The sound of leaves crunching beneath his feet calmed Robert as he began to ponder how he might bring this situation across to Twilight. Due to his mind being occupied Robert inadvertently steps on a tread track and falls flat on his face.
“Ow” he said while rubbing his face clear of dirt. “Now what do we have here…” he said as he cleared some leaves off the now revealed tread tracks. {Hmm, the SS have been using treaded vehicles. Likely a tank based off its width. Now what would they need a tank for…}
Robert decided to just store the information in the back of his mind and continue onwards toward his personal HQ as the sun began to inch closer to the canopy.
His walk would be interrupted though by the sound of gunshots and assorted screams. Robert immediately pulled out his
Luger and slowly approached where the sound of the yells had originated from.
“Hello?” Robert said as he crept up into a bush near the location he suspected to be the ambush sight.
He crawled toward the front of the bush only to be greeted with horror. Lying only two feet from his face was an arm which must have belonged to a fellow soldier. {Oh God, what the hell could have done that?} He continued on toward the sound
of chewing only to come upon a massive scorpion tail slowly moving up and down.
*Louder sounds of bones cracking*
{Whatever this thing is, it needs to die.} he thought as he crept closer to the beast with the scorpion tail.{Wings?}
The Manticore’s snout quivered as it detected a fragrance nearby causing it to stir and sit up from its fresh meal. But after a brief look about, it resumed tearing into the remains of a once SS soldier while Robert snuck into a better position to strike.
“Yaaaaaaaah!” Robert yelled startling the creature as he charged out the nearby shrubbery surprising the Manticore.
“Rawr!” the Manticore growled as it attempted to pounce on the incoming German .
Seeing it attempt to pounce Robert quickly rolled to the side and fired two rounds into the side of the Manticore’s large head causing it to stumble forward slightly before face-planting in the nearby dirt.
“I knew you wouldn’t fail me Luger.” Robert said he returned his sidearm to its holster. He then approached the body to grab the dog tags and noticed a folder. {What could this be?} Robert picked up the partially bloodied folder and pulled out assorted papers with SS stamps. While the all the top papers were basic supply orders the last one caught his attention.
Transfer of Prisoners
500 prisoners from Bolzano
35 Americans
52 British
23 Italian
400 Other
Unreadable smudges….
Destroy upon taking place.
“Dammit, there’s too much blood on this to see where those 500 prisoners are going, but why does it need to be destroyed? There seems to be two different destinations as well for these prisoners, and what’s other?” Robert spoke to
himself as leaned on a nearby tree. “Maybe Twilight’s magic could help shed some light on this.”
With that he tore the dog tags of the young SS soldier and continued toward his intended destination, his tent HQ.
Meanwhile on the Everfree Forest Path toward Ponyville
Mentally and physically worn, Twilight trudged through the leaves while making sure Lyra didn’t attempt to go back to
Robert’s tent.
“So Twilight, what else did you learn about humans?” Lyra asked, her eyes staring intently at Twilight.
“Um, I already told you everything Lyra. I told you about how they walk, how they talk, mannerisms, what they eat, and how they sleep. What else could you want to know?” Twilight said in reply hoping to quiet the sound pollution from getting
any worse.
“Hands!” Lyra yelled in a creepy manner.
“I already told you that too, they are much like our hooves in everyday use and are less equipped to walk on but better at grabbing intricate items.” Twilight explained once more.
“But what does he do with his hands?” Lyra continued.
“Huh, everything we do with our hooves…” Twilight replied nonchalantly.
“Are you sure he doesn’t do anything special?” Lyra pleaded.
“Um, occasionally he would use his weird claw things to scratch like Spike does. He also spins that weapon from earlier every so often.” Twilight replied desperately trying to think of something.
“Amazing! I’ll have to watch him do that!” Lyra said jumping high into the air.
*gunshot sound x2*
“What was that!?” Lyra yelled startling a couple sleeping birds nearby.
“That was nothing, Lyra. I’m really tired though, would you mind if I just teleport you back to your house?” Twilight asked.
“Why didn’t you just teleport us before?” Lyra asked puzzled by her sudden urge to teleport them.
“We were out of range…” Twilight answered unconvincingly.
“Ok!” Lyra replied completely believing the purple mare.
With that Twilight focused real hard and grabbed Lyra by the hoof and vanished with a spark before reappearing outside her library.
“Bye Lyra!” Twilight said in a hurry as she ran inside her house again.
“Bye Twilight… she must be real tired…” Lyra said with a giggle before heading home. “Wait until Bon Bon hears about this, she’ll owe me one million bits.”
Twilight’s house/library
“Spike!?” Twilight yelled as she hunted for her first aid kit.
“Huh, Twilight what’s wrong?” Spike said as he walked out of the back room with an empty tray.
“I heard one of those “guns” fire in the forest. I think Robert might be hurt and with Manticores more grumpy than usual…”
she replied before Spike pointed to the cabinet with his tail.
“Twilight, could it be that we shortened winter this year?” Spike said as he approached the kitchen doors.
“Maybe, that uncontrollable storm that hit the Fertile Land did force the Princess to shorten winter for fears of starvation.”
Twilight responded as she dug the first aid kit out from under assorted equipment within the oak cabinet. “Oh and Spike!”
“Yes?” Spike replied from inside the kitchen as the sink’s steady stream of water ricocheted off the plates.
“I won’t be back tonight, so feed Owloysius and don’t worry.” Twilight said as she shoved the first aid kit into her
saddlebag.
“But Twilight….” Spike sighed as he saw the distinctive teleportation spell flash under the push doors. “ don’t you need something to eat too…”
55 meters north of Robert’s HQ Tent
Twilight appeared in a flash and fell flat from magical exhaustion. “Teleporting…. Lyra… must of… taken… more …. out of… me… than.. I originally…. thought.” Twilight said between her heavy breathing.
She slowly rose to her feet while recognizing her surroundings and headed south unknowing that a group of Manticores had been rudely awaken from her teleportation flash.
Just outside Robert’s HQ Tent
“First casualty in a new world, hopefully poor Heinz here is the only one.” Robert said to himself as he looked over the dog tags as he approached his brightly lit tent. “They must have not known how to turn off the lanterns.”
He opened the flap to his tent and sat down on his bed to see a note on his desk.
Dear Oberst Robert,
Lyra and I are heading back to Ponyville. We shall discuss the dragon egg tomorrow afternoon or earlier if you like.
According to your clock its 6:30 PM and we need to leave before the Manticores start hunting.
Your friend,
Twilight Sparkle
Robert put the note down after giving a chuckle at the heavily crossed out “Your faithful student” above “Your friend” and began to undress out of his hastily configured outfit of both his officer uniform hat and coat with a basic pair of pants and undershirt. He removed his officer’s cap and overcoat neatly placing them over his desk and sat back down to remove his boots when there was a yell from the forest. Robert jumped up and grabbed for his MP-40 but was barreled over by a purplish blur knocking them both into the desk and then onto the dirt floor.
“Twilight?” Robert said staring up at the pony lay atop him.
“Manti… Manti… Manticores!” she struggled to say in fear as Robert lifted her off of himself.
“What? “ Robert said with confused head scratch.
“They’re coming! Get your gun thingie!” Twilight yelled as she pointed to the rifle on the boxes in the corner.
“What, can’t you just use your magic?” Robert said as he scrambled over his now overturned desk to grab his Mauser
K98.
“To…. tired… magic…. exhaustion. “ she replied as she scrambled to the back of the tent.
“Huh, oh damn it’s those things!” Robert yelled as the first Manticore jumped out of the bushes into the small clearing
outside of his tent’s door.
By instinct Robert raised his rifle threw the bolt action into the firing position and unloaded a round into the Manticore’s left eye dropping it like a ton of bricks and quickly pulled back the bolt for a new round. A second Manticore then jumped out of the brush near a tree only to be greeted by a bullet to the lower jaw which plunged into the Manicore’s body causing it to collapse and its hind legs to twitch. As Robert pulled the bolt action back yet again two more Manticores charged out of the forest brush growling with hunger. He turned his gun to the closer of the two and fired a round into its front leg causing it to fall to the ground while the other continued ahead. With another bolt swing he unloaded his fourth round into the now uncomfortably close (8 meters) Manticore with a shot between the eyes dropping the beast in a heap. Robert quickly looked over to the wounded Manticore and chambered his final round. With that a fourth Manticore met its doom to German engineering.
“#### you damn freaks of nature!” Robert yelled as he looked at the corpses now drenching the once pristine field in red.
“There’s a fifth!” Twilight yelled as she saw another Manticore hop out of the brush.
“Scheiße!” he yelled as he pulled on the bolt only to notice the sound of an empty gun. { I don’t have any ammo on me!} he thought as he reached around his pants and belt desperately.
The Manticore charged Robert but before he could draw his pistol the creature clawed him across the chest causing him to scream in pain as the Manticore’s claw tore across his chest in a diagonal swipe knocking him back into the table and scrambling back.
“No!” Twilight yelled as the Manticore pounced on his now downed prey.
The Manticore then gave a deafening growl as a table leg poked up through its lower body giving Robert enough time to grab his knife from the floor and plunge it into the Manticore’s neck which then began to drench his face in blood.
Twilight’s fears were startled though by laughter.
“I guess I had a leg up all along! Didn’t see that coming did you!” Robert chuckled as he pulled himself out from under the bleeding carcass of a Manticore.
{How did he survive? Why is he laughing…} Twilight thought as she stared speechless at the laughing Oberst.
Wiping the blood off his face Robert crawled over to a group of fallen boxes and dug through the pile.
“How?” Twilight squeaked, finally speaking after being stuck in shock.
“Could we table that discussion until after I find my medical supplies!” Robert replied as he sifted through the many spilled contents.
“I have medical supplies!” Twilight said as she weakly floated the first aid kit out of her saddle bag.
“You do, hand it here!” Robert yelled as he took off his torn undershirt causing great discomfort.
“Ok, can I help?” Twilight asked as she placed the kit near him and opened it.
“Get that shirt over there.” Robert said gesturing toward his bed as he got the alcohol out of the kit.
“Alright.” Twilight said she hurried over to the bed, grabbed the shirt, and tossed over to him.
Robert then took the shirt and placed it in his mouth as he poured the alcohol over his chest causing him to cringe and make garbled yells. Then he tipped over two boxes and found a shot for morphine which, using the shirt from before to make the veins pop out, stabbed himself in the arm and releasing the pain killing medicine.
“What was in that?!” Twilight exclaimed seeing Robert stab himself with a shot.
“Morphine, now do you have anything that can light a fire?” Robert said as he kicked another leg off the table and rapped the ripped shirt around it.
“Fire, what would you need fire for?” Twilight asked quizzically tilting her head.
“I have to cauterize the wound. Seeing that I have no stitches to sew it back together or the ability to just run to a nearby medical station.” he replied as he took a few boxes and the Manticore’s table leg to create a small pyre just outside the
tent.
“What! How is burning yourself going to help?” Twilight desperately tried to reason with the bleeding officer.
“It will seal the wounds so I don’t die of blood loss! Now light it” Robert responded as pointed at the pyre.
“What about glue? I have some superglue still in my bag from my last book repairing day.” Twilight said hovering multiple small tubes of glue out of her bag.
“That might work!” Robert yelled as he tore his knife back out of the Manticore and wiped the blood on the torn shirt clean side.
Robert grabbed the many glue tubes and began chopping their tops off with his knife then smearing the sticky substance on his open cuts. After about 15 minutes of gluing the three serious cuts Robert finally succumbed to his morphine and became woozy.
“Robert what’s wrong now, did you lose too much blood? Oh Celestia, this can’t be happening!” Twilight frantically stated as she attempted to get Robert to stop giving her a blank stare.
“Turn off the lantern.” Robert replied groggily.
“Huh what?” Twilight said giving a confused face.
“Turn off the lantern Tie Light…” he mumbled again.
“Why?” Twilight asked confused further by his butchering of her name.
“Manticores, they might have more. Would be attracted to light, don’t worry, this is the morphine… I’ll need more help tomorrow but I should be fine for one night.” Robert replied as he laid back again on his back.
“What are you doing now?” Twilight said as she saw Robert pulling his bed over to himself and then above him.
“Get the rest of the table out from under him, and lean it on the bed then come under here.” Robert said warily pointing at the table.
“Why, I can hardly move as it is?” Twilight questioned as she slowly moved over to the bed.
“Fine, I’ll move it over here. Just get under here now.” Robert replied as scooted out from under the bed and rolled the Manticore off the table.
“Ok?” Twilight said as he pulled the table over both of them, leaning upon the bed.
“Manticores likely don’t eat their own, so as long as we hide under this bloody table, Manticores won’t smell us and try to
finish us.” Robert responded as he scooted back into a more comfortable position.
The sound of sleep quickly overtook the tent as the two, exhausted from their ordeal, drifted into dreamland.
January 13, 1944 Abwehr Headquarters Berlin, Germany
“Admiral, I believe you may want to read this report.” an agent stated as he held a folder out to the aged man at a desk.
“What is it about?” Admiral Canaris stated as he adjusted his reading glasses.
“The SS are up to something in western Austria.” the agent replied.
“A new camp?” the Admiral asked as he took the folder from the agent’s outstretched hand.
“No sir, one of their small mountain complexes has suddenly become a hotspot for supplies and manpower. Additionally there have been sporadic power outages with no visible cause.” the agent explained.
“What types of supply?” Canaris continued.
“Tanks, ammo, and enough rations for an army four times their size. “the agent described.
“That is very odd, Switzerland isn’t their target again since there are no reports of a planned Swiss occupation. Anything else I should know?” the Admiral added as he began to skim the reports in the folder.
“One of my fellow agents in the area said that supposedly a Wehrmacht division is stationed in the town aswell. But there aren’t any Wehrmacht troops anywhere near the town. Yet they are still receiving supplies according to the supply distribution center.” the agent answered causing Admiral Canaris to look back up at him.
“A Wehrmacht division there? Which one?” Canaris asked.
“The 24th Panzergrenadier Division sir; Oberst Johansson is its commanding officer.” the agent responded as pointed to the paper which explained the information.
“Well, this is strange, there is no such thing as the 24th Panzergrenadier Division. And the former- Leutnant Robert Johansson is supposed to be in Metz.” the Admiral said as he looked over the group of papers.
“You know this Oberst or Leutnant sir?” the agent asked in curiosity.
“Yes, we have worked with him before on occasion. He was an interrogator who wasn’t a party member so we used his services from time to time with English speaking POWs who could help us with counterintelligence.” he replied. “Do what you must, find out what the SS are up to now Agent Krause.”
“Yes sir.” Krause returned with a salute before heading back out of the room.