//------------------------------// // Chapter 4 // Story: Equestria: World War II // by The Unseen //------------------------------// ----------------------------------------------------------------------CANTERLOT------------------------------------------------------------------------ It was now around 3:00pm in Equestria, just around three hours after the mysterious flying machines were seen leaving Crystal Empirean skies, flying out over the oceans. In the garden of the castle, a certain entity trapped in a statue was beginning to wake. Even in statue form, Discord had somehow realized that Equestria, and the Crystal Empire had been transported to another world, one full of chaos and no magic, at that, and when he had noticed the strange flying machines, somehow, he had managed to get part of his consciousness outside the statue, and used to secretly read the minds of the creatures flying them, without them noticing. As much he hated to make sure they didn't notice, he didn't want the humans to know about him just yet. Using those brain scans, he found that multiple wars were raging on this planet, called Earth, whose only intelligent sapient species were humans. They seemed to be more technologically advanced than the Equestrians, and their way of life was much different compared to that of the Equestrians. Discord let off a evil chuckle that caused the statue to crack, as a plan began formulating in his mind. As the plan continued to formulate, Discord was happy with most of it, but two parts made him a little annoyed. First, he had to try not to break his statue open too soon, and second, he had to make sure a peaceful first contact was made before he could kick it off. Although patience was not one of Discord's virtues, he had to wait to cause chaos, otherwise he would be imprisoned again or sent to Tartarus. Discord let off another chuckle, and the statue cracked again, and Discord instantly shut up, hoping to not crack the statue even further. Meanwhile, in the castle, Celestia had come in to take a check on the first contact team, taking over from Twilight and Cadance. The team was led by Lightning Language, a blue unicorn with a gray mane. He was an expert in linguistics, as the inhabitants of this planet probably didn't speak Equish, so he had been hired to provide presentations for the inhabitants if this scenario unfolded. "We have prepared drawings, pictures, and other such visual mediums to prepare in case the inhabitants of this land do not speak Equish. There is a small chance they do, though, so if that happens, we have a lot of written material ready for them." explained Lightning Language, when Celestia asked him how much had been done. "We are about 70% done with the presentations, and should be fully done in another six or seven hours." "Thank you, Lightning, for working so hard on this." said Celestia. "You're welcome, your highness, it is an honor to do something this prestigious!" replied Lightning. Although Celestia hadn't slept in close to thirty-four hours, she was still able to pull a nice smile. Then, Luna came in to take over from Celestia, and then Celestia finally went to her room to catch a quick nap. -------------------------------------------------------10, DOWNING STREET, LONDON---------------------------------------------------------- It had been just over an hour since the reconnaissance flight had touched down at RAF Gatwick in London after their successful overflight of the new continent. The second the two big B-17s had pulled up at their parking spot and the engines were shut down, a truck full of military men had pulled up next to them, unloaded all the film out of the big bombers' cameras, and sped over to 10, Downing Street, where first contact planning was going on. The second the film was developed, the planners grabbed all of it, and instantly began redoing their first contact plan entirely. The photos now revealed that the inhabitants seemed to have some primitive technology, seemed to be really intelligent and two countries of their world seemed to have been transported to Earth, and seemed to be ruled via a monarchy. Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain was on his twelfth cup of coffee. He hadn't slept in close to thirty hours, and was busy dealing with every single world leader, who was sending delegates to Britain for first contact. President Roosevelt had already boarded a plane from the US, which would be arriving in around twelve hours. In the meantime, he decided to check up on the first contact team, and what they had found out. He went into their room, which was inside one of the recently constructed underground bunkers at 10, Downing Street, and asked the team leader, William Reynolds, what they had found out. "Very much, in fact, Prime Minister. We have figured out that two of the ponies' countries seemed to have been transported to our world. They have primitive technology, so we don't know how they managed to build such large cities, but seem to be intelligent. We are now around 5% through with the first contact presentation. We should be done and ready to load on the ships in another day or so." explained Reynolds. "Thank you, Reynolds. I'll let the crews of the ships know that the timeline for departure." replied Chamberlain. Reynolds nodded, then went back to work with the rest of his team. In the meantime, Chamberlain decided he'd better go update his American counterparts. "Okay, the American ships have left port already?" asked Chamberlain. "Yes" came the reply from Roosevelt, who had somehow successfully managed to start a phone call from his plane, which was pretty amazing to think about. "They left port about fourteen hours ago, and will meet up with your ships at the agreed spot tomorrow." "But what about your first contact presentations?" asked Chamberlain. "Our first contact team is aboard those ships. The presentations are being prepared as they continue towards the new land." explained Roosevelt. "Oh, I see now. Our vessels will depart about twelve-fifteen hours before yours reach that area, so they both reach the rendezvous at the same time." replied Chamberlain. "Good, I should be arriving in Britain in around seven-eight hours time. I'll meet you then. Over and out." said Roosevelt, ending the call. Chamberlain sighed. He decided he had better go and get some sleep, because he didn't want to greet the American President in front of the public looking like a bum. ---------------------------------------------------------------------CANTERLOT-------------------------------------------------------------------------- It was now around 7:00pm in Equestria. Twilight was busy trying to find out how they were still able to use magic, even if there were no traces of magic on this planet, and she was just scrapping a theory that the entirety of Equis' magic had been transported along with them, when Cadance came in with a concerned look on her face. "Twilight, are you OK?" asked Cadance. "Yes... I'm OK, Cadance." replied Twilight with a huge yawn, not surprising, considering she hadn't slept in almost thirty-seven hours. "No, you are not, Twilight, you need sleep, and you need it now, so you're going to shut those books and go to bed!" ordered Cadance, enveloping Twilight in the aura of her horn and moving Twilight to her bed. "But, Cadance, I need to do this. I need to figure out why you are still able to use your magic, even if we are on a planet without it! We need to figure it out, NOW!!" screamed Twilight, clearly unhappy to be taken away from her dear books. "Whoa, we?! Twilight, we are not doing any more research today, you're going to bed, and that's it." said Cadance, as she used another spell to lull Twilight to sleep. As Twilight began snoring, Cadance decided to take a look at some of Twilight's notes, to see what she had found out so far. As she opened Twilight's books, she noticed a number of theories that Twilight had scrapped, including one that this world had a different kind of magic that ponies could not detect, and some really weird ones that she could not comprehend. Cadance then looked out of the window, to see this world's Moon rising into the sky. If it wasn't for the fact that Luna was busy keeping an eye on the first contact team, and that the Moon didn't respond to either of their commands, it looked just like the night sky of Equis. In the Moonlight, Cadance noticed something. The Moonlight seemed to reflect off of something near the borders of Equestria. It reminded her of the shield that surrounded the Crystal Empire, except this one was transparent, and Cadance realized that however they were still using magic, it was related to this shield. She decided to wake up Twilight, so they could do research about this. "Twilight, wakey, wakey! We have more research to do!" said Cadance, softly, tickling Twilight to wake her up. On hearing the word "Research", Twilight instantly woke up. "More research to do? Where? WHERE?!" screamed Twilight, excited to do more research. "Wait a second.... Cadance, you found something, didn't you?" asked Twilight. "Yes, Twilight, there seems to be a transparent bubble, encasing our borders. Do you think this is why we are still able to use our magic? Also, the flying machines didn't seem to be affected by it, so I don't think it is a force field like the one over the Crystal Empire. Want to figure it out?" asked Cadance. "Cadance, you may be right!" said Twilight, looking at the night sky, and seeing the bubble lit up by the moonlight. "I can see the bubble too! I think I have a new theory on why we can still use magic! We must tell Celestia and Luna right away!" said Twilight, running towards the throne room to fetch Celestia and Luna. Fifteen minutes later, Celestia and Luna had arrived at the balcony. "Alright, Twilight, Cadance, explain why you dragged us out of a meeting with our first contact team, NOW." ordered a very unhappy Celestia. "Your highnesses, have you wondered why, although we are on a planet without magic, we are still able to use it?" asked Twilight. "You are right.... I was so busy that I wasn't thinking about it, but now I realize that for almost two days now, we have been on a planet with no magic, but we can still use it! How has this happened, Twilight?" asked Celestia, clearly wondering how this could have happened. "Well, there seems to be a bubble encasing our lands, for around up to 3,500 hooves off our coast, and it seems to be that we are constantly recharged with magic by this bubble. However, if we leave this bubble, I have calculated that if we use our magic sparingly, it could last up to three days outside the bubble. If we use it a lot, though, it will last a maximum of around 18 hours." explained Twilight. "I see. Luna, issue orders for no pony to go beyond that distance off our coast, in case they deplete their magic when we need it!" ordered Celestia. "Right away, sister!" replied Luna as she teleported off to the throne room. Celestia finally decided to go to sleep, because she was having a bad feeling that tomorrow would be a long day, and something dark was on the horizon.