21. Papers and Predictions
Equestria : 1940
Thursday 8 August - Hospital Outpatient Recovery Center
“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”
— Ephesians 6:12
Jon opened one eye and looked at his alarm clock.
His alarm clock looked back. Unfortunately, there was no way to turn this one off.
“It’s eight o’clock Mister Walthers,” chirped Laminia, who had plunged into the role of volunteer nurse with far too much enthusiasm. “We’ve let you sleep in enough, lazy monkey. Time to get up with the rest of the patients. Some of them are off to their jobs already.”
“I’m up,” he muttered, then when the nurse did not leave, he repeated the lie. “I said I’m up.”
It did not work. Laminia clamped her jaws down on the bedsheets and gave a brisk tug.
At least he still had his boxer shorts on, although the bandages around his hip made them sag in unexpected places, and forced him to keep the string fairly loose. He stumbled out of bed at the continued prodding of the outpatient nurse, took a limited sponge bath, and considered his shortened hair, which could probably go another day without shampoo. His shoulder had almost healed all the way up except for a bright pink puckered scar which twinged when he moved too fast, but the hip was going to take a few more weeks before he would be able to leave the cane behind.
Once the nurse had gotten him into his uniform jacket, Lieutenant Walthers looked almost military, except for the baggy sweatpants and the loafers. The full uniform would have to wait until he could touch his toes again, perhaps next week.
His fellow participants on the rescue mission had fared both better and worse than him. Jimmy had dropped him a letter every week, detailing his medical recovery but little else due to censorship, other than baseball team critique. Moondancer was recuperating in Manehattan, although her letters were being censored fairly hard, so she must have still been working on whatever heavy water project she had been under the Germans. Derpy was out delivering mail, and testing the structural integrity of the buildings by accidentally ramming into them at odd times during her erratic flights. And Nightshade…
“Come on, pokey butt. You’re going to be late.” Laminia walked very carefully into the kitchen where Jon was adjusting his tie in the mirror, stood up on her hind legs, and adjusted it for him. The two bullet holes in her dark crippled wing had almost healed up, and were covered by a pair of pink Band-Aides, while the bandage around her middle that covered a smaller bullet hole was merely a decoration by now. The dark pegasi healed remarkably fast, although part of that could be credited to Laminia’s iron determination not to be helpless in any way. Her coltfriend, though…
“So, are you planning on spending all day at the hospital with Anpan again?” asked Jon with a sideways glance. “I heard they’ve been pushing a bed up next to his so you can sleep together.”
“We talk,” said Laminia with a faint pinking tinge to her dark ears. “It’s just more comfortable to talk to him lying down, since he still has the catheter in, and they’ve only got part of the casts on his wings peeled back.”
“He picked up thirty-seven bullet holes and a cutie mark,” mused Nightshade, who took that moment to come strolling into the kitchen of the recovery center. She nuzzled her friend and fellow recovery-ee, then fixed her with a stern expression. “Be sure to remind him that the goal of a guard is to dodge the bullets, no matter what his special talent is. And speaking of bullet magnets...”
Moving on to Jon, Nightshade gave him a sharp tug on his baggy sweatpants, which remained intact. “Gonna get those off yet,” she muttered, giving him an affectionate nip on the leg instead.
“Once we’re both healed up and back in shape, we’ll talk,” countered Jon as he had every morning. “Until then, I believe you have an appointment at the hospital to see if you’re ready to get these—” he rapped his knuckles against the plaster casts across her back “—removed.”
“About time,” she groused, giving him a gentle nudge toward the door that only hurt a little when she bumped his hip. “My itches have itches. Gonna buy you a gallon of baby oil and spend a week doing nothing but having you rub ‘em.”
“After our jobs, of course.” Jon picked up the briefcase sitting on the table and the unopened packet that the night courier had delivered, along with several newspapers. “My orders fresh from my elders and betters at Washington D.C., the Times both New York and London, the Manehattan Sun, and a copy of the Quibbler for Twilight,” he quipped while opening up the seal on the packet. “Celestia’s spooks do good work. You could never tell it’s been opened and copied.”
“Roosevelt should just make her a second copy,” groused Nightshade while sticking a couple of carrots out of the icebox into her carrying bag. “It would take all of her fun out of it.”
“She’d just have to compare copies to make sure I’m not getting any secret orders from the General Staff.” Jon flipped back a few pages. “Not much unclassified on mine. The USSR annexed a couple of countries I can’t pronounce. Germany still hasn’t invaded Britain yet, but they’ve nipped a bit around the edges. Yours?”
“Not much. The St. Louis finally got that engine problem fixed, so it’s going to put out from San Franciscolt tomorrow and head back to Germany. For some reason, none of the Jewish passengers wanted to go back, so Celestia’s giving them a spot to stay until she can send them somewhere else. I’m starting to think the mechanical failure that made them dock in Equestria wasn’t accidental.”
“You’re just being paranoid,” said Jon while checking the comics. “Anything else?”
“A few things Celestia wanted leaked your way. I put the whole packet in your briefcase so you can carry it for me like a proper gentlecolt.” Nightshade yawned broadly. “Come on, let’s get over to the hospital. When we’re done, we can grab lunch and hit the library. You can read the lies in the newspaper, study, and write up stuff.”
“While you nap in the cushions,” added Jon.
“And I’ll watch over the lunkhead in the hospital,” said Lamina, who had left her traditional cloak off in the baking heat of the Ponyville summer sun. Since her near-death experience with the hostage rescue team, she liked showing off her scarred back to all of the town’s ponies. Jon secretly thought it was just for the shock value, although she claimed it was just a happy coincidence. She bounced over to the door and held it open, calling over her shoulder, “Come on, don’t be such lazybutts.”
Laminia trotted ahead of Jon and Nightshade, who walked together slowly down the narrow cobblestoned road, him with a cane and her with him to lean against. Ignoring the flouncing batpony up ahead, Jon ran his fingers through the shortened mane on Nightshade’s neck and gave out a short huff of breath. “At least we should have a more peaceful time of our lives now. Two dragons, a human, and six ponies⁽*⁾ never came back. Our peace was purchased at a high price.”
(*) An incorrect sum, since one dragon, a human, and two ponies had just returned after a trans-Atlantic flight to Peru, because they had to take an unstable magical artifact back to its Aztec temple before it exploded and destroyed the world. For details, check your bookstands for Daring Do and the Teyacapan Heart, out soon.
“I’ll take it, since I don’t think Celestia or Luna will be dropping us into anything more exciting than papercuts and report writing,” said Nightshade. “The great powers of the world are going to war, and Equestria is just a mouse compared to them.” She wrinkled up her nose and gave Jon an endearing squeak, much like a squeeze toy.
“A mouse that bit them on the butt pretty hard.” Jon held his tongue for a while as they walked. Being a military advisor for two divine horsie diarchs as the sole human representative for a hundred or so miles was still a pretty heavy responsibility, although with little chance of getting shot. It did come with an awful lot of paperwork, and he had typed more pages of reports on the manual typewriter in Twilight’s oak library than he had ever dreamed of before. Loud noises still made him flinch, and Ponyville thunderstorms were less an act of nature and more of a performance in percussion from the weather team, which did not help. “I think I can take a little boredom for a change. Maybe write a book, if I can find anything interesting to write about in this dull old town.”
Nightshade snorted, then turned her head and looked at a flier on the pony streetlight, which stood at about Jon’s nose level. “Hey, The Great and Powerful Trixie is doing a stage show this evening.” She thought for a moment with a frown. “Sounds familiar. Anyway, wanna go?”
“As friends, and fellow convalescents,” said Jon, “I would be honored. It will be a nice way to relax this evening after you get your casts off and take a nap in the library while I’m typing. Just the two of us and a show. It could be fun.”
“Are you sure?” Nightshade stopped and patted him on the chest. “After all, you’re a fragile human, and some pony entertainments can be pretty stressful.”
“Oh, relax,” he said with a chuckle. “It’s Ponyville. What could possibly happen?”
And that evening, as they were running in abject terror from the house-sized stellar bear that turned out to be the star of Trixie’s show, he made a note to never say those words again.
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And posting the epilogue now, to wrap it all up.
9304309
9304323 Oh, I plan on doodling some side stories, such as Luna delivering the declaration of war by carving it into the side of the U-49 in the Manehattan harbor, then portaling the sub to land in front of the Reichstag, or the daring secret mission to duplicate the Enigma encryption machine from same. Perhaps the daring German stroke near the end of the war where they send the last Amerikabomber on a suicide mission to chemical-bomb Manehattan, or Moondancer watching the Trinity test with the rest of the nuclear scientists. Really, I've got side-story material. Or go more modern, where Luna wedges herself into the Apollo program which I've teased already in the Writer's Group:
"Ambassador Rusk," announced the brown-coated unicorn who opened the door. "May I present Her Serene Highness, Princess Luna. Princess, this is--"
"The human who has the audacity to proclaim a visit unto my celestial orb without first begging permission from me," said Luna, quickly stuffing a few small objects underneath a shoebox on the table before standing up. "Or more correctly, the minion of the arrogant man who hath made such a proclamation. Come in, ambassador. We would have words."
"There is little to say," started Dean Rusk as he made himself comfortable in the indicated chair, with the intimidating lunar princess quite a bit nearer than he expected on the other side of the table. Although the alicorn was slightly smaller than a human, her looming presence this evening gave him a sincere case of the jitters, as if the weight of the universe actually did rotate at her will, no matter how silly that sounded. "President Kennedy was quite sincere about the United States' goal of landing a man upon the moon and--"
"Our moon," said Luna in clipped tones.
"The moon is unclaimed territory," countered Ambassador Rusk. "You cannot stop us from expanding our space exploration program into a landing. No government--"
"Our moon," said Luna with even more force. "However, you seem to be laboring under a misconception. You see, we shall not stand in opposition of your country's noble goal of visiting our moon." Luna swept the cardboard box away to reveal several small plastic spaceships with model astronauts. "Provided we accompany any such expedition."
But how does the war go! Aaaaaaaaah
So, who tried to blow up the plane and why (other than, "just because") and who tried to kill Jon/Blueblood/the car and why?
That was a fantastic read, and I am hungry for more!
Overall, I really enjoyed this one, but not for the reasons you were probably hoping for. As for the original premise of Jon helping Twilight teach friendship, that didn't seem to come through for me. I never really felt I saw Twilight learn any of those, unless it was just by watching Jon interact with others, but that seems rough because she was never paying attention to anything/anyone around her. Granted she did learn, and it showed. Go her. But that was what I thought it was originally going to be about but it ultimately wasn't. But I can't complain.
What I liked about it was the world you created and the storytelling that went on with it. I'm left with wanting to know more about Jon and Nightshade (do they, don't they, does he/they go back to the States or stay in Equestria, etc.) What about Puff and Thistle, can they sit down yet or are their backsides still raw after getting a warm "welcome" back home from their little jaunt overseas? Do we learn why Celestia gave back Jon's gun when he went to Ponyville with Twilight? Was it to protect from Nightmare Moon (which she had to know wouldn't work) or just the everyday, garden-variety manticore attack, or something/somepony else? (Maybe Changelings?) It felt that Celestia had a reason to give him back his gun, but I'm a bit confused as to what exactly. So, maybe things aren't all moonbeams and rainbows in the magical land of Equestria after all? (Mr. Deighton, meet Ms. Faust...)
This ended up being a wonderful romp through a concept of an alternate universe I haven't visited before. And for that, thumbs up.
So, Anpan’s special talent is being a bullet sponge?
So I wonder where all the wizards are and why Celestia hasn't press ganged them into her schemes more? I mean she sent Twilight the Quibbler for Pete’s sake. Then again I wonder how everyone will react to Twilight gaining her wings?
9304381
I have to wonder what his cutie mark looks like.
9304392
A yellow dish sponge with a flattened hollow point bouncing off of it?
This was an interesting story, to be sure, but it leaves at least one unanswered question; who tried to kill Jon in Equestria?
Looking back on the story, there is something of an issue with it; until the part that lines up with the show, it was obvious that Twilight didn’t have any concept of friendship, and furthermore made almost no effort at making friends. It makes it even MORE jarring when she gets to Ponyville and somehow understands politeness and being semi-sociable.
You’ve done great work before this, but you clearly doubled-down on anti-social Twilight until you got to a part where she needed to make friends, and suddenly you realized that it wouldn’t mesh with the previous half of the story but couldn’t change what you wrote.
The only two suggestions I could make to resolve this issue (and it’s STILL an issue even if Jon lampshaded it) is to either do some sort of rewrite to make her friendlier and more sociable during her lessons (which clearly would be too much work for a full half of the story) or maybe put in a half-chapter showing exactly what Celestia must have told Twilight that caused her to give friendship a real chance.
9304369
I agree with all of this. It didn't live up to the description, but it was fun all the same.
9304407
It honestly feels like Tia cut the mystical mentor act for ten minutes and hoofed her the ep1 and 2 scripts on the sly. Then possibly consumed her own weight in cognac and sachertorte as fortification for the upcoming family reunion.
9304410
Now this could be an interesting idea, considering that it would probably be a live-action show since the colorful ponies in question are available (for a fair wage, of course).
9304336
luna on moon " WHEEEEE!"
I am sad to see this story end I wonder how many planes the pegasus liberated from the over run airfields
9304381 And in Georg's other stories he goes the name of Pumpernickel
9304422
I was going to say, she likes the big ones, doesn't she?
AS a PS those 4 words should be BANNED IN PONYVILLE..
AS sad note we humans have a short memory and with things done on the sly or quietly in the background they become even EASIER to forget. While what ponies and the Princesses did in WWII is one thing 20years later alot of that was even known is likely becoming more and more a footnote in history
I sure did.
Wonderful stuff. A happy ending, or at least a happy end of this particular act in the players' lives. Thank you for it. I do hope you do more in this universe.
Well this was a fun one. Nice take on Equestria in WW2.
This whole story has been weird and not good. You contrive an ending for the first hundred thousand words by copy pasting some episodes and then slap this completely unrelated rescue mission on the end. It reads more like a self insert fantasy more than a story about how the existence of Equestria would influence world history and impact WW2.
As much as I disliked the first act, it made itself necessary in the end. Well done for managing to turn my opinion.
9303987 Unless you are immune to the 'splosion. Then you can't lose!
9304343 You mean it's NOT a good idea to leave a half-dozen dangling plot threads at the end of a 'season'?
But the show has told me otherwise!
9304884
Quiet, you!
I'm trying to get G-man to write more!
Less snark, more begging!
9304892 I don't beg.
I COMMAND!!
9304796 Thank you, glad you enjoyed it. The readers are much like Jon, pulled into a strange world where insane things happen as a matter of habit, and by the end, they should begin to relish them as opportunities. Except bears.
9304678 9304623 You're welcome. I have to credit the World War Bronies group for getting me interested in the concept.
9304520 I try to please.
9304509 Try asking some kids about Revolutionary War facts sometime. I'm no expert, but some of their ideas are... really off.
9304422 Darned straight. His talent is Tanking. He just needs a healer and three DPS.
9304413 Like GaPJaxie's Dressing Room series (which should be available in hardback soon).
9304407 In short a German 'Bund' group in the US and Starlight Glimmer in Equestria, with the second attack being more of an attempt to discredit the monarchy by showing Blueblood as a fool as he crashes his car. Last thing she expected was for him to flatline it like that. A Cord with supercharger is a screaming machine. Hence the emergency 'pillow' spell to save their lives. She's not heartless, after all.
I expanded it a bit in the edits of that chapter.
9304392 9304396 Well, first you're going to have to get the bandages off. If it matches Geneology, it will be a moonsteel shield. With a few holes. The Changeling Queen may make him an honorary member of the hive.
9304366 I have more. I'm at about a million words now.
9304339 Good guys win. Bad guys lose.
9305048
I mean, that's probably because polio was a rare but debilitating condition that a number of people had, especially in his generation.
Also people had those shreds of basic human decency that a lot of people don't have today.
9305086
And as always, England prevails!
9305075 Well at least without Peenemünde I doubt Germany will be launching Vengeance weapons anytime soon. Guessing sicne it doesn't appear the American moon shot was seriously impacted Von Braun survived the ponies attack on Peenemunde.
kind of surprised beyond not really wanting the attention. The princesses haven't done anything to make at least one harbour deep enough for larger ships
9305090 No, it's because there was INTENSE prejudice against the handicapped. Roosevelt minimized his loss of leg function in public because he knew the more people saw him as crippled, the less they would trust him as a leader. That prejudice has by no means died out.
9304286 Re: the beginning of World War 2... if you decide not to be Eurocentric about it, you could go with July 7, 1937, with the Marco Polo Bridge Incident that Japan engineered to claim causus belli against the Republic of China. (Which, in fact, was the second such war, the first one having begun IIRC in 1931...)
9305375 9305090 Part of that was polio scared the crap out of people, for good reason. Starting in the last 1890s or so, summers meant epidemic time, and paralytic polio could kill you dead fast. It wasn't until 1954 when we had a vaccine for it, and there is almost no treatment other than try to keep the symptoms from killing the patient and hope they regain some small measure of recovery. Worse, 95% of polio cases had no symptoms, so there was no real way to quarantine. Now add in *all* of the things you've gotten vaccinated for and consider that each one of them used to run epidemics through the cities too: diphtheria, tetanus, smallpox, measles, mumps, scarlet fever, et al. Now add in the three greatest *other* benefits of modern society: clean water, sewage disposal, electricity. I am *so* glad to be living in an era where the worst danger all of the snowflakes have is a bad tweet.
9305152 Except during soccer season. Mostly.
9305155 Von Braun wasn't the only rocket engineer, but he was the most daring. I'd imagine one of the subtext orders that the Peenemunde group got was "And if you happen to see him, stuff him in a bag and bring him back. Alive."
aww... I was hoping you'd end it with them walking into a theatre.
9305086
And they make a most satisfying thump as they hit the ground!
9305075
And you never bothered explaining who was behind those attacks in-story because...?
While this was overall a good story, I have to second several of the others on this page and complain that there were a few too many holes and sudden unexplained jarring shifts in characterization. And while Jon ultimately did do something useful during the rescue mission, he didn't seem to have any role before that other than being a viewpoint character. Why exactly did Celestia pick him, again, given that he completely flubbed his chosen role and Twilight did it all by herself with no input from him? Why was he even here?
A mouse that can roar pretty loud when needed.
That was a pretty fun story.
9304336
"Okay, now we need to design a whole new rocket that can fit three astronaunts and princess luna."
"but sir-"
"DO IT"
three years later
"I think we finally have a working proto-"
"Sir, the Soviets landed on the moon."
"GOD-DAMNIT"
9304336
That's no moon! It's a rehabilitation facility for wayward alicorns!
Well, now that it's complete, time to read it and complain about every little thing.
I find a scene running through my mind, when considering this one...
"kālo'smi lokakṣayakṛtpravṛddho lokānsamāhartumiha pravṛttaḥ."
"I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds."
J. Robert Oppenheimer muttered the quote, half to himself, half aloud. He'd expected the Trinity "gadget" to work. He'd been certain of... nearly every calculation. But this was something unlike anything he could have calculated for... the destruction was far more complete, far more raging than anything the Human-- or Pony-- mind could have conceived of.
Then again, there wasn't any need to conceive of it any more. Reality had overridden any and all speculation, and the often overblown fantasies of pulp science fiction were fantasies no longer. Shiva walked the Earth now, in the form of a chunk of metal that no longer existed, gone in the hell of nuclear detonation.
And they were considering using this as a weapon of war.
He found himself looking over at the Equestrian observer, one of the few ponies that really had a chance to understand what had just occurred. One newly minted Doctor Moondancer (From what he understood, the ink on her official PhD was less than a year old, which was newly minted to him anyhow) who had been a prisoner of the Germans before Equestria had entered the war over a year before the US had. A brilliant mind, to be sure, albeit handicapped by Equestrian standards-- her horn ended not in a point, but a metal-capped stub some halfway up. This left her with little fine control of the unicorn psychokinesis ability, and was one of the reasons she was usually accompanied by her aide-pony, one Whisper Song-- who was hiding under one of the tables at the moment.
He didn't blame him. He half wanted to hide himself.
Moondancer was muttering something in Equestrian to herself, with an expression he suspected matched his own... a mixture of awe, wonder, and horror. Perhaps the only reasonable expression anyone could have at that moment.
"I'm sorry, Doctor Moondancer... My Equestrian is, well... almost nonexistent. I didn't catch-"
"I... suppose that I was saying what you were saying, Doctor Oppenheimer," replied the unicorn, in a near whisper. "It's... one of your early visitors to Equestria-- I forget who at the moment-- had offered as a translation of one of Princess Celestia's titles, Sol Invictus."
"The Unconquered Sun."
"Yes. I do not know much Latin... but I know that one. And I was trying to think of the Latin for my first thought... at this."
"Oh?"
"Yes. What would be the Latin for 'The Unconquered Sun, conquered'?"
Oppenheimer hesitated, and then answered, "I don't know. But I think that will be remembered long after what I said is forgotten."
History shows that both phrases became legend.
Did I miss something (entirely possible, I read the story in starts and stops, and skipped over some of the more mature scenes), or did what happened with the assassination attempt never get answered?
9304369
I'll third this.
The created world is absolutely fantastic.
I would kill to see a sequel of this
9594389
Either way she's still throwing an unprepared and unworthy child into the fire instead of handling anything herself.
9594463
Well that was a thing. Gives new appreciation for the times we live in, having mastered indoor plumbing.
GEORG YOU BEAUTIFUL SON OF A BITCH
MUST HAVE MORE
9595259
I really wish there were sequels and prequels to this.
God, Heaven, and the Bible. Equestria was Eden and everpresent through history.
Various historical events with ponies.