Chapter 25: Hearts of Irion
Opening their eyes, Fletcher, Dinky, Katja and Blau found themselves in pure darkness but saw a light in the distance.
Walking closer, they saw it belonged to a mare with glowing eyes and the siblings blinked in confusion. “Mama?” The colt asked.
Getting closer, they all saw it was Ruby indeed, running away from something.
“I am not that kind of ghost!” She yelled and they saw her getting chased by a car that looked like an Ambulance, it’s siren was high-pitched, a crossed out ghost painted on the doors.
“Uhh…what’s going on?” Katja stared in confusion.
“I have no idea…” Dinky replied.
“I have seen any, but that is ridiculous,” Fray commented.
Then everything went slowly white.
Struggling to open their eyes, they woke up in a hospital room. Everything ached, and their vision was slightly blurry.
“Ah, you’re awake.” A faint voice said and they saw Erik walking in, followed by Blazkowicz and Konrad’s squad. “You’re in the hospital of Isenstadt, as the after effects of the Black Sun took quite its toll on you.”
They barely hear it, it was very quiet, as if they were underwater. “O-okay…” Fletcher managed to say weakly.
“I am happy to see you are all alright. The portal is destroyed and all access to the Black Sun is permanently cut off. Unfortunately, our Medallions are now a burnt hunk of metal and glass, ruined when the portal was shattered.”
“Ah, a pity, but I keep mine, I am sure Luna can still study it. But about the Golden Dawn?” Fray asked with guilt, knowing he had killed their leader, although he was the informant.
Blazkowicz sighed. “Shortly after the Zeppelin crashed, the Golden Dawn vanished. They would have made good allies. Also, there was a second informant.”
“Second informant?” Fray asked puzzled.
“Yes. Anton, the younger brother of the two Black Market dealers. Stefan told me when he left the Black Market, his brother told him he was setting up Caroline and told them about us being at the train station, possibly working together with Dr. Alexandrov.”
“Okay. What about Isenstadt?”
“The Nazis have withdrawn and we have control again.” Erik replied.
“B-but…how can you still be here?” Dinky asked Konrad.
“Well, remember that codebook you’re recovered? The Kreisau Circle used it to send a false request for a rearguard, in that cause us. Plus, we had always shown a good will and treated the locals with respect, which they appreciated. That was also the reason the bartender put your orders on the house.”
“That was very nice. I wish Caroline was still alive to see her home being freed.” Blau said with pity, his head lowered.
“Did somebody say my name?” A female voice asked and to their surprise they all saw Caroline moving into the room, sitting in a wheelchair.
“Caroline, you’re alive.” Fray couldn’t trust his eyes.
“Yes, I got shot through the spine, paralyzed from the waist down but otherwise fine. You all did great work in freeing Isenstadt.” She praised with a smile.
“T-thanks…” Dinky managed to smile. “But…what if they come back?”
“They won’t, Dinky. As Hitler came to power, apart from the propaganda and allies bombings, you barely noticed anything from the Nazis. When General Viktor Zetta came to Isenstadt to mine Nachtsonne crystals and investigate the possible applications of the Veil, he hanged the mayor and town council, and declared martial law. A massive German garrison was established, with many sites in town turned into research facilities or military strongholds. Also, the Nazis did a series of brutal crackdowns on any actual or perceived sympathizers, terrifying the locals.”
“I see. Reminds me, what actually made you discover that Medallion, William?” Fray asked the OSA agent.
“On the night before you were called to this mission, our radar discovered a German Battleship five miles off of the English coast. As there was no time to dispatch fighters in time, I got dispatched to infiltrate and destroy it, as it was about to launch experimental missiles on London. As I took out the commander of the ship, I discovered the Medallion in his uniform. At first, we thought it was the Tirpitz, as it was a ship of the Bismarck class but investigating the wreck, we discovered it was a special modified Bismarck class battleship, called the Caprivi, having used Veil energy to get close without being detected.”
“Uh-huh.” Fray nodded as Katja suddenly held her ears with a hiss.
“Argh! My ears are ringing!”
“A side-effect of what Deathshead did to you but it should wear off soon,” Konrad explained before Blau had to hic, a small flame came out of his mouth.
“Ugh...” the colt groaned, feeling not well.
Dinky attempted to pick up a glass of water on the nightstand but her horn sparkled, meaning she was unable to use magic. He stretched her hoof out to grab out, missing it a few times as her vision was blurry, with her movement looking blurry as well, like a ghost, before she got it, her hoof slightly shaking.
“Anyway, you should focus on recovering,” Escher said as a nurse brought them dinner.
“I don’t feel hungry…” Katja commented at the sight. Blau tried to took a bite of his meal but had to hic again, almost burning the food.
“That’s so annoying!”
“I could eat a Bratwurst or a Schnitzel, even a Weißwurst right now...” Fletcher mumbled contemplatively at his meal, earning confused looks by all Germans. “Uh...I mean it's vegetarian Farman counterparts of course.”
“Right… Anyway, get well soon.” Dennis said before he walked out with the others.
The food had almost no taste, as their tongues felt numb.
In the next days, they felt very tired, often sweating when they tried to sleep at night, yet it became less and less as the day passed, together with the other side effects.
But after a week or two, they were released from the hospital. “Have a good journey home, my friends,” Konrad said goodbye, saluting Fletcher, his squad mates did too.
“Farewell and thank you once again for all your help,” Fletcher replied and the children hugged the soldiers before gathering around Fletcher as he cast the spell, causing the humans to cover their eyes as it grew brighter, until it faded, the Eternal Knight was gone with the kids again.
“So…what do we now, sir?” Tim as asked his NCO.
“What we did before. Do our best to survive this war.” Konrad replied.
Fletcher had teleported himself at the children back to London to say goodbye of William and collect the Christmas presents, knocking at the door and Clifford opened.
“Welcome back!” He said with a smile and led them in.
“It’s nice to be back, but it’s time for us to go home,” Fletcher told William and he nodded with a slightly sad expression.
“I know. But before you go, let me show you something.” William said to them and showed them a badge, it showed a unicorn carrying a bow, behind him a unicorn filly, an earth pony colt and a girl, carrying quivers. “Me, Duffy and Christopher thought of it as a way to remember and tribute you.
“Looks very nice,” Fletcher commented, the kids nodded with smiles.
The captain then arranged for Christopher, Duffy and Jackson to be here for the final goodbye as Fletcher collected the Christmas presents, also writing a final letter to Matteo. “It was an honor to fight by your side.” The Radioman saluted with the other soldiers, Fletcher returned it while the children gave hugs.
“It was nice to know you,” Clifford said with tears in his eyes.
“Meow!” Emmeline ran in, saying also goodbye by cuddling them, they all petted her in return.
“Farewell. Live long, and prosper.” Fletcher said before casting the spell and vanished with the children.
Clifford sniffed. “It’s sad they that they are gone now.”
His mother hugged him. “It’s sad indeed, but they’re finally back home, where they belong." She turned to the husband and his three friends. “And you can be proud of yourselves, they had never made it without you.”
They all nodded with proud smiles, happy that Fletcher and the children were finally home. And they would never forget them.
With a groan, Fletcher woke up with Dinky, Katja and Blau in the Ponyville hospital, surrounded by their families and friends.
“Dinky…” Her father cried tears of joy as he hugged her.
“Katja, Blau Streifen…I was so worried…” Ruby hugged her children too.
“Fletcher, we were so worried, what took you so long? It’s been a month.” Midnight asked him with a weak smile.
“It’s…complicated but it was like through Tartarus and back multiple times, nothing compared to Africa.” He told, slightly shaking and Luna stepped forward.
“Allow me.” She touched his forehead with her horn, and once again, everyone was transparent seeing the cave the children had found themselves, looking confused at the ghost guard.
“Who is that?” Wagensroll asked.
“I could swear it’s familiar but I can’t put my hoof on it.” Midnight replied and they all smiled when they saw Konrad again.
“I think he really earned his promotion.” Patch commented and everyone nodded, with Ford grinning at his son enjoying the pasta of Matteo’s wife.
“I told you pasta isn’t bad.” Blau in return looked down embarrassed.
Mitta slightly gasped when the Blackshirts came but smiled in relief as she saw how Konrad and his comrades protected them.
Pip looked away with an expression of sympathy as the tree fell on Fletcher. “That must have hurt.”
“It did, but I survived worse,” Fray replied with a weak smile.
As the memory of the plane getting torn apart got shown, Tootsie gasped. “That was very close.”
“Yes, it was and it wasn’t over,” Fletcher said as William and Christopher got shown, with the father of the siblings blinking.
“That’s…my grandfather!” He exclaimed in shock.
“The apple does not fall far from the three, doesn’t’ it? Fletcher commented.
“Yeah…he survived the war and married a German woman as part of the occupation force, but sadly died shortly after my birth. I only saw a picture of him holding me as baby. And I was told the battle of Elio-Gabalo was one of the bloodiest, next to Monte Cassino.”
“Yes, we experienced that.” Katja trembled slightly as al the battles were shown, with Luna and Celestia using their wings to shield the other foals, the adults looked in shock at everything.
“Oh dear…” Wagensroll mumbled. “But I’m proud you got over your fear, Fletcher.” He then smiled.
“Yeah, I guess that’s one positive thing of that.”
Derpy and Ruby hugged their children tightly as they saw the x-labs and the aftermath. “My poor baby!” Derpy exclaimed, getting reminded when Dinky got terribly ill.
“It hurt so much, but…Uncle Fletch saved us all…” Dinky replied shivering and the nightmare was shown.
“Oh my…It's rare for me to see such an intensive nightmare. The shock and distress must have been created it.” Luna suspected.
“I thought so too but…I can’t explain the reason that caused me to wake up.” Fletcher also shivered.
“What do you mean?” Wolf asked before seeing him walking into Celestia’s chamber and could only stare.
“I…I never saw anything like that…” The white Alicorn mumbled confused, not able to get with an answer for this, even when seeing the ghost of Quince.
“Strange, I know that voices, but I can’t remember from where.” Fletcher tipped his forehead upon seeing the green entities, but couldn’t get up with an answer before the next memory was shown.
“Ahh, that’s so nice.” Mitta smiled warmly at the Christmas scene.
“Yes, it was quite nice.” Blau Streifen said before Isenstadt was shown.
“...Interesting...Certainly not of this world.” Dawnwind looked in awe at the Thule ruins and the Veil.
“But also destructive,” Fray warned as the rest got shown with the Altered and Despoiled, causing anyone to gasp slightly in shock.
But it was a much bigger shock to see the three friends themselves as Despoiled, as the memory showed how this happened to the siblings.
They both were held at gunpoint, being brought to a portal that was turned on, with a SS officer turning to a scientist. “Are you sure you had success in tuning the harmonic frequencies?”
“I believe so but we hadn't time to test it yet.”
The officer then looked at Katja with an evil grin, she looked at him with fear. “I think we just found our test subject. Throw her in!”
“No! Please don't!” She yelled terrified as she struggled against it, with her brother managing to break free, his expression was one of anger.
“Leave my sister alone!” He yelled and bite the officer in the arm he cried in pain and tried to get him off, punching him into the face.
The boy had no time to react as he got thrown into the portal by the force the officer had used.
“Brother!” Katja exclaimed in shock.
“Why don't you join him?” The officer asked sadistically and grabbed her, she struggled before getting shoved into the portal.
“How did you survive this?” Tootsie couldn’t believe her eyes.
Her cousin thought for a moment. It was hard to explain, she could only remember how she touched the portal and then…blackness. How she survived that with her friends was a mystery.
She started to shake slightly.
“I-I don’t know…” Dinky stuttered.
“What did they do to you?” Pip starred at the next memory, seeing his friends in tanks with a brown liquid and got his answer as the fight in the Black Sun Dimension got shown.
“Fletch…you were very lucky to survive this at all.” Midnight said as he saw his friend electrocuted three times.
“Yeah, Deathshead wasn’t so lucky…” Fray said with hate as it got shown through his eyes
Everything ached and he saw that the Zeppelin was burning, going down. But that didn’t stop him, running after Deathshead as he saw him in the corridor.
Upon reaching it, his head started to ache and he held it in pain, seeing Solomon in front of him.
“Get up! Get up, you useless creature! Do as I command! This is your purpose! Your function! Obey!” His enemy yelled at him.
Fletcher slowly rose to his hooves and titled his head up to look at Deathshead with his own eyes once again, saying one word, quietly and darkly.
“...No.”
Strasse took a step back in shock before being grabbed by Fray.
“I've been used as a weapon before, you smug pile of curd...Never again. Once I start on something, I always finish it. I've started on bringing you down and ending your life...I suppose you know where this leads. You're done, old man. Whether with the Resistance, the Allies or me, this was a war you could never hope to win!”
With that, he stabbed the man into the heart with his spear. Blood splattered and Strasse withered in pain, grabbing the spear in shock before becoming limp.
Pulling it out, he saw he was next to a storage room with parachutes, and to his luck, his armor and saddlebags.
Grabbing both, he jumped over the reeling and equipped his mechanical wings in free fall, activated them and flew towards his friends.
As everything was over, Fletcher said, “It was a hard and long journey, but it’s finally-
“Fletch!” Midnight, Wolf and Wagensroll exclaimed, pulling him into a group hug.
“Guys…Can’t breathe…” Fletcher managed to say and gasped for air as they let go of him.
“Sorry, we are just happy you’re back in one piece after this. You stay have that Medallion?” The bat pony asked and his fellow Knight nodded, pulling it out of his saddlebag and Luna took a look with a scanning spell.
“It’s the same magic signature I detected on that Nachtsonne crystal. Wait….” He eyes went small in shock. “That is Alicorn magic…my own magic when I was Nightmare Moon…” She lowered her heard with a guilty expression. “Fletcher, children, I am so terribly sorry.”
“Your Highness, you aren’t to blame, nopony could know that,” Dinky spoke up and Luna smiled weakly.
“She’s right.” Dinky’s father added. “But I wonder, how is this even possible and why hasn’t blocked the teleport spell when you were in Africa?”
“I can only imagine that the discovery by the Nazis or your contact with the crystal caused it.” Luna suspected, “As for how this got created, my magic must have been scattered as I got banned or defeated with the Elements of Harmony.”
“Very likely. Still, there is one thing that doesn’t add up.” Midnight mumbled.
“And that is?” Fray wanted to know.
“You remember James and his PMC?” The green stallion nodded. “He said the reason how he got his forces here, was the portal technology of the veil, having been salvaged. That Zeppelin with the portal got completely destroyed, there’s no way the portal onboard survived that.”
“Maybe, they found another portal but couldn’t use it as the war ended, like many others of their new technologies, or they actually recovered what was left.” Fray suspected. “But we will never know for sure.”
“Yeah…but you really had much luck or a strong guardian angel to survive getting electrocuted three times in a row like that.” His relative commented.
“And indeed he has.” A new voice said and they all turned around, only to stare.
Before them were four green entities, the three friends recognized them as the same ones from the nightmare. “Who are you?” Fletcher asked confused.
“Don’t tell you don’t recognize us, Fletcher.” One of them, a mature female voice said to him and he gasped.
“No way…Ruhlinda…Adeline?”
“Yes. We watched over you for a long time, Fletcher.” The filly replied. “We all.”
In response, Fletcher lowered his head, Dinky saw a tear dropping to the ground before he looked up. “Mama…Papa…” He cried tears of joy, hugging them all.
His friends just smiled at the heartwarming scene, not caring at all how this was possible and Dinky heard sniffing, seeing that Dawnwind had tears in her eyes.
“Just something in my eye!” She claimed upon noticing that the filly looked at her.
“We are so proud of you, my son. It honors you how you helped Dinky, Katja and Blau. And I am happy that you got a marefriend.” his mother looked at White Wolf with a smile.
“Mom!” Fletcher exclaimed, his head red like a tomato and the Pegasus lowered her heard with a slight groan.
“Ah, hay, here we go again…”
The siblings giggled at this, Midnight just rolled his eyes with the other adults, yet Konrad looked briefly away, muttering something.
"I could swear my parents named me after Escher. I wonder if he survived the war…”
They all were unaware that they were watched by the ghostly guard from a distance, also smiling at the scene.
“Do you really think I let you die so easily?”
After Isenstadt, Escher’s squad got redeployed t the Western Front by Rommel, fighting against the Allies at D-day, defending the borders of Germany during the Siegfried campaign and fighting at the last major offense, the battle of the Bulge, in the winter of 1944.
Konrad met his friend James occasionally, fighting side by side.
It had seemed so clear, so necessary. But in the end, Senior command had lost its way, and unfortunately the fatherland followed.
The Allies entered Germany in March 1945 and Konrad’s squad end up getting deployed at Berlin in April with the 12th army to liberate the capital.
But instead of facing the hopeless Situation they refused to obey the Führer's order, instead they, by order of their leader, General Walther Wenck, created an escape corridor out from the ruined city together with the remains of the 9th Army. Their destination was the US occupied territory in the West, where they wanted to surrender. For them all the Battle of Berlin was not a battle, but a rescue operation. saving more than 200,000 refugees.
The war ended on 8th May 1945, with the unconditional surrender of Germany. The entire squad survived the war.
Konrad returned to his family, living a happy life afterwards, maintaining his friendship with Christopher, William and Matteo as they had also survived.
Tim reopened the bakery afterwards, Hans continued his work as tailor.
Dennis, as member of the SS, faced a trial at the Nuremberg trials after the war, but the townsfolk of Isenstadt vouched for him, clearing his name, being found not guilty and acquitted. He reunited with his father, who was proud of him, completely understanding his son.
William found safer, quieter work in the country, living with his family in a small, quiet town, in the countryside.
Duffy fell in love with Wendy and they married after the war was over, enjoying their married life to the fullest.
Years later, a now old Konrad and his squad mates stood in Berlin watching the reunification, knowing that their sacrifice had not been in vain at last.
“You can be proud of yourself, Konrad.” James walked up to him with a proud smile, now being leader of a PMC. “You saved many lives back then, they can finally return home. This day will be long remembered”
“I know, James. I am proud of what I did, and I will never forget it. Nor I will my friends.” He replied, still remembering Fletcher, Dinky, Katja and Blau Streifen. They were also part of something he would never forget.
Ever.