Twilight and the gang investigate a meteor that crashed into Sweet Apple Acres orchard. When they arrive at the crash site a strange energy field latched on to Twilight's horn and activated her teleport magic beaming them to the world of Nazi Zombies.
Just so as to avoid the obvious "This doesn't make sense in Equestria." comments i should add the idea that i'm imagining Equestria as we know it having a lot of geographically similar locations to those in our world since its already been implied in the show. Additionally the whole mention of WWII that i make having happened in Equestria could have happened just under different pretenses such as insane Luna loyalists sparking a rebellion to throw the world into war in the hopes of overthrowing Celestia. Or she may have been drained for an extended time after her banishing of Luna and had to spend an extended time absent of the world other than her duty of raising the sun and moon.
During that time there could have been any number of wars waged over Luna and Celestia's actions.
Chapter 1 Twitch-a-twitch: Also know as The Sky is falling
Late one night in the fair land of Equestria the unicorn Twilight Sparkle was watching the skies from the comfort of her sky light observatory atop her tree-house library. It was a night like any other, she saw the late night Pegasus ponies clearing the night sky from a unscheduled thunder shower. As she browsed through the various areas of the sky she'd mapped out over the previous few months. Her main focus that night was a region that hung over Canterlot which recently had a meteor shower and it seemed that there were other large clusters of activity in the general area which had only came up in the past month.
The hours ticked by and as her gaze darted through the sky suddenly a large pink twitchy blob blocked the view of the telescope. Twilight reached down and pressed a button next to the controls for the telescope which activated the intercom she'd recently had put in to act as an easier way to greet her friends and any visitors. As it buzzed on she spoke into the microphone beside her saying “Pinkie Pie what are you doing on my telescope?” the pink pony blob responded saying “Oh sorry Twilight, I didn't mean to cause any trouble, my Pinkie sense has been acting up something awful tonight and the last tremor launched me halfway across Ponyville so I’m thinking there may be another doozy coming in some time soon.” Twilight sat there in her observatory for a few moments her hoof plated firmly against the bridge of her snout, after a little time spent collecting herself she said with a rather exasperated tone “Alright I guess since your here you may as well stay for the night. Just try and to keep from breaking my stuff, I’m doing a very important astrological study.” Pinkie quickly nodded and saying “Astrology I didn't know you read horoscopes whats your sign, I’m a cancer. It doesn't mean I’m sick or anything. Although I can be a bit crabby at times... Get it crabby cause cancer is a crab shaped constellation.” after that she quickly bounced her way into the tree-house and made herself at home.
Just then Twilight spotted something in the sky, it looked like a larger one of the meteors from the shower that happened over Canterlot. As she began to focus on it intently her horn began to react and the magic focused itself onto the lens and increased the magnification on the lens to where she could see the object in more detail. When she saw the more detailed image she was intrigued by it because the meteor had a strange orange glow to it and looked to have some form of radiant electricity arcing off the surface. From what she could tell it was on a path bound for Equestria, she couldn't tell where it would land but based on how fast it appeared to be flying it was maybe a few days away.
Meanwhile downstairs in the library Spike was busy trying to clean up after Pinkie who had been bouncing around the room uncontrollably in response to her pinkie sense. A buzz rang out from the intercoms and Twilight's voice chimed in saying “Spike I need you to look up something in my astronomy textbooks.” she quickly detailed the information she'd gathered based on the appearance of the object and Spike quickly set to work trying find the information Twilight needed.
After several minutes of frantic searching through the scattered books Spike heard a familiar voice ring out with a flat “Hoot.” as a small brown owl hovered down to him holding a book labeled “Astronomy and You: A beginners guide.” the little purple dragon smiled and said “Why thank you Owloysius.” to which the owl replied with a some what brighter “Hoot.” Spike quickly began to skim through the book looking for something that matched Twilight's description. He found a mention of a large meteor that matched the description which said “For further reading see Element 115 and Tunguska Meteors.” Pinkie quickly tossed two books over to him. One was labeled “Strange Happenings from Space: A reference guide for UFO conspiracy theorists.” and the other “The Periodic Table of Elements: The Starting Scientists best friend.” the first book fell open to a page that Pinkie pie had marked by bending the page with her tongue. The page had the heading “Tunguska Meteor: Freak occurrence or Alien invasion?” he glanced over the page and quickly drafted down a short summery with Pinkie's assistance sending the summery up to Twilight by way of a hydraulic tube system she'd put in so Derpy Hooves wouldn't have such a hard time delivering her mail.
After it arrived Twilight buzzed down thanking him for it as he quickly began to look over the sheet. “The Tunguska meteor was a large meteor that struck a field in northern Russia in the late 1930's and was believed to have abnormal properties although such things are to this day yet to be accurately proven by science.” a second document quickly followed saying “Element 115 is commonly known as Ununpentium, is a relatively unknown compound and is still undergoing substantial research as of this point. It was believed to have effects resulting in reanimation and manipulation of decayed organic mater and has also been researched as a power source for high energy matter transference although those tests were never resolved and the data on file were destroyed near the end of World War II.” as she read that her eyes sparked with interest as she realized that this could be a chance to finish those studies and possibly find out more about the world that this element is believed to have come from.
As she returned to her telescope she saw the meteor had started passing into horizon over Manehattan and was much brighter now than she first saw. She spent the next few hours trying to calculate the trajectory of the meteor and roughly where it would land. As the night ticked into the early morning hours the orb passed over the Tree-house and careened into Sweet Apple Acres Golden Delicious groves. After the dust settled back in the tree-house Pinkie began to bounce with even greater intensity as the wave of energy from the impact site cascaded over Ponyville.
When the wave passed by she stopped and almost dead froze Twilight came down from the observatory to check on things and she asked Pinkie pie “Was that it, was that the doozy you were talking about.” Pinkie looked back at her and said “It seems like it may have been although when it started earlier it was a different type of doozy then my normal “twitch-a-twitch” somethings going to fall type its something even stranger than that.” Twilight smiled and said “I'm sure we'll be able to look it over in the morning. In the mean time lets go to bed.” as she opened up a door to her guest bedroom and then made her way upstairs to her room to make up for the lost hours of sleep.
The next morning Ponyville was all a ruckus over the strange rock, and even Twilight in her isolated tree-house abode wasn't immune to the clamor. As she was rudely awakened by Rainbow Dash dropping a large cloud full of rain into her bedroom. She said “What was that for?” as Rainbow Dash replied “That big rock that fell from the sky tore through Cloudsdale and ripped a large hole through quite a few houses and plus Applejack and Apple Bloom have been nagging me all day about it when I don't have the slightest idea what caused it to fall or why it trashed the Golden Delicious orchard.” as Twilight called the annoyed group to meet up in the main library a loud horn blared outside as Scootaloo flew in on her scooter with Sweetie Belle hanging on for dear life and Rarity following in tow with a winded expression on her face.
Twilight apologized for what had happened but she told them she had no idea what caused the strange meteor. The other ponies could see something was distressing Twilight as she spoke even though she didn't wanna say anything. Pinkie pie stepped out from the guest bedroom and said “Girls don't be so hard on Twilight, she had nothing to do with this I was here all last night with her and all she did was watch the rock as it came in and research what it was made of. But something happened last night while she was asleep, at first I thought it was just the animals outside but after awhile of hearing strange noises I walked up to your bedroom Twilight and I saw you lying there drenched in cold sweat with your horn glowing bright as though you were focusing on a magic spell and you were rambling in your sleep about Zombies and soldiers and Element 115 and all kinds of other crazy stuff. It looked like you were fighting for your life practically.” Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle said “Ooh sounds scary.” while Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash just looked onward with an intrigued grin on their faces.
Applejack said “Alright will somepony please just give me some idea of what we're to do about this because that dumb rock ruined the spring Golden Delicious harvest and now Caramel will have to wait on getting the barn fixed up with Big Macintosh and Apple bloom. Right little sis?” as she glared over at her sister who had recently earned her cutie mark after realizing she was a talented architect and was good at both building and designing.
Apple Bloom grunted and said “Yes Applejack.” obviously annoyed by her sister's nagging. Twilight quickly grabbed her saddlebag and told them “Since your all so insistent on finding out what this is lets go down there and check it out.” the others followed suit as Apple Jack told the girls to stay behind with Pinkie pie. They grudgingly agreed to it as the girls made their way out to the crash site.
After about half an hour Pinkie pie got a tad bit distracted by Scootaloo slipping her a cupcake that she'd saved from the incident with Applejack where her cupcakes unintentionally made a large portion of Ponyville sick. So with Pinkie detained on bed rest the fillies quickly made their way to the crash site using a route Apple Bloom had found that let them make it there well before the others did. When the elder ponies arrived Twilight's horn started to glow and react, but it wasn't an unusual reaction it felt familiar to her specifically it felt like her Teleportation spell. This time though it was as though her unicorn magic was acting independently of her own will in reaction to the energy radiating off the stone. Within mere moments the energy began to arc hitting each of the ponies and even the Cutie mark Crusaders on the opposite side after a few minutes the Earth ponies and unicorns began to levitate off the ground as the glow intensified and eventually reached a point of becoming a blinding light around the entire area surrounding the rock, almost as soon as it began the light dimmed and the group of ponies had vanished.
When the ponies arrived at their supposed destination where ever it appeared to be they gathered themselves and Twilight stood up and took a head count “Who's here.” she said as the others began to stand up replying roughly in turn “I am.” said Rainbow Dash, as she hovered there surveying the landscape. Then another “So am I.” chimed in as Applejack stood up straightening her hat as she looked around commenting “Wow this place looks kinda dreary.” then Rarity chimed in saying “And dank and gray.” followed by Scootaloo saying “And kinda cool looking if your into all these machines and stuff.” then Apple Bloom spoke up saying “Hey Scootaloo where's Sweetie Belle I haven't seen her since we got here.” Applejack turned and looked at her sister scowling as she said “What do you think your doing here little Missy when we get back home I’m telling Big Macintosh on you.” Twilight spoke up saying “If we get home, and if we can find out where we even are.” they gathered up and the elders nodded saying “Yeah we should probably focus on figuring out how we got here and where we are.” Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo began to run around doing surveillance over what area they could cover as the majority of the area seemed to be blocked off to on foot travel.
Suddenly the pad they were standing on began to light up and crackle with energy like what was radiating of the rock back in Ponyville. They jumped off the pad as a field of bright light emerged and a group of four men materialized seemingly from thin air. As Twilight looked them over she remembered them as being the soldiers from her dream. The four glanced around and a blonde haired gruff looking man in marine gear brandishing an M1911 pistol said “What in the hell is this, why is the pad covered with a bunch of rainbow colored ponies.” Rainbow dash floated over in front of him and said “Whats that supposed to mean. You don't seem like very seemly characters yourselves. I don't care who you are I'd still kick your butt!” the Marine shifted from his seemingly frozen true grit looking face and cracked a grin saying “Hmm this one seems like she can hold her own but for how long these Zombies don't quit for nothing.” Twilight said “Zombies what are you talking about, that stuff's an old mare's tale.” The marine replied saying “I believe you mean old wives tale but these zombies are far from a kids horror story their out for blood.” as one emerged from a basement level stair case and was promptly dispatched by a husky looking soldier with glassed over eyes looking as though he was drunk.
He spoke in a thick accent saying “Sorry for the interruption but things around here aren't he best for conversation. I am Nikolai Belinski, he's Tank Dempsey. We've been fighting these zombies for what feels like years.” as he reached down and grabbed a flask taking a swig of it looking as though he was on the verge of falling over in a stupor. Dempsey responded saying “So why are you all here?” Twilight responded saying “Well a large glowing orange meteor crashed into our home of Equestria and when we went to investigate my Teleportation magic reacted with the energy being put off by the rock and sent us here. Where are we anyway?” a third soldier stepped away from the pad wearing a dress uniform with strange insignias on it. He said “So it appears that the MDT can interact remotely with other sources of the Element as well and cause instantaneous matter transference under the right conditions.” Twilight looked on in semi-amazement as she saw the technology around them glancing around them... after taking a few seconds to gather herself she said “MDT, Matter Transference what are you talking about!.” in an obviously angry tone. The soldier said “Ah sorry for my little tangent I’m Doctor Richtofen but you may call me Edward. As for the MDT we can discuss that later seeing as things seem to be getting out of hand.” as a massive swarm of Zombies began to form around the platform on which the pad was located.
Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo charged at the zombies smashing them with kicks and Scootaloo's scooter tail whips receptively. The zombies fell quickly amid the volleys of gunfire and melee attacks, Dempsey smiled and said “Well you two seem to have your stuff together but we'll have to arm you a bit better for whats to come. He handed each of them a knife and Richtofen set to work modifying a spare set of M1911 pistols to accommodate being used by the ponies. The last soldier said “For the time being we should rebuild the barriers to keep them at bay. Apple Bloom zipped forward and said “I think I can help you there Mister... who are you anyway?” the ragged looking Japanese soldier smiled a bit more warmly than Dempsey could ever bring himself to manage as he said “Ah I apologize my name is Takeo Masaki of the Japanese Imperial Army marine services division. How about you my little equine ally.” she smiled and said “My name is Apple Bloom I can help you rebuild these walls in no time flat.” as she strutted by showing off her cutie mark. Her flank was adorned with a image of a hammer with a group of nails and a few planks of wood.
She sprinted over and started to repair the window, first hitting the one in the downstairs area that they first came from and then followed suit patching up the other windows before returning to the pad as Applejack looked on and said “Wow, you did a right impressive job there Apple Bloom. But I can't help but wonder how well that'll hold em.” Richtofen tossed each of them a modified pistol and said those should do for now, the main objective is to build enough points to open the doors and unlock the surrounding area. He handed them each a small visor which seemed to disappear as they put it on. He said “I call it a Heads Up Display. It will let you keep track of your current condition as well as your current supply of ammo both in reserve and in your gun and your current point total. Melee kills are worth 130, Head-shots are worth 100 and most other kills are worth 60 to 70 with bullets doing 10 points per hit. Think you can understand, your all at 500 points currently except for Ms Dash and Ms Scootaloo as they cleaned out the last wave with melee kills and are both at roughly 1300.” Twilight and the others prepped themselves and began to set out as the next wave started.
As Rarity made her way down off the platform she fired her pistol into a horde of about three deep before charging at one and killing it but taking a swipe from the zombie behind it “Hands off me you ruffian!” Nikolai smiled and said “You'll learn it soon enough zombies have no respect for personal space. Personally I think you are fairly pretty like my 4th wife and smelly too just the same although in your case its in a good way. 4th wife had bad taste in perfume.” Rarity cracked a grin and thanked the Russian for the complement before continuing on with the zombie slaying.
Meanwhile Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo blazed through a few clips of ammo managing to avert a breech at a window where they took up station with Dempsey as he smirked arrogantly saying “Well for ponies you got some skills with guns. I'd say your both are pretty bad ass in my book at least so far” the two of them blushed slightly from the complement before turning their attention to a pack of zombies coming from the window behind them.
Then Applejack and Apple bloom charged down from the platform jumping through an opening in the guard rails. Applejack dived into the crowd shooting a few rounds into them before kicking them with the knife she was given attached to her back legs “Looks like all that apple bucking really helped prep me for something a bit bigger than farm work after all.” as the crowd of zombies rag-dolled against the walls. One of the zombies managed to get a solid swat at her and as she recoiled back she noticed her HUD had turned largely red Dempsey shouted over saying “Don't worry you'll heal up over time but take too many hits and you'll go down till one of your buddies can revive you.” Apple bloom blasted a whole clip into the one that just hit Applejack and drew its attention for long enough for AJ to get a return strike and kill it.
As the fight wore on the team's ammo began to run dry and things began to become hectic so the party split into two groups Takeo and Dempsey split off with Scootaloo, Rainbow Dash and the Apple sisters taking to the west wing where they armed themselves with carbines and trench guns. Once they'd cleaned out the stragglers from the wave Apple bloom began to repair windows and she opened the door to the west wing teleporter terminal. Meanwhile Twilight, Nikolai, Dr Richtofen, and Rarity made their way up the east wing grabbing a Thompson sub machine gun and continuing on.
Twilight reached up and pressed a button on her HUD visor and looked at their scores it read:
She said well it looks like our group is leading off so I'll open that door back there while you run for the power the others nodded and as she sprinted and opened the door Dr Richtofen followed saying “Well Ms Sparkle it seems your fairly learned and adept with technology as you seem to be adapting well to these new surroundings.” she blushed lightly and said “Well I’m usually the most level headed of the group but I do have to say that rock overriding my teleport ability like that has me a bit confused.” Richtofen smirked a little psychotically and said “Well that’s interesting, so the MDT unit had nothing to do with it. The concentrated Element 115 in the meteor that struck your home land must have reacted organically to your teleport magic in the same way I helped engineer the MDT to operate.” after that he mumbled under his breath “I may have to do additional studies on this one. I'll note this in my journal once the horde slows down in the morning.” as they made their way out to the group Nikolai and the others had already managed to activate the power and had began to mine the mystery box for its treasures.
Nikolai stood over the large wooden toy box and opened it with his empty hand, the 950 point cost being automatically deducted from the total he had on hand. The box opened and a series of different guns flashed up in front of him, they would appear for a moment and then quickly cycled to the next before settling on a single shot semi-automatic rifle known as the FN FAL he grabbed the gun from the floating pillar of light and said “Well I’m not much in the mood for Arabian food but I guess a felafel will do for now.” then Richtofen took a turn as well, the guns cycled through and wound up landing on a large Russian made heavy machine gun known as the RPK. He smirked and said “Well Russian this gun had better live up to the reputation you put on it for being well made.” as the rest of the group made their way into the room.
The room the group now stood in had the power switch a pair of windows downstairs one in the room itself and one in the entrance corridor from the east wing and a pair of windows upstairs one by a red soda machine that Dempsey had told Applejack and the others in his team was refereed to as Juggernog and was a beverage that increases the drinker's toughness and allows them to take roughly twice as many hits. The other was across a metal bridge that dropped into place when the power was turned on and resided on the same side as the East wing teleporter room next to the double tap root beer machine. Which Nikolai had told Rarity was a special type of root beer which grants the drinker the ability to fire faster.
Behind them was a large metal door similar to the ones they'd opened for the other teleporter rooms so they decided it would be best to hold off on doing anything till they could afford to open the door and send a runner for the teleporter. For the next few waves it seemed their little hold out was keeping them fairly safe although the East wing group was steadily running dry of ammo and their Thompsons were too far away to safely resupply during the height of the wave.
Rarity looked at her battle weathered Thompson and said to herself “Its dreadful to see something so beautiful lose its luster but it seems like this weapon is starting to outlive its functional usefulness.” she quickly darted over to the box while the horde was chasing the west wing team back toward Teleporter room A to activate the first teleporter chamber. She reached her hoof out and pushed the box opened as her point counter deducted the needed 950 points from her ample 3000 point supply. The box cycled through several guns and took what seemed like forever to stop only to land on the visage of a ragged looking teddy bear Rarity's first words were “What pray tell am I to do with that tacky looking thing, I guess I could fix it up and it wouldn't be that hard...” but then it began to float away and with it the box began to levitate and tremble as she heard a voice cackle but this voice was familiar “Sweetie Belle?” she said to herself wondering if it was her little sister she heard or if it was just the moment playing tricks on her.
The box quickly disappeared as a more demonic sounding voice took over saying “Bye Bye.” replacing the box with a few ragged looking teddy bears. Nikolai stood over her shoulder saying “Little girl taunts everyone with cursed teddy bear. Don't worry it just moves the box to somewhere else. Just look for the blue light in the sky.” then a voice came over the intercom saying “Teleporter A active.” as Rarity stepped out toward the conjoined hallway on the east wing side she saw the machine in the center of the room light up with electricity before a burst of light came up from the pad where Rainbow Dash was standing having linked the pad moments earlier.
Within seconds another blinding flash of light came as a large glowing green object resembling an ammo crate appeared before them on the side of the fence where Rainbow Dash stood reloading her recently purchased type 100 and her trench gun before running over to the object and attempting to grab it to have it fade into sparks of light leaving a soft voice saying “Max Ammo!” behind this voice once again made Rarity think of Sweetie Belle. As her reserve ammo supply filled instantly to its maximum and the rest of the group returned to their positions.
When they had all gathered Twilight asked Rarity where the box had went and she explained what had happened, when she'd mentioned the idea of the voice sounding similar to Sweetie Belle before the crazed laugh Richtofen chimed in saying “It sounds like your friend was lost during the teleportation process she must be trapped in between the realms. Sadly that's one of the more depressing side effects of the MDT's teleportation process.” Dempsey turned to him and said “Wait a fucking minute you said when we got to the teleporter over at Shi No Numa that you barely knew a damn thing about it. Are you holding out information.” as he brandished his freshly bought FG42 light machine gun at the German's head.
Richtofen abruptly silenced himself on the issue and said “I just happened to stumble onto some research documents lying around here the first time we arrived at this terminal.” Dempsey looked at him obviously reluctant to accept his statement as true but before they could continue pressing the argument Apple Bloom chimed in reporting a breach at the front window as zombies started to pour into the room. Rainbow dash who at this point was sitting on a fairly nice reserve of roughly 10,000 points opened the door behind them and rushed in to activate teleporter C the rest of the group followed with Dempsey leading his group over to grab Revive Soda while the others piled into the teleporter room.
Richtofen activated the terminal while Rainbow dash flew back to the terminal where they started. The rag tag group of Zombie slayers quickly piled into the teleporter as it began to light up and spark with energy, indicating it had been successfully activated and was about to pull them back to the pad. Within mere seconds they were puled through something resembling a worm hole, when they arrived back at the main terminal they all had but seconds to clear their heads before the horde started to swarm through the doors. As the sparks from the teleportation process died down they saw a large metal door behind them open revealing a machine labeled Pack A Punch. Twilight looked at the machine in interest wondering what it could possibly hold in store. She checked her point counter quickly and found she had enough to upgrade her Thompson which by this point was starting to get a bit weak in terms of raw damage so she thought to herself “Why not it seems useful enough.” Dempsey looked back at the rather confused looking purple pony and said “Twilight you may wanna hold off on that cause you haven't bought Juggernog have you. The extra damage tolerance is more practical at this point than the new gun. Much as I normally hate to say things like that I've had a badly timed Pack a Punch cost me in the long run.” Twilight snapped out of her technologically induced daze and shook her head in agreement sprinting off with Rarity to grab Juggernog and hopefully find the box again.
They made their way up the west hallway by teleporter A. Twilight noticed some plans scrawled on the walls written in some strange foreign script that she assumed must be German. As well as a few oddly placed jars with severed human spines with chunks of brain attached. She took a close look at one on a elevated shelf and as she looked at it she heard a faint noise like a cartoony laser gun. But before she could stop to question it the horde started to pour out of the nearby windows and swarm them. So she and Rarity made a quick sprint to the Juggernog machine each buying a bottle and drinking it down.
After that they made their way out Twilight grabbing a set of bouncing Bettie mines and planting them on the ground behind them as they dropped down into the open room in front of teleporter C. twilight sprinted into the teleporter room and up the stairs to the catwalk level where she found the box on the far end of the platform opposite the stairs she ran up. She quickly glanced down at her point counter which read 950 points exactly after her Betties killed off a few zombies. So she decided to take a spin, she pushed open the box quickly turning around to scout for any oncoming zombies before turning her undivided attention to the box. As the cheerful sounding nursery rhyme music played and the weapons cycled she noticed two that looked completely out of place. One that resembled a Tesla coil re-purposed onto a rifle, and the other being a small almost toyish looking ray gun. When the box finished cycling it landed on the former. She frantically grabbed the strange looking weapon as she heard a group of zombies closing in deciding to swap her now useless pistol out for it.
She quickly spun around pulled the gun into an aiming position and fired as a burst of what could only be considered directed lightning shot from the gun hitting the first zombie in line and arching off the nine or so that were behind it. As she felt the residual energy starting to course through her in combination with her building adrenaline she started to like the sensation that came from killing these unholy freaks of nature. A grin cracked across her face and she belted out a laugh not unlike Dempsey as she said “Bring it on you sorry freak-bags!” her horn began to light up and tingle in response to the build up, so she put away the strange device and pulled out her reliable Thompson still feeling a zealous rush of energy as she dived out an open window and back to ground level firing her Thompson into the swarms building up in the room. After expending a few clips of ammo she pulled out the weapon once again and fired it into the swarm.. one shot zap a swarm of zombies surrounding Dempsey and Rainbow Dash fell to the ground completely inert their heads exploding moments later as their bodies seized with electric shock, Rainbow dash yelled out at her “Hey watch where you aim that thing you could zap one of us with them.” Dempsey looked up at Rainbow and said “Don't worry Rainbow the model of the Wonderwaffle she's using is the revised model Richtofen made after we arrived here it fixed the splash radius effect of the weapon so that allies cant be shocked.” just then another blast fired across the room and zapped a group being lead in by Richtofen and Nikolai as Rarity hid out on the catwalk trying to get a better weapon from the box.
When the crowd died down and the group gathered back at their meeting point near the central pad Dr Richtofen pulled Twilight aside and said “It seems as though that horn of yours is reactive to element 115 as I noticed when you were using the DG-2 there. I can see your powers possibly allowing the MDT to do things Dr Maxis and I never conceived to be possible. Would you be willing to take part in some research. I promise that I will do my best to ensure that the research goes to improve you and your friends chances of getting back to your home world.” Twilight looked at the crazed looking German and thought to herself “At this point what have I got to lose.” she extended her hoof and he shook it silently acknowledging they were in agreement. Suddenly the sky began to dim and fill with fog and a voice began to fill the air that said “Fetch me their souls.” but unlike what the survivors were used to it was trailed by an unusually innocent sounding giggle and the voice who spoke didn't seem as menacing it was deep and operatic. The ponies all gasped saying “That was Sweetie Belle.” Dempsey said “So your friend is trapped in the aether with Sam then it seems. Oddly enough it does seem like Sam is a bit more docile than normal maybe its because your friend is keeping her cooled down.” just then the noise that usually accompanied teleportation started to repeat itself as large black flaming hounds began to appear from bursts of static discharge and started targeting the survivors and the ponies.
First it was one dog, then two then four then eight until the room was filled with them Twilight jumped up on the main pad and fired the DG-2 into the swarm electrifying the crowd and cutting down ten of them in a single shot before reloading her now empty clip. Rainbow dash and Scootaloo began laying into the swarm with trench gun fire and within what seemed like about 10 minutes the crowd was cleared and in their wake was a Max ammo. They all collectively reloaded their weapons and Rainbow Dash rushed through it before heading out toward B teleporter to grab some double tap root beer and then hit the box for a new gun to replace her type 100 which was quickly losing its use and she felt would be worthless to put through the pack a punch. On her way she stopped off in a room off to the side of the teleporter pad and activated another of the strange detached spines that she'd seen earlier when they were setting up the teleporter. The round counter on her HUD changed to round 15. She said to herself “I have a feeling those things'll do something cool if we activate them all. So I'll look around for the last one if we catch a break with the next wave. That gun that Twilight got from the box looks awesome I wonder what it'll be like upgraded. But first things first I should go and grab a weapon to replace this SMG because I’m not any worse for wear on ammo.” so she flew over to the box's current location and activated it. As it began its cycle she could hear the zombies starting to pile up at the window outside. She turned away from the box and began to unload clips of type 100 ammo into the swarm that was beginning to pile through onto the catwalk and as the box finished its cycle a large machine gun emerged as the selected weapon and she joyously replaced her type 100 with the new RPK she'd just been given by the box and decided to spin again to replace her trench gun.
The horde began to swarm en mass so she decided the best option would be to leave and hope she wasn't leaving a good weapon. She lifted off the ground struggling under the weight of her new gun as the pile began to rush toward her. She glanced back and heard Sweetie Belle's cackle again as a teddy bear emerged from the box and sent it to a new location. Suddenly a bolt of electricity went through the mob as Twilight stormed into the room firing shots of the DG-2 off and slaughtering every zombie in sight, although Rainbow Dash could tell she used her teleport magic as she quickly exhausted herself and had to take a few moments to gather herself. Because strangely enough her teleportation had a similar electrical effect as the teleporters which caused a majority of the zombies around her to die when she popped into the room. Rainbow Dash asked her what was going on and she explained that according to Dr Richtofen the Element 115 in the area was having an adverse effect on her teleport ability and was allowing her teleport to generate electrical discharge similar to that of the DG-2 she was carrying.
Rainbow Dash looked back at her and said “To say it in simple terms you Telefragged them.” Twilight looked back at her slightly confused wondering what the term meant. Rainbow Dash said “Well that’s a surprise I stumped the egg head. Telefrag is a gaming term that refers to when a character kills another character by spawning (or being generated onto the map [said in finger quotes]) in a location occupied by another entity friend or foe. Its a common convention of older First Person shooters that used that as a means to stop spawn camping.” Twilight smiled and said “Well that's something I didn't realize Rainbow, your into games and you call me a nerd.” as the blue rainbow maned pony began to blush red with Scootaloo and the Apple Sisters making their way into the room just in time to see.
The Apple sisters were armed with Bowie Knife enhanced ballistic knifes and upgraded Thompson SMG's which Dempsey had told them were nicknamed Gibs-A-Matics. The sun began to set in the sky and things began to settle down as the group gathered up near the starting terminal. At this point Twilight had gathered up 5000 points and still had her Juggernaut perk and while she was contemplating grabbing Speed Cola after a suggestion on its usefulness from Takeo she'd opted against it in favor of sending her DG-2 through the Pack A Punch to see if it would enhance the effect of her teleportation in terms of its splash damage. She inserted the weapon into the machine as it played a jingle which she'd caught the Apple Sisters singing along to on a few different occasions with gently ponified lyrics.
Friends, Neighbors, Fillies, Gentle Colts, If your feeling underpowered, I'll help you make amends. Stick your weapon in the slot. And let it change your luck. There are few things in life that are guaranteed. But I promise this won't buck. Punch your hoof into the air. And raise a rebel yell. There's lots of baddies out there. You need to send to hell. With Pack A Punch I have a hunch. Your problems will be gone. And if you wind up on the ground sing a country western song. Pack-A-Punch (everybody!), Pack-A-Punch (yee-haw!), Pack-A-Punch, Pack-A-Punch, Pack-A-Punch (everybody!), Pack-A-Punch, Pack-A-Punch (yee-haw!), Pack-A-Punch (WOOOOWOO!)”
After the gun came out it was gold plated and had a capacity of 10 shots per clip with 40 in reserve. She walked over and discussed things with Richtofen and he said “Well granting the situation with your teleportation I believe that amplifying your powers through the teleporter system may be enough combined with the power of the DG-3 you have on hand to get you back home although I may have to risk overloading the teleporter in order to do it and for what little I know about the system it could pose a risk of killing us all. Are you willing to chance it.” Twilight stood there brandishing the DG-3 at the arrogant German and said in response “You expect me to believe that line about you not knowing much in respect to the teleporter but I used a spell I picked up while I was studying in Canterlot over this past winter to translate the research notes that were around and they confirm to me that you know way more about this then your letting Dempsey and the others know. I can tell them everything you don't want them to hear so either make certain this works or I'll let them know every single detail.” after that Richtofen set to work modifying the teleporter mainframe to handle the task at hand.
Chapter 3: The Dead are Calling, Will you accept the charges?
Chapter 3 The Dead are calling via collect will you accept the charges?
Richtofen and Twilight worked late into the night trying to finish up the changes in the teleporter system by the following morning. As the sun began to rise Richtofen closed the circuit breaker box leading into the teleporter mainframe and began to program the teleporter for the return trip. The group gathered together on the pad and bid each other their adieu's with Dempsey shedding an uncharacteristic tear as he told Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo his parting message Scootaloo let out a slight “Eww.” as she saw Dempsey getting all mopy over it as Rainbow Dash simply thanked him for the complements and the time they shared confiding that she considered him to be even cooler than she perceived herself to be. Takeo and the Apple Sisters bid each other fair well over Appletinis made with some Sweet Apple Acres brand Apple Juice and some of Takeo's reserved sake.
Rarity and Nikolai shared a parting shot of vodka, initially she was a bit hesitant to drink it expecting it would be beneath her pedigree but Nikolai smiled warmly and said “Do not worry your pretty little head my pony friend. This is best vodka in all of Russia. I assure you of that I stole it from father of 3rdwife before we were married she was bitch about it the whole time. She was a spoiled lady like you but you have something she lacked humility.” he handed her a small flask and proposed a toast which she agreed to and quickly drank a nice solid swig before making her way to the platform. She started to toss the flask back to him but he smiled at her and said “It is yours now. Just don't let any zombies touch it!” she nodded obviously the slightest bit tipsy as this was the first time she'd drank anything stronger than Sweet Apple Acres brand Applejack brandy.
After that the ponies gathered on the platform and Richtofen made the final adjustments and activated the start up procedure. Just as the teleporter cycled on Twilight's horn began to glow brightly as her teleport magic began to react with the teleporter almost seeming like it would act like a guidance system. But as Richtofen put in the final adjustments to the terminal a large swarm of zombies rushed the platform in desperation Twilight fired her DG-3JZ and zapped the group of zombies but the lightening arched off the zombies hitting the mainframe behind them and overloading it which caused it to release a wave of energy that linked itself with Twilight's horn.
As the beam began to link with Twilight it arched off of it and began to link to the other ponies and then to the four survivors pulling them in over the teleporter pad as it finished its activation cycle. Within mere moments a brilliant flash of light washed over the room and when it faded the ponies and the survivors were gone.
Sometime later in Russia aboard the wreckage of the Russian military cruiser Rusulka,,,, '
A group of well known horror film actors namely Danny Trejo, Robert Englund, Sarah Micheal Geller and Micheal Rooker were busy shooting on set of a movie directed by the legendary George A Romero. But due to a freak accident that resulted in the disappearance of George after a zombie ran off with him they've been engorged in battle with the zombie hordes. Suddenly a bright flash of light comes over the group as they prepare for another day of fighting the seemingly unending hordes. When the light fades four of our equine heroines drop in on the group. After the group gathered themselves Robert looked over and said “So what are you doing here we're in the middle of a zombie massacre and multicolored ponies drop out of thin air like that. I’m sure my agent will have something to say about that.” Rainbow Dash said “Wait a second your Robert Englund, the original Freddy Kruger. I've watched all your movies...” within mere moments her further sentence was reduced to stammering of “Oh my gosh.” for several minutes before Applejack snapped her back to normal. Applejack looked up at Robert and said “Many apologies kind sir she tends to get like that around celebrities. As for why we're here I don't rightly know because this stuff is way over my head I’m sure if we can find my friend Twilight Sparkle she can explain things better than I ever could.” Danny looked over and saw that they were surprisingly well armed for being ponies.
The Apple sisters drew out their M1911's and reached up trying to reactivate their HUD's and when they kicked in they had been reset to how there were when they first got them meaning they lost their perks and equipment on the way. They both stood there and kicked at the snowy ground below them and snorted “Aw ponyfeathers.” each with a slightly discouraged look on their face. Sarah walked over and smiled saying “Don't worry girls you don't need big guns to solve problems..” but before she finished a bunch of sparks and bubbles began to rise from the surface as Zombie George Romero began to rise from the lake and Micheal finished her sentence saying “They may not solve problems but they sure as shit save lives!” as the zombies began to spawn in from the ground around them. Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo began to charge in but the Apple Sisters grabbed them by the tails and pulled them back.
Scootaloo's pistol slipped from her hoof and when she went to fix her grip on it she accidentally fired it while it was aimed at George. The larger than life zombie director looked around slightly startled and let out a loud roar that caused the entire area to rumble and all the zombies to begin emerging faster. Micheal said “Sorry for not mentioning that before now ladies, zombie George over there doesn't care for being shot at and when the bullets start flying his way he gets a little snippy.” but before he could continue the zombies began to horde up around them and so the intrepid group of zombie slayers set to work dealing with the undead masses.
Meanwhile elsewhere in the immediate area, just up a side road blocked by an abandoned lifeboat from the frozen ship. In a dark room in the first subbasement of the light house a teleporter can be heard fading in from behind a large metal door as Rarity and Twilight hit the hard ground coming out of the teleport they glace around the room Twilight using her horn to illuminate the room with a light spell. As the room fills with dim light they see Dempsey, Richtofen, Nikolai and the others but they look somewhat different than before. Their clothing was torn and ragged their faces splattered with blood as though they'd been fighting for years. Dempsey said “Ugh why do I feel so woozy, stupid Gersh he sent us on a wild goose chase for nothing. Oh hey Twilight nice seeing you again after the incident back at Der Riese.” Twilight shook her head saying “Gersh who's he? And why do you look so beat up its only been maybe 15 minutes since we teleported out from that factory.” Richtofen replied saying “Not exactly you see I think what happened was when the teleporter malfunctioned back at the factory we got split up from you and were sent to another MDT location in Germany about 20 years after our last encounter and then from there we wound up in a Soviet space base in the 1970s. Now we're somewhere else and back together as a group for some unknown reason. My guess is we didn't exactly get split up so much as the idea of Dempsey, myself and the others were meant to come here in a different way or by a different means but due to your presence here something caused the MDT to split our party between two planes of existence the one which would have came here by the process I mentioned and the ones you knew as the event involving your land never happened in the original interpretation of our universe. So there must be other forces at work in this world.” Twilight thought to herself for a few moments before resolving that at the moment the best they could do is wait for someone to get the power on and see if they can get the teleporter functional in the hopes of getting back to Ponyville.
Back outside the others were busy building up the points needed to get up to the power room. According to their HUD the Apple Sisters had a nice lead after spending the first round fighting the zombies with melee attacks and the subsequent rounds firing shots from their pistol into them and then using a melee attack to finish. Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo were somewhat slower to gain points as they decided to spend their points to open the way over toward the light house to open the way to a sub-machine gun Sarah and the others had mentioned. Of the celebrity ensemble cast Sarah and Robert were tied at roughly 2000 points, while Danny was sitting on roughly 400 after opening the way to the ship and Micheal was sitting on 1200 after having bought an M14 rifle and an Olympia shotgun and having lost points from going down a few times.
Once the group had filed on to the boat they noticed the foggy weather starting to subside so they made use of it and quickly made their way up to the power room with Applejack buying away the debris on the staircase leading up to the second floor of the ship and then Apple bloom buying her way into the power switch in the pilot room of the ship. As the lights activated the group began to make their way out to the back of the ship toward another section of the immense ship that had apparently been split in two by the force of the ice crushing against its hull. Once the group had all safely made it across to the other half of the ship Sarah scouted the skies and spotted the box's light radiating from the back of the ship. Applejack quickly checked her score counter to see if she'd be able to afford to buy Juggernog and a new gun to replace her saggy old M14 which seemed to be too slow to use effectively against the zombies.
The HUD display refreshed itself and pulled up the score card and it looked roughly like this...
Applejack 3000 Apple Bloom 2550 Rainbow Dash 2000 Scootaloo 3000 Robert 2000 Sarah 2500 Micheal 1750 Danny 3000
Applejack smiled lightly and said “While I won't have enough right away I should by the end of the next wave. So she quickly spent 1000 points opening a door over to the box and then quickly sprinted back to the box. When she arrived she immediately forced the box open and as the weapons cycled she watched her back with Apple bloom watching from the side. When it stopped it landed on a strange looking rifle her first reaction was “Gah another blasted rifle. I’m guessing Ol Granny Smith back home wants me to get my share of practice with these things in case I have to go out toward Appaloosa again.” she pulled the weapon from the glowing pillar of light and inserted her M14 in its place. She took it out and looked it over for a brief moment before aiming down the rather strange looking scope and firing a a shot at a zombie down the way toward the MP40 that Sarah and Robert pointed out earlier. The gun fired something that sounded like a blow dart rather than a bullet. It made a solid hit in its target but didn't kill it. Applejack kicked the ground and said “Aw Horseapples.” as the gun seemed to be fairly useless but then after a few seconds she heard a strange beeping noise and seconds later the zombie exploded taking a group of its kind with it. Danny smirked and said “I'm guessing you've never seen anything like that around where you live. Its called the Scavenger it fires explosive tipped dart rounds and is quite effective for clearing crowds so I'd suggest you hold onto your ammo for it until you need it. Until then go buy an MP40 to replace that piece of shit pistol.” she nodded and made her way back up toward where they came in at while Sarah made her way back and tried her hand at the box having already bought an MP40 and was merely wanting a nice back up weapon.
She opened the box and allowed the guns to cycle as before, when the cycle stopped she smiled and said “Well its time for a little Jesus action.” as she pulled out the V-R11 humanizer. Danny and Apple Bloom congratulated her. After that the group made their way toward Juggernog and decided to hold up there until they could all get a chance to buy it before heading over to the light house. Once the crew geared up with a fresh stock of ammo after point farming for Juggernaut Rainbow dash carpet bombed a group of zombies with grenades and made some crawlers so they could have an easier time maneuvering the battlefield. Danny, Robert and the Apple Sisters ran up the route Rainbow dash opened earlier for her MP5k and made their way up to the top level of the light house to get a better observation point of their surroundings while Dash, Scootaloo, Sarah and Micheal headed down stairs toward the lower levels. As they did they ran across a perk a cola machine that looked different than the ones that the ponies had seen in the factory. Micheal explained that the new machine's drink allowed the person who consumed it to resist splash damage from explosives and deal a splash radius explosion after diving to the ground in a prone stance from a high spot. Rainbow dash being the natural flier she was decided it wouldn't be a half bad idea to take advantage of something like that especially if she set up for the dive out of one of her patented Sonic Rainbooms. She bought the drink and chugged it down grudgingly at first as she didn't much care for the taste of prunes but the strong taste of prune faded so something more in line with grape juice after so she came to cope with it.
After that they made their way down a set of stairs into a rather disjointed looking room with a large metal vault door in one of the walls. Rainbow hit the door with her knife and then a familiar voice began speaking “Is someone out there?.” Rainbow Dash knew that gruff voice any where. She quickly replied saying “Dempsey is that you?” the voice replied “Well if it isn't Rainbow dash back to party with the best zombie slaying bad ass this side of where ever the hell we are.” Rainbow smiled and said “I take it that that dumb teleporter malfunctioned again and split us up.” another voice chimed in saying “Yep that's the simple explanation.” Rainbow instantly realized it was Twilight's voice and said “So your stuck there as well. In that case we'll see what we can do to get you guys out.” then Richtofen spoke up saying “The first thing we need to do is get the power on. Here is a lever maybe this will do.” as he felt around in the dark room his hand landing on what felt like a lever. Then a shrill yell and a crack “Ow that was my horn you scatterbrained scientist now I’ll have to get it filed again because if I don't it won't grow back evenly. Oh Rainbow Dash your out there.. have you heard any word on Sweetie Belle's whereabouts I'd feel horrid if anything happened to her she may get on my nerves at times but she's still my little sister. Plus I do enjoy her singing when the mood strikes me its actually quite relaxing. But I digress do hurry and find a way for us to get out of here.” Richtofen resumed his ramblings “There should be a fuse lying around out there somewhere that should be enough to shed some light on the situation.” thus the group began searching around for the missing fuse.
A few minutes later they found the fuse laying on a desk upstairs and quickly placed it in the empty fuse box slot as the sounds of electronic equipment activating began to fill the room. Twilight began to look around and saw a large panel with a bunch of random buttons on it. She was intrigued by what the panel could have to do with the equipment but before she could do anything Nikolai walked over and pressed on of the buttons activating a series of shields across the room that domed them in an separated them. Rarity said “Well at least this will keep Mr. Grabby hands at bay for a while.” as she glared at Richtofen who made no apologies for breaking her horn. Richtofen chimed in saying “From the look of things this must be some self defense system you'll have to deactivate the power generators that are around the facility. Based on what I can see from the drawings in here they look like large box shaped generators with glass domes on them a concussive blast should be enough to disable them.
Rainbow Dash looked around and saw a device matching the description and tossed a grenade into the opening in the dome and flew upstairs to avoid the blast. When it exploded the light shut off and inside the room the barrier around Twilight disappeared. She called out and said “That was one of them. Now just track down the rest from what I can see they'll all have blinking red lights on them to indicate their rough positioning.” with that directive the group spent the next few waves searching for the generators Applejack managed to snipe a few of them with her Scavenger and Sarah got the last with a well placed Semtex grenade. Once they finished that they made their way back to the room and knocked on the door to signal the group inside that they were back again. The only one they could get a response from was Richtofen as the others had intoxicated themselves with the vodka that Rarity had received from Nikolai during their previous encounter. Richtofen replied saying “The next thing we'll need you to do is go to the pilot house of the ship and set the control levers to a specific set of positions but I don't know the exact details. I believe I hear the light from the pilot house letting off a ping like its trying to synchronize itself with something via sonar that may give you a clue.” after that they made their way up to the pilot house and began to watch the light as it bounced from the lamps on the pilot house out to its destination. As they watched it Rainbow dash noticed a pattern in the blinks and beeps. She thought to herself “That's Mores code I remember our instructors at the flight school teaching us about it and how it was used to communicate in the olden times before the more modern communication systems were developed.” she made her way over to the panel and began to move the first lever on the left to the first position down from where it started, she ignored the middle lever and pulled the third to its fully open position. After that the light beam turned solid green and directed itself toward the light house.
As they made their way back to the room Danny asked her “How did you know what to do?” she smirked and said “Back in flight school they forced us to memorize audio sequenced mores code handbooks in case we had to fly and couldn't use our normal communication lines.” Applejack smirked a little and said “Mores code like what Braeburn used to send me that letter one time during that nasty winter spell in Appaloosa and the mail service was down so they had to send their mail by those weird wire things.” Rainbow dash landed grinning from ear to ear for a moment before taking on a facial expression that made her look kinda bored at the occasion as she delivered a flat “Eeeyup.” in a tone familiar to the Apple sisters as it was her poking fun at their elder brother Big McIntosh.
Applejack stood there and lowered her hat her eyes looking more frustrated than happy at Rainbow dash's obvious joke. She spun around and kicked Rainbow dash out off the guard railing and into the freezing lake below. Apple bloom laughed a little as Rainbow dash flew back up her wings covered in icicles from the frigid water. Rainbow responded saying “Hey what was that for?” with a cross tone to her voice. Applejack replied saying “No pony and I mean no pony makes fun of Big McIntosh in front of me!” Sarah stepped in between them to prevent a fight from breaking out as Apple bloom said “Come on big sis she was just trying to lighten the mood I thought it was kinda funny myself.” Applejack backed away nodding and beginning to chuckle as she realized it was just the stress starting to get to her. She looked over at Rainbow Dash and said “I guess I can let this slide but try and be a little more respectful of your elders if you don't mind.” Rainbow Dash nodded in agreement and they continued their way back down to the room. Danny knifed the door to draw their attention and Twilight said “From the look of things that did something the light house has this weird green light coming down from the top of it now.” as she looked at a video from the outside of the room overlooking the landscape.
Richtofen said “Now all we need is the golden rod. Its a special conduit that I developed that is meant to amplify the MDT and greatly increase its functionality. But I misplaced it and haven't the slightest clue where it went. It may have to do with the green light see if you can find a way to retrieve it and bring it back here.” the group agreed to the final leg of the chase and set off. Meanwhile in the room Twilight confronted Dr Richtofen about his strange knowledge of what was going on. She said “So Doctor Richtofen..” he smirked and said “Call me Edward, I care little for formal titles.” she continued “Edward, I can tell you know more about this than your letting on. The teleporters, the golden rod, Element 115 all of it you had your hands in this the whole time and your keeping it secret from Dempsey and the others. Its as if your using them..” before she could finish he turned around and said “My own personal test subjects.” a demented grin crossing his face.
She looked at him awe struck by how sadistic someone would have to be to resort to such things. He continued saying “Yes ever since I joined Group 935 I knew my genius would come to face some of the greatest tests ever to face man kind. The reports from the father land about the incident at the asylum and later from our allies in Japan which led to my relocation to the swamp facility at the Shi No Numa site and further to my eventual work along side the fool Ludwig Maxis. The ignorant fool thought he could control the zombie masses he created by his messing with the powers of the element the government bureaucrats back in Berlin thought his research would lead to the creation of weapons that could finally win the war against the allies. I knew Maxis had no interest in serving his benefactors he was simply using them for resources to power his own schemes. When he saw the teleporter experiments were causing the zombies he decided to attempt to brain wash them. First he tried with freshly turned subjects as your meddling rainbow haired friend already knows. She activated one of the recordings that Maxis left around the factory as an audio journal. After our encounter when our group was split, the side of me that continued into the future found out that Maxis later attempted to use subliminal thought implantation in a theater as a means of controlling them. When that failed he allied himself with some scientists who went to work for the Russians during the cold war. One of his team a man named Gersh found a copy of my research information and began to experiment with Element 115 which drew Sam to attack the soviet space facility we were led to. After freeing Gersh we were sent here and those fools outside aided us in getting out of this annoying vault and getting to that zombie infested jungle where I discovered this.” as he pulled out a large energy charged stone that looked like the element 115 batteries from the ray gun except larger and in the shape of a polished orb like jewel.
What is it?” Twilight asked both curious and expecting the only way to satiate the mad man's rambling would be to give him a reason to continue. He continued his voice now starting to tilt upward in an increasingly crazed tone saying “This is referred to as the Focus Stone. Its an ancient artifact which is believed to be the purest form of the element known to man combined with the golden rod they become a powerful means of altering time and space. I already have both, but the more of them I have the more powerful I can become. Thanks to the effects of the raw unrefined element contained within the perk a cola drinks the others of my traveling party are unaware of my using the focus stone to warp us back to the factory to re-initiate the events that lead me to acquiring these artifacts.” then Twilight looked at him and said “But then we came along and through things out of whack by our being here and changing the events for this loop.” the mad doctor began to cackle as he said “In some ways yes but in others no because with me already having the focus stone and the golden rod I was able to willingly force the events that occurred in the previous loop to repeat just amending for your unexpected presence here.” she stood there partly awe struck and partly brimming with rage as she replied saying “How could you do such a thing. You told me you were trying to help us get back to our home..” as she spoke her eyes began to fill with depressed tears as the realization that they may never get home unless they bow to the will of this mad man. “You are a sick disgusting person you have no right to be considered with the likes of Dempsey and Takeo and Nikolai as humans you are a twisted demented being that lost his humanity long before now if you even had any.” suddenly her horn began to react to the stone and the golden rod.
As the energy began to feed between them the objects were drawn to Twilight and began to orbit around her for several moments before melding into her in a similar fashion to what happened when she awoke her Element of Harmony during the fight with Nightmare Moon. Moments later several more golden rods came out from Richtofen's coat revealing this wasn't the first time he'd preformed the loop. As they floated over and bonded into Twilight she counted eight of them and they were followed by six focus stones which told her he was gathering them for some reason. She stared him in the eye her's brimming with light from the energy that was coursing through her body as she asked him “What is your purpose in doing this.” the now almost fearful looking scientist said “My reasons are mine to keep to myself. But if you want any chance of getting home you'll calm down and abstain from using the power you just absorbed to kill since I know how the focus stones are meant to interact with the gold rods and how to use them to create portals between worlds. You see without the focus stones the raw power of the golden rods is uncontrolled and runs wild. With it in that state a proper portal can't be made but with the focus stones they become controlled and directed and when they are brought together with a sufficient energy source they can bridge the gap between worlds. In my case my reasons for gathering them is to create a portal to a world in which the this zombie outbreak never occurred and to sell my research to who ever will take it at the highest bid then to sit back and use the wealth I would gain to plunge the world into war as I watch over it and take in those wishing to be absolved of their pain only to bring them more.” the sadistic grin from their earlier tract returned and at that point the power subsided and Twilight agreed grudgingly to deal with him until they could acquire the last focus stone because as he was ranting she estimated that with one focus stone and golden rod for each of them they would be able to return to Ponyville and put this behind them.
Elsewhere in the lighthouse the group of zombie slayers were busy trying to figure out what the strange green light meant. As Sarah and Applejack herded the zombies around the bottom floor of the light house Sarah used her VR-11 to return one of the zombies to its human form. As it wandered around the room trying to get away from the zombies it began to get sucked into the beam of light. Applejack quickly shot at it with her Scavenger knowing there was a swarm working its way down the spiral stair case so the explosion would take them out as well. When the humanized zombie exploded the crowd was taken out and after a few moments Applejack noticed something strange a golden rod began to float down from the top of the room. They quickly cleared out the rest of the wave and grabbed the rod expecting that if anything that was the one Richtofen was likely referring to earlier. Sarah grabbed it and began to make her way along side Applejack back up to the room. As they made their way up the stairs Applejack said “That VR-11 is unlike any gun I've seen it can turn zombies into humans, I wonder what it does when you zap another person with it.” Sarah said “From my experience with it, the ray it shoots off when it hits a living being like one of us we get super strong and it seems to make the zombies ignore us for a while until it wears off. Although we haven't tried it on any of you guys yet cause we've never had the chance. Would you like to try it out?” Applejack was surprised by the description and figured if it was that useful why shouldn't she give it a spin. She nodded in agreement and Sarah stood back a few steps away from her and fired the weapon.
As the beam hit her it seemed like it was having the same effect Sarah described but then she felt something weird starting to happen. She was growing, within mere moments she was roughly as long as Sarah was tall and then her body began to change shape her front legs began to trim down and taper away forming hands where her hooves were. Likewise her upper body began to reshape itself taking on a similar configuration to Sarah's body with her lower body following suit. Within mere moments she'd taken a fully human form although her skin was still coated in full fur so her new body elements were disguised. As she sat there her roughly shaped human body began to mold itself in more detail adding subtle curves in places similar to where they resided on Sarah's frame. Before long she had a fairly well developed figure and her cutie mark had shrunk to become a tattoo on her butt. Then her fur began to fade away changing form as well the fur over the top half of her body took the form of a cropped off T-shirt with a bra underneath.
Once the transformation had finished, where a pony once had stood now stood a rather attractive looking southern belle wearing little more than the aforementioned T-shirt and a cut off pair of blue jean shorts. She stood there for a moment looking at herself before immediately clutching her body for warmth as she caught a draft of the cold air outside. Sarah smiled and said “Its nice to have someone along who can empathize with me. When I get back to California I’m giving my agent a nice kick to the head for booking me to show up here dressed like this.” the girls laughed for a little bit before Apple Bloom and Rainbow Dash walked in having noticed the green light had dimmed out. Rainbow dash looked up and said “Who's this? I don't remember there being any other human girls along in this group.” Apple bloom reached over and punched Rainbow Dash in the head saying “That's my big sister Applejack. Land sakes what happened to you sis. Your a human now.” she smiled and blushed surprised at the happy reaction her sister gave saying “Yeah Sarah here used that VR-11 gun on me to see what would happen to me and that’s about it. To be quite honest I don't look to bad do I by human standards I mean.” Sarah nodded and said “Yeah you'd be quite the looker in most situations. Plus guys tend to like the cute southern girl type.” Rainbow Dash crossed her front arms angrily and said “If she's attractive I could only imagine how someone as awesome as me would turn out.” without hesitation Sarah zapped her with the gun and as with Applejack she transformed into a human.
Although her finished appearance was lacking in certain qualities. While she retained her wings she actual body shape was rather flat. Sarah said “Well that kinda makes sense your body type fits with you being rather athletic and its the same build that a lot of track runners have and the most practical for flying and moving at high speeds although it tends to be considered mildly less attractive then the more hour glass style build that Applejack has. Apple bloom began to snicker as Scootaloo burst out into laughter at the idea that Rainbow dash wouldn't be as attractive to guys as Applejack. But before they could delay things any longer Sarah urged them to continue back to the room and return with the golden rod.
Once they filed back up to the room and gave them the golden rod Richtofen thanked them for their assistance and bid them farewell as the teleporter started to activate. Then the door blew open and sucked the Apple Sisters, Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo into the room as the door slammed behind them and they were transported to MDT's next programed destination.
When they arrived the group gathered themselves and began to prep for their last little adventure together. As Dempsey shook off the cobwebs he noticed Rainbow Dash and Applejack standing there in human form. He said “So we finally got around to seeing my wish fulfilled we finally switched that crazy Nazi bastard out for not one but two hot chicks this must really be paradise!” Rainbow dash walked over and said “You do realize its just me and Applejack.” he nodded calmly offhandedly satisfied with the view. She smiled and said “So which one of us looks better.” He sat there for a few moments deliberating on it as Twilight sparkle interjected and said “This is no time for a beauty contest for one. For two how the hell did that happen to you.” Applejack explained about the VR-11 and then walked over to Dempsey to let him examine her a little closer but before he could really start to look her over she began to revert to her original form. When she returned to normal she walked over to a nearby tree and began to mumble obscenities at the expense of how short lived it was. In short order Rainbow dash reverted as well.
Dempsey said “From what I could tell I'd have to say I prefer Ms Applejack because she seems like the kinda girl I could take home to mom, if I ever got home. And still be able to have my parents enjoy her company. Rainbow on the other hand seemed like more the type to be a college frat girl who I could party with all night but probably not be able to settle into a relationship with.” as Nikolai gathered his faculties along with Takeo they echoed his sentiment and conferred that Applejack was the more likable of the two across the board.
After that Twilight did a quick head count to find out how many of the ponies were in attendance and to her surprise they were all there including Sweetie belle who had fallen unconscious next to Rarity. Twilight let out a sight of relief as she realized they may be close to being free of this mess all they had left to do was acquire the last focus stone from the temple and then to use the power she acquired from them to take them back to Ponyville in hopes of destroying so that there wouldn't be a chance of it falling into the wrong hands.
Once again they found themselves stripped of their gear but at least one thing seemed to stand out Richtofen was strangely absent. Dempsey and Twilight began to suspect something was amiss and decided the first thing they would need to do is find the focus stone before Richtofen could manage to fulfill what ever intentions he had. Rainbow dash made her way over to Twilight and said “Hmm I just thought of something it seems like you guys would have a hard time navigating the jungle as you are. So I was thinking why not try and replicate the effects of that VR-11 with your magic that way we'd probably have an easier way passing through.” Twilight said “I guess I could try. You and Applejack will need to come over here so I can use my magic to scan you for residual traces of the energy that caused the transformation so I can attempt to copy the effect.” they made their way over and Twilight began to focus on copying the effect. As she did her horn began to glow and eventually started to release a beam that began to scan the ponies and when it had finished she smiled and began to draw her magic through the gold rods and focus stones she'd acquired from Richtofen to amplify her power.
After what seemed like about an hour of intense focus she asked the ponies to gather around her so she wouldn't have to overextend the radius of the spell. They followed her request and as she released the magical wave the group instantly transformed into human forms, Rainbow and Twilight taking the same appearance they had previously and Rarity taking the form of a rather extravagant looking fashion model while the Cutie Mark Crusaders took similar appearances to their elder counterparts with Apple bloom coming out looking like a roughly teenaged version of Applejack who was in roughly adult proportions. Likewise Sweetie Belle came out looking like a teenaged equivalence to her big sister except dressed more like an average high school student than a model. The only exception was Scootaloo as she came out looking like a teenager wearing an outfit similar to the costume she'd came up with when the group was preforming at the talent show a few months earlier.
When the light from the spell casting died down it revealed that Twilight retained her pony form. Applejack walked over to her and just looking at her she could tell Twilight was exhausted from over using her magic. So she and Applebloom set to building her a lean to shelter to rest in while they made their way toward the temple and attempted to get the focus stone before Richtofen. As they made their way off Dempsey commented that “If I remember right most of the process we used the last time we were here should be just the same this time around.” Rainbow Dash said “Wait a second you remember being here, I thought Richtofen was taking advantage of the Element 115 in the Perk A Cola drinks to continually wipe your short term memory.” Takeo responded saying “Well I believe the main reason why we are retaining our memories better than usual amounts to our bodies developing a tolerance to the memory wipe and the idea that due to this time loop business Richtofen has us stuck in our memory retention is increased due to the idea of Deja Vu.” Applejack said “So in short by continually reliving the same events over and over your able to remember exactly what happens between loops, but your acting like your memory is still getting wiped to keep Richtofen's defenses lowered. That’s pretty smart of you.” Rainbow dash cracked a grin and said “Speaking of smart no offense but you seem like you've been reading Twilight's text books all that “Fancy language” your throwing around.” obviously poking fun at a comment she remembered hearing Applejack make to Big McIntosh after he made mention of how many trees she would have to handle apple bucking all on her own during this past springs apple buck season. She immediately tapped Rainbow dash on the shoulder and the spun back around whipping her leg out and round house kicking Rainbow Dash into a near by tree.
She smirked and said “Still strong as ever these legs can kick hard as ever even as dainty as they look they still pack a punch. Pardon the pun.” the group regathered themselves and began working out the puzzle that opened the way to the focus stone. First they had to activate the eclipse by pressing in on four skull shaped plates which caused a time warp to occur and started the process. Then Dempsey lead one group to a series of tiles in the floor on one side of long bridge Takeo lead the Apple Sisters to another one next to the Revive soda machine and Nikolai lead Rarity and Sweetie Belle over to one a group near the location where the MPL sub-machine gun buy point was. The three group leaders pulled out radios and explained that this step required them to call out to each other sequentially which symbol shows up on each tile and then have the next person find a tile with the matching symbol and stand on it. Once all the tiles were matched they would be contacted by the voices that guided them the last time to hear the next step.
The group quickly worked through the matching puzzle after delaying a wave by Rainbow dash making a crawler and leading it around the exterior of the area. Once they finished a matched golden rod/focus stone pair appeared from the boulder where the MPL buy point was. Then Takeo quickly lead his group down to the water slide and had them stand on a pressure plate while directing Dempsey's group to the switch that corresponded to the pressure plate at the bottom of the slide. After that Takeo took the Apple sisters to find the mystery box in the hopes of finding the equipment needed to complete the next part of their task. Upon finding the box the group holds out for a few rounds taking turns with the box between swarms. After a few tries Apple Bloom acquires a strange gun that had intricate dragon engravings on it and weird organic looking frills down the side which her HUD identified as the 31-79 JGb215 which Takeo simplified to calling the shrink ray. Apple bloom thought about it for a few moments and then turned around and fired it at her sister causing her to shrink to roughly the same size she was while she was under the effect of the Poison Joke plant they ran into outside Zecora's house the first time they were there. She quickly picked up her shrunken elder sister and said “Well looks like I’m the big sister again for once.” grinning from ear to ear as Applejack began to kick and scream obviously angry at her sister's joke. She shouted “Apple Bloom how dare you do that to your big sister I'll make sure to tell Big McIntosh on you when we get back!” but before she could continue any further into her angered rant Apple bloom dropped her down into the front of her shirt for holding purposes.
Takeo said “That was rather mean to do to ones sister.” Apple Bloom replied saying “My only reason for doing it was because everypony always compares me to Applejack and I hate it. I know its not her fault but all the other fillies at school treat me badly because I was the last in my class to get a cutie mark.” as she lowered her jeans a little to show of the cutie mark she had shown off earlier but Takeo didn't get a clear view of due to his position when the group beamed in. :Plus the colts always ogle Applejack when she's not looking and they act like I’m not where near as attractive as she is even though I know the girls in the Apple Family have always had a history of being well known for their looks. But just like with my cutie mark I was a bit of a late bloomer as you can see.” she paused and let Takeo look her over. The soldier smiled and said “You don't realize this now but looks aren't all that make one attractive. You see there is a proverb that says “Those who seek beauty without restraint may lose themselves to their obsession and become ugly to those who would find them the most attractive.” it basically means that if you try too hard to make yourself beautiful your fixation on it will make you seem ugly to those who know your true beauty.” she stepped back and thought for a few moments on the words that Takeo gave her and said”Your right. I shouldn't be jealous of my sister because there may be somepony who will see me for who I am and come to like me. I've just gotta take my time.” she looked down and saw her sister trying to scale the inside of her shirt and smiled before reaching down and grabbing her.
She set Applejack on her shoulder and said “I'm sorry sis I didn't mean to do that I was just so frustrated by everything I go through back home I figured i'd take advantage of this and finally get some recognition for how cute I looked.” Applejack smiled and said “Apple Bloom don't worry your little head one bit about it. I always had a feeling you felt like this but I never wanted to say anything about it because I thought it would just upset you. I’m sorry.” as she walked across Apple bloom's shoulder and gave her a hug around the side of her neck.
After that the pair followed Takeo to the location of the gem they needed for the next step. Apple Bloom dislodged it from its resting place with a grenade and quickly shrunk it as it rolled into the water slide and then followed a path to its resting above one of the water spout launchers. Once they'd finished that step the group they went to where the pressure plate was where Takeo noted the presence of a gas pipe and a crank to increase the pressure. So they quickly turned the handle and build the pressure inside the pipes to the maximum the near by gauge could read and almost immediately they noticed the pipes began to leach gas into the air. Takeo called Dempsey on his radio and checked to see if they'd encountered a Napalm Zombie yet and while Dempsey, Scootaloo and Dash hadn't encountered one. Takeo soon received a call from Nikolai saying that he had one in pursuit. Takeo directed him to bring the zombie down through the tunnels making sure it ignited the fumes leaking from the pipes around them.
Just then the time warp period ended and returned everything to the present, and as a beneficial side effect reverting Applejack to her regular size. She offered to run and help Dempsey and the other two activate the eclipse again while Takeo watched over Apple Bloom. Once the eclipse was active again Takeo turned the handle again and the pipes began to leak once more as he instructed Nikolai to lead the zombie through while he took Apple Bloom to continue on with the next step. As Nikolai, Rarity and Sweetie Belle walked the zombie through the tunnel systems Rarity noticed her sister was humming a tune under her breath. When they got far enough away from the napalm zombie not to draw its attention Rarity pulled Sweetie Belle aside and asked her about it and she said “Oh that song was the song the little girl I was with liked to sing its actually a bit more hard rock then I’d like but I’m sure of Scootaloo heard it she'd enjoy it as she began to hum the base line of the intro before she started to break into singing as the walked.
No one can see me and I've lost all feeling. And I know I won't die alone.
I'll stop you from breathing. And all your deceiving and this house is not my home!
(No) More forgiveness And the reason is I know I won't die alone
(I have returned)
Everyone dies, and everyone lies. They're waiting for the second coming again, Everyone tries to hold onto their lives When no one's alive (Bring me 115)
as Rarity listened to her sister sing she could tell there was a hidden message in the lyrics the girl was trapped and was fighting for her sanity. She also noticed that the way her sister sung it changed at certain points as though there were meant to be different voices singing at those junctures one being a representation of the girl's remaining innocence and the other being an almost demonic entity representing her inner demons and her urge to get revenge on who ever was responsible for what ever wrongs had befallen her.
Sweetie Belle smiled and said “Sam taught me a few songs. If you want to I can give you and the other girls a performance of them once we get back to Ponyville. I think you'll like a few of them because while they seem dark and dreary you can tell she still is trying to keep ahold of herself and has no desire to follow through with this but her other side is forcing her.” Rarity nodded slightly intrigued by the notion of hearing the songs now that she'd gotten a glimpse of them.
Once Nikolai had finished leading the fire spitting zombie through the tunnels along the line of the pipes Takeo pulled the lever next to the valve and triggered the next step in the puzzle. He quickly radioed Dempsey and told him to head over to the tunnel near the MP5k buy point and make sure that one of their group had the Punjabi spike clay more mines. As Dempsey lead Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo to their destination Rainbow pulled out her spikemores and followed Dempesy's directions on where to plant them along the wall while Scootaloo lead a group of crawlers from earlier in the wave through it. Once the holes in the wall were plugged by the spikes Dempsey walked over to a small outcropping of rocks and pressed on a stone panel that caused a surge of water to fill the room on the other side of the wall.
When the room had filled they noticed that the time distortion had reset itself and they were back in the present. After taking a trip back to the starting room to regroup they activated the eclipse again and as they made their way out they noticed there were strange panels on the wall with glowing symbols just as the ones from before. The group split into three and began to work the puzzle of the tiles as they did before. As Takeo and the Apple Sisters made their way out toward their designated area Applejack stopped by to check on Twilight. She cautiously made her way up to the lean to surprised to see it was fairly undamaged for how long it had been there she guessed that it was because the zombies must have taken it to be an existing structure and left it alone. Apple Bloom poked her head into the door and was surprised to see where they had left their purple unicorn friend now sat a spry looking if not slightly geeky human in a lavender outfit consisting of a skirt and something resembling a boarding school uniform. She smiled and said “Well surprised to see me like this. During the last eclipse cycle the focus stones that bound themselves to me activated and gave me a surge of power that transformed me without even having to draw on my magic.” she stood up and clenched her fist obviously frustrated at Richtofen's actions Apple Bloom could tell that she was bound and determined to stop the mad man from fulfilling his goals.
She politely asked Takeo for his radio and asked the group to regroup at the lean to so that way she could preform a special spell. So while Nikolai and his group were fairly willing to come back to base she could tell from the exasperated tone on the radio that Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo couldn't care less but grudgingly agreed to come after Dempsey mentioned the idea that he suspected it had something to do with the Focus Stones Twilight was carrying inside her. When the group had gathered Twilight brushed her hair back revealing her unicorn horn which she was able to manipulate while in that form. She said “Girls there's something I need to do before we continue with this knowing that Richtofen is just waiting for us to finish completing this puzzle I need to divide up the focus stones and golden rods I already have that way you don't have to go out of your way to worry about protecting me.” then her horn began to glow and like wise her body began to follow suit. It began to tremble as the focus stones energy interacted with her magic. Her new human form began to expand taking what Dempsey described as being that of a pregnant woman on the verge of giving birth. One at a time the focus stones and golden rods began to extract themselves from her body floating out into a circular group and placing themselves in front of each of the other ponies. She instructed each of them to take one and without question the group followed their leader's direction with the orbs belonging to Rainbow Dash, Applejack and Rarity beginning to blink in and out between their normal appearance and that of their respective Element of Harmony before merging into their bodies. The only one of them who didn't receive one was Sweetie Belle and when she asked Twilight about it she explained that they were lacking the last of the focus stones needed to take the group back home as that one would have gone to Sweetie Belle.
As for the younger ponies the stones just merged into them directly, after that Twilight returned to the original humanized form she had taken and asked where they were in the puzzle and asked if they were in need of an extra set of hands. Takeo handed her a spare M1911 pistol and an MP5k and said “Any help we can get will be greatly appreciated by our group as well as yours.” after that the group set out and began to work the next step of the puzzle this time it revolved around matching symbols on tiles placed on the walls at different points in the map similar to the earlier procedure with the tiles on the ground. They quickly blazed through that step and continued on to the next one which required the to turn the dials on the walls of the mud pit temple to a specific series of symbols. The first near the far end of the temple facing roughly Northwest of where they started to a symbol that resembled the number 16 then across from that was another one that needed to be turned to a symbol with a single dot that counted as one. Then on the wall directly facing spawn they turned the dial to a symbol that had three dots and finally the last one to a symbol with 4 dots.
Once that finished Dempsey commented “The next step involves using the shrink ray to get a pack of dynamite. So who here has the shrink ray.” Apple Bloom smiled and raised her hand pulling the gun out from a pack. Dempsey offered to lead her to the location where they needed to be stationed to get the dynamite while he asked Takeo to activate the gems by sounding the gongs in the area that resonated with the Focus Gems. The team broke off and set about their tasks Apple Bloom going with Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo following Dempsey out to the temple focus stone where the focus gem that had the dynamite hanging off of it. Takeo quickly struck the sequence of gongs and the stones began to resonate with a bright light as Apple Bloom fired the shrink ray at the gem. The beam bounced around and eventually looped back around dislodging the dynamite.
After that they took the dynamite to the temple along with Apple Bloom's shrink ray first activating the pressure plates that opened the Pack-A-Punch machine and upgraded the shrink ray to the newly renamed “Fractalizer” and then fired it at the gem above the mud pit temple. The beam ricocheted from stone to stone and eventually hit the meteor above the temple shrinking it. They quickly applied the dynamite to the wall and blew the panel out revealing a chest with the shrunken meteor levitating over it. As the stone floated there a beam of lightening came out from the cropping that hit Rainbow dash and knocked her to the ground badly singed and seeming to be nearly dead as the familiar cackle of the Nazi madman Richtofen began to ring out from among the trees.
He started to ascend the stair case toward the focus stone and as he did his face was splayed with a sadistic grin as he looked at the incapacitated Rainbow haired pony. He looked at them pulling out the Wonderwaffle DG-3 that he'd acquired from Der Riese on a previous loop as Scootaloo stepped up her face brimming with anger she stared him down and said “You monster how could you do something like that so someone who did absolutely nothing to you.” the scientist replied saying “Little one you fail to realize you and your cursed pony friends have interfered with my plans to get myself out of this forsaken world, to make my way to a place where my weapons designs could spark an unending war.” Scootaloo's wings began to beat furiously as her skin began to glow with light she clinched her fist tightly and charged at the madman.
As she made her way down the front of the temple she began to fly and the stone inside her began to glow with a spectacular radiance as Richtofen fired streams of shots from his DG-3 the little pink haired daredevil evading each shot with an almost super human level of agility as she delivered a straight right hook to the jaw of the crazed Nazi sending him careening down to the ground. She pursued him as he fell laying into him with a fury of blows that left him battered and bloody on the ground at the foot of the temple. She stood over him and said “No one hurts Rainbow dash, No one hurts her. She may not be the most responsible, or the smartest, or the most beautiful or the strongest. But she has enough determination to make up for anything.” her eyes glowed with anger and showed a flame crackling as Apple bloom rushed down the stairs and tried to calm her friend down. Just then as she put her hand on Scootaloo's shoulder a glimmer appeared around the area of her hip and when it faded a symbol that resembled a flaming heart appeared in its place. Apple Bloom smiled and said “That's it Scootaloo its your cutie mark.” immediately her rage turned to joy as she hugged her friend and asked her to help get Rainbow Dash down to ground level as she saw Dempsey starting to carry her down.
Dempsey brought Rainbow Dash down and set her in front of their group they looked her over and could tell she'd taken a serious hit but as always she wore a smile to hide the pain. She looked over at Scootaloo who clearly looked to be on the verge of crying and said “That was amazing kiddo you really let him have it, and you earned your cutie mark as well so now you can finally be happy with yourself.” she reached up and took Scootaloo's hand and gave it a firm shake before receding into unconsciousness from the pain. The emotions building around within the young filly were intense and left her torn between wanting to be there for Rainbow Dash her sole inspiration in life or to tear the crazed scientist limb from limb. While the group was busy tending to Rainbow Dash Dempsey walked over and put a hand on Scootaloo's shoulder and said “We'll deal with Richtofen you guys go after the stone and try to find your way home.” Scootaloo nodded quietly as Richtofen began to stand up his face drenched in blood from Scootaloo's beating, he drew out a focus stone and a golden rod and began to cackle saying “You fools someone like me with the forethought to plan for all eventualities can't be defeated so easily.” he placed the orb on the rod and it began to infuse him with its combined energy shrouding him in a barrier of light.
Dempsey, Takeo and Nikolai began to unload their upgraded MP5k's and in Nikolai's case an upgraded RPK he'd stolen from Richtofen during their time in the vault. Richtofen began to laugh at the bullets as they deflected off the barrier saying “So you think you can really do anything to me as I am. At this point I have powers beyond comprehension.” as he waved his hand and discharged a blast of energy that badly damaged Nikolai and splashed on Takeo and Dempsey. Dempsey looked at his former supposed ally and said “You really wanna play god in that case I’m a fucking atheist!” as he began unloading grenades and more SMG fire into the wall of energy trying to goad the scientist into following them. While this was going on Scootaloo grabbed Sweetie Belle around her stomach and air lifted her to the top of the temple where she grabbed the focus stone and returning with her to the group at the base.
With each of them now in possession of their respective golden rod and focus stone the ponies decided it would be best to allow Twilight the time to do what she needed to do to prepare for their transport back to Equestria. They gathered up and she began to focus her magic in an attempt to take them home but as she started the process she saw Dempsey and the others fighting against Richtofen and realized that without their help the other three survivors may be doomed to die at Richtofen's hand. So Twilight decided to use her powers instead to call out the powers of the elements of harmony residing within Rainbow dash and the other elder ponies as well as herself in an attempt to strip Richtofen of his new powers.
They stood in a small circle and began to concentrate as the focus stones within them began to reveal themselves again taking the form of each pony's respective element of harmony, For Twilight it was Magic, for Rarity it was Generosity, for Rainbow dash it was Loyalty, and for Applejack it was Honesty. As the orbs took these forms they pushed out of their respective carriers bodies and began to levitate over them enshrouding the group in light as their clothing transformed to a tight set of combat suits consisting of an outfit not unlike a Japanese Sailor suit style school uniform adorned in each pony's respective colors and with broaches matching their cutie marks. They quickly set off after Dempsey and the others leaving the Cutie mark crusaders to fend for themselves.
Apple bloom upon seeing the spectacle said “I wonder if we have elements of harmony that we correspond to because we do kinda have a similar closeness to what they have and I’ve always had a feeling we each had something special about each of us. For one I've always done my best to hold the group together and keep us unified even after me and Sweetie Belle got our cutie marks and for a while when you were threatening to leave the group because you hadn't gotten yours yet Sweetie Belle here was able to reason with you better than even Twilight and the others were able to in order to keep you in the group.” Sweetie Belle smiled and nodded saying “Yeah and your passion for finding yourself and helping us find our cutie marks as well as your strength of will and your determination to succeed mean you embody more raw passion and drive than I've seen from any other pony in Ponyville.” the three girls felt something wash over each of them as the gems began to light up within them.
Scootaloo's began to show through and it took on the appearance of a stone like the other elements of harmony but emblazoned with a large flaming heart not unlike her cutie mark. Then Sweetie Belle's emerged and it showed a symbol that looked like a speech bubble to represent her ability to talk things through and reason with them. Finally Apple Bloom's took the appearance of a piece of twine wrapped around three strands of hay, the string holding them together and allowing them to work with each others strengths representing unity.
The trio sprinted off after the group of elder ponies knowing this development could prove useful. When they caught up with them Rainbow dash and the other had been trading blows with Richtofen who was now sheathed in a barrier of energy that seemed to repel anything that hit it. Apple Bloom walked over to her sister and mentioned what had happened and Applejack replied saying "That must mean that you three are like the rest of us you each have your own element that ties you together and this experience has brought it out of you like with us during our run in with Nightmare Moon." the three younger ponies nodded and said "Yes, and with the power we hold we'll try our best to help us get home.” and with that the group gathered around Richtofen drawing the focus stones out and combining them with their golden rods.
When they had mounted themselves upon the rods they each transformed into a weapon that matched the attributes of their respective wielder Twilight's forming a magical staff Rainbow Dash's taking the form of something similar to the Wonderwaffle DG-3. Applejack's formed a lasso made of energy and Rarity's took the form of a elegantly decorated trident while Sweetie Belle's formed a microphone and Scootaloo's took the form of the ray gun while Apple Bloom's took form of a seemingly common rod but then a beam of energy began to jut out of it cresting a few feet above her head and forming a giant hammer head.
Applejack smirked a little and said “Well looks like we're ready to take Richtofen down. Wouldn't you say ladies?” the girls smirked and nodded in agreement as they raced off after Dempsey and the others. When they'd caught up with the others they saw Takeo laying against a tree holding his ribs and trembling in pain as he pointed them toward the battle ahead. Twilight darted ahead to see Richtofen beating Dempsey seemingly to within inches of his life the gruff marine doing his best to maintain a brave face for the girls as they began to make their way toward the two fighters. Twilight drew her staff and began to concentrate her magic through it calling out the incantation to a powerful sealing magic she'd learned during a study trip to Canterlot from Princesses Celestia and Luna.
Meanwhile Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo charged at Richtofen brandishing their new weapons and unloading volleys of shots into the scientist's shrouded body which surprisingly managed to pierce the barrier and bring Richtofen down to a knee. He looked at them and said “So you've taken the power of the focus stones for your own use as well. You realize you've just reduced yourselves to my level?” the two Pegasi stared at him with Rainbow Dash restraining herself from rearing back and smacking him as a lasso made of energy whipped around the scientist and began discharging energy into him further disrupting the barrier as Applejack dashed in and secured him in a stiff knot.
But the scientist abruptly began to cackle in a sardonic tone as he started to rise the golden rod and focus stone rising up. The energy from the stone began to pour into Richtofen and he began to rise off the ground and he broke out of the lasso and fired a flurry of blasts from his Wonderwaffle which drove the group to scatter. Sweetie Belle stepped out and drew her microphone as Rarity stepped up beside her and readied her trident to attack they each harnessed their unicorn magic into the weapons with a key forming in Rarity's hand decorated similarly to her broach as she inserted it into a slot below the base of the trident points on the handle. The weapon called out in a rather energetic voice saying “Final Wave!” as the energy began to charge into the multi pointed blade and she called out “Radiant Prominence!” as she charged at Richtofen spinning the weapon as she encroached on him and slashed him a few times in each direction leaving waves of energy to gash Richtofen and managing to take off one of his arms and wound his leg. Rarity was briefly taken aback by the blood splatter but she realized that it was needed as she finished the attack by stabbing Richtofen straight through the stomach impaling him on the trident.
She tossed the seemingly limp scientist to the ground and said “Well it seems as though that's finished.” but then he began to rise from the ground his eyes glowing in a fashion similar to the zombies. Richtofen began to grin as his severed arm began to levitate in place next to him before reattaching itself to him as he said “While that was a valiant effort at this phase there is nothing you can do short of shattering my focus stone that will result in my death. My mastery over the golden rod and focus stones allows me to will time to reverse at my command nullifying any injuries that are inflicted upon me.” but despite his boasting he was changing in appearance somewhat. His skin darkened and began to take on a decayed shading not unlike the zombies. His voice began to distort and warp taking a demented female tone as the voice spoke it was clear that there was another being influencing him it said “This man's pride will be his down fall he killed me and my father to steal all of his hard work and use it for his own benefit. All of the raw element he's holding has granted me the ability to overtake him for the moment. My name is Samantha Maxis, or as most of you address me Sam. My father worked for group 935 an organization meant to better society, but when Dr Richtofen found a way to get the Teleportation system working and was sent to the moon he returned a changed and corrupted man who planned to uses my father's research for his own benefit.” she looked over at the other three survivors and addressed them saying “I apologize for sending the swarms of Zombies after...” her voice abruptly subsided and Richtofen's returned “You will not take me Samantha I am an entity beyond man kind, beyond deities, I am all powerful.” his body began to radiate waves of element 115 radiation and swarms of Zombies began to form around him moving toward the ponies and the other survivors.
They began to move toward our group of zombie slayers and were cut down with a few shots from the combined Ray Gun and Wonderwaffle combo issued by Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash. Sam began to speak again saying “I will restrain him please do what you can to destroy him.” the ghostly image of a young girl who looked about 14 years old formed over Richtofen's body and physically held him in place. Just then Twilight began to hover over the battlefield her body shrouded in the familiar shade of purple energy that normally formed around her horn during spell casting. Her voice was hushed speaking in an ancient archaic tongue that was virtually indecipherable to anyone else there.
Suddenly her magic staff reverted to the stone and orb and began to radiate streams of energy which returned the others to their natural form as well and began to levitate them in orbit around Twilight as a pillar of energy formed around her drawing the others in and energizing their elements of harmony. Sam looked up and pleaded with them asking them to hurry as she was losing her hold on Richtofen who had began to draw energy from the Focus stone he still had and began to focus it into a beam directed at the group. Likewise at the center of the field a dense field of energy formed to match as Richtofen discharged a massive wave of energy at the pillar. Moments before it struck Twilight launched a beam that intercepted it in midair and thus a struggle of wills began between the scientist and the combined will of the seven ponies.
As the beams met in midair they began to sway back and forth in a tug of war for dominance. With each passing second the ponies could feel the battle wearing away at them, and most at twilight's reserve of magic which was made evident by them beginning to regress to their original forms over the next several minutes. By the time all of them had regressed she was pouring all of her magic into the fight and even that didn't seem as though it would be enough. Then Sweetie Belle saw the ghostly form of Samantha forming over Richtofen and felt a compulsion to sing as she heard Samantha leading and she heard the pounding guitar music in the background not unlike the type she knew Scootaloo had a habit of listening to on her Ipony.
At first her somewhat sensitive ears had a hard time listening to it but as the opening mellowed to a a less ear straining solo backed up with drums she heard Sam begin to sing
“All of my atrocities come by way of reciprocity.” As an image of Dempsey flashed over the pillar I'm chewing the bones of my own reprieve. Death be my dignity, execute hemlock philosophy. Poison fills the cup of the carpenter.” With ghostly images of the other three survivors flashing before their eyes
Sweetie Belle took over the rest of the verse speaking in a harsher tone “No! Love lost on me! No! Life's so costly No reason for grieving. No! Life lost on me No! Life so costly! Bring me down with 7.62 High Velocity!”
Then they began to sing in unison I can see them everywhere! They're all around me, They're waiting for me! Descending, Unrelenting Beauty of Annihilation!”
as they harmonized with each other the focus stone within Sweetie Belle began to glow and radiate energy to the other ponies energizing the other elements of harmony and giving them a new power to draw from. With this taking place Richtofen began to lose ground as his power was starting to wane from Samantha's influence and the fight from earlier. The beam from the pillar encroached on the scientist and began to force him into the air as the other ponies began to sing as well each one taking part in one of the songs Samantha had taught Sweetie Belle and was now playing for them via telepathy.
Rarity and Scootaloo began to hear a song that Rarity remembered being the one Sweetie Belle was singing back in the jungle temple. As Rarity began to hear the music for the song she was taken aback by how loud and aggressive the music was and couldn't get herself to sing, then she heard Sam beginning to lead her in the part of the verse Sweetie Belle had sung in her natural voice and she felt a bit more at peace singing it.
When Sam's voice changed Scootaloo took over and to Rarity's surprise Scootaloo proved rather capable of singing the rather thrash heavy song, compared to her attempt at a slow dramatic ballad at the school talent show this seemed natural as though the song was perfectly made for Scootaloo's “Unique” vocal talents.
As they entered the second verse she could tell it was a symbolism of Samantha's slow descent into insanity and corruption by the powers she'd gained. Meanwhile Twilight began to hear a much mellower song, as Sam lead her in it she felt a somber mood wash over her one of despair and depression. At the same time it felt resolute in resistance of fate. The lyrics reaching even deeper than the solemn melody as she began to sing.
“Life is still spinning, your end my beginning. And everything I've hoped for has been strangely set aside. Reason for living, My mind is forgiving Destiny is proving to be absent from my life. I know it, I feel it I know when your sleeping, I know the things your dreaming. And I know you will never give up and die.”
She continued as Sam shifted her attention to Rainbow Dash and began to transmit another song into her head. The song started with a hauntingly flanged guitar for a few moments before taking on a slow melodic guitar eventually gaining a stronger bass riff and drum line as the lyrics began to flow from the blue pony's lips.
“All my life I’ve been debating, All the crows they sit there waiting. Wondering what I’m going to eat, until I have it I can't breath. When I see you on the floor, your heart's not beating any more. My lust for you can not wait, your skin it tastes like chocolate.”
Rainbow felt a slight bit of vomit pool in her throat as the image of the zombies entering a feeding frenzy and consuming a group and swarming toward a group of soldiers in a swamp. She could feel the sense that the zombies were acting outside their control as if they were addicted to the taste more so than drawing on their own willful desire. The music and the images continued to flow as the song played and the pillar of light became more intense and began to expand as the zombies began to emerge from the ground below them and make their way toward Richtofen as if being willed toward him by the music.
As the zombies massed around him he was forced to divert some of his attention to fending off the swarm which allowed the beam from the pillar to encroach on the scientist as the Apple sisters began to sing their piece. The song started off with a light almost angelic piano element before shifting to a pounding drum and guitar cacophony and returning to a mix of piano and drum as they began to hear the lead into the first verse Apple Bloom took the lead singing
“I can fly like a bird not in the sky. Which can always swim but is always dry. Say goodbye at night and morning hi. I’m part of you what am I.
I follow and lead as you pass, dress yourself in black my darkness last. I flee the light but without the sun your view of me would be gone.”
Applejack took over her softer more adult voice accenting the subtleties of the quieter voice used in the song. The voice was soft and childlike almost as if it were a purer more innocent form of Samantha singing it one who was only just gaining conscious awareness of her actions regarding the zombies.
“I can see the damage, I am causing you. You want me to be gone, but I have just begun.”
the two sisters continued the song their voices meshing with the others in an eerie harmony that forced the beam ever close to Richtofen until he was consumed by it his anguished cries of agony falling on deaf ears as Samantha opened a portal to the Aether and taking his remains to form a physical body as his soul was consumed by the unending darkness of the realm between life and death.
As the magical energy dispersed into the air around them and the pillar dissolved into traces of light leaving the ponies tired but still full of life as they lay on the ground their bodies taxed by the experience, but feeling a great sense of accomplishment. Samantha walked up to Sweetie Belle and ran her fingers through her mane and smiled saying “You've all done so well to defeat that monster, while this form is temporary my powers will allow me to open a way to your world.” the ponies made their way shakily to their feet as the focus stones inside them emerged and began to hover in a orbiting shape forming a round portal in front of Samantha. While the stones were far from being at their full power having exhausted most of it during their fight they each held enough energy with Samantha's powers over the element to form a portal back to Ponyville. The ponies thanked Samantha for her assistance and made their way through the portal one at a time. Then she turned to Dempsey and the others saying “I can sense that you've been involved in this against your will just as well as the ponies. Would you like to return to the world as you knew it before Richtofen's madness?” the soldiers took their time considering the chance that laid before them Takeo had left much of his world behind prior to the war even before the zombie outbreak and he wondered if there would be any honor or dignity in making a return after all this time, himself not quite knowing how much time had elapsed since they'd left Shi No Numa. He remembered hearing vague allusions in radio broadcasts during their time in the theater back in the 1960's about the Allies defeating the Axis and knowing returning to the normal world may result in him living the shame of his country's surrender after the time he spent away.
Samantha turned to the weary soldier and smiled opening a portal to a vision of the modern world in a similar time frame to that of the period they saw at the Cosmodrome in Russia. It showed Japan having came out of the war beaten but still very optimistic and a leader in advanced technology that had went on to shape the world. Then the female spectre turned to Dempsey and smiled saying “I can imagine you wish to return to your home as you may have known it before the war.” Dempsey looked at the vision of the United States in the time near the end of the second World War. He observed the vision of what changed and he admitted while part of him wanted to return to the time before all this had happened the modern world as it was or rather would have been without the zombie outbreak would be a place much more fitting for him as his memories of the advanced weapons of the modern day still pulsed through his mind. She replied saying “So I take it you plan to also take leave of your prior life as well and take refuge in the modern world.” Dempsey smirked and said “Why the hell not, if nothing less I can always enlist again and play around with the toys the military developed since I’ve been gone, and once again the world will know the name of the all powerful badass that is Tank Dempsey.” as he made his way into the portal and thanked Sam as he passed by.
Takeo followed suit leaving the final decision to Nikolai who was still rather confused by this whole ordeal thinking it was just brought on by his drunken stupor. She looked over at the Russian and smiled handing him a small Matryoska doll saying “I consider that one of my most prized possessions, my father gave it to me after a trip to Russia to meet with some scientists. I hope this is enough to repay you the debt of sanity I owe you from Richtofen's madness. What do you choose, to return to the world as you knew it or the new world where your name will be a clean slate.” The Russian looked at the carved nesting doll and said “I think I will return home as it was, this would be a nice gift for a little girl. I’ve meant to start another family after all the instances with prior wives but I would like a chance to start clean.” Samantha nodded and said “That much I can do, I can send you back to your world before the outbreak but the world will no longer revile your name instead you will be merely an esteemed soldier respected and held dear by your country in a time after the fall of Stalin.” the Russian's demeanor perked up as he thought of the chance to return to Russia in a time without Stalin who was responsible for his deployment in the military to begin with. He eagerly made his way through the portal leaving his bottle of vodka behind in his hurried action.
With that Samantha hovered there unaware of what would happen to her. Her time in the Aether had granted her powers beyond the comprehension of most mortals but at the same time she felt like that power had left her empty as though she would never be reunited with her father who died that fateful day Richtofen released the at that point recently zombified Fluffy into the test lab sealing the door behind him as he ran for the teleporter terminal. She survived the incident being granted an incorporeal form by her unyielding desire for revenge, now that it had finally been attained she wondered what she would do now. The world as she knew it was in ruins, and despite the great feats she'd preformed because of her current state she was unable to effect such wonders on herself. She was still a being trapped between worlds neither living nor dead, neither saved nor damned just existing and now she had nothing. Her yearning for revenge had been quenched and now she believed that there was nothing for her.
Then a strong light pierced the dank jungle atmosphere a beam of radiance emerged and stopped itself in front of her. Within the beam the image of a man emerged, at first she couldn't see his face the radiance around it blotting out its image, but then a voice came “Samantha its time, your goal has met its fruition its time to come home.” the speaker's voice calmed Samantha's inner demon and her eyes began to seep with tears as she said “Papa. Its you.” his face fading into view she floated over to him and shedding the remnants of Richtofen's body she'd grafted into a temporary form as she hugged her father. The two spirits began to ascend the pillar of light to the world beyond and the focus stones dissolved collapsing the portals as the world began to dissolve into the voids where the portal had been.
Meanwhile back in Ponyville the cast of zombie slayers arrived back on the orchard at Sweet Apple Acres around the rock that had sent them off on their strange journey. As they gathered themselves they saw something strange, the meteor began to dissolve into vapor and within mere moments it was as if it had never been there. The group had finally made it home, being that at the time it was rather late they collectively decided to part ways for the night so they could sleep on it and gather themselves from the strange events.
When Twilight arrived back at the library she found that in spite of Pinkie's time there it seemed as though the library was in rather good shape. She turned on a light and saw Fluttershy laying on the couch in the living room and thought to herself “What could she be doing here, I guess Pinkie must have had a sleep over.” then Fluttershy began to stir, reacting to the sudden change of light and eventually over the next minute or so woke up. She made her way to a more comfortable seated position and rubbed her eyes with her hoof and said “Hello Twilight, Its nice to see you made it back from where ever you went. I’ve been tending to the library since you've been gone, Pinkie was laid up sick the past three weeks and so I’ve been filling in and helping her get better.” Twilight blinked and said “Three weeks? We were gone that long!?” she changed from her surprised exclamation to a lower speaking voice so as not to wake anyone else and continued to herself “So the effects of the time dilation Richtofen was taking advantage of caused a massive Asynchronous break between our worlds that caused us to arrive much slower than we thought. Samantha's portal seemed like it was an instantaneous trip but the looped field of time must have caused time to “rubber band” us forward three weeks but to everyone here in Ponyville we've merely been gone for that length of time as though we were on a trip or something. This will make a rather interesting report for the princesses. Yes I think Luna would find this rather interesting as well but I can wait to do that in the morning.” Fluttershy decided to lay back over and go to sleep still exhausted from spending most of that afternoon alphabetizing the library after Spike and Angel knocked over a wall full of books which caused the majority of the rest to domino all over the floor.
Twilight made her way up to her bedroom being careful to keep quiet and not wake anyone else knowing she probably had a fair bit of work to do.
The next morning Twilight woke up bright and early before anyone else in the library and began to draft her letter to the princesses.
“Dear Princesses Celestia and Luna,
As you might have noticed a few of my friends and I went missing about three weeks ago after that strange meteor landed at Sweet Apple Acres. The seven of us have returned and as far as I can tell we're all in fairly good shape. Although while we were gone we saw some rather interesting sights. Its as if we had been pulled into another world not unlike Equestria but still different it seemed like another race of creatures was the dominant species a race known as humans.
In that world it seemed like things were largely similar to the world as we know it. There were wars and weapons but at the same time there were also people who were dragged into the machinations of corrupt individuals. Due to the actions of one man who's name I'll leave out for purposes of protecting myself from having to relive my interactions with him, the world was drawn into an outbreak of zombies which were under the control of the spirit of the a young girl named Samantha who the man was responsible for murdering by trapping her and her father with the zombie infected version of her prized pet dog.
During our time there we met three other soldiers who were drawn in to the mad scientist's schemes each one sounding like had they been ponies they would have easily come from their own parts of the world. The first a marine from the United States, a place not unlike the continent around Ponyville. He even made references to locations who's names are direct parallels to some of the more well known cities like Manhattan their version of Manehattan. His name is Tank Dempsey, I’m almost sure that the tank part isn't his real name more of a nickname he used. If he were a pony I'd imagine he'd blend in fairly well although he'd be an Earth pony and would have probably been in the royal guard during the second World War. Granting his profuse knowledge of firearms I wouldn't be surprised if his cutie mark would have been a Thompson Sub-machine Gun laid over an M16 forming a crossbones pattern over a dismembered Zombie head.
The next one would have most certainly been at home among the upper class families in Staliongrad. As Rarity will attest he knew many of the political ins and outs of that society according to what she'd told me he had a very aggressive streak having allegedly killed several of his prior wives once their usefulness to his political advancement had ended this lead him to be sent out onto the front lines by his superiors and was what resulted in his deployment to the Swamp facility where he met with Dempsey and the others. His name was Nikolai Belinski he was well mannered and a strong fighter in spite of reeking of alcohol most of the time. According to Rarity behind his booze soaked exterior he was honestly remorseful for his actions, he was just a victim of changing times in his worlds politics.
Then from a land not unlike those around Pokyo came a soldier named Takeo Masaki he was an honor bound warrior of the highest caliber. According to what I’ve heard from the Apple Sisters he was raised in a small urban farming community not unlike Ponyville where his family farmed rice until he and several of his family members were drafted into military service. He was a strong and virtuous man although his search for honor caused him to involve himself in things that most of those with reason would have avoided.
They had all been dragged into the twisted experiments of a collective known as Group 935 and specifically those of a man named Dr Richtofen...” her writing trailed off as she thought of the things she'd read and seen at the factory, the animal testing, the radio recordings that logged the demise of Dr Maxis and another scientist who committed suicide after hearing of another outbreak at a distant facility.
After taking a few moments to collect her thoughts about him she continued:
“He was the living definition of a mad scientist, according to a personal log journal I snatched away from him during out time interned within a vault in the bowels of an abandoned lighthouse I read of the sadistic behavior he conducted during the time he spent both during and before the war. He conducted lobotomies, amputations, biopsies and all sorts of other procedures on his victims all without the aid of anesthesia. He relished in the pain he dealt to those he tortured, the delight he displayed in these acts would be beyond measure. But if you twisted my fore hoof i'd probably say it lies on the same level as my fixation on reading and studying before I left the castle. Although that being said I cant say that his behavior would be justified by his isolation. Instead his actions justified his isolation as he sunk further into insanity spured on by his superiors in the Nazi Party. and within Group 935 he grew more and more twisted as he spent time around them and more importantly in proximity to concentrated amounts of Element 115. it was this element that was responsible for the technological feats my friends and I witnessed from Sniper rifles that fired explosive hollow point bullets to high voltage Tesla rifles. Element 115 based on my studies was used by Group 935 to not only create these weapons but Mass Transit teleport systems with the intent on using them to further the war effort in favor of the Nazi powers. The problem was the raw element like that present in the meteor can cause mental disruptions in certain individuals and being exposed to the raw energy of the Element in a refined state has the potential to reanimate dead bodies generating a phenomena in them that lead to a world wide Zombie outbreak. The main contriubuter to this was a young girl who the doctor was responsible for killing a girl named Samantha Maxis. She was the daughter of the lab director who headed the projects at the Factory compound known as Der Riese or “The Giant.”.
Dr Maxis was a well meaning scientist who was attempting to use the collected assets from Group 935 to advance technology and help better human kind. But then when the experiments began to go south he decided to attempt to use the zombies as a way to satisfy the demands of his superiors by attempting controlled brain washing. The process failed and several of their other facilities were over ran by the hordes leaving Der Riese and the weapons developed there as their only line of defense. One such experiment with a live subject being sent through the teleporter system would lead to the death of both Samantha and her father.
According to some audio logs that Rainbow Dash found around the facility they used Samantha's pet dog Fluffy as a test subject in the teleporter and when she came out in a zombified and feral state Richtofen used that as his moment to strike locking them in the test chamber with the monstrous animal now known as a Hellhound and left them to die. Himself taking the teleporter to one of their other facilities where he eventually met up with those who I mentioned earlier.
All of that depressing business aside though it was quite an interesting adventure and it was kind of fun interacting with the survivors it has actually caught my interest in studying humans as a society and a race. Such a broad range of characteristics different languages, different cultures, it almost makes me consider what Equestria would have been like had it been settled by humans as opposed to pony kind.
On a side note during our time in that other world we encountered a device that was able to transform Applejack into a human and I later used my magic to emulate the effects of it and apply it to the whole group due to us landing in a less than pony friendly jungle setting. Maybe it could be used in that study. Naturally I wouldn't do something like that without proper clearance from you and Luna as it would require me to convert a large test group into human form for an accurate study.
I apologize for the profuse length of this letter but catching you up on what amounts to three weeks of absence on behalf of my friends and myself its hard to shrink that down into a short summery.
Your faithful student
Twilight Sparkle.”
As she finished writing and rolled up the three scroll long letter in preparation for having it sent away as soon as Spike woke up.