Welcome to Ponyville, Kapitan.
"Well, they didn't kill us." - Kapitan Arnhem Zorner
"Sir, ETA five minutes to the, er, village, we have on our maps."
The Kapitan grunted as he put away his data-pad, and popped open a mirror to start looking over his grey over dark blue Kaiserliche Marine uniform. Utilitarian and rather out-of place, but hopefully easy to distinguish from the rest of the Germans, with their green Klasse IV Forest Camouflage. The last thing he wanted was an alien leader to approach a taller or bigger comrade of his, thinking the strongest was the one in charge of the humans.
He spared a last glance at the data-pad, trying to recall the various facets of Greek Mythology that he had frantically pulled up after their encounter with the "manticore". And the pegasus, as the texts told him was the blue equine. A horribly deformed one, according to the "traditional" pictures, but unmistakably a pegasus. Teske and Biegel were insistent that he play the leader role - as long as they didn't slaughter everyone with some ungodly alien weapon first.
They crested a hill, and the crewman driving the Dingo suddenly jolted upright, and pointed out the window. Fearing another monster, Zorner reached for his pistol as he followed the outstretched finger's aim to whatever lay ahead. A second of comprehension later, he hurriedly holstered his weapon and instead grabbed at his radio.
"All units! Stop and pull over, alternate sides, dismount!" he ordered, and jumped out of the vehicle the second it lurched to a halt at the side of the road.
All eyes gazed at the pink bubble before them. Down the road, about five-hundred feet away, was the village, clearly visible despite the semi-translucent, well, shield, improbably covering the entire town in a huge sphere.
Of more consequence were the group of Equines that stood just in front of the shield, on the road they were travelling on.
"Looks like a leader, Herr Kapitan." DeWitz observed through his binoculars. "Big white one there, looks like it's taller than us. Call it a half a meter or so."
"Numbers?"
"Eh, looks like nine of the normal ones besides the leader. I think three of them have armor, sir."
"Armor? Elaborate." Zorner ordered with a hint of worry in his voice. Crewmen around him nervously shifted their weapons about.
"Perhaps I wasn't clear enough. Zorner, that's honest-to-Gott plate armor they're wearing." DeWitz said, shaking his head in disbelief at his own words. "Plate armor . . ."
"Got it. Alright, Marinesoldaten, DeWitz, on me. Everyone else, stay with the vehicles." Zorner commanded, starting forward before his mind had a chance to protest the move.
"Oh," he said, snapping to a halt and whirling around to face Strasser, who had remained at the side of his Dingo. ",record this so I can get a Ritterkreuz out of this."
Strasser reached into the vehicle and activated the dash-mounted video camera, before stepping back and muttering something about "that's not how that award works".
Zorner continued down the slightly loose slope, repeating the Fatherland's Creed over and over in his head.
In wearing this Cross, I accept the responisiblity of service to the Fatherland and fealty to its people. Duty will sustain me, and duty will guide me wherever my service takes me. I am the sword and the shield of Germany and I thus swear to uphold it's sacred history and take whatever action is necessary to do so. I belong, body and soul to my country, and nothing, nothing can relieve me of that duty save death.
Zorner glanced over to his Marine Oberst, and they locked eyes.
Body and soul, till death. For the Fatherland., DeWitz mouthed, gripping his Iron Cross tightly with one hand.
~
"You may want to get a little ahead of your companions, Herr Kapitan." Strasser noted in the radio as they neared the group of aliens.
"So if they're hostile, they only kill me - got it." Zorner replied dryly, but nevertheless complying with the tip.
"Front." DeWitz whispered to his Kapitan, succeeding in snapping his gaze back on target.
This was it. He, Arnhem Zorner, was going to be the first human to meet another form of sentient life in the universe. Gott, what a mixed blessing if there ever was one. Why him?
He tried to snap out of it, the last few meters from what he figured was a polite distance, but gave in to his thoughts one last time before, as he would imagined, he would be very dead or very busy.
He wasn't trained for this. Growing up in the trade routes had given him some rudimentary experience with space travel. The Frankfurt Space Academy had drilled he and his fellow cadets ruthlessly in the art of vacuum combat - and it was exactly that, an art. How to deal with hull breaches, knowing your engines inside and out, having every possible contingency and possible disaster ready to meet a swift response.
In short, he was trained to utilise an extremely complicated machine in the most lethal environment known to man to kill others. Sure, they had passed out the handbooks and the ROE's had the "extra terrestrially sentience" section, but no one took those seriously, least of all him. No, when he had a spare moment he was reading up on some new American tactic or better ways of keeping his crew's morale up - not something that basically reiterated "don't kill them on first sight and good luck".
Still . . .
Zorner barely suppressed a smile as the sheer enormity of the situation finally occurred to him. Taking a deep breath - possibly his last - he stepped up to the white Equine as he reviewed his prepared speech one last time . . .
Crap.
How did it begin again?
He could only stare helplessly at the alien before him as painfully awkward seconds ticked by. He couldn't help but notice the stern-looking Equines, presumably guards, who stood rigidly in their gleaming armor, spears somehow gripped in their hooves. Finally, it seemed the alien could take it no longer.
"Do you speak Equestrian?" a distinctively female voice inquired, to his surprise, from one of the the other, shorter Equines standing behind their leader, who had walked out a little ways.
Purple. A technicolor array of aliens stood before him, but purple. Some odd take on a unicorn, according to his mythology texts, if that horn was anything to tell. Which was much to short for the thing to conceivably employ it in stabbing things, as mythological (and biblical) unicorns were often portrayed doing. That either meant it was for some other purpose. was decorational, or that they had developed some less crude way of killing.
Oh yeah, she did speak.
And thus, he started the first conversation in humanity's history with another sentient race . . .
"We don't call it that, but I can understand you.." he replied, his voice flat and conveying far less emotion than he felt.
The purple one's face split into an impossibly wide grin, as he became aware she was visibly bouncing a little in sheer excitement, already large-eyes seeming to take every feature of his self in.
He waited for the leader to reprimand the purple one, or at least take some control, but all it had was a ghost of a smile.
"I have so many questions!" the purple one suddenly exclaimed, then sat back on her haunches, as if to ponder what to open with.
Zorner responded with a smile, and turned back to DeWitz and company, giving a curt nod that spoke volumes of "They haven't killed me! (yet)".
"I know! Where are from? No, who are you? What's your name? What do you do? What are you wearing? Why are you here? I . . . I . . ."
Another voice cut in, and Zorner recognized a very-amused DeWitz, walking up. "Hamburg, Germany, human, Josef Dewitz, Marinesoldaten, Klasse IV Forest Pattern camouflage and Mark III Light Armor, and I'm just following this guy." he said in one breath, pointing at Zorner at the last answer.
If the unicorn showed any surprise, she did a remarkable job of hiding it. Instead, she stuck out a hand hoof to the two humans. "Well, hello Mr. DeWitz. I'm Twilight Sparkle."
The Oberst knelt down to shake her hoof, and Zorner turned his gaze to the bemused leader. "I am Korvetten Kapitan Arnhem Zorner of the Kaiserliche Marine. In the name of the Kaiser and the Fourth Reich, I extend an olive branch of peace and friendshi- by the way, I didn't write this." he finished, a look of embarrassment breaking through his artificially stern demeanor.
The Equine stifled a laugh. "And I am Princess Celestia. Well met, 'human'."
She had a much more . . . mature, voice, that was sure. "Likewise. On the behalf of my country, Imperial Germany, I hope that you are as eager to learn about us as we are to you."
Celestia glanced at the eager Twilight, and chuckled. "Oh yes, you could say that."
"So, will we just . . ."
"Care to discuss this inside?" she asked, tilting her head towards the shield.
Zorner took a visible breath, and nodded. "Of course."
DeWitz reached for his radio, and handed it to Zorner. "Mien Kapitan."
To the soldier: "Thanks." To the radio: "We're alive, and talking. Contact is a success, as far as I'm concerned."
Twilight looked at the device oddly, and opened her mouth before Celestia quieted her with a glance. She looked rather down, until her leader reassured her with a gentle smile and nod to the human.
"I'm sure you have plenty of questions." Zorner observed.
The purple unicorn bobbed her head up and down frantically.
"Well, we have plenty of time."
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waaaait
Imperial Germany?
Fourth Reich?
Guess they decided socialist democracy wasn't working for them, at some point.
are they on unfreindly terms with the US? because they aren't, at present.
I guess Zorner will explain some of this in passing
3513043 I could edit for you. Also, I have a question? What happened to Russia?
I am also curious about this Fourth Reich business, but I suppose things will be explained. At least I hope.
Anyway, great story! Keep it up!
This seems interesting. Finally, a story in which there is an honest-to-god cultural discussion without interruption by Everfree monster/Changeling/Griffin/other threat. I am looking forwards to the discussions, very much so. I'm also interested in how you build the world you have created, with the Fourth Reich and all that.
Hopefully, the Fourth Reich isn't ANYTHING like the Third one.
Anyway, keep up the good work!
3513043 Just because they call themselves a "Reich" doesn't mean they're Nazis. Reich just means Empire.
You read our comments?!? All Hail The Mighty Banana!
Finally, some decent chatter without the Everfree barfing monsters all over the place or King Sombra resurrects himself and decides to come over and say Hi. Really looking forward to the cultural exchange and the typical shock and awe over high tech weapons of mass destruction (it's not our fault we're a predator species that excels at killing everything including ourselves). We're all expecting Pinkie Pie to throw a welcome party at some point, it's one of the rules of first contact you know-- hopefully none of the humans will keel over from D'awwwabitous when the foals show up.
I'm also glad the ponies reacted logically to aliens. Not panicking with a first strike (I suspect Celestia had more than six guards at her side and there's a battalion in town, hidden in the surrounding forest, or on the way to reinforce Ponyville's volunteer force) or ignoring their entrance until the vehicles roll up on Town Hall and all hell breaks loose.
It's never as bad as it seems? You're right. It's usually worse.
3513516
I am aware of that. The question is, why is it called an empire? they appear to have a kaiser, so... not a democracy, not anymore. When I said socialist democracy, I was referring to present-day Germany's system of gov't. the nazis were fascists.
3513085
why would you edit for me?
3513043
Actually, it doesn't have to mean that the Germans re-embraced the monarchy. It could simply mean that Germany never went republican at all, in other words, Germany's existence in-story is because of Alternate History. This may still be the Second Reich (German Empire).
An update the day after I find and read through this story?
.
.
Well, a bit of a short chapter (says me, just coming from reading a story with almost 10k chapters...) But I like it
Keep up the good work, you're doing great
3514816 10k chapters?? Wtf were you reading, the complete set of encyclopedia britanica??
3514816 Er...Yea. You probably meant 10k words per chapter huh?
I like a good long read like that myself. 
Also, the armor is called "Bestellen"? I realise that sometimes companies have weird names, but "bestellen" means "order" as in "ordering food". You may want to try and retranslate that.
3514655
Except in story it is referred to as the Fourth Reich...
Which implies a third reich, implying that their history branches at some point in the near future, not in the past
3515373 well nazi germany is refert to as the third reich so I guess they rally just reambraced the monarchy
3514298 Wow, really? How did I even reply to a comment sorry.
TO THE AUTOR, I CAN EDIT FOR YOU.
How far in the future is this story placed anyways?
3515118
.
Yeah, sorry about the confusion, that was a quick type.
Grammar seems worse on this chapter than the others... why exactly? Did you have an editor and he/she didn't edit this one or something?
Well aside from that, the way you have some of the speech setup is... awkward.
You describe the actions of one person while the line of speech on the same paragraph is by a different person, and you don't actually state who is the one talking in that paragraph. Instead you say it, indirectly, in the other paragraph.
While manageable now, this style will be incredibly confusing when you have more than half a dozen characters with speech.
Here's a quote from my own story; The Forgotten Enterprise, which is good for examples because at the top it has the name of the person talking stated directly after the line of speech, and it has the use of a pronoun for a person talking after a descriptive/action paragraph.
I was able to only use a pronoun for Captain Andrews' line of speech and not mention his name because the paragraph directly above was talking about the person who would be going to speak.
So if you don't plan on stating the person's name when he's speaking like I did with Patterson than the descriptive/action paragraph above the one with speech should be about the person who is going to speak, not one of the other characters.
I can't wait until they find themselves caught in one of Pinkie Pie's musical numbers. Heck, just Pinkie in general would be worth an entire chapter unto itself.
Gibbe moar
need story moar..... or i shal unleash this
i1286.photobucket.com/albums/a602/Rain_Bow_Dashie/Ponies/Fluffle_zps6014d40e.gif
lol
3515213
"Bestellen?" Mo' like "you'd best be selling me that food"!
3693579 i think your chatting abut my one word some up by pass and or ratting sitem i use for a problem i live with?
The description is funny and really made me want to read this story, but then I saw that it's on hiatus and the author has no confidence in it.
Fuck!
Alright, another fic for my "wait and see" pile. If it ever updates again I'll give it a try. For now though there's no point in even beginning to read a fic that seems dead.
This seems interesting, I hope you decide to continue with it.
But ya zee, evrithin iz zolved wiv moar dakka!
More please :)
I am very interested in this story !!! I wonder if their ship will be able to take off again, given its current condition. are they looking to start a colony, or begin trade negotiations perhaps? they are space explorers, but what is their ultimate goal in landing here? perhaps some much needed R&R. I hope they remain on friendly terms with the equestrians. I would like to see a friendly cultural exchange...if celestia would allow it. I know that equestria is the way it is, by celestias' design, but to have A STARSHIP, land in your backyard !!! talk about culture shock!!!
So did you ever get that editor?
6193244
Given that the author hasn't updated in two and a half years, I would suspect that the answer is "no". At least, not on this fic anyway. He seems to be concentrating on newer fics at the moment. With luck, he might come back to this one day.
8423312
Spaceballs 3: The Search for Even More Money
3513043
now they land into pony planet run on absolutely dictatorship with nobility