13TH SEPTEMBER 1939
-------------------------------------------------------------SOMEWHERE IN GERMANY------------------------------------------------------------
It was now 7:30am here. Discord was in the tank stables, as they were called, since they resembled horse stables, but for tanks. These tank stables had been built at their secret facility as garages for the tanks, in this case, the first three prototype Panzer IIIEs. These tanks were hopefully going to be the first successful product of their Erweiterung programme, which so far, had been nothing but setbacks, with the E-serum failures, and the grounding of the two Bf109E prototypes.
Discord was talking with the tank operators, a pair of Russians, Nikolai Belinski, and Albert Belinski. The two were twins, and highly identical, both in their early forties, both with brown hair, and rather muscular builds. The only way to tell the difference between the two was that Nikolai had green eyes, and Albert had blue eyes. The two, again, under the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact between Hitler and Stalin, had been assigned to join the Erweiterung programme as the test operators for the tanks.
"Alright, you two. You're going to have do the best you can out there. Otherwise, one of you will be an only child. GOT IT?" asked Discord, to the Belinskis.
"Don't worry, Mr. Discord, we got this." said the two brothers, as they began climbing into the tank.
The top ranking military brass, including Joseph Goebbels himself, had flown down from Berlin the previous night to watch the first armed demonstration of the Panzer IIIE. If this worked, after some other evaluation tests, the IIIEs would be dispatched to supplement the IVs on the battlefield, and maybe they would even get to make IVEs as well. But today, all they had to do was finish off the IIIE's first demonstration. Discord was already not pleased about having to do evaluations on the IIIEs, but Hitler had told him that even if Erweiterung was a black programme, they had to make everything appear legit, so all the equipment rolled out by the Erweiterung programme, or at least the prototypes, had to undergo evaluations.
The IIIEs, however, would not enter service with every battalion yet. It would enter service only in a few off-the-books tank units at first, to see how it would work. Then, it would enter official service. As the demonstration was about to begin, the Belinski brothers quickly climbed into one of the IIIEs, the one that had been prepared for the demonstration. As the IIIE began moving, Discord quickly teleported, to the stage, and demonstration-cum-test ground, around two hundred meters from the tank stables. Here, where the audience of Joseph Goebbels and top ranking military officials, both Soviet (with German translators) and German, was waiting.
"Ah, everyone, sorry to keep you waiting. Shall we begin?" asked Discord, into the microphone.
"Yes, we've been waiting some time now." said Goebbels.
"Good. Shall we then, unveil, the next evolution of tanks, the first Panzer IIIE?!" shouted Discord, as the large tank, painted black in colour, with no identification markings on it whatsoever, except for two Nazi flags dangling off it, roared into the arena at high speed, impressing the audience.
"What are the differences between this and a normal Panzer III?" asked one of the Nazi officials.
"Well, the Panzer IIIE has multiple differences. For one, it's way more powerful than a regular Panzer III. The engine has been tuned from around 300 horsepower to more than 360 horsepower, taking the top speed up from forty kilometers per hour to around 52." explained Discord.
"What about reliability? All that extra power is of no use if the tank breaks down in the middle of a battlefield."
"Well, this engine should last up to 600 hours, maybe even 700, without an overhaul. It's probably going to be more reliable than even the Panzer IV!"
"Hmmm, how does it manage that?"
"Well, we have used a new oil, which has higher heat resistance, and does not thin out so easily, which reduces the wear and tear on the engine. It greatly helps make it more reliable."
"I see. But what about the weapons and armor?"
"Well, the armor has been heavily improved. It can now withstand bullets from a Hurricane, and although those from a Spitfire may not be fully deflected, whoever is in the tank at the time should not be injured. As for weapons, lets not talk about them, let me show them to you!" shouted Discord, as the Belinski brothers pointed the tank's turrets at some cars on the field.
That was when the Nazi officials noticed movement in some of the cars. "Is there someone in those target vehicles?"
"Yes, we have used some of those filthy Poles, blacks, and other non-Aryans from the concentration camps as test subjects, to show just how damage some of the new weapons can do." said Discord non-chalantly. At this, all the Nazi officials applauded, while the Soviet officials looked a little disturbed, once their translators had told them what Discord had said.
"First up, the new and improved, 50mm gun!" shouted Discord, as the tank's main weapon, its large 50mm gun, fired. The first car was instantly hit by the gun, destroying it and its occupants in a cloud of smoke. The Nazis cheered as pieces of car and body parts flew everywhere.
"The 50mm gun now fires shells faster, and the shells are also more lethal, with some minor redesigning! Check out that carnage!" said Discord, as the smoke of the burning car dissipated, revealing the carnage. The car's chassis was heavily twisted, half of the body panels missing, and the vehicle itself was on fire. But the worst was also revealed a few seconds later. Severely mutilated and burned body parts, some from men, some from women, and even some from children, lay around the car. Still, the Nazis cheered.
"Well, apart from that, there's really only one other new weapon we put in, and that is, the Automatic Projectile Launcher-1, also called ALP-1!" shouted Discord, as a large protrusion on top of the tank, full of turret like holes, began firing burning projectiles, that reminded the Russians of Sergei Korolev's GIRD-06. They watched as the projectiles completely destroyed the remaining four cars, destroying them and their occupants completely.
"And that is the end of the demonstration, everyone! If you would like to know more about the ALP-1, you can talk to our engineers! We will be adopting this technology on present German military equipment as well! Thank you, and see you next time!" said Discord, as he walked off the stage, with all the military officials clapping. It was now 8:30am. The whole thing had taken just over fifty minutes.
As Discord walked towards the facility, he was stopped by Joseph Goebbels. "Mr. Discord, I must say that was quite an amazing demonstration, of a truly revolutionary weapon!"
"Well, its all in the destruction, you see." replied Discord, happy that finally something of the Erweiterung programme had worked.
"Well, after that one, we'll try and speed up the ALP-1's entry into service, but I'd say it would take at least two or three months to get it approved." said Goebbels.
"I see. What about the Panzer IIIE, the tank itself?" replied Discord.
"Well, the IIIE will still need some time, as your engineers say there are some bugs that have to be ironed out. It should take around the same time period to get the IIIEs in service."
"I see, but you can get it done?"
"I'll try my best, Discord." said Goebbels as he walked off, to go and talk to his fellow politicians. As Discord walked back towards the main facility, he felt happier than he had been before. Things were starting to work, and his plan was being executed rather nicely. It wouldn't be too long before the battlefields got more intense.
---------------------------------------------------------------CANTERLOT CASTLE--------------------------------------------------------------------
It was now around 10:00am in Equestria. The three princesses, and Twilight, had been up in the castle's archives since 5:00am, trying to figure out what Faust had told them, before she disappeared from their dream. Twilight had flown in the previous day, from Britain. They now knew there was something extremely powerful, something more powerful than the Elements of Harmony, something that could defeat Discord. They had been searching since the previous night, when Twilight came in, holding an extremely old book.
"Everypony! I might have figured out how we can defeat Discord!" shouted Twilight.
"What? How can we do so, Twilight?" asked Luna.
"Well, this book states it all. The Destroyer of Discord. It was a powerful artifact that had the ability to nullify all magic and powers, including Discord's chaos magic. It was said to be once created and wielded by Faust herself." said Twilight, showing them the book, which had a rather old picture of a large sparkling gem, and another picture, of Faust wearing it. Twilight was the first thing to notice something about the picture of Faust wearing the Destroyer of Discord.
"Huh... Celestia, doesn't Faust's necklace look like yours?" asked Twilight, pointing at Celestia's necklace, which had a large amethyst in it.
"Huh, it does, Twilight. This means that the Destroyer of Discord can be wielded by me, Faust's daughter!" said Celestia.
"Also, you see what was said, right? What happened to it?" asked Cadance.
"Well, after Faust once defeated Discord, around 200 years before Celestia and Luna were born, it disappeared. No one has known about it's whereabouts for more than 2,200 years." said Twilight.
"Well, our mother definitely was trying to tell us where the Destroyer of Discord was in that dream. Keep up the good work, Twilight. Try and find some other books that tell us where the Destroyer of Discord might be. In the meantime, we also have to start the first part of Equestria's modernisation, so let's get ready to start that up." replied Celestia.
"Alright, Princess. I'll try my best to find anything related to the Destroyer of Discord." said Twilight, as the princesses began leaving the library. They knew that it would be a long journey to stop Discord and save Earth, but hopefully, their plan would succeed.