Defensive magic against arrows from above, as well as strengthen our Swordsponies. The other group will blast the enemy with offensive magic. Meanwhile I want the Wonderbolts to fly past them and recover the wounded from the previous battle. If done correctly, the Minotaurs should soon suffer too many losses and retreat.”

Celestia nodded at Shining. He had to agree. “Ok, we will do this. I would have liked it better, if we’d just battle them down and send them crying to their chieftain, though.”

Markus gaze shot up at Shining. “I thought you said they don’t have a leader?!”

My brother jerked back a bit, his mouth forming words but not voicing them. He instead started stammering “W-Well, yes, not in this battle, but they do have a chieftain. I thought this wouldn’t be important since he wasn’t participating.”

Markus was again in his thinking pose, staring at the map. “You are too short-sighted Shining Armor. The existence of a chieftain would make this not just a raiding party, but most likely some sort of a probing attack. They want to test our defenses before they send in the main army and if a >>small<< raiding party without a commander can already do this much, I don’t want to know what an entire Army, commanded by their chieftain would do.”

Celestia, Shining Armor and I gasped at this revelation.

“Isn’t there some special tactic or maybe even a weapon from your world that could help us?” Celestia’s voice had a slight shiver in it as she uttered this question.

Markus however was completely calm. “Quite a few actually, some of them being so powerful that they would completely vaporize both friend and foe alike and render the whole area uninhabitable for the next few centuries. However I am reluctant to use them. Firstly because they are so powerful, secondly because a trumpcard is only of use as long as the enemy doesn’t know about it. If we were to use it now to fend them off, they could prepare themselves for the next time.” He stared a while onto the map, saying nothing, thinking deeply. Suddenly his eyes jerked up. “Discord.”

A certain Draconequus suddenly popped into existence behind us. “Ah, what an honor to see that even a being from another universe knows me.” He formed a tophat on his head and pulled it, while bowing before Markus.

“Discord, could you use your magic to summon an object I think of, with all of its functionalities?” Markus approached Discord, looking the former chaos-god straight into the eyes.

“Well, of course I could.” Discord laughed and leaned down to Markus. “But what could you give me in return?”

Celestia, Shining Armor and I just stood there the whole time, tensioning up as we waited for Markus to formulate his answer.

Finally, a maniacal grin slid across Markus’s face, as he answered “Chaos, Death and Destruction.”

Discord started to laugh loudly after this answer, while we others stood there in shock about what we just witnessed. “I like that answer. Very well, we have a deal.”

Markus turned back to us “Could you show me, where exactly the battle is taking place?”

Celestia nodded. Her horn started to glow and the table was now showing a map of all of Equestria, with a small banner sticking out from where we just saw the battle take place.

Markus nodded. “Good. I will need a Co-Pilot. Twilight, come with me please. As for you Shining Armor, would you please inform our troops of the plan? Also tell them, that as soon as they see a metal bird fly overhead, they are to slowly fall back and all the mages shall cast protective spells. I will personally tell the Wonderbolts about their role.”

“Wait, I thought you didn’t want the enemy to know about our >>trumpcard<<?” Shining Armor shouted across the table.

Markus looked at him with a slight smile. “Oh, they won’t know.” Markus started. “As long as I make sure, there is no one left to tell the story.”

Both Celestia’s and Shining’s eyes narrowed down as he said this. I heard my Heart pounding, but I managed to control myself. After all, this was for the good of all of Equestria and if it had to be done this way, then there was nothing I could do about i

Markus and I then joined Discord, who was already spawning all kinds of chaotic things in anticipation. “So, what should I summon? Will it be a giant monster, or some kind of magical weapon?”

Markus held up a Hand at him. “Easy, Discord. First we need a Runway and to my knowledge, the Wonderbolts have one. Could you snap-teleport us to the Wonderbolts HQ?”

Discord snapped his talons and suddenly we were at the Wonderbolts-HQ. He then held out his paw, gesturing Markus to lay his hand on it. He did just that and Discord charged his magic.

With a flash a giant machine appeared on the Runway before us. Markus was about to tell me what to do, when suddenly we heard a familiar voice shout to us.

“What is that?!”

“Hey Rainbow, I’m taking to the skies and this is the machine I will use for it.” Markus explained.

“Oh you’re going to fly? Cool! Can I come too?”

“Sorry, but you’re most likely too slow to keep up and the spare seat is already taken by Twilight.”

“Oh come on! Please let me come! Pleeeeeeeaaaaase! I want to see you fly!” Rainbow Dash begged more and more and as Markus denied once again, she clamped to his body and grabbed tight.

While all of this went down, I examined the machine, Markus has summoned. It had a pointy nose and a long body. At the back, it had a large fin protruding upwards, as well as two small triangular planes that extended to the sides. On the top at the front, there was a cupola made of glass with two seats and some weird machinery underneath. In the middle, to the sides of the body, there were two large, rectangular tubes which stretched down to two circular openings at the back. It also had two large wings attached to the sides of the main body, with large, spindle-shaped objects hanging from them. These objects had sings on them, which depicted a black flame on orange background, as well as an inscription, which read “Napalm”.

Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash was still clinging to Markus, refusing to let go until he agreed. Finally, Markus sighed:

“Ok, fine, you can come. Discord, I need to make some changes to the plane.”

With that, Discord extended his paw once more and Markus put his hand on it once more. This time, the rear seat of the machine was replaced by two smaller ones arranged side-by-side and some of the machinery inside was missing. Additionally, Markus, Rainbow and I were now wearing some strange suits, which tightly pressed against me and Rainbow Dash, making us feel slightly uncomfortable.

Markus meanwhile walked up to the machine, climbed up to the cupola and opened it.

“To answer your question from earlier, Rainbow: This thing is called a Jet Aircraft. This particular model is called >>Tornado<<, produced by a company called >>Panavia<<.”

Rainbow Dash flew around the >>Tornado<< for a while, before she stuck her head into one of the rectangular openings.

Markus meanwhile looked down at her. “I wouldn’t do that, if I were you. Right now it’s turned off, so nothing will happen. If it was turned on it would suck you into there. Now while Pinkie would probably just be spurted out the back with a spot of flame in her hair and be fine afterwards, you would definitely be turned to shreds and die.”

Rainbow let out a slight squeal, which echoed through the tube, before taking a good distance from the opening.

“Oh, before I forget: Rainbow, could you please tell the Wonderbolts something?”

Markus then proceeded to tell Rainbow the plan, before she went and told the other Wonderbolts what they had to do.

We watched the Wonderbolts take off, while Markus prepared our >>Tornado<<. He then sat into the front seat, telling us to sit down onto the two rear seats. He attached some strange nets to our bellies, which he called >>safety belts<<.

A loud screeching sound became audible, as the machine came to life. Before he closed the cupola he gave us instructions on how to use something called the >>intercom<< through which we could talk to him even if the >>engines<< were too loud. We heard him mumble something about a checklist, before we saw some kind of flaps fidgeting on the edges of the wings. After Markus was done with his checklist, we heard the screeching sound become louder and slowly started to move.

After we rolled over about 3/4^th of the Runway, we took off, climbing higher and higher and steadily increasing in speed. We broke through the upper cloud layers and Markus told us to put on the masks that were dangling from our suits or else we might have difficulties breathing. Rainbow meanwhile was squelching with happiness and looked out through the window. We were slowly approaching the maximum altitude for Pegasi and Alicorns, yet we climbed further and further, until we could see the blue of the sky fade and morph into a more violet shade.

We stopped climbing and Markus said that we were at about ten kilometers, which would be around 66 thousand hooves high. Rainbow Dash and I were in awe. Nopony has ever reached this height before and yet here we were. I looked through the glass panes to my side and saw the world below. I could see Ponyville and Canterlot. I could even see all the way to Appleloosa! Everything looked so small from up there, it was just so beautiful.

Markus then told us to brace ourselves, as the wings angled themselves backwards and we began to rapidly gain speed. I was pressed into the seat and felt my blood try to leave my head, but the tight suit luckily prevented it. The masks provided us with enough air to keep us awake even though the pressure on our lungs was so extreme. I looked outside and saw a cone of vapor form around the wings behind us.

I heard Rainbow gasp for air through the intercom, before she asked for the speed. We both looked at each other, thinking we misheard, as Markus answered, that we’ve just passed the speed of sound and were still speeding up. By the time we stopped accelerating we had more than doubled the speed of sound! Nopony ever went this fast either! This was truly an historic event for us and for all Ponykind! Of course, Rainbow Dash didn’t care about that as she was still busy squealing in joy. It seems that Markus now became the new Daring Do to Rainbow and I’ve got to admit; I can’t even blame her.

We soon approached the Battlefield and Markus went into a dive, passing low over both Armies. He then turned around, which excerted so much force upon me that I already saw my vision fade and I felt myself lose consciousness. He aligned us with the width of the enemy formation and flew towards them. Just before we passed over them again, I heard a clicking sound coming from the wings, followed by a whistling sound behind us.

Markus Maneuvered the Tornado to circle around the battlefield. I looked down onto the enemy formation and what I saw haunts my mind to this day. Six explosions went off just over the enemy lines and then everypony was burning! A few managed to stay unharmed and ran off, but Markus saw them and began to dive towards them. I just heard some rattling coming from the nose and explosions on the ground and as he pulled up again, I didn’t dare to look down. I knew what Markus just did. He told Rainbow Dash a month ago, after all.

I felt sick. I couldn’t think straight for the whole flight back. How could someone go through with such atrocities and stay unaffected by it? We touched down on the Runway of the Wonderbolts HQ and Markus reopened the cupola. Rainbow instantly jumped out. It seemed like she didn’t even see what happened. I envied her a bit. She was completely oblivious to what I saw.

I climbed out of the machine and felt my legs trembling. I had to tell Celestia. It seemed like we were literally playing with fire.

Comments

[Xblaster]

I thought rainbow would have looked down at the burning 'raid party' but besides that, this was one chapter was very good, it was great, all you need now is to show how armor, sunbutt, moonbutt reaction to the news of what twilight is gonna say

[Timzocker201]

9992638
sad to tell you, that you'll have to wait two chapters for that. But don't worry: it will be awesome ^^

[MikiStenbeck]

9995313
“There, I want you to offset yourself from the middle of that bottleneck slightly to our side and let the Swordsponies form a shield wall along the width of that valley. The Spearponies are to form up behind them and hold their spears between the gaps.”

Soooooooo basically The battle of Thermopylae, you have seen 300 then?

I haven’t, but anyone that knows just a little bit about greek history knows about King Leonidas and the slaughter that was Thermopylae,

[Timzocker201]

10053252
I actually came up with that Strategy myself, I just took a little bit of inspiration from the greek Phalanx

[yammering2]

Markus Maneuvered the Tornado to circle around the battlefield. I looked down onto the enemy formation and what I saw haunts my mind to this day. Six explosions went off just over the enemy lines and then everypony was burning! A few managed to stay unharmed and ran off, but Markus saw them and began to dive towards them. I just heard some rattling coming from the nose and explosions on the ground and as he pulled up again, I didn’t dare to look down. I knew what Markus just did. He told Rainbow Dash a month ago, after all.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5NzAksjfDI