Equestria - 1940 (sneak peek) · 6:09pm Apr 24th, 2017
You know how it is that you write on something for a few months but have promised not to start publishing until it's done, but you start to worry and fret... Well, I'm up to the fourth chapter of Equestria - 1940, a story that will probably hit a dozen chapters plus by the time it's done. Here, Equestria is an island nation south of Greenland longitude and around the New York latitude line, much like the Azores on the other side of the mid-Atlantic trench. It has remained neutral in all world conflicts up to this point, but as the thousandth year since the banishment of Nightmare Moon approaches, Princess Celestia brings a human being to her country in order to teach her student about friendship... Anyway, I've got a sample chunk out of the most recent chapter after the break, if you're interested.
Equestria : 1940
13 June - Equestria
“Out of his mouth go burning torches; Sparks of fire leap forth. Out of his nostrils smoke goes forth As from a boiling pot and burning rushes. His breath kindles coals, And a flame goes forth from his mouth.…”
— Job 41:19
Being on a dark train headed into the mountains of northern Equestria was far from what Jon Walthers had expected when arriving in Manehattan. A lazy evening in a hotel, perhaps with a long, hot bath to relax and a full night’s sleep would have been nice. Then again, having a human courier deliver that packet to him two days ago pretty much put an end to normality in his life. Since then he had almost been blown up, drowned, shot, and that was just on the airplane flight. Actually meeting Princess Celestia had only topped the experience, then finding out she had a sister, and said sister had been corrupted by darkness and was to return shortly…
If he got out of this alive and didn’t have his mind wiped by some unknown Equestrian spell, he was going to write a book. Maybe two.
Even better, or perhaps worse, his trip into the interior of Equestria put him in a very small group of famous people and lucky idiots. No humans were permitted inland further than a few coastal cities, and even Richard Burton had not gotten more than a glimpse of the rural interior before being politely escorted back to England by a pair of stern pegasi, quite unlike his successful attempt at sneaking into Mecca. Then again, it was rather difficult for a human being to disguise themselves for the journey, even though Charlie Chaplin had done little more than put on his mustache in order to spend several weeks taking a leisurely and quite unofficial tour of Equestrian towns.
Mr. Chaplin’s escort back to a departing steamship was conducted much more courteously, and with more than a few autographs granted to the escorting guards.
It was quite a contrast with the way Wrong Way Corrigan had made a prime example out of how not to meet Princess Celestia when he crashed his aircraft into a tower, a particular tower in Canterlot.
His escort included a six-place pegasus air carriage which had taken the resulting wreckage with a complaining pilot inside it all the way to Ireland to be dumped onto the first aerodrome runway they could reach. There were no autograph requests.
Jon Walthers was having a unique experience in the opulent railroad carriage, because he was fairly certain none of the other human visitors to Equestria’s interior received the experience of riding in a train car with the Goddess-Empress of All Ponies to his side, chatting amiably over a cup of tea. The topic of sisters or Nightmare Moons was most certainly not on the conversational agenda, which was understandable. Celestia had been keeping this information close to the vest since roughly the rise of the Holy Roman Empire, and the presence of two golden-armored pegasi by the door to their train carriage were certainly not on the list of only four living creatures who knew about her sibling, Princess Luna, and the path to goddess-level insanity she had trod nearly a thousand years ago.
The word for this evening seemed to be ‘surreal.’
But here was Jon, and there was Celestia, and the tea was most unmistakably an Equestrian blend. Several of his human counterparts would have been willing to break both of their arms and a few legs to be in the velvet-covered seat he was sitting in, just to validate some theories or stories that had been repeated about Princess Celestia and her history on the planet. Jon found himself more occupied with current topics in order not to think about his strange upcoming task of bringing friendship to the friendless.
“So, Your Highness. What was in the box you gave Colonel Bradley?" Jon took a sip out of his fresh cup of tea and added a cube of native beet sugar while waiting for the answer, which he suspected would be very ‘Celestia’ in its nature.
“A German Kriegsmarine encryption machine with manual and notes, copied from the machine on board the U-49 out in the Manehattan harbor,” said Celestia just as calmly as always.
Very glad that he had been stirring instead of drinking at the moment, Jon asked, “Won’t they… miss it?”
Celestia smiled and took another sip of tea. “A copy, quite literally. I am constantly amazed at the ingenuity of my little ponies. I was talking to one of my nobles, the father of my student as it turns out, and happened to mention the difficulties we were having decrypting the communications Captan Goßler was exchanging with his superiors. A week later, it just ‘turned up’ in his office. Quite miraculous, and no violation of our neutrality. Since then, we’ve made several duplicates, so my busy little ponies have quite enough to do without this spare.”
Jon nodded, imagining the mountain top of Canterlot and the tall radio aerials that would be stretching out their electric ‘ears’ to hear the whispers of warships and their ilk. No doubt, Germany would not be the only country with their messages decoded and stacked on sheets of paper for diligent ponies, freshly returned from Europe and the US, to pour over their contents. The Walthers family had not been overly fond of the game of chess, but Jon knew the game and how to play it, and in particular, how to look several steps ahead. He got the distinct feeling that setting up a chess game between himself and Princess Celestia would result in a forgone conclusion, and he similarly dismissed whist and most other card games, particularly poker in order to pass the time, even if the two stoic pegasus guards in the car could be enticed into the game.
Their golden armor and identical visages were something Jon was not familiar with other than a few photographs, so it was only natural for him to cast the occasional glance at them during the quiet conversation with Princess Celestia. The guards were fine figures of Equestrian pegasi, strong and muscular with square jaws and thick legs. In close combat against a human they would be nearly impossible to defeat, much the same as a flying, four-armed weightlifter carrying four sledgehammers could go through soldiers like a threshing machine. At a distance, however, the light armor they were able to carry aloft would be easily penetrated by rifle fire, even with the rumored enchantments they were supposed to carry.
He thought he was being discreet about his sideways glances until one of the two guards caught him looking and shifted slightly in order to look directly back at him with a wink and a quick sensual lick of his lips. It almost made Jon bobble his teacup onto the floor if not for the quick reactions of Princess Celestia, who even managed to catch the tea before it was wasted.
“Oh, my,” she said with a low chuckle. “I didn’t know you were that kind of a stallion, Mister Walthers.”
Squelching his first instinct of putting forth a protest which would most probably only dig his embarrassing hole deeper, Jon coughed into one fist and took another look at the pair of guards, one of whom was now chuckling into a hoof even more than the Solar Princess he was guarding. Little bits of information just seemed wrong somehow, but nothing connected, even when Princess Celestia placed both teacups down on the table and cleared her throat.
“I believe we are near enough to our destination. Mister Walthers, you will want to bring a coat. And…” Celestia’s golden magic brushed across the front of his casual tweed jacket and brought the .38 revolver out for inspection. She spun the cylinder much as a cowboy would, then slipped it back into his shoulder holster with a positive nod. “I sincerely hope there will not be a need, but if there is, I will most certainly tell you, and I would appreciate it if you were not to resort to violence prematurely. This way please, Mister Walthers.”
With that cryptic question hanging over Jon’s head, Celestia rose off her cushion with all the grace of a ballet dancer and turned for the door to the compartment. After hanging up his tweed jacket and grabbing a warmer coat out of his luggage, he followed, of course, down the empty hallway and across the accordion-fold joint between cars while the train continued clattering along into the night. Their destination turned out to be the last car on the train, which was almost empty except for a small wagon about pony sized.
It really did not look to be a safe form of transportation, with thin steel tubing smaller than a bicycle frame and two tiny wheels, and quite unlike a bicycle, would require the passenger to lie down on his chest with arms tucked forward and legs trailing out the back. There was a tiny plexiglass face shield, and the chest rest was padded at least, with rings to put the appropriate limb through for both arm and leg rests, so it seemed stable, at least. In fact, there was lot of ‘least’ in the vehicle, to the point where he really expected to see some tissue paper or perhaps string involved in the construction. It was also small and certainly not designed for the much larger Celestia to pull. Jon could not resist lifting it up with one hand and hefting it slightly before setting it back down on the wooden floor of the train car and turning to Princess Celestia with an unspoken question.
“It’s called a cob, Mister Walthers.” The tall monarch moved to one side in order to allow one of her pegasus guards to stroll into the train car. Then the door closed with a glitter of Celestia’s golden magic remaining afterward, leaving Jon only one way out, through the closed door at the rear of the car.
“I really don’t like to fly,” he said, trying not to be self-conscious about being the only creature without wings in the car.
“It is not very far,” countered Celestia. “The train does not go where we need to be tonight, for very good reason. I shall need you both at my side this evening.”
“Both?” Jon looked back at the guard, who licked his lips and smiled a very satisfied smile. There was still something wrong about the hefty golden-armored pegasus, but Jon tried to put it behind him… Ok, that was a bad choice of words. He tried to overlook the subtle wrongness and concentrate on the more royal of his problems. “Princess Celestia, could you please tell me—”
“Nightshade will be your protection for this evening,” said Celestia, cutting through his objections like a razor. She turned away, and the door at the back of the train car opened, revealing a rushing darkness in which the vanishing rails of their passage could be seen glimmering in the moonlight. “Guard him well, and tell him what we discussed. I will go ensure your safe arrival. Oh, and change please. Mister Walthers is already quite uncomfortable.”
It was quite impossible for a winged mare of Celestia’s size to vanish out the back door of the train car with such speed, but one moment she was there, and the next a vanishing glimmer of light in the darkness.
In the resulting relative quiet of the clatter of train wheels and whistling wind through the open door, Jon was really beginning to regret his previous volunteering to help, even with the stakes being so high. It still seemed unreal to him, with Nightmare Moon actually being the sister of Princess Celestia, and strange meetings in the darkness of night, but the quiet cough from the attending guard behind him was most certainly real.
Jon turned around and regarded the smirking guard, who seemed to be having quite a bit of humor at his expense. He opened his mouth to speak, but the guard held up one gold-armored hoof and spoke first in a very feminine contrello.
“Sorry, sir. Princess’ orders. Let me get changed and we can introduce ourselves.”
It seemed an odd thing to say, but even odder when the pegasus guard put a hoof up against the golden sun symbol on his chest and twisted. The golden armor shifted in hue to a dark blue shade, almost purple in the dim lights of the train car, while the sun symbol on his chest turned into a crescent moon, although the armor was not the only thing to change.
The white coat of the pegasus also underwent a similar change to a dull grey, while his mane and tail turned deep violet. What was worse, the feathered wings of the pegasus shimmered and turned into thick membranous limbs more like a bat or a dragon while his eyes turned from blue to bright yellowish-gold with dark slit pupils like a cat or snake. Jon watched the transformation with more than a little shock, but managed to avoid saying anything until after the fuzzy ears and sharp teeth appeared.
“You’re a girl!” he yelped, taking a step backwards and seriously considering the open door at the rear of the train.
The female bat-pony creature regarded Jon with a quizzical expression and burst into laughter. “Oh, my stars. The first thing you notice about me is that I have tits?” Jon had to look, and when his eyes flickered back to look at the giggling pony’s face, it only made her laugh harder.
“I can’t tell you have tits… I mean teats in that armor,” he protested weakly.
After wiping her streaming eyes with the back of one hoof, the dark bat-winged pony managed to calm herself down enough to stick out the same damp hoof to shake. “Specialist Nightshade of the Canterlot Home Guard, recently on loan to British SIS.” The dark mare winked one golden slit-pupil eye at Jon and smirked. “I was hoping to be paired up with another Brit, because of the way they speak the language. They’re quite cunning linguists.”
“Jon Walthers of the US State Department, Translator and Cultural Attache,” he responded while shaking the outstretched hoof. “That’s really an amazing illusion. You look just like a bat… Well, except the wings aren’t structured in a bat-like shape. Do you mind if I…” He trailed off with one hand outstretched while looking at her sharp fang-like teeth.
“Sure, honey. Help me get strapped in and you can look then. Who knows.” Nightshade waggled one fuzzy eyebrow. “You might want to try out the rest of me when I’m off work. Maybe play with some other parts.”
What he meant to say in response was on the order of “I’m sorry, but I’m not attracted to Equestrians in that fashion” but what came out instead was a little garbled. Still, he helped get her simple over-the-shoulder harness in place with the quick-release clamps that the Equestrians favored. Once Nightshade was situated, she extended one dark wing for his examination and made embarrassing little noises while he gently ran his fingers along the warm membranes.
“Oh, you beast,” she breathed. “Keep doing that and we won’t get to our appointment tonight.”
Jon stopped. “These wings aren’t an illusion. They’re real.”
“That’s not the only thing.” Nightshade looked back over her shoulder and licked her lips even while Jon could feel an inquisitive tail begin to work its way up his inner thigh. Then she took a long, shuddering breath and the unwelcome tail touching stopped. “Get into the cob’s saddle so we can make it to the rendezvous, Mister Walthers. Business before pleasure.”
- - ☾ - -
Oh, this one's going to be fun.
Eagerly looking forward to it.
What does the "1940" part in the title have to do with the story?
...
...
Is it set during WW2?
worldwarphotos.info/wp-content/gallery/usa/aircrafts/b-29/Flames_trail_engine_of_B-29_over_Kobe_July_1945.jpg
4508390 I've always believed that Celestia has a certain flair to her dealings with others. This shows up in an earlier chapter:
Celestia shook her head slowly. “Sometimes, we have nothing but bad choices in life. Just one fair warning.” The six glittering .38 shells slipped into the revolver cylinder, she snapped the action closed, then slipped it back into his shoulder holster on the wall. “If you should ever find yourself in a situation where you must shoot me, and I ever find out about it, I will be most displeased.”
Ooooooooooooooooo.
Wait, do humans have more than two legs in this universe? Are they actually centaurs?
The quotation marks are never actually closed in this paragraph.
I like this very very much. Perhaps the only thing I could be more psyched for would be the same universe, but Roman times. I can't begin to imagine what that failed attempt at world conquest looked like.
And yes, I know the Romans didn't do anything as crazy as cross the Atlantic. Let me dream.
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE HURRY I LOVE BATPONIES PLEASE MOREMOREMOREMOREMOREMOREMOREMOREMOREMORE
I don't care much for Human+Equestrian-type stories, but this one looks like it is going to be worth reading.
So Equestria here is a mini continent on our Earth? No conflict doesn't mean no trade though so I'm guessing partial interaction for mutual gains/trade/knowledge. A little confused on his recognition of guards gender appearance from male to female without spotting 'the goods' so to speak other than voice but what suggested a male in the first place?
So far I'm interested.
So what kind of train was he on? Because from where I'm sitting it looks like a hype train.
Yay! A human in Equestria story from Georg! While not the bumbling sorcerer student turned unicorn, this WWII era tale looks to be fun.
4508401 um....will there be potential romance between bat pone and .....walters was it? cause im all for it
Careful there Nightshade. If Shining Armour catches wind of this, you will get assigned 1 week's guard duty in the Canterlot Pungeons as punishment detail.
Very interesting. Love me some Historical Fiction.
One thing, regarding the location: How big are we talking? I live in Iceland, and you've potentially rerouted the gulf stream and frozen me to death.
Do we still have Sun moving Celestia?
4508399 Because it's set in 1940, a particularly fun time in American history where war was raging in China and Europe, but the Yanks were staying mostly out of it. In fact, Dunkirk would have happened just a few days before the date of this chapter. (Most US history tends to blur the lines and dates to imply that we declared war *before* major European battles, when in actuality, there was a very large section of the US who did not want dragged back into the 'First War' again.)
4508411 Well, it's not their own legs they'd be breaking. That's what graduate students are for. And Fixed. And I didn't do the Romans/Ponies, but I did rather brutally treat the Greek gods to a set of ponies.
4508439 That's my goal. I've got a long line of "I normally don't like X but I like this one" comments in my stories that I'm quite proud of.
4508441 Female MLP ponies have rounder noses, and males more squareish ones. Also females have actual eyelashes.
4508451 More like the crazy train, from his POV.
4508456 With just as many explosions.
4508500 Maybeeeee.....
4508515 Shining Armor will be quite busy during this time frame.
4508563 It's just Iceland. No great loss. (Just kidding) Naa, you're good. Most of the ecological disaster happened when the Crystal Empire in Greenland was overrun by the Windigo. Now, there are entire towns a mile or two beneath the ice.
4508600 I remember that Greek gods one! Utterly hilarious from start to finish.
4508600
As long as it isn't Michael Bay levels of explosions, then I am good to go!
4508600 Oh, trust me, I know quite a lot about the second World War. Enough to be writing an entire series based on a war using WW2 equipment and such.
I'm a WW2 history buff.
I absolutely adore this idea! I'm a sucker for Ponies/Equestria on Earth; "Son of the Emperor" is my favorite (dead)fic on the entire site! It sounds like you're doing something similar, only you actually intend to finish it.
Best of luck, and I can't wait!
I confess I wasn't sure about this until the guard started getting fresh.
I... don't usually go for that sort of thing. HiE isn't really my bag.
...but you write it so well...
Equestria 1940, huh? Are we talkin' this?
Minus two that is. Just the British holding out, right now.