The day was August 26th, 1945. A cool summer breeze rolled around outside German Research Facility 12, known as "Der Riese." To the surprise of Hans Joel Schreider, it was a fine day free of stress. That is to say, without any additional stress. Anything having to do with these bloodthirsty mules was stressful in of itself. Not to mention the fact that simply asking to not wear the uniform is grounds for being declared a traitor. And they didn't deal kindly with traitors. It was difficult being forced to be associated with the Nazis. Before he could finish that thought, there came a fast and urgent sounding series of knocks on his door. It must have been important, otherwise the useless grunt they sent to fetch him wouldn't have shouted through the door.
"COME, COME QUICKLY WE'VE FOUND IT! THE FREQUENCY HAS BEEN FOUND!"
Hans dropped his cup, still filled with hot tea, onto the ground, and it shattered. The pieces weren't even settled before he was halfway to the door. He ran as fast as he could. After two and a half years of this wretched place, they finally found something.
When he arrived, there were Jews inside the chamber, removing the rubber pads and scrubbing it down with the lime solution. He marveled at how long they were able to make 120 people last when they die off so quickly. He tossed the thought aside. If he gained a conscience now, he would try to help them, and be exiled, or worse.
"Now, you said the frequency has been found?" he asked, annoyed at the prospect of having to wait.
"Yes, Herr Schreider. We found it clocked at approximately 6,000 gigahertz." Responded the scientist.
"Good Lord! How in the world did you manage to get that kind of power?"
"Industrial strength capacitors, combined with electromagnetic pulses to generate power surges to be harnessed by copper conduction plates. In addition, we-"
"Yes yes yes, very nice. What kind of effect did it have?"
"Well, you see, we tried to harness it, but it didn't work that well. HOWEVER! We found that the machine will project a matter displacement field roughly 2 meters away at the entrance to the chamber. We feel it is because that is the least protected of the metal surrounding the chamber. I hypothesize that if we were to set up a tungsten-uranium plate in the room it will project the field on or around said plate. Is is possible to acquire that kind of material?"
"I will check. This is very good. Himmler will be most pleased. You may just be the one person on this planet who can single handedly change the tide of the war in our favor. How does it feel to have that kind of influence?" he asked, genuinely curious at the prospect of holding the world in one's hand.
"I am simply glad to help der Führer," he responded, true to his cause.
Hans turned around and walked out of the control room. Under his breath, he muttered, "I hope so, my friend. I hope so."
Equestria
It was a moody, cloudy day in Ponyville. The clouds were white, so it wasn't going to rain. The cloudy sky was partially broken in some places. Then in more. After 25 seconds, there was more sky than clouds. A streak of sky was slowly stretching across the the cumulonimbus vapor packs, a streak of multicolored light following in it's wake. The pegasus Rainbow Dash was clearing the sky using a new style of flight she learned a few days earlier while training. After another 35 seconds, it was a beautiful, cloudless day in Ponyville.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHA, this is AWESOME!" exclaimed Rainbow, floating down after her job was done. "Didja SEE THAT?! Man oh man, I just get awesomer every single DAY!" She was evidently very excited.
"Yeah yeah yeah, why doncha come on down off yer high cloud and help me move these here barrels. We could use a little help, ain't that right Big Macintosh?" asked Applejack.
"Eeyup."
"Fine. I'm coming," she replied, slightly annoyed that Applejack wasn't as excited as she was.
As they finished unloading the barrels onto the Apple Family Farm, they saw a pink dot on the road bouncing up and down. It was none other than Pinkie Pie, the party pony of Ponyvile. She looked happy, but happier than usual.
"Well, don't you look happier than a junebug in the middle of a cow pasture. What's goin' on?"
"It's TWILIGHT! ShesaysthatthePrincesswantstoseeallofusrightawaysowegettogotoCANTERLOT!" Pinkie was out of breath, now, and gasping.
"Woah, what would the Princess want with us?" Rainbow asked.
"Well if we go meet Twilight I'm sure that she will tell us everything." replied Applejack
"All right, let's go." Rainbow turned to start flying to the Library, and found Pinkie Pie almost out of view on the dirt road by that point.
Twilight's Library
A purple unicorn paced across the floor, biting her lip and wondering what was going on. Her brow was furrowed and her thoughts were deep. She was so lost in thought she almost didn't hear the knocking at her door. She rushed to it and opened it. Her 5 best friends were there. She pushed them all in at once, much to their discomfort, and began to tell them why they were here.
"Everypony, listen up. Princess Celestia has asked me to gather you for a special mission, very secretive. Apparently there have been unusual sightings of miniature lightning storms in the Everfree Forest. They happen on a weekly basis, usually twice a day. They have supposedly been getting bigger and louder as time passes. This has been going on for over a year now and she wants us to take the Elements of Harmony and investigate whenever these strange occurrences happen. Furthermo-"
"Oh PLEASE!" Rainbow interrupted. "Are you telling me that the Princess wants us to use the most powerful forces in Equestria to subdue some lightning? Just get a pegasus to go in and break up the cloud!"
"She might just be right, you know." Rarity agreed.
"Now hold on there sugarcube, she may be right, but if that were the case why hasn't the Princess already ordered her guards ta do it?" reasoned Applejack, apparently annoyed at the lack of respect they had for Twilight.her
"In any case, we are going to comply with the Princess' request. I want all of you to be ready to go at- FLUTTERSHY!"
Everyone turned in her direction to see her flying away, towards a window. Dash sped ahead and blocked her.
"And where are YOU going?" Dash asked.
"I'm sorry, I just, I don't know if I can do this. it sounds so scary," Fluttershy said, timidly hiding behind h+er mane.
"I know it sounds scary, but you'll just have to power through it. Besides, just keep happy thoughts and it'll be fine, right, Pinkie!"
"When I was a little filly, and the sun was-" That was as far as she got before Applejack shoved a hoof in Pinkie's mouth, cutting her off.
"Now's not tha time fer that." She said. Pinkie nodded and Applejack removed her hoof.
Spike came rushing down, his mouth puffed out like it was stuffed to the brim with something he wanted to get out. Someone unfamiliar with his abilities would have given him a pail or showed him to the bathroom. He opened his mouth and belched loudly. The spectacular burst of green flames materialized into a piece of parchment. Spike took the parchment and cleared his throat.
"My dearest student, I realize you are trying as hard as you can to get your friends together in a timely manner, but I cannot wait anymore. I will be teleporting everyone in your immediate vicinity to Canterlot when Spike .... finishes..... reading?"
He ended with a confused look, but it didn't take long at all to realize what Celestia meant, as they were all immediately surrounded by soft purple light and in the blink of an eye they were in the presence of Her Majesty herself. They all turned to Celestia and bowed. The princess rose and addressed them.
"Rise, my subjects." They obeyed. "This matter is of great importance. These storms have disturbed me greatly. Our top scientists have been studying these anomalies and observed that it may be a dimensional gate. They have seen what looked like a room with a window, and on the other side of the glass were strange beings unlike anything we've ever seen. They looked like they were studying the gate, like scientists. There were also men in uniforms, which suggests that they were military. If this is a foreign force, I want you to be there as an immediate response team. I want to have Twilight teach Rarity a few spells such as teleportation and shielding, to protect the group while Twilight can perform the spells with the Elements. If there is even a slight chance of military confrontation, I want you there. I will have Royal Guards there for support. Will you all accept this mission?"
"I will," they all answered in unison.
"Good. Then I will see to it that you are taken there immediately. I will have Luna show you all to th-"
"PRINCESS!" a messenger had burst through the door, running at full speed up to the Royal Chair.
"THE LIGHTNING STORM! IT'S OPENED A GATE AND IT'S NOT SHUTTING DOWN!"
"What?!" she gasped. The six girls in the room listened intently.
"Yes! Some creatures came through holding odd sticks. We approached them and talked to them, and they activated their weapons! They look like some kind of metal magic sticks! They started making noise and everyone just fell over dead! The research team, the guards, they are all GONE!" He was on the verge of tears now.
"Oh my, no..."
Twilight spoke up; "Princess, what does this mean?"
"It means that we could be at war."
AUTHORS NOTES
I am going to run with this idea. For those of you who do not know, Die Glocke was an actual machine built by the Germans to be a Wunderwaffe, or super weapon. This is based on actual historical scientific experiments. I hope you will enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy writing it.
A Field, Somewhere in Belgium
"FIIIIIIIRRRRRREEEEEEE!"
The guns belched loudly, slinging their .50 caliber ammo across the field in a matter of milliseconds. The enemy had no idea what hit them. They took the bait, and now they were getting cut to bits by an M2 .50cal. Good old Browning knew what he was doing when he made that puppy. Or perhaps pit bull was a better analogy. Wow. Even in the midst of a war, Army Colonel Noah "Bullseye" McDonough could make time to think about such things.
"YEAH TAKE THAT YA BASTARDS!" This remark came from McDonough's second in command, Major Timothy Fruit. "NOT SO TOUGH NOW, ARE YA?"
"Easy, Tim. Let's not celebrate until we take a body count."
"Yes, sir." He calmed down, though not by his own accord. If he'd had things his way, he'd open a bottle of Scotch and drink to the beat of the machine gun fire while writing the names of his fallen comrades on the bullets he'd use later. He was poetic in that kind of way.
"Still a fine day for a Nazi massacre, though, ain't it, sir?"
"Sure is."
"Do you think that I will be able to find a nice Luger? Or a Mauser? Oh man that would be cool!"
"Oh please. At this rate there won't be enough left to properly identify their remains, let alone their weapons. They'd be lucky to find intact teeth amidst the many gallons of red jelly."
"Sir I thought they were infantrymen?"
"Not anymore they're not."
"Meh, still can't tell the difference, sir."
These two had been working together long enough to play off each others jokes effortlessly. Though they shared a particularly dark sense of humor, it was unmistakable how close the two were. It wasn't so hard when one had a close friend to help one get through it all. They both felt bad that they weren't up there with their men on the front lines, as they were both Rangers with skills exceeding even the combat skills of the Marines.
The machine guns fell quiet. There was a lot of debris and dust in the air around the field where so many had been laid to bullet-ridden rest. The dust had settled, and the men looked upon their masterpiece, their enemy's blood painted over the canvas that was the ground of Belgium. But there was a problem.
"How many men were we supposed to kill?" asked the Colonel, brow furrowed.
"About 250. Why?" Tim looked over to Noah, and saw his face. He looked over to the field, and got the same look on his face. He stood up and grabbed his binoculars. There couldn't have been more than 70 or 80 bodies.
"Where the hell are the rest?"
He and Noah looked at each other, sudden, horrible realization dawning upon them. They turned and ran. Tim immediately set up shop on his radio, while Noah sprinted to the bunker to bark orders.
"GET TO YOUR GUNS! GO GO GO GO GO! GET THE AA GUNS UP, NOW! I WANT SNIPERS LOCKED AND LOADED COVERING EVERY INCH OF THIS FIELD!"
This was scary. Over 170 unaccounted for German soldiers meant that those horrible fiends sent out over 1/3 of their men to be slaughtered so they'd know the American position. What was wrong was that their men didn't even have a chance of any kind. And that they knew the Americans would be waiting for them. This did not bode well at all.
"SIR! We have enemy fighters inbound!"
"Are the AA guns up and ru-" he stopped himself to listen. It was a buzzing sound. But not of propellers. "Do we have any artillery units offshore?"
"No, sir," responded the Corporal.
"TIM! Did you call for air support?"
"No, sir."
Noah's face fell, just before Hell itself did the same to his bunker.
German Research Facility Der Riese
"Sir, we have successfully opened and maintained a portal. We believe that the enemy has left their mounts in the area we have arrived in. We can hear voices coming through, as well. They have armored mounts so there is a high probability that they are low tech, and will be no match for our weapons," said the scientist.
"Good, good. Send a squad in to investigate and establish a rapport."
"Yes, sir."
This was good. Technologically inferior, somewhere in Africa, presumably, perhaps even South America if they could be so lucky. Hans turned to the window, and watched his men step into the threshold. His radio crackled to life.
"Sir, we are on the other side of the portal. The initial reports were correct. Armored steeds, they are multicolored, and there are no humans around. Some of them appear to be wearing..." he stopped speaking for a moment.
"Wearing.. what?" asked Hans, suddenly apprehensive.
"Well, labcoats! I have no idea what FICK SCHEIßE!"
There was gunfire. At first only a burst but then there were multiple distinct weapons firing. After a few moments it was over.
"WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED?!" shouted Hans. He was angry. What could have possibly provoked the greatest military in the world to such a childish action?
"Sir, one them, they frikken SPOKE to me! To us! And they spoke ENGLISH!" the Squad leader said, practically incomprehensible.
"What?" Hans could not believe what he was hearing. "I am coming through that portal, and if I don't hear a talking horse I will execute you myself, do you understand?" He didn't plan on giving the man a chance. By his calculation, the squad leader just wasted one and a half billion franks on a joke on his superior. This was unforgivable. He loaded his own Luger P08 and cocked the finger slide back, and put it in the holster.
"Sir, one of them was glanced, and not killed. He, I mean, she, can talk to you."
This had to be a joke, and he would not give heed to it a moment longer. He put on his lead suit and proceeded through the portal. It was uncomfortable to say the least, but it was like walking through a door into a new room, no difference. He took off his bulky suit, and began to draw his pistol. He would walk up to the man, put the gun to his head, and pull the trigger. No one wastes his time and gets away with it. He was just about to flip the safety when he heard something that intrigued him. Crying. By a woman. He thought hard. No, there were no women in their squad, and why would there be anyway? Women don't fight on the front line, they are too valuable. So then what could possibly be-
"Oh my Lord." There it, she, was, just sitting there with bullet wounds in two of her legs, crying in a human like voice. He turned to address his squad. "Do any of you speak English?" The grenadier raised his hand.
"I do sir!"
"Good. Ask it some questions. Ask it where we are."
The grenadier turned to the animal, and talked to it. The English tongue felt so alien to Hans, since he was at war with all those who spoke it, and more. It was somewhat ironic that his own men knowing the language was vital to success.
"Sir! She says that we are in the Everfree Forest, in the land of Equestria. She says there's a town about 1 mile away."
"Is that all?"
"No, she wanted to know if I am going to kill her."
"You can tell her 'no."
The man turned to her, looked her in the eyes and said 'no'. The Hans drew his pistol and shot the mare in the head.
"Because that's my job."
"Sir?" the machine gunner said.
"Yes?"
"Well, I have never heard of... 'Equestria'. Have you?"
"No. What is your point?"
"Well, then we don't know where in the world we are, or if we're even on Earth. I mean, no one has ever seen any talking horses before!"
The man made an excellent point, and now Hans realized that seeing and serving so much with the SS and Nazis in general had started to turn him into one. Before he never would have simply executed s prisoner of war for no reason, but now it came so effortlessly. That probably meant he is in fact a full Nazi, in mind and spirit, not just uniform. This was troubling, but it was a concern for later.
"True. But we can't have anyone telling what happened here." One of the men fidgeted and looked down. "Is there something you want to tell me?"
"Well sir, there were two that got away."
This was bad. They lost any element of surprise. Surely if they spoke English they'd get into contact with the US or the British and then they would be intercepted or bombed before they could set up acceptable defenses.
"Back into the base. We'll come back later, after we get a new plan."
A Field, Somewhere in Belgium
It truly was a sight to behold. He had seen many engagements, but something was different about this one. Probably because he was deaf, the world was spinning, and half his camp was now gone. The artillery was still raining down on them. The fighters were now in sight, which means that the artillery would soon stop. Not that it mattered. Slowly, his hearing came back, and he got up and looked around to take in the damage and develop a counterattack strategy. His AA guns were untouched, remarkably. There were bodies strewn about the rocky debris. Tim was lying across the room, bleeding. He didn't know whether he was dead or not, but he didn't have time to find out. He looked over at his men, taking other men to safety. He knew what he was about to ask them would kill them inside.
"LEAVE THEM! GET ON THE GUNS!" he shouted, knowing exactly what they would do.
"SIR! WE CAN'T LEAVE THEM HERE!" one of them responded.
"GET THEM INTO COVER, AND GET! ON! THOSE! GUNS!" He shouted back.
"SIR, THE INFIRMARY IS RIGHT TH-"
"THAT'S AN ORDER, SOLDIER!"
That did it. The men stopped arguing, pulled their wounded buddies into cover, and manned the guns. The introduction of flak kept the planes at a distance. While the guns themselves were untouched, the ammo reservoir was hit. They only had what was loaded in the guns, and after that they were all out. Noah rushed to make sure Tim was ok. He was just knocked out, though his head wound suggested possible concussion, and was bleeding badly. Noah grabbed the mike from the comm unit, and began to call for backup and air support.
"Sierra Foxtrot to base, we are under attack, I repeat, WE ARE UNDER ATTACK! I need immediate air support, my men are wounded and we are almost out of flak! Over."
"Sierra Foxtrot, this is base, we copy. Sending P-51's your way, and medical transport is en route. Copy, over."
"I copy, what is the ETA on those birds? Over."
"3 Minutes, over."
"Copy that, base. Sierra Foxtrot OUT!"
With that said and done, Noah made his way to a machine gun nest. There was no crew there, presumably taken out in the attack. He picked up the .30 caliber 1919, mounted it on the sandbags, and took aim at the overhanging enemy planes. If he could lighten the load for the AA then he could make their flak last long enough for the fighters to get there. It was a long shot, but it could be done.
Authors Note
Ok, I realize that there is not a lot of pony so far, but that is because I need to make this a legitimate story, and I want it to be in-depth. There will be plenty of pony, I just need some time to get to that point. This is my first fic, so please be nice :)
