The year is 1944, World War 2 is raging on. But what happens when 3 soldiers, a german, a french and a british end up in Equestria?
The year is 1944, World War 2 is raging on. But what happens when 3 soldiers, a german, a french and a british end up in Equestria? Well they shoot on sight? Will they make peace, tired of this damn war? Or will this conflict claim yet more lives?
Oh, by the way, Equestria is soon to be at war too.
--*-- Oh look, another HiE fic! Please Wenck, explain how you were able to come up with such a creative and original idea.
Well, it may not be very creative, and I always wanted to write a HiE fic. However I decided to chage it up a bit by making the human not only be non-bronies, but WW2 soldiers. At least for me, that's interesting.
By the way, not everything is historically accurate..
A beautiful little town it once was, full of people going about their business, children running in the streets. Well, at least until the war started. Now Arnhem was being flattened as the Germans advanced on the allied forces that once held the bridge, the key strategical point. Smoke was rising from several point in the city, structures were destroyed or damaged. Firefights everywhere. The engines and guns of the German vehicles roaring fiercely. There was rubble and dust as far as you could see.
*BOOM*
25 year old private Archibald Stantson threw himself to the ground as an explosion shattered the base of the building near him and collapsed it to the ground, injuring and killing many soldiers that were inside.
One week. One bloody week had passed already, and they were waiting for reinforcements in Arnhem. They said they just had to hold for a few days and they would arrive with tanks to help them. Instead, they were facing a German panzer division with just a few PIATs. The British 1st Airborne Division had sustained heavy casualties already. And the were suffering many more. It was just too much. Buildings all around him were collapsed or damaged, the sight of the once bright blue sky was mostly covered by dust, and the sound of constant battle was ringing in his ears.
*BOOM*
Another explosion brought Archibald back to his senses and he sprinted towards a pile of rubble he used as cover. As he took a peek over the rubble, he saw something that made his heart stop. A hetzer flanked by German infantry was heading towards him.
"Archie!" A voice called him. "Archie! Get your bloody ass over here you wanker!" He recognized the voice as the one of his friend Tomas. He turned around and saw him crouched on the door of a little house 30 metres away.
Archibald took a very long breath and started sprinting towards his friend's position at full speed. He could hear the Germans behind him shooting, he could feel the bullets whizzing past him. As he approached the structure he quickly dove to the floor of the main corridor of the building. Tomas let loose a short burst of bullets and got inside.
"Archie are you o-" *BOOM*
An explosion in the door shook the little house. Shrapnel, debris and dust filled the corridor. Archibald's ears were ringing. As the dust settled he looked towards the door only to see his friend agonizing close to death, both legs missing, his gut showing and his back covered in shrapnel.
"TOMMY!" Archibald rushed to his friend, but it was too late, he had just died. "No! Tommy! Fucking Germans, I'll kill you all!" He shouted as rage took over him. His green eyes filling with tears, his short nose was bruised and his brown hair filthy with little pieces of cement and dirt, the same as his brown uniform. His Lee Enfield No.4 Mk.1 dangling on his back.
He heard men approaching the corridor from his back. He turned around expecting them to be German soldiers that would kill him. Instead, he saw two British soldiers. "Oi! You, come, let's get the hell out of here!" One of them said, he was a tall man with brown eyes and red hair, a scar running across his left eye. The man's heart sank as he saw the young boy crying on top of his butchered friend.
"No! I won’t leave him!" Archibald screamed.
"Come on boy! He is dead, we have to get out of here or we'll all die." The tall man said with a clear concern in his voice as he could hear the German soldiers approach.
"I SAID NO!" Archibald cried with rage.
"Damn it. Douglas, cover me, I'll drag him." Upon hearing this, Douglas, a short dark haired men with blue eyes got between Archibald and the door, gun at the ready. The tall man grabbed Stantson from behind and dragged out of the building, all the while the young man shouting to be released.
They got out through the back of the house, but then a blinding light appeared out of nowhere where Archibald was, causing everyone to shield their eyes. When the light was gone, so was the private.
Plain, it was all plain. A plain fucking desert, no cover at all but for just a few dunes. On this desert the Free French Forces battled fiercely holding their ground against Rommel's troops.
Lucky for 29 year old lieutenant Jean Pierre; who was a tall men with light brown hair, light blue eyes, a normal sized nose and covered in sand; and his squad there were no panzers around. A British company that had lost all their commanding officers occupying the same position as them now fell under his command too. They were holding their ground in a dune with poorly made trenches and the Germans had an incredible numerical superiority.
The situation was bad.
"Soldiers!" he yelled to his troops "if we have half the balls than the polish soldiers at Wizna, then we can hold them until our forces have the opportunity to turn the battle in our favor!" Pierre knew that if he was defeated, the allied forces would be cut in half, and the Germans would be able to encircle them with their panzer. This made him wonder why there were not any panzers around. "Keep that machine gun firing and don't be afraid to pop out of cover and shoot!" he said finishing and started firing his MP 18. He could not let the Germans get close enough to take the trench.
Suddenly he heard the sound of engines. 'Shit, panzers' he thought as he took out his binoculars and started looking for the tanks. A few bullets struck the sand in front of him as he ducked down. 'That was fucking close' he thought as he gulped and took another peek. However, he could not see the tanks even though the sound got closer and closer. Then he heard a siren, that was it, he recognized what it was as his face changed to one of horror.
"TAKE COVER, STUKA!" he shouted and then dropped down. The bombs exploded around the trench but none inside. Only a one soldier was injured. "Keep that machine gun firing" he yelled with desperation.
The sound of the old Browning M1919 machine gun was heard again until it stopped once more.
"What the hell do you think you're doing? Keep firing!" Pierre shouted yet another time.
But this time the shooting didn't resume, and Jean turned to look at the mg crew as a soldier look at him, horror and desperation clear in his face "I can't unjamm it" he said with a very clear concern.
"Fuck! Move aside." The lieutenant said as he dropped his weapon, pushed the gunner away and tried unjamming the machine gun. He looked at the Germans, they were getting closer, and there was no suppressive fire on them. 'Come on you piece of shit' he screamed in his mind as he tried pulling the hammer back and taking the round belt out the mg, but to no avail. He looked back up and saw the Germans almost on them.
*thud thud*
Pierre looked down to be staring at a grenade. There was a white light, the sound of an explosion, then nothing, not a sound.
Jean was gone, the mg crew dead, their mostly mutilated torsos near the spot of the explosion.
The Germans stood still for a few seconds, before charging the trench and taking it from the allies.
The huge field was green, a bright beautiful green. At the end, a cluster of trees. A peaceful silence reigned over it. A silence that was broken with the roar of the engines of the M4 Sherman Americans tanks as they pulled the machines forward, followed by the infantry composed mainly of young men, most of them inexperienced since this was a fresh division.
The poor soldiers had no idea they were in the sight of a small Wehrmacht company composed by two Stugs and about a dozen and a half of German soldiers all entrenched. 35 year old Major Wenck Steiner; a mid-stature man with dark brown eyes, dark messy hair, a prolonged nose and a bayonet scar on his right cheek; was tasked with setting up an ambush, and that he did. He waited for the Americans to get closer...closer...a bit closer...He clutched his mp40. "FEUER!" Steiner yelled as he fired a burst of 9 mm bullets.
Out of nowhere 2 of the M4 were destroyed as the projectiles fired by the Stugs cut through their frontal armour as if it were butter. The machine guns started firing, mowing down soldiers left and right. The rifles and smgs picking off the enemies that dove for cover. It was a slaughter.
However, what Steiner didn't see was the British Sherman Firefly at the back of the American line, which knocked out one of the Stugs as it fired and destroyed another M4. The other German tank destroyer turned to face the threat as it advanced toward the tree cluster. However, the gunner of the Stug was too hasty and shot before he could properly aim, causing him to just scrape the side of the Firefly. Steiner's heart stopped, 'we're dead' he thought. This was it, there was no way they could reload on time t-wooshhBOOM
Suddenly the British vehicle exploded, Steiner looked to his left and saw two soldiers with a panzerschreck on the field running back to the trenches.
"Great work soldiers!" The Major happily shouted to them. 'They must have hit the ammo rack for it to blow up like that' he thought.
The Stug disabled 2 more M4s. Everything seemed to be going good, but not for long.
"Kommandant! American infantry division to our right! They're too ma-" Was all lieutenant Hans could say before he was hit in the chest by three bullets.
"Hans! Fuck!" cried Steiner angrily.
Nevertheless, this was no time to weep for a fallen comrade. Steiner could hear the sound of an engine...no, several engines.
"TAKE COVER!" yelled Wenck at the top of his lungs as he dove for cover behind the destroyed Stug and 5 Hawker Hurricanes started strafing the tree line and dropping 100kg bombs which exploded all around him, shrapnel impacting on the other side of the tank destroyer as he heard the pain-filled scream of soldiers whose bodies were being stabbed and bitten by the hot pieces metal.
"Hold your ground and keep firing!" Was the only thing Steiner could say to keep his soldier's moral high enough to keep fighting.
Then, he heard a whistling noise, the very same one that bombs make. He knew he could not run. He knew this was it. A split second before the bomb impacted an incredibly bright light suddenly emerged from the spot where Steiner was.
The fight seized as everyone looked at the light. As it faded away, the Germans saw their commander was not there, in his place there was only scorched earth. The Germans took this chance to drop their weapons and lift their arms as a sign of capitulation. They had fought bravely and killing many enemies. However, they were badly outnumbered, had no reinforcements, no air or anti-air support, and had just lost their commander.
*Cough Cough* Steiner coughed dirt. He slowly got up, all dirty with mud from being lying down in the forest. "Where in the name of fuck am I?" He wondered. He looked around as he took in what he saw. He was in a swamp area, the water reaching his heel. Grass as tall as his knee. Trees that seemed to be looking at him. But above all, the darkness and dense fog that surrounded everything. He looked to his right and could make out a hut not far away "I wonder who is crazy enough to live on this damn forest. Hmm...Wasn't I about to die? Then what the hell am I doing here? Maybe this is the afterlife. Pff, no, look at the stupid things I'm sputtering." He said as he laughed at himself.
As Wenck prepared to walk to the hut in look for...well, to know where the hell he was, he heard a noise behind him, which made him turn. He saw what looked like a man with a blue uniform 'Is that what I think it is?' he asked himself as he silently moved towards the figure he saw, clutching his mp40 tightly.
"AHH!" Jean screamed as he quickly got up "What the f- Where- How?" questions were racing through his mind and he started to hyperventilate. He saw the tall grass, the trees, the swamp, the bushes, the fog, the darkness, he even thought he saw yellow eyes at some point. 'What th- Ho- Okay, calm down, calm down' he though as he tried to calm himself. "Okay, I was in the desert...The mg jammed...The grenade...How is this even possible" He asked aloud.
He heard some movement in the bushes behind him. "Hands up frenchie" Jean heard as he turned around and saw a German aiming at him. He instantly dropped his gun and raised his arms. "Fuck me." He muttered.
"Ow." Archibald said as he woke up. He looked around to see he was in a forest, a very spooky one at that. "What the Hell? There are no forests near Arnhem, at least none like this one." He said even tough he knew no one could hear him.
He inspected the place he was in and grew more concerned every second. The bad feeling the darkness and such dense fog gave him was very bad. Even worse was the eternal silence, as if the whole place was abandoned, but at the same time he felt as if every movement he made was being watched. He gripped his rifle tightly and looked around him for any leads as to where to go. Although, he couldn't see more then 20 metres because of the dark environment.
"Hands up frenchie." He heard in the distance. Which almost made him jump. 'As good as anything...' He turned and started walking in the direction where the noise came from. Weapon at the ready.
"Get on your knees, any sudden moves and you die." Steiner said as he just realized he could speak perfect English.
"How do you speak English so well?" Pierre asked as he kneeled and also realized about his new speaking skills.
"Shut up frenchie, I never said you could speak." this whole situation was really getting to Steiner nerves. "Remove your pistol.".
Jean carefully removed his Modèle 1935 pistol from the holster and set it on the ground to his right. Then they just stared at each other for a few moments before Jean broke the silence "Now what?".
"Don't move!" yelled Archibald as he aimed his rifle at Wenck's forehead. Both the German and French were confused for a moment, Steiner grunted and released the grip on his mp40, letting it fall to the ground.
"Nice one boy!" the lieutenant said as he picked up his mp18. "Now, get on your knees, kraut" he spat the last part of the sentence. The major got on his knees and Pierre picked up his mp40.
"Who are you?" Archibald asked the blue uniformed man.
"Lieutenant Jean Pierre, Free French Forces" he replied "Who are you?".
"P-private Archibald Stantson, 1st Para" the boy stuttered.
"Okay, now kraut, why shouldn't I shoot you?" Jean asked angrily.
"Do what you want, I don't care" the German deadpanned.
Both allied soldiers were surprised by this answer. "What? Why not?" Stantson asked in confusion.
"HAH! You act like you don't care, sure. Well, you certainly did not care about my brother when you killed him!" Jean was starting to get angrier and angrier.
"Brother? What, was he a soldier, a civilian? AND YOU BLAME ME?!" Everyone was shock back by Steiner's outburst "I'm tired of you allies all thinking we're the bad guys and you're the fucking saviors of the world or something! You think we were happy when the war started? Yeah all Germans are evil child eating monsters, heh, that does make it easier to kill us. Doesn't it?" both the other soldiers were just staring with their eyes wide open. He was right. "My INNOCENT family" Steiner continued "was killed by BRITISH bombs while they were shopping. Yes, my mom, dad, young brother and baby sister. The ones I loved most in the whole world. The only ones I had. All dead while peacefully walking by the streets and buying milk. So come on, pull the trigger now if you've got balls." Pierre and Archibald were left without words, their facial expressions turned to a saddened one.
"Heh. Now you pity me?" Wenck almost whispered.
A growl got everyone's attention, and what they said left them with their mouths open. To their left, ten metres away from them, coming out some bushes, was a wolf. A wolf made of wooden sticks that looked as if they had fallen from a tree and gotten together to create this animal, if it could be called that. It's little claws seemed razor sharp, it's teeth as pointy as a needle, bright yellow eyes that glowed in the dark. And it was slowly nearing them in an attack position.
Suddenly, more wolves come out the bushes and weed in front of them, there must have been at least 20.
"W-what is t-that?" Archibald was so scared he was shaking a little.
Steiner ripped the mp40 off the French soldier and aimed at the wolves. "Stand back!" He cried to them, but they gave no heed as they continued to advance. "Scheiße!"
"I'll be damned if I get killed in the middle of nowhere by fucking wood wolves!" Steiner said and started spraying them with his mp40. The other two men started firing as well. And before the wolves knew it, a hail of bullets rained upon them. Yelps were heard, wood was splintered and shattered. By the time they had to reload only 7 wolves remained. One of them lunged at Steiner with it's jaws open, ready to bite into his prey. But the wolf only meet two 7.65×21mm Parabellum round to went right through the head, making his structure fall apart.
"Shoot them in the head!" Wenck shouted to the men at his sides.
Three more wolves attack the group of humans. The first one got a taste of rifle butt that broke his jaw, then another butt to the head ended him. The second wolf went for Pierre and bit on his mp18, the momentum of the lunge sending them both to the ground. Steiner kicked the third wolf in the side of it's head which made it drop to the ground of his side, the wooden monstrosity then received two bullets in the head.
Archibald turned to see Pierre struggling with a wolf. The private took out his knife and embedded it in the wolf's head through the back of its head. The young British man helped Jean up. They both turned as they heard a few mp40 shots and looked to see the German major finishing off the last three wolves.
Wenck just stared blankly at the sight before them. The once menancing wolves all reduced to twigs and sticks which were scattered everywhere.
"AAH!" Archie shouted as he fell to his knees and started crying "WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON?!" he cried.
"Uhh, ahh...Come on boy, calm down" Jean was trying to comfort Stantson to keep his mind off what just happened.
"BUT WHY? WHAT THE FU- HALT DIE KLAPPE!" Steiner silenced the private. He couldn't believe what he was seeing. The wolves were being put back together by some kind of green light. "RUN! FUCKING RUN NOW!" Steiner yelled as he darted in the opposite direction of the wolves; follow closely behind by the other two men.
He saw a dirt road. 'That's it, civilization, they have to be able to help us' he thought with a shimmer of hope. He lead the group through the road un till they came to a stop. Everyone was panting. Wenck sat to the side of the little path and put his hands to his face. Archie and Jean sat next to him.
"Okay." the German said putting his hands away "We...So...Alright, if we are going to survive wherever the fuck we are, we need to stick together. So why don't we start with our names, rank and how we got here? Yes?".
The other two member of the group nodded. Silence reigned until Archie spoke "M-my name is Private Archibald Stantson. I...I was in Arnhem. We were tasked with securing a bridge and waiting for reinforcements, but...They never came. I follow one of my friends into a house to escape some Germans that were advancing on me a-and..." a tear started rolling down his left cheek "Tommy got killed by an explosion...Then some guys dragged me out the building. Out of nowhere I saw a light and then everything was dark." He covered his face with his hands and started weeping.
"I'm sorry for your loss." said Steiner with sympathy in his voice.
"Why didn’t they arrive?!" Archie yelled in anger "They promised a division of tanks!".
"Your reinforcements met heavy resistance, plus we blew up a bridge, that is why they didn't get there in time." Said Wenck calmly.
Archie looked at him in disbelief.
"Hehehe. No silly, I didn't mean that" the three men heard not far away as they clutched their weapons.
"Come on, hide. Do not fire until I say so." Wenck said and everyone got behind the bushes.
When Fluttershy told Twilight about what she heard, she quickly gathered the girls to investigate. But the curiosity was killing her. What could it have been? Was it dangerous? Was it just a pony casting a spell? It didn't matter, she would find out soon enough.
"Um... Twilight?" Rarity's voice made Twilight snap back to the world "How much longer are we going to stay in this dreadful forest?".
"Rarity, ugh, we just got here!" Rainbow Dash said exasperated.
"And, and what if what I heard is a h-horrible m-m-monster?" Fluttershy was certainly scared.
"Don't worry girls, it is probably nothing serious." Twilight said with confidence. She heard some bushes move to her right. "Aufgeben!" a masculine voice said. As Twilight turned to see who had said that, she saw something that made her jaw drop.
They heard hoof steps approaching. 'I should have guessed we were near a farm' Steiner thought. But he also heard feminine voices. 'The farmer's daughters? Hmm...I guess the hut I said earlier is theirs.’ 'Aah, can't see shit...Fuck it.' Wenck thought as he jump out the bushes and yelled "Aufgeben!" follow by the other two humans.
... ... ... The group of soldiers was standing up, aiming their weapon at 6 pastel coloured short horses? The horses got to about their stomach in height. The noticed everyone was staring at them in confusion except for a yellow coated pink maned...Pegasus? That was hiding behind an orange coated yellow maned horse with a...a cowboy hat.
"Don't follow your natural instincts and surrender frenchie, they just little horses." Wenck joked, which earned a chuckle from Archie and a glare from Jean.
"Who are you calling horse you...hairless monkey!" one with a blue coat and a rainbow mane said, she also had wings, another pegasus.
Now the human's mouths were on the ground. This was too much. Dark evil forest, okay. Wooden wolved that tried to kill them, it could be dealt with. But talking little pastel coloured horses? This was just ridiculous.
"H-horses can't talk" Jean said gripping his mp18 harder.
"Excuse me." a horsey with a white coat and blue mane said in a stuck up tone. 'Hold on, is that a horn?' "But we are ponies, and as you can see, we can talk. Also, may I point out, those dresses you're wearing are just horrendous.".
'Dresses...' Steiner glanced at Jean "Draw me like one of your French girls..." he whispered.
"Did you say something?" the purple coated pony with a dark purple mane that had two striped of light purple in the middle said. Wenck noticed she had wings AND a horn.
"Do you know where we are?" Archie said casually, as he hung his rifle on his back.
"What are you doing?" Pierre muttered to him, but Archie payed no attention.
"We are in the Everfree forest." said Twilight trying to calm them and get them to lower what she assumed were weapons. "My name is Twilight. That is Applejack" Twilight pointed to the pony.
"Howdy pardner." Applejack said.
'Pff Yankee' Steiner thought.
"I'm Rarity." Rarity said "Hello darlings.".
"I'm Fluttershy." The pony said barely audible.
"I'm the one and only super awesome RAINDOW DASH!" Rainbow said as she made a loop in the air.
Out of nowhere a pink blub jumped in front of the men. "OH HI! MY NAME IS PINKIE PIE! BUT YOU CAN CALL ME PINKIE! OOHH YOU'RE NEW HERE! i'LL HAVE TO THROW YOU A PARTY! I'LL BE SUPER FUN, WE'LL HAVE DECORATIONS, AND FOOD LIKE CUPCAKES! OOH CUPCAKES! DO YOU LIKE CUPCAKES I LOVE CUP-" Pinkie said making Wenck and Jean jump.
"For the love of shit, don't do that again!" Steiner said. Just then, he noticed some kind of tattoo of the ponies’ flanks. 'This is getting too weird too quickly.' he thought.
"Who are you, eehm, guys?" Twilight said as she pulled Pinkie back and put on a 'don't kill us' grin.
The humans stared at them for a second, and then proceeded to tell their names and ranks.
"Major Wenck Steiner".
"Lieutenant Jean Pierre".
"Private Archibald Stantson".
"Oh, so you're soldiers. Well, why don't you come to my house in Ponyville?" Twilight said so they could get out the forest, she had a bad feeling.
"Sure thing!" Archibald said as he started walking, only to be grabbed and pulled back by the gray uniformed German.
"Get ahold of yourself private!" Steiner yelled "We don't know if they are friendly or not.”
"Oh come on!" Archie said as he put on an 'are you kidding me?' face.
Suddenly, a load roar caught everyone's attention.
As everyone turned around Wenck and Pierre said at the same time "Fuck me."
Standing before them was a monster with the body of a lion; golden fur, sharpened claws. Dark wings like a bat, a scorpion tail. Eyes as red as the fire of hell, eyes that could burn your soul with just a glance. A creature of nightmares. A look of hunger and anger in its face. Th-
"Du hurensohn!" Steiner yelled, making everyone including the manticore recoil in surprise "Fuck this world! Fuck this Forest! Fuck these ponies! But above all, FUCK YOU!" Steiner then proceeded to unload his whole magazine on the beast.
A few seconds later, the creature fell to the ground with 23 new holes. But that did not stop Wenck. He wanted to unload, he needed to unload all his anger. An anger he had been accumulating and finally exploded.
Hi unholstered his Luger and shot the lifeless body and he advanced. When the pistol clicked empty, he took out his knife and charged. Steiner embedded the knife through the right eye of the creature. "Fuck" he shouted as his pulled the knife back “you!" and stabbed it again. Tears streaming down his cheeks. This was to much. His brain on the edge of what it could handle.
Everyone watched dumb folded. Twilight knew she had to get them out of here before they all went insane. Her horn started glowing bright purple, and a same coloured mist surrounded the humans. They were confused at first, but could not react as they fell asleep.
Fluttershy and Rainbow were shaking like leaves. Rarity hiding behind Applejack, who was staring blankly at the humans, the same of Pinkie Pie. "They're dangerous, we can't bring them to Ponyville!" Rainbow said. "They'll kill us all! Let's leave them here and run!" Rarity agreed.
"NO!" everyone was incredibly surprised to see Fluttershy yell "I have never seen them around, which means they're from another place, maybe even another world. That of they have been in isolation for so long, that they have become like this. They need help, and it us our responsibility to help them!".
"But Fluttershy-" Applejack, who had already gathered herself, tried to argue, but was cut short by the yellow pegasus. "No buts! Can't you see they are broken? Their minds can barely take it!".
"She's right girls." Twilight said.
"B-but, where do we take them?" Dash asked.
"Twilight, can you teleport us to my cottage?"
Sparkle nodded and her horn lit up and they vanished.
"So you casted a spell that made us fall asleep, then teleported us here?" Archie asked and Twilight nodded.
The humans and ponies were sitting in a circle in the main room of Fluttershy's cottage. There was a large green carpet on the floor. Some small furniture here and there with family pictures and other objects. And many critters running around. For the past 30 minutes the ponies had told them some things about their culture and world, and explained what happened in the forest.
"Well, I apologize for our behavior. Mine in particular, it was just...Too much." Steiner said.
"I understand." Twilight replied and gave him a smile.
Out of nowhere a white bunny went up to Steiner and smiled at him. "Oh, looks like little Angel likes you." Fluttershy said in a happy tone.
"Yeah, ruthless tough German Major, the little fluffy bunny likes you. Why don't you pet it? Jean joked.
'Challenge accepted motherfucker' Wenck though as he went to pet the bunny with his finger. However, as he got near him, Angel bit and then proceeded to laugh his ass off as Wenck quickly pulled his arm back and winced in pain.
Fluttershy scolded the little demon as Archie and Pierre laughed their asses off. "I'm sorry Wenck." the yellow pegasus apologized.
"No, please. It is okay, I'm sure he was just playing." Wenck said putting up a happy face. 'Little shit.' he thought inside.
"Anyways." Jean asked as he wiped a tear from his eye "Where did you say we were exactly?"
"We're in the town of Ponyville." Twilight said. 'My god, this name just breaks the boundaries of creativity' Wenck thought. "In the country of Equestria" Twilight finished. 'Of course...'.
"So, tell us about yourselves." The purple alicorn said as she materialized a quill, ink and a stack of paper.
"Well." Jean said "We are soldiers of different countries that are in a war. My country, France; and his country, The United Kingdom" he pointed to Archie" are fighting his country, Germany." Pierre pointed to Wenck.
"Fighting? Why?" Fluttershy asked horrorized as the thought of humans dying crossed her mind.
"It all started with the dream of a certain man called Otto Von Bismarck to unify his country, but that's a story for another time." Steiner replied.
Twilight was a little let down since she wanted to record everything.
"Basically, we were fighting, in different locations, then saw a bright white blinding light. Afterwards, woke up in the forest." Archie spoke with clear tiredness in his voice, even though he slept for three hours.
"And do you have any family?" Twilight asked.
The expressions of the humans changed to a saddened one as they remembered their loved ones who died. Archie's eyes began to tear up. Jean put his around him and Wenck looked at him with sympathy. He knew his pain.
"Wenck's family is all dead...I lost my b-brother. Archie lost his best friend." Jean said as tears started streaming down his face.
"I...I'm so sorry..." the alicorn apologized.
"No, it's okay. You did not know. Men get ahold of yourselves." Steiner ordered.
The two other soldiers wiped their tears away and composed themselves.
"We need to check our weapons and ammo." he said "I have my mp40, two magazines left. My Luger, two magazines left. Two grenades, my binoculars and knife"
"Mp18, four magazines left. I left my handgun back in the forest. My binoculars and knife are here." Jean said as he felt around his uniform with his hands for useful things
"Lee Enfield No.4, about 30 rounds left. And my knife." Archie spoke last.
Then the room fell silent for a few moments untill Rarity spoke "It's getting rather late, isn't it darling?”
"Oh, indeed it is." Twilight answered.
"Very well." Wenck stood up "We'll sleep outside, come on men."
Archie and Jean stood up. "No you ain't." Applejack deadpanned "Ah ain't 'bout to let some good folk in need of shelter sleep outside. You sleepin' in mah house."
"We don't want to bother you." Jean said.
"You ain't sugarcube, it would bother me if ah I you were sleepin' outside. Plus, you can buck with me tomorrow."
"Excuse me?" Jean asked surprised by the offer "Look, you are a good looking wom- eeh, pony. But I don't think this is possible."
"What?" Applejack had no idea what he was talking about.
"No you dummkopf. She said 'buck', not 'fuck'. Plus, you'd surrender as soon as she was on top of you." Steiner said as he and Archie laughed.
"Oooh..." Pierre realized as he and the orange pony blushed.
"Oookay, let's get moving." Twilight was trying to break the embarrassing moment.
As they were nearing the town Wenck noticed something strange.
"Hey." he told the ponies that were talking among themselves "What is going on?"
The girls looked forward. Twilight's face turned to one of horror.
Outside the village, all the inhabitants were gathered. But the three other princeses, her brother, and some unicorn royal guards were there too. They were chained and had what looked like magical dampeners in their horns. They were stone cylinders made of some white stone at the base of the horns. The town and nearby field were filled with...Goblins and a few orcs. They wore just rags or leather armour, but some had chainmail armour, probably the officers. The goblins were little dark green dirty creatures, they were as tall as the ponies, and most were fat. Their rags covered their hips to their knees, and had broken leather shoes. They all were gripping their swords which were varying in size, but all were short, and had curves along the sides. The handle was a thin section of the bottom wrapped by cloths.
The orcs were as tall as a human, some even taller. They were dark blue and had big muscles. Most had black warpaint in the face. They sported a weak leather armour that covered their chest, stomach and upper section of their legs, not reaching the knee. Their swords were long straight blades, that got wider from the handle outwards. In the top, a section of the weapon sticked out, like a pickaxe.
There were well over a hundred orcs and goblins, mostly the second.
'B-But they're supposed to be extinct.' Twilight thought. Across the river in front of the town, there were a few goblins, one of them holding hostage a pony. She was a cream coated, crimson maned, blue eyed pegasus with an steampunk airship cutie mark. A knife pressing against her throat.
'But why are the princesses here? Why woul-' then it hit her 'My Birthday' Twilight realized 'Today is my birthday.'
'Fuck me with every single dildo in existence' Wenck cursed himself. "Quick! Hide in the river bank!" he whispered.
The nine of them were crouched almost touching the river, covered by the ground which was sloped up and then continued flat.
"Alright. I think I can remove the dampeners with an accurate energy bolt." Twilight told her plan.
"Dampeners?" Jean inquired.
"The thing in the other alicorn's horn." Sparkle replied "Once I free her, she'll deal with everything."
"Let's hope you're right." Archie was worried.
The purple mare charged her horn, focused, and then shot a small ball of energy. But powerful enough to break then dampeners. Or so she though, as the ball touched the dampeners, it dissipated. 'My...My magic is not powerful enough' Twilight cursed.
Everyone turned to look at the group hidden in the river bank. Every eye on them. "Kill the prisoner!" a tall orc with chainmail ordered. As the goblin began to press to press the knife harder against the throat of the mare a loud bang was heard. Followed by a splatter of blood coming out the goblin's head as it fell backwards onto the ground.
Everyone turned to see Archie holding up his Lee Enfield, which has its barrel smoking. Everything was silent for a moment.
'I am dead.' Steiner though as he charged towards the group of goblins near the aforementioned mare. He kicked one of them to the ground and finished it off with a burst of bullets.
*BANG BANG BANG*
Another gobling dropped dead.
*BANG BANG BANG*
As well as the one next to him.
"Archie! Pierre! The dampeners" Steiner yelled as he was slashed across the chest and fell down. The cut was not deep, but still hurt like hell. Another burst of bullets killed the offending goblin. His gray uniform slowly started turn dark by his blood mixing with the cotton and wool.
At the same time, the other two humans rushed towards the princesses. Pierre spraying the enemies in front as Archie engaged them in melee combat with his rifle, which had the bayonet inserted.
*BANG BANG BANG*
A burst of bullets from the mp18 saved the British man from being stabbed in the back. Meanwhile Archie blocked slash with his rifle and then embedded the bayonet in the orc's neck, cutting the jugular.
Steiner received a stab in his right leg. He fell to the ground and his mp40 was taken by a goblin, as another one prepared to kill him. He pulled out his Luger.
*click*
Wenck's face had horror written all over it. He had forgotten to reload it. This was it.
Suddenly, both goblins were bucked back by the pegasus mare. Who then slit one's throat and cracked the skull of the other one with her hoof.
"How do we get these things off?!" Archie screamed in desperation. They were surrounded, completely surrounded.
Over 20 goblins and orcs lunged at them at the same time. Ready to kill them, eat them raw, tear their limbs apart, and many other atrocities. They closed their eyes. But the pain never came, they did not feel anything. Was death really that quick and painless?
They open their eyes to see their enemies suspended in the air, covered in a purple glow. They then hit the ground enough to knock them out or kill them.
"Shoot it!" Jean said as he turned to Archie.
"What?"
"It's the only way! Shoot it now!"
Private Stantson aimed at the dampener on the horn of a white coated alicorn, her hair had different stripes of colour and seemed to be fluttering in an invisible wind. He concentrated, took aim.
*BANG*
The bullet hit the dampener and exploded outwards in dozens of little pieces. The soldiers covered their eyes just in time as the rocky shrapnel hit and got stuck in their bodies. They fell to the ground screaming in pain. Then the white alicorn broke her chains with her magic, and grabbed all the evil green and blue creatures in her golden yellow magic. Suddenly the hearts of the beasts stopped as they were dropped to the ground, lifeless.
It was nighttime. The shining light of the moon mostly blocked by the clouds, grayer than his uniform. The rain pouring down upon them. The dense fog severely limiting their sight. Their breath easily visibly as they inhaled and exhaled.
He and a handful of soldiers entrenched in some of the several shellholes on the ground, left there by the previous artillery barrage. Scaring the once green field. Roads and houses since long gone. Then, he heard them approaching. First, he saw faint figures in the mist; but as they advanced, he saw them clearer.
Legions upon legions of orcs and goblins. The nightmarish creatures paying no mind to the torrent of artic cold water mercilessly cascading against their bodies.
Steiner and his men clutched their weapons tighter. He took a deep breath and then yelled "FIRE!"
Machine guns, rifles and smgs started delivering a deadly hail of bullets to the advancing beasts. But no matter how many of them fell, there were more to replace them. As their comrades were slaughtered before them, they kept thoughtlessly advancing, as if they were programmed to do so. Perhaps they were.
"Fuck you!" Wenck shouted as he pushed aside a goblin that lunged at him and crushed it's skull with his boot. He looked around him and saw his soldiers were being quickly overwhelmed. The German was yanked out of his thoughts as an orcish blade was buried in his stomach. The offending orc in pulled the sword back; Steiner, in turn, fell backwards agonizing.
The hellspawn raised its sword high, and brought it down on him.
"AAH!" Wenck yelled as he woke up from his nightmare. His heart was racing, his body covered in sweat, he was painting heavily.
He looked around. He was in a hospital bed; the room's walls were painted white. The sunlight pouring in through the large window to his right; also to his right there was a small white table, above it a long string that was hanging from the ceiling. In front of his bed, there were two large double doors. To his left, a sort of white little night table; on top there was a small copper box, in its front on the centre a circular glass that allowed to see inside. Through the little window on the box there was a red orb that grew a little bigger and glowed brighter every time a 'beep' was heard, and then returned to normal. Wenck noticed a cable going from the box to his chest, and saw he was wearing a light blue hospital gown.
Suddenly, he started feeling an intense burning sensation across his chest and in his right leg. He gritted his teeth and tried to hold off the pain in hopes it would pass, but to no avail.
"AAAAAH!" He yelled "AAAH! HELP! HELP!"
Hoofsteps were heard rushing to the room and a white coated unicorn mare with a blonde mane, blue eyes and a syringe cutie mark that was wearing a white shirt bust in the room. With her magic she opened one of the drawers of the white night table, took out a syringe and injected its liquid in Steiner's left arm.
The pain immediately stopped, and Wenck's panting slowly died down. "How are you feeling?" asked the mare.
"Better now." Replied the Major.
"I am doctor Pointy Syringe."
"That does not sound encouraging." Wenck joked and got a chuckle from the mare "Where are the others?"
"The Princesses, the elements, the other two humans and a few royal guards are in the Ponyville Library."
"How long have I been out?"
"Two days."
Wenck's eyes scanned the room once more "Where is my uniform?"
"Oh no no no sir. You are staying right here."
"I can handle myself."
"That's what a lot of my patients say. Before crying like foals."
"Did you ever have an alien soldier as your patient?"
The unicorn looked at him with a straight face.
"I've been through worse doctor, believe me."
For a few moments, the only sound in the room was the beeping of the copper box.
"Hmpf. I'll be right back." the mare said before leaving.
"Hahahahaha." everyone in the library was laughing. Though for Jean and Archie it also hurt from all the shrapnel wounds they received.
"That is so not truth!" said Pinkie as she wiped a tear from her eye.
"I swear he did it!" Archie said.
A knock on the door was heard as everyone fell silent and it was opened by Twilight's magic, revealing Wenck and Pointy.
The two humans instantly stood up and saluted.
"A- *cough cough* At ease men." Wenck said as he limped inside and Archie and Pierre sat back down. Everyone was seated in the floor on the library. Steiner and Pointy took their seats on the right of the cream coated mare he had helped save two days ago. She was wearing a light blue military shirt and commander cap of the same colour with an emblem of an airship. "Luger."
"What?" Twilight asked.
Jean took the Luger from his belt and slided it to Steiner, who checked it was loaded and then holstered it.
"Hello Major Wenck Steiner." Celestia greeted him "Your friends here have told us all about you and your world. Please let us introduce ourselves. I am Princess Celestia co-ruler of Equestria and in charge on the Sun."
"I am Princess Luna." a dark blue alicorn with a dark blue and black mane that fluttered in an invisible wind stated."I-"
"There is no need for introduction, I know who most of you here are. Twilight told me." Wenck turned to the pegasus on his left.
"Airfleet Commander Silky Winds." She said "Thank you for saving me the other day."
"Well, you saved me too, so I guess we're even."
"Still, it was very brave of you."
Wenck nodded, and then proceeded to stare at the airship cutie mark of said mare. 'What the fuck is that?'.
"See something you like?" Silky joked.
"What? No, of course not. I mean, not that you're not pretty! No wait! I meant that you're pretty but not...Uhh..I meant that...Oh, fuck me."
This threw everyone in the room into a fit of laughter, except for Steiner who was face palming and Cadence who was looking at him with a smile on her face.
"Don't worry Major, it was just a joke." Winds was actually blushing slightly "Anyways, I got to get going." she said as she walked to the door and brushed her tail on Wenck's face. "I'll be seeing you around." She said as she winked at him before taking off into the sky.
'What have I done?' Steiner was blushing profusely.
"Haha! Looks like Wenck is getting all the mares!" Jean mocked him.
The German glanced at him and smiled "At least I didn't accidentally fuck Applejack." he countered.
Princess Mi Amore raise an eyebrow as Jean and the orange pony blushed, remembering the moment.
Celestia coughed and got everyone's attention. "For your incredible bravery I want to bestow upon you Equestria's highest military decoration. Faust's Cross." at the mention of the award Shining Armour's jaw dropped. That award was only given in acts of extreme bravery and combat skill.
"I'll pass on that one." Steiner as everyone looked at him surprised. He then took out a Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords, and Diamonds from his pocket and threw it to the centre of the room. Jean and Archie couldn't believe what they were seeing. "I got that trying to save my friends, and failed. I don't want any more awards. I don't need any more memories."
Celestia regarded him with sympathy. She knew his pain well.
"What I do want, is to know what those things were."
"Very well." Celestia said as she picked up the Knight's Cross with her magic and put it back in Wenck's pocket. "Five thousand years ago there was city south of Equestria. A city so imponent, with buildings that could touch the sky, factories working day and night, harbors and docks. Airships and planes flying in its sky. Battleships and submarines in its waters. A city that was cut by three rivers which connected on its centre; the Vltava, the Volga, and the Rhin. This city was the centre of science, technology, culture, alchemy and magic in the world. This city was called Erebor. The race that built and inhabited it, the humans. Their kings, the bloodline of Daenerys Targaryen. The Valyrian Empire." Celestia took a little break before continuing, she now had the attention and interest of everyone in the room. "However, this golden age of prosperity did not last long. For the enemies of Valyria quickly grew. One above all, the orc Novenor, ruler of the Xanthian Kingdom."
"An orc? Why didn't they just kill him?" Wenck asked.
"Because he is no normal orc. He has incredible strength and a natural talent for hate magic, the most powerful of dark magics." Luna said.
"Valyria was divided between two main parties. The loyalists to the Targaryen crown, otherwise known as the Valyrian Axis; and the democratics, or Freedom Fighters, who were lead by an ambicious greedy man that sought only personal fortune and welfare, Spaci Venotenko. Novenor allied with him declared war on the Targaryen loyalists. Their weapons were much like yours, so you know how much destruction was caused." Celestia's horn lit up and images flashed in the centre of the room. Infantry men firing rifles, smgs and mgs; tanks rolling, firing, and exploding; massive armoured airships, some that didn't even need a balloon to stay afloat since their had powerful turbines, letting loose volley after volley of HE and AP rounds from their giant cannons; mass shootings of innocent civilians. War. "The war raged on for 2 years before other nations got in the fight. The Griffin Kingdoms, Diamond Dogs and Minotaurs sided with Novenor. While Equestria and Zebraica joined the Valyrian Axis." A few tears running down the white alicorn's cheeks as she remember the suffering, the pain, the death. "Eventually, we won. We locked Novenor in Tartarus, his forces scattered away and his allies surrendered. But the humans could never rebuild, their casualties well over ninety million. And eventually, the race went extinct. But now, Novenor escaped Tartarus, and is rebuilding. We must prepare for far."
Everyone in the rooms was silent. All the ponies, even Shining, had tears in their eyes. Everyone except for the humans, for them all that was routine.
"But" Celestia said wiping the tears from her eyes "let's not think about that now, it'll take time for him to prepare an actual invasion. So, why don't you all come to Canterlot? Get to know each other better, and the other ponies. Your actions sure did leave an impression on everyone."
Jean and Archie looked at Steiner. "Alright, but what's the real reason?" Wenck deadpanned.
Luna and Celestia were shocked inside, how did he know? "The world leaders are gathering...To see you in person. They will be given books of everything Twilight found out about you. They'll just ask you a few questions."
Wenck grunted. "Fine, we will answer their questions, but know that we are not museum pieces."
"Stop looking around the sky Jean" Archie said to the man sitting next to him on the train "there are no Messerschmitt in Equestria."
"I know, it's just...Old habits die hard." Pierre replied. His mind flashed back to that moment. His division was on a train, the green trees and olives under the afternoon sky was all that could be seen through the windows. All the sudden they heard the engines of the planes. And then, the bullets going through the wooden walls of the wagons, ripping apart bone and flesh alike. Blood splattered in the walls, men with loose limbs crying in agonizing pain. A few strafes and they were gone, and so was half the division. It was too quick, too bloody.
Wenck and Shining were sitting on a table in the back of the wagon. The German sharing his war stories, Armour listening with a mixed look of intrigue and sadness in his face. He was wearing his captain armour with a sword on his side.
The four princesses were in the opposite table talking amongst themselves. And the rest the elements were still trying to get over what they saw and heard.
"So" Steiner said "What kind of technology and armament do you have?"
"Well" Shining replied "We have airships, though not as big as the Valyrian ones. They are steel plated though, just like our sea ships. The cannons are mainly 155mm. Though our Flag Airship, Equestria Royal Airship or ERA Starswhirl has two turrets, one on the back and one on the front, with two cannon of 355 mm each. Our alchemy and medicine is pretty advanced too."
"Why do you have swords and not rifles and such?"
"That knowledge was long lost, and even though our inventors tried to replicate them, they only have been able to build some old gunpowder rifle prototypes. Hey look! The ERA Moonlight."
Sure enough, through the window Wenck could see a steel plated ship, hanging from a giant zeppelin-like balloon. The ship itself had a propeller on the back, two in the sides on the back, and another two in the sides on the front. Six 155mm cannons on each side. On the sides of the balloon there was Equestrian sun and moon flag. Truly a wonder of technology.
"Holy mother of shit." muttered Steiner.
"And Commander Silky Winds’s ship is bigger and doesn't need a balloon due to more powerful propellers and magical anti-gravity resistance. It is the Flag Airship after all."
"Is she in command of the Air force?"
"Second in command. The commander in chief of all the equestrian armed forces is Celestia, which would make her Airfleet Admiral, among other ranks. Though her sister can share command."
"Makes sense."
"So, she's got her eye on you."
Wenck gave him his best 'the fuck?' face.
"Come on, you know it's true."
"Sie sind ein Arschloch. She said it herself, she was just kidding."
"Twenty bits when we get to the castle she asks you out."
"I don't have money."
"You know I'm right."
"Fine, deal." Wenck shook Shining's hoof.
"Hey, I forgot to ask .Can you duplicate things with your magic?"
"It is hard, but I can try. What do you need?"
"I only have one magazine left." Wenck took out his last mp40 magazine and put it on the table.
Shining closed his eyes in concentration as his horned and the magazine glowed purple. Sweat started dripping down his forehead. A ghostly figure of the magazine started separating from the physical one. When they were apart, Shining's horn stopped glowing and the ghostly figure turned physical. "That was really hard." he said panting "You should get twilight to make more for you."
"Danke." Wenck said as he put the ammunition away.
"We'll we arriving to Canterlot Castle withthin ten minutes" a voice said from a speaker.
As all the humans looked out the window to the city, a bunch of phrases like 'Holy shit' and 'Don't surrender frenchie' were heard.
The train was moving at full speed under the setting sun. There was a large desert as far as the eyes could see, the train leaving a train of dust and engine smoke. It quickly approaching the city of Canterlot, capital of Equestria.
Inside a first class wagon, three humans standing near an open door.
“Now.” said Steiner “Focus on your target. You are your rifle, your rifle is you. Where you aim, you bullet will go.”
Archie stared at the wooden pole that was closer and closer every second. When it was forty metres from the wagon. He quickly aimed and shot, all in a split of a second. Then, wood was heard splintering and shattering.
“Sehr gut!”
“Great shot!” exclaimed Jean.
“Listen here men.” Steiner got their attention. “Now, when we go to that meeting tomorrow, we WILL try not to offend the world leaders in any way. However, have in mind, we take no shit from them. Verstanden?”
“Yes sir!” both said in unison.
“Gut. Seems we are approaching the city, I recommend that you get some rest after we eat.”
“Wenck.” called Archie
“Hmm?”
“What do you think about this whole thing? Is it bollocks or...”
“Bollocks does not slash you across the chest and stab you in the leg mein freund.”
The throne room was the biggest room they’d ever seen. Two giant doors of ten metres was the entrance. The roof was at thirty metres probably. On the sides, stained glass showing the heroic adventures of Twilight and her friends, the moonlight shining upon them. At the end of the room, a large set of stairs; in the top of the stairs, two amazing looking thrones; one was red, the other dark blue. In the centre of the room, a large dining table filled with all sorts of vegetables, hay products and some meat for the human guests. Celestia and Luna were at the head of the table. The elements and Cadence on Celestia’s side. On Luna’s side sat Archie, Jean, Wenck, Silky Winds, Shining Armour and Pointy, who had gotten to Canterlot by air balloon.
Suddenly Wenck spoke up. “Halt!” he accidentally yelled, scaring everyone slightly. “Pardon. But why are you here?” he asked looking at Pointy.
“Uh, to check up on you?” the mare answered.
“Why?”
She levitated an apple and hit him in the chest with it. Wenck grunted in pain as he put his hand on his injury. “That’s why.” the unicorn said.
“Fair enough.”
Silence reigned for a few more moments.
“So.” Silky looked at Wenck “Would you like me to show you around the castle tomorrow before your meeting?”
He heard Shining chuckle, and he glanced at him, he saw the stallion smiling.
“You wipe that stupid smile of your face before I do. As for your offer Commander...Sure, why not.”
Then Cadence chuckled. “Dear lord.” Wenck sighed “I’d rather have ten Typhoon after me right now then this.” he muttered.
Jean laughed, and then looked at the Major with a smiley face. Wenck waved a white napkin at him.
“That joke is getting really old really fast.” the lieutenant said.
“Oi! Jean lad. Didn’t you say you wanted to ask Applejack out?” Archie almost shouted trying to embarrass his friend. At the mention of this Jean blushed at he punched the British in the shoulder. He then looked at Applejack, who was also profusely blushing.
“Heh! Ja! What is it with you and Yanks?” Wenck joked.
Pierre grabbed a glass of water and started drinking.
“So when are you and Applejack going to have kid?” Pinkie asked in all seriousness. Which caused Jean to spit all the water he was drinking.
“You *cough cough* You know what? I *cough* feel tired after all the travelling and fighting. I’m going to bed...Where’s my bed?”
“Night Heart, please show him to his room.” Luna said to one of her guards.
“We’ll be going too.” Wenck said as he and Archie stood up.
“Now, Gefreite, don’t you walk into Jean’s room without knocking tonight, least you want to catch him masturbating to Applejack.” Wenck mocked.
“WHAT?!” Pierre shouted.
“Keep walking you.”
As they walked away, Silky looked at Wenck until he left the room. She sighed. “Excuse me, I must go.”
She followed Wenck to his room. When she identified it, went to the courtyard of the castle, and flew in from the window. “Hey!” she said, making Wenck jump.
“Scheiße! Don’t do that.” he said
“Sorry.”
He stared at her. “Yes?”
“Oh..it’s just...I wanted to chat.”
“Oh...alright right. Well this one time I was checking my regiment’s rifles...”
*BANG* was the sound of hooves hitting a night table. Waking Wenck up violently. He looked to his left to see Silky Winds with a smile of her face, wearing her light blue shirt and hat.
“Was zum teufel?! Are you insane?!” he shouted.
“I may be insane, but you’re late for the castle tour.”
“Mein gott. Give me a moment to put my uniform on.”
“Okay.” she continues to gaze at him as he slid out out bed and put on the gray clothes.
“Did you wake the others up?”
“Yup! What does ‘merde’ mean?”
“It means shit in french.”
Suddenly Wenck smelled a sweet aroma. “Was it that sweet scent?”
Silky blushed “T-that’s my perfume.”
He abruptly took an interest in the clouds he could see out his window. ‘Oh mein gott. When will I stop accidentally flirting with her...Do I want to flirt with her? Pff, no, she’s a pony, I’m a human.’ He finished putting off his uniform. “Sehr gut, lead the way mein kleine pony.”
Jean was at the door of Applejack’s room. ‘Come on goddammit. I fought in the desert, and can’t handle this?’
He knocked twice.
“Come in!” a muffled voice from the other side said. He opened the door and walked in.
“He-Hello.” he greeted her, clearly nervous.
“O-Oh, ‘ello ther’ sugarcube. Watcha need?” she was tense too, but she hiding it just a bit better.
“I-I was wonder if...uuh...y-you’d l-like to go to the city with m-me...alone...together...today.” he was shaking slightly and sweat from dripping from his hands and forehead.
“Oh...Oooh...W-Well I can’t ‘cause I’m goin’ out with mah’ friends today, and then we have the meeting thing.”
“Oh, okay, I understand.”
“But tomorrow I’m free.”
“Y-you are?”
“Great! We’ll work out the details later ma dame!” He turned to leave but was stopped as he saw all the other elements there.
Hoof steps were heard all around the training grounds. There were ponies doing push ups, some climbing ropes, other sparring, unicorns practicing magic, pegasi making maneuvers.
*BANG shk shk- shk shk BANG shk shk- shk shk BANG shk shk- shk shk BANG shk shk- shk shk BANG*
Everypony turned to look at a human in a brown uniform clutching a smoking Lee Enfield No.4. Five targets in front of him, one hole in the centre of each one of them.
“Bullseye.” Archie muttered as he pulled the bolt back and ejected an empty bullet casing. Five rounds left on the ten round mag.
He then walked away thinking to himself ‘I waltz into the training grounds like ‘whatup I got a big cock mate.’’
“Wow...” Steiner did not have words to describe what he was seeing. It was an old wrecked, yet still amazing Valyrian airship the VIA Odin (Valyrian Imperial Airship).
“It is huge.” Winds said.
“Heh, if you like huge things, I’ve got something for you.” he said as he and the mare blushed ‘Wenck! Shut the fuck up!’ he ordered himself.
“He...hehe...Well, I happen to be good at maneuvering...Huge things...”
‘Mein gott.’
“So.” she said “Would like to get inside...”
“Sure.”
“...me”
“W-w-was?!”
From the darkness, a pink face with magenta eyes looked at them. A wide smile planted on her face.
The room was lit by numerous candles. A mahogany semicircular table in the centre where the main world leaders were seated. On the far left, a griffin, golden feathers in his body, dark feathers in his head. He was wearing an armoured chestplate. A sword hanging from his hip. He was as tall as a human. A minotaur was next to him. Pale Blue skin, several piercings in his body. Leathers trousers and shoes. A long scar from his chest to his stomach. He was at least fifty centimetres taller than a human. Then, an old zebra with golden earrings and a bone necklace. As tall as a pony Following the row of seats there was a diamond dog. He has a typical gray fur, and a red waistcoat with several knives. A bit smaller than your average human. Then were the four princesses, the other five elements, Shining Armour, a pony general, a pony admiral, and an empty seat.
On a smaller mahogany table was in front of the aforementioned one. It There were three seats. Only to occupied by Archie and Jean. Each with all their respective equipment. The room was dead silent.
“Jean.” Archie whispered “Where in bloody fuck is Major Steiner?”
“How the fuck should I know?” Pierre answered.
Just then, two figures bust through the door. A human, with a sloppy put on gray uniform, a german commander cap and his holstered Luger, he had left his mp40 in his room. The other was a pegasus pony, with a very messy mane and her light blue military shirt and cap. They both took their seats.
“Steiner. You dog you.” Jean mocked him.
“Shh, shut the fuck up.” Wenck whispered.
Celestia, Luna and Cadence were smiling at them.
The minotaur coughed, getting everyone's attention. He stood, an imposing figure. “Mind telling us where you and the pony were?” he said Steiner in a severe and serious voice.
“How about no?” replied Wenck.
“Wh- You dare talk back to me?”
“Well, genius, how will I answer your questions, if I don’t talk back to you?”
The minotaur slammed the table. “You scum! Do you want to fight?! I will kill you, and that slut!”
Wenck stood up, unsheathed his knife and embedded in on the table with all his strength. “Now listen here big guy. You talk to her like that again AND I’LL RAM MY FIST SO FAR UP YOUR FUCKING ASSHOLE THAT EVERY THOUGHT YOU HAVE WILL HAVE TO TIPTOE PAST MY TRIGGER FINGER! VERSTANDEN?!” the major yelled with such fury that even the mighty minotaur recoiled in shock, and, maybe, even a little fear. The two other humans gripped their weapons thighter. Hate and anger were clear in Steiner’s eyes. At this point, Luna stood up. “CALM DOWN EVERYPONY!” “Wenck, sheate your knife and sit down. Xanthos, you will treat everyone with respect. Got it?”
“Yes, I’m sorry mighty one.” the minotaur Xanthos said as he and Wenck sat down.
The German soldier had his hand on his Luger, just in case.
“Incredible. You humans do have courage. My name is King Steel Shield, an honour to meet you.” the griffin spoke.
“Nice to meet you.” all the humans said in unison.
“I am Elder Saskura.” spoke the zebra “May fate bestow good luck upon you.”
“And you.” said Archie.
“I be Diddo. Apha male of diamond dogs.” the dog said in broken english.
Wenck stood up, both the other human mimicked him.
“I am Major Wenck Steiner. 3rd Panzerjäger batallion of the Wehrmacht. German army.”
“I am Private Archibald Stantson. 1st Paratrooper division of the Royal Parachutists.”
“Lieutenant Jean Pierre. 2nd infantry, Free French Forces.”
After they introduced themselves, they sat down.
“Major.” the zebra called him “Are you and that pony a couple.”
“No-” he looked at her, she was interested in his answer “Not...yet.”
Shining coughed. Wenck glared at him, then smiled ‘bastard was right...’
Suddenly, the door opened, revealing a tall dark alicorn-like creature, with holes in her hooves, and insectoid wings.
Archie and Pierre instantly threw the small table down as a shield, and aimed their weapons at the creature.
“Soldat, what are you doing?” Steiner said.
Chrysalis just stared at them “They’re back.” she said after a moment.
“It’s alright Major. What do you want Chrysalis?” Celestia spat as she, Luna and Cadence stood up and aimed their horns at the changeling queen.
“I did not come here to fight.” Chrysalis said “I came to offer my help.”
“As if, you bastard!” Shining spoke up “What the hell did you come here for?”
“My hive! My hive was destroyed by goblins! They came out of nowhere, in the shadow of the night.” a few tears started running down her face “Most of my subjects died. I could not protect them. *sniff* S-so I came here, to offer what help I could. I want my revenge.”
Celestia’s angry face dropped to be replaced by one of sadness and sympathy.
“I’m sorry for what I did.” she continued “I truly am. Consider this my way to repay you.” Chrysalis looked at the humans “When did you arrive?”
Steiner signaled his men to lower their weapons. “Two or Three days ago, I don’t exactly remember. How many soldiers do you have?”
“About the time they attacked my hive...” she muttered “I have 243 changelings, only a fraction of what we once were.”
Suddenly a pegasus guard bust in the room “Princesses! There are two goblin airships approaching!”
Silky Winds immediately jumped out a window and started flapping her wings as hard as she could until she got to the top of the Canterlot Castle, were the ERA Solar (Equestrian Royal Airship) was docked. The Solar was one of the newest and most modern airships in the world. It had 130 mm of steel armour plating all-round, two new magical powered engines which gave it a cruise speed of 150km/h and a max speed of 180km/h, an anti-gravity system which made it not depend on a balloon and gave it an operational roof of 900 metres and six 155mm cannons on each side which fired HE rounds. The ERA Solar was actually an identical copy of the VIA Carolus. However the Carolus had three very powerful engines which gave it a cruise speed of 450km/h and a max speed of 490km/h, 100 mm of incredibly strong composite armour all-round, a very good anti-gravitational system called AGS-MKIV (Anti-Gravitational System Mark IV) which gave it a maximum altitude of 2500 metres and had five 100 mm cannons on each side which fired HEAT (High Explosive Anti-Tank) rounds which could penetrate up to 350 mm of flat steel armour. Effectively making it a Heavy Fighter class airship due to its superior maneuverability, speed and powerful guns. That very same airship made a big difference for the Valyrian Axis in the Battle of Anchorage where it took down thirteen enemy ships and received no damage. Unfortunately, the ship was lost in time.
Silky got into the cabin and started barking out orders. “Increase anti-gravity system! Start propellers, get us into the air now!”. Time to battle.
The ship started elevating and going forwards as a volley of 100 mm shells from the xanthian airships hit were the ERA Solar just was, making the castle shake and spreading shrapnel everywhere.
The xanthian flying machines were as big as the Solar. But were made of wood with no armour plating, and were all covered in moss and vines. They had five 100 mm cannons on each side. On the sides of the balloons, the Xanthian flag, an orcish sword crosse with a goblin one in a black background. The airship was mostly manned by goblins.
“Fire portside cannons!” Silky’s voice echoed, followed by the roar of the 155 mm equestrian ordnance.
“Direct hit! Enemy starboard cannons disabled!” yelled a crewmember. Sure enough, a shell impacted the right side of a goblin airship and exploded, sharpnel made of metal and wood flying everywhere, all enemy guns out of action.
Suddenly, the ERA Solar shook as it was impacted by a volley of five enemy howitzers. One of the shells impacted the room where a cannon was, rendering that gun and the two adjacent useless. A big piece of shrapnel hit the propeller, making it malfunction.
“Commander! We lost three batteries and a propeller!” a crewmember shouted.
“Turn the ship around! Hard portside! Decrease gravity resistance!” Silky commanded, and the airship slowly faced it’s starboard side to the enemies and descended enough to avoid the next volley of hostile fire. “Take us up!” the airship ascended “Halt! Fire!” Six ‘booms’ were heard as the projectiles left the cannons. One of them hit the engine room of the undamaged enemy airship, making it explode with enough force to rip it apart. The other xanthian flying contraption had already turned around, and after a few second of aming, fired at the equestrian ship. Only three shells hit and did nothing but injure a few crewmembers thanks to the armour plating.
A few more moments passed by. “Cannons loaded!” shouted a pony. “Fire!” Ordered Commander Winds. The guns roared and the enemy airship was finished off as a projectile hit the balloon and the other ones the middle. What was left of it crashed outside the city walls in flames.
Silky was panting and sweating as her heart raced and she smiled. The mare then ordered the ship to be docked back in the castle roof, where everyone was waiting for her. She flew off to the group, everyone was staring with eyes wide open at her.
“Bloody hell mate!” yelled archie “Clouds you imagine if we had those back on Earth?”
“They’d get ripped apart by planes unless they had AA everywhere.” Jean answered.
“...and increase the security everywhere.” Celestia finished talking to one of her guards. “Well, everypony, I believe that given the current circumstances the meeting will have to be moved for tomorrow.”
The griffin, minotaur, zebra and diamond dog agreed and began to making their way to the staircase that led into the castle. However the minotaur purposely bumped into Steiner and made him fall backwards. The German stood up, put his hand in his Luger and was about to unholster it when a hoof stopped him.
“It’s not worth it.” said Silky in a comforting tone. Wenck sighed, grabbed Silky’s hoof and smiled. He then, along with the other two humans started to make his way to the staircase too.
“Hold on dear!” said Rarity “I made you all some casual clothes so you don’t have to wear those uniforms all the time.” she told the humans “You each have three of the same white t-shirts, black trousers and underwear. I’m sorry but I didn’t have much time to make something more creative.”
“It’s quite alright Rarity. I don’t know how to repay you.” Archie said.
“There is no need darling. What you did in Ponyville is more than enough.”
“Scheiße!” Major Steiner yelled as another HE shell impacted near him, this one sending two bits of shrapnel into his left arm. “AAAH!”
The 3rd Panzerjäger battalion was almost completely surrounded by americans. They were ordered to hold the line against an american tank regiment, instead, they encountered an infantry and an armoured division. The little cluster of trees where they were entrenched was being blown to bits. The German morale was low.
“Sagen sie dem Jagtpantherer soll hier her kommen! (Tell that Jagdpanther to get over here)” He ordered a soldier nearby him. The young german complied and went to get the tank destroyer.
Another soldier approached him “Kommandant sollen wir zurück fallen?! (Sir! Do we fall back?!)” they had to yell to be able to hear each other through the gunfire and explosions.
“Ich habe nicht das Kommando! Bitten Sie den Oberleutnant! (I am not in charge! Ask the Lieutenant Colonel!)”
“Er ist tot! (He is dead!)”
Wenck looked at him in disbelief for a second. “Scheiße! kontaktieren Sie das Hauptquartier! (Shit! Contact headquarters!)”
“Das Radio funktioniert nicht! (The radio doesn't work!)”
“AAH!...Entweder Sie ziehen sich zurück oder wir werden Kämpfend sterben! (We're staying here. Either they retreat, or we die fighting!)”
“Jawohl herr Kommandant! (Yes sir!)”
Steiner turned to look at a squad of soldiers ten metres to his left. “Hans!” he called the squad leader “Nehmen Sie diesen Graben und beschützen sie ihn! (Take this trench and protect it!). “Ich verspreche, dir das Geld zurück zugeben,das ich dir Schulde,wenn wir die Alliierten zurück ins meer gedrängt haben! (I promise to give you back the money I owe you, when we push the Allies back into the sea!)”
“Jawohl kommandant! Denken sie daran, dass sie meiner Frau auch Geld schuldest! Haha! (Yes sir! Remember you also owe money to my wife! Haha!)” Hans said as he and his squad took their positions in the trench in front of Wenck. The Major started sprinting towards the radio man, when suddenly he felt three powerful explosions behind him. He turned around and saw the trench his friend previously occupied was was reduced to shellholes and a few sandbags scattered everywhere.
He bolted to the trench, guts and limbs everywhere, small pools of blood, it was like a butcher's shop. Everyone was dead except for Hans who was missing his left leg, he was shivering violently.
“HANS!” Wenck yelled as he kneeled down next to his friend.
“Sie schulden *cough* mir noch Geld. Hehe...(You still owe me money.)” Hans slightly smiled as he received death’s cold, dark embrace.
“HANS! NEIN!”
Hans’s breathing slowly stopped. He was dead.
“HAAAANS!” Wenck was filled with rage. As he heard some americans soldiers approach, he jumped out of cover and sprayed them with fire from his mp40. One was left alive, he fired his rifle but missed, Steiner then charged him with his knife and embedded it right into his heart.
Upon seeing their Major perform such actions, the German soldiers started fighting with a renovated vigor. And the American moral started to falter. Eventually the allies retreated from the field.
After the battle Wenck ran back to where his comrades had died. “Nein...Nein! NEEEEEEEEEEEE
EEEEEEIN!” Wenck woke up. His heart racing, he was covered in sweat and a torrent of tears was runnings down his eyes. He reached for his uniform and took his Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords, and Diamonds out one of the pockets. “I’m sorry.” he muttedred “Hans, Schultz, Manfred, Albert...I’m sorry...”
Tears were running down Luna’s cheeks. How could someone go through that? In what world was once force to see all his friends and family die around them? In Wenck’s world. That man had gone through such horrible things, he only had nightmares now.
And what’s worse, that was going to happen in Equestria now. Fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, grandmas, grandpas, sons and daughters would die. And there was nothing that could be done about it.
War, that is what was ahead, war.
Luna looked up to the sky. “Help us Faust.” she whispered.
The three humans stood on the training grounds, in the archery range section firing their weapons along some bowman and combat mages who were also trying their accuracy. Steiner had asked Celestia and Luna to make them ammo for their weapons, which they did, but also gave them a melee weapon each. Wenck had a short katana-like sword which was made for one hand, while the other held his pistol. Jean choose a regular royal guard shortsword, and Archie went for a spiked mace and a dagger.
There were ten royal guard armours scattered around the range that served as targets, all of them were riddled with holes.
“Archie! Move!” Steiner yelled and the British soldier moved forwards and ducked under some hay he used as cover as the two other humans provided cover fire against the lifeless enemies. The next to move was Jean who took cover behind a carriage, and then Wenck who hid behind a tree.
“Major! Hostile fifty metres away!” Pierre shouted.
“Archie, take him out. Jean, we provide cover!” Jean and Archie acknowledged the order and it was executed flawlessly. Archie hit the target fifty metres away dead centre as Wenck and Jean sprayed the nearby sets of armour.
“Melee weapons! Charge!” the three humans charged the armours and, unsurprisingly, took them down quickly and effectively. “Great work soldat. That is enough for today, go get some rest.” the two soldiers saluted and walked off.
Wenck went to his room and changed into the clothes Rarity had made for him before heading for Silky’s office.
*knock knock*
“Come in.” Winds said and Steiner walked in. “Oh hey you. How is my little human?”
“We have to talk Silky.” Wenck said in a stern voice.
“What’s going on?” the mare said worriedly.
“We...We can’t be together.”
“W-WHAT?! Why not?”
“It’s that..I..It’s just...It won't work.”
“Why not?”
“I don’t like you.”
“That’s a lie, tell me the truth.”
Wenck took out a photo of his family and his Knight’s Cross and just stared at them.
“Wenck...”
“I like you...But everyone around me dies, a-and” his eyes started to water “I don’t want you to die.”
The mare felt tears coming to her eyes as she hugged Wenck, who returned the gesture.
A single tear hit the ground. The couple continue to hug for what seemed like an eternity until Silky pulled away from the embrace and said “Come, let’s go to my room.”
Wenck nodded and followed her after composing himself.
Hundreds, no, thousands of legions of orcs and goblins marched towards Canterlot following the Express Line South which passed through ponyville. Novenor wanted to send a little gift to Celestia and Luna before he stormed Canterlot. He would burn that village to the ground, torture, rape and then mercilessly slaughter the ponies. He wanted revenge from his defeat in the Great War. And he was going to get it.
The ground shook due to the sheer quantity of Xanthian troops. Mails and swords clanking, commanders barking orders, Novenor watched silently from the top of his warg. The Warg was a beast to be feared. It was like a wolf, but bigger, and pure muscle. Cream-ish fur, and eyes devolic green. Claws razors sharp, teeth that could rip flesh from bone with ease.
But they were unaware of a figure watching them. High above the clouds, a tall white alicorn with dull red mane and a quill and inkpot cutie mark. A human walked up to her and topped to her right. A gray uniform, with the alicorn's cutie mark patched in his left arm.
They both regarded the army of hellspawns for a while until the alicorn turned to him and nodded. Then the human saluted and walked away.
“Haha! No he did not!” Jean said, his belly hurt from laughter.
“Ah’ swear, he told granny Smith too.” Applejack said as she wiped a tear from her eye remembering the hilarious moment.
“Having a brother is so much fun.”
“Yes...Yes it is...” Jean looked down and his expression turned to one of sadness.
“Oh, oh I’m so sorry.”
“N-No, it’s okay...You know, he was always so stubborn, haha, the bastard.” he smiled as happy memories flashed before his eyes. “When he joined the army in 1935 I hated him. I thought he was leaving me forever. Even though he visited as often as he could, I treated him like crap...And now he’s gone, he died in the first hours of the german invasion.” Pierre was crying like never before.
Applejack hugged him “There there sugarcube. It’s ‘kay, he’s jus’ restin’ in peace now.”
He reached into the front pocket of his uniform and took out a picture of a man in a trenchcoat smiling at the camera. “Bernard...You always fought for what was right. Now it is right I that defend this ponies, and I will. I’ll make you proud brother.”
Archie walked to the middle of the courtyard and kneeled down.
“Hey Tommy. How are you doing? I hope good up there mate. Try not to hit on any angels, you always fucked everything you saw, hehe. Anyways, I wanted to say hi and...and...I miss you so much. We were friends ever since we met in to adoption centre, I can’t believe you’re gone... I hope you helped the guys get out of Arnhem well, no one deserved that hell.” a few tears hit the ground and he clenched his fists “Tommy...” he stood up and left.
Once again all of them were in the same room. The world leaders including the changeling queen, elements, captain of the Equestrian Royal Guard, and other Equestrian military commanders were sitting in a large table. The three humans in their uniforms in a smaller table opposite.
“Now.” Celestia said “Moving to the subject of Novenor...”
“Well, I have thought it through.“ the minotaur Xanthos said “My nation will not provide support.”
“Was?! (What?!)” yelled Wenck.
“They are not coming after us, they attacked you, I am not dragging my nation into someone else’s war.”
“He does have a point.” the griffin said “And he is right. We will not provide support either.”
“I agree. We not fight unwanted war.” the diamond dog added.
“I am afraid we will have to decline your request for military support my dear Celestia.” the zebra had a genuinely sad face.
“Are you insane?!” Jean yelled as he stood up.
“Sit down you!” Xanthos ordered him.
“Du bist Scheiße! (You piece of shit!) Don’t you give orders to my men!”
“I’ve had it with you.” the minotaur unsheathed his knife.
Wenck aimed his Luger, Archie his rifle and Jean his mp18 at the offending creature.
A few moments of tension passed until Steiner kicked the table and walked out of the room in anger, followed by his loyal soldiers.
“I can’t bloody believe it!” Archie said.
“Fucking idiots. Don’t they see Novenor will kill them too?” Jean agreed.
Just then a pony guard run past them at full speed towards the room, they decided to follow him.
“My Princess.” the guard said with agitation “A Xanthian army has been spotted marching towards Ponyville, at least 50000. We have begun evacuation of them town, but we might not make it in time since the train’s engine is broken and is being fixed right now.”
“Oh no!” said Twilight “What are we going to do?”
“Soldat” Wenck told the other two humans “Ready to die?”
“YES SIR!” they yelled in unison as they saluted.
“Chrysalis, I’ll need your changelings. And some royal guards too. We’ll hold them off while you evacuate.”
“Wenck!” Silky said as she flew towards him “You don’t have to do this!”
“You don’ have to either Jean!” Applejack yelled.
“Yes we do. We are soldiers, this is what we do, it’s the only thing we’re good for.” Wenck looked up to the sky “Hans, Albert, schultz, Manfred, this is for you.” He took out Knight's Cross and attached it to his uniform on the upper left part of his chest. “It’s time for me to earn this. Twilight, give me something to write.”
Twilight materialized ink, a quill and paper and handed it to him.
“This is Ponyville, here is the Ponyville River and this is Express Line South. We will have three defense forces. Defense Force North, dug-in in Ponyville; Defense Force West, entrenched in the other side of the river; and Defense Force East, entrenched in the field left of the town. Shining. Didn’t you say you produced rifles?”
“Yes.” the captain said “There are 500 15-shot repeating rifles and 500 unicorn ponies trained to used them.”
“Sehr gut. They and me will be Defense Force North. Jean, you will take all 243 changelings plus 250 guards and will be Defense Force West. Archie you and 500 guards will be defense force East. If Novenor is as smart as you said, he’ll try to flank us. This is what the battle will look like.”
“Princesses. Can you teleport us all there now?”
Celestia looked at him for a second “You are a lot, even for us, but if the four of us focus we can teleport you there now.”
“Gut, gut (Good, good.)...Silky, how many airships are there in Canterlot.”
“Two.” the mare answered “But the ERA Solar is damaged so that only leaves the ERA Sunshine. It has 250 mm of steel armour in the hull, five 200mm cannons, needs a balloon to stay afloat and can go at a max speed of 170km/h.”
“How long will it take to reach Ponyville?”
“Around 20 minutes.”
“You will get on that ship and go to Ponyville. Once the train is loaded, you pick us up and we guard the train until it reaches Canterlot.”
“Yes sir.” she said as she saluted and then flew off to the airship.
“Let’s go gather the troops.” Wenck said.
---------------------------------------------<Defense Force North>---------------------------------------------
“FASTER SOLDAT!” Steiner yelled “Put that cupboard over there!”
All the ponies in Ponyville were running around trying to find anything from furniture to statues to turn them into cover. The pony guards had their rifles and swords slung in their back, ammunition in their saddlebags.
“You!” Wenck said to a pony nearby “What’s your name?”
“I’m lieutenant Smoking Shot sir.” the pony said as he saluted.
“Go and ask those train engineers how much fucking longer they’ll take!”
“Yes sir.” the pony run off and returned a few moments later “They don’t know, but they will take a while.”
“Scheiße! Ferfickt nochmal! Warum machen sie nicht schneller?! (Shit! For fuck's sake! Why don't they hurry up?!)”
The pony just stared at him.
“Major! Goblins are coming!” another pony soldier shouted.
“Everyone! Battle positions!” All the ponies and the human got behind cover.
A giant mass of 2000 goblins only was heading towards the little town. As they got within 100 metres Wenck gave the order “SOLDAT! MAKE THEM PAY EVERY STEP WITH THEIR BLOOD! FEUER!”
Everypony started shooting. In every rifle the same process. The trigger was pulled, the bullet ejected. The lever pulled down, the casing flew out. The lever pulled up, another round was chambered. Soon the town was covered with smoke from the rifles and all the could be heard was the sound of the gunpowder exploding, hurling the lead at full speed towards the attackers. Soon, the force of 2000 goblins was reduced to a mere 473. And upon seeing most of their comrades dead, their morale immediately dropped to the ground and they fled in terror.
“HURRAH!” could be heard from the town. The ponies were chanting and celebrating. Steiner kept a straight face, he knew this was far from over. Something was not right, this had been too easy. Not even all the 15 bullets of every rifle were spent before they fled. Maybe they didn’t expect the ponies to have guns? Or Per-
*BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM*
Suddenly, five giant explosions shook the town.
-------------------------------------------<Defense Force West>-------------------------------------------
Jean was quick to dodge a sword and embedded his own weapon right into the heart of an orc. Everything had gone to shit too fast. They weren’t ready, they caught them unprepared, and now they were paying the price. The attacking enemy force was of 1500 orcs, and while the xanthians had lost about 100 soldiers, so did Jean. He had 93 changelings and 294 royal guards left.
Another orc lunged at him. Jean kicked his sword out of the way and drove his fist into its face. When the orc was on the ground, Pierre threw himself on top. The Orc tried to choke him, but the lieutenant punched him a few more times, however, the orc replied with a punch of its own to Jean’s ribcage, which left him without air. The creature took this chance to shift positions and be on top of the French soldier, it once again started choking him. As he felt himself about to fall unconscious, he took out his knife and slit the hellspawn’s jugular. He pulled the orc off him and stood up.
“Merde! I can’t believe this! Soldiers! Fight! Fight them back!” he reloaded his mp18 and pressed the trigger hard as he saw a groups of four orcs charging him, the bullets tearing through them piercing organs and shatterings bones. “PUSH!” he yelled.
“HUA!” his soldiers yelled and started fighting even more fiercely than before.
Another orcish sword was swung at him, it sliced the fabric on Jean’s uniform at the midsection. It missed the flesh behind it by perhaps a centimeter. The lieutenant responded with a slash of his own sword, which went through his enemy's gut like a knife through butter, its intestines escaping its balle as it pressed its hand against the wound. Suddenly, he felt an intense pain in his leg and looked up to see an orc pull its sword back and began to bring it down on him. Suddenly he saw a black blur push him to the side, he hit the ground hard, his head taking a heavy blunt as he grunted in pain. He got up he saw a changeling with a sword through his belly, he had sacrificed himself to save him. “NO!” he yelled in anger and slashed the orc three times across the chest until it dropped dead. The battle went on and after an extremely hard fight, and a miracle, the orcs were pushed back, but at a great cost. All changelings had died, and only 195 royal guard survived. Jean was on the ground clutching his wound, orc blood all over him, his uniform all tattered and dirty.
“You.” he looked at a pegasus “Inform Steiner of our situation.”
-------------------------------------------<Defense Force East>-------------------------------------------
Archie’s mace cracked yet another skull. He ducked and dodged and incoming warhammer, kicked the orc’s leg and stabbed him through the eye. Archie was fighting viciously, it was as he was a bloodthirsty demon from Tartarus. And his enemies of course noticed that, the feared him.
He and his soldiers were holding good against the enemy, the xanthian moral already faltering. Of the 1500 orcs that attacked, 764 were dead or dying. In turn the Equestrians had only lost 124 ponies of the 500.
Two more orcs charged and lunged at him. He took a big breath, and time seemed to slow down. His once brown uniform was completely covered with blood, as was his face and hair. Mace on right hand, dagger in left. He had lost his rifle early in the battle. His face was a serious yet relaxed one, his eyes closed in concentration. He heard them approach, he heard them heavily breath. One of the orcs swung its sword towards Archie’s neck and, at the last second, he opened his eyes as he blocked the hit with his dagger and his mace made contact with the orc’s ribcage. A loud crack was heard, followed by a pain-filled, agonizing scream. Its comrade kicked Archie in his gut, to which he responded with a knife to the creature’s arm. The orc howled and the young brit swung his mace upwards and slammed the beast’s jaw, shattering it and making it fall backwards. Archie walked up to his agonizing foe. *CRACK* Its cranium was now just a bunch of mashed gore.
Archie gazed to the left for a second since he thought he heard someone call for help, but as he was going to turn around he felt an intense pain in his belly which made him fall to his knees. He looked to see an orcish sword going through him. A group of ponies quickly approached him and killed the offending orc “MEDIC!” one of them yelled. Archie felt the cold and darkness of death begin to embrace him.
---------------------------------------------<Defense Force North>---------------------------------------------
*BOOM*
Another explosion obliterated a small house. Sending debris, dust and shrapnel everywhere. Suddenly the xanthian ship was obliterated by three blasts. Steiner looked up to see the ERA Sunshine above them, he smiled slightly.
“Smoking Shot!” Wenck called the pony.
“Yes sir!” Smoking answered.
“Casualty count?”
“32 dead, 65 injured.”
“Major sir!” a pegasus flew up to him “Defense Force West is in trouble, we have very few soldiers left, we will not hold another attack.”
“How many is ‘very few?’”
“Less than 200.”
“Scheiße!” Wenck though for a moment “Tell Jean to come into the town.”
“Yes sir.” the pegasus flew away.
“SIR! SIR!” a very agitated earth pony sprinting towards Steiner “We have repelled the attack, but only have 350 soldiers left. A-and...”
“What?”
“Archie is down, the medics don't know if they can save him.”
Wenck had a mixed expression of sadness and extreme anger in his face “Defense Force East comes into the town too. Bring them now!” he ordered.
“Yes sir!” the earth pony rushed back to where he came from.
“Wenck!” Silky came flying down and gave the human a kiss “How are you doing?”
“Bad, just...bad...Could you go find out how long until the fucking engined is fixed please?”
“I’ll be right back honey.”
Wenck sighed and sat against the wall of a destroyed house. Ponyville looked like shit, shellholes everywhere; debris, dust and shrapnel scattered around; dead and injured ponies just lying around. It was a mess, nothing like the happy and friendship-filled town it once was.
“It shouldn’t be long now they say.” Silky said as she came back.
“Oh sure, ‘shouldn’t be long’. Of course. BUT AS LONG AS THEY DON’T FIX IT, MY SOLDIERS DIE!” Wenck snapped and Silky recoiled in shock “I’m sorry, it just...”
“I understand.”
“Wenck.” Jean said “Me and my soldiers are here. I heard about Archie...”
“Yes it’s...not good. Anyways, with both your divisions here, hopefully we can defend the town long enough for those geniuses back there to get the verdammt train moving.”
“WHAT?!” Novenor was angry, angry as he never was before “WHAT DO YOU MEAN THEY FAILED?!”
“Yes, they failed. However they did make the enemies on the flanks fall back into the town.” the human told him, he was very relaxed.
“Listen here Spaci Venotenko. You promised me guns, you promised me good airships. Instead I get swords and wooden shit that can hardly fly. If not for you convincing me to attack through here, I’d probably have Fillysport already. “
“Heh, with your army you shouldn’t go to Fillysport. Just swarm Canterlot and that’s it, the war is over. Besides, if your incompetent soldiers would have taken the princesses prisoner in Ponyville that time, we would be sitting in the fucking Canterlot thrones right now.”
Novenor sighed “You better be right. Send in 9000 soldiers, 3000 from each side, and 3 airships.”
Venotenko smiled “Yes sir!” he said mockingly as he left the command tent.
---------------------------------------------<Defense Force North>---------------------------------------------
“Yes, they are coming from all sides. I also see three airships.” Jean said as he watched the enemy movements through his binoculars.
The ERA Sunshine started moving and firing at the hostile airships as the ground troops prepared for combat. “Hold!” Wenck yelled “Hold....FIRE!”
Once again, the ponies rained a deadly hail of bullets upon their enemies. And as the orcs and goblins got closer, more and more fell, but they still advanced paying no attention to their fallen comrades.
--
Meanwhile, in the sky, one xanthian ship was already going down in flames. A shell impacted the ERA Sunshine on the deck, killing many ponies and damaging some systems.
“AHH!” Silky screamed as shrapnel stabbed her in her left front leg “Turn around and fire!” the ship faced starboard side to the enemies and fired the five howitzers which impacted and knocked out another airship. However a single enemy shell hit a cannon room, rendering that gun and the two adjacent useless. Another shell hit the deck, making a very big hole and the shrapnel injuring and killing many crewmembers. Silky herself was once again bit by red-hot shrapnel, this time in the belly.
She grunted in pain, but kept a straight face. “HARD STARBOARD!” the ship turned and faced the remaining enemy airship portside. After a few moment of aiming the guns, the cannons roared, and one of the projectiles impacted the engine room of the xanthian ship, making it explode in a thousand pieces.
She smiled slightly before ordering the guns to be turned to provide fire support for the ground troops.
--
The two armies were engaged in fierce melee combat. Some unicorns firing the rifles or spells at point black range. Orcs, goblins and ponies dead or screaming in agony as they lay injured. The smoke and dust was thick. In some parts of the town you could barely see in front of yourself.
A sword ate at Steiner’s uniform and it barely missed the soft skin behind. Wenck in turn put two 9mm bullets in the orc’s head. Three goblins stared at him for a moment, taking in his figure. His gray uniform covered with dirt, dust, splinters and blood. A Short katana in his right hand, a Luger in his left. He wore a serious expression, as if nothing was going on, but in his eyes they could see burning anger and hatred. Still, they gathered some courage and lunged at him.
Wenck shifted his position and, standing on one foot, he spun around, his other foot making contact with the first goblin’s temple, knocking it unconscious. He then brought his Luger to bear with the head of the second creature and quickly pulled the trigger twice, sending two 9mm Parabellum lead projectiles through the upper cranium of his second foe, instantly killing it. However, the third goblin managed to drive its sword into Wenck’s left thigh. He grunted in pain and the blade cut through his flesh, but this did not stop him from slicing the hellspawn’s head off with one swift motion as he fell backwards. The Major yanked the sharp sword from his leg and threw it away. He looked to the left and saw a dead pony medic. He reached into the first aid kit and took out some bandages and a large glass bottle of ethylic alcohol. He tended to his wound, stood up, walked to his mp40 which he had previously dropped nearby and reloaded it before rejoining his soldiers in battle. Wenck continued on landing hit after hit and delivering bullet after bullet to the enemies that were thrown at him. He was fueled with rage by the news of his comrade being badly injured. He was thirsty, a thirst that could only be satisfied by the blood of his enemies.
As Jean was once again slashed in the leg, he fell backwards, pain shooting through his injured body part as he screamed at the top of his lungs. When he touched the group his mp18 slipped away from him, but he was quick to hastily grab it and gun down the enemy goblin just before it killed him. His blue uniform was in the same situation as Steiner’s. However, Jean was losing too much blood from his wounds, and he soon felt dizzy. But Jean saw something. He saw fear, fear in the eyes of the hostile creatures. The were afraid of them. Because of how they had fought maybe? Perhaps they didn’t expect this type of resistance? However, one thing was sure. They were fleeing. All of them, fleeing, running for their lives. Jean smiled before he fell unconscious because of the loss of blood.
“You will never fail me again.” said Novenor as he removed his from the orc’s belly and it fell to the ground lifeless.
“I don’t know why you are so angry pal. You only lost one fifth of the 1st army, and you have two more armies just as powerful.” Spaci Venotenko told him from the chair he was sitting in.
“That is the point! ONE FUCKING FIFTH! They are not supposed to be able to fight like this! They are supposed to have already died!” Novenor looked to one his third in command, another orc called Vakty “Vakty, what remains of the 1st army?”
“11 airships and 41000 soldiers.” he said without batting an eye.
Novenor though for a second “Send everything...EVERYTHING! I want you to crush them! KILL EVERY LAST ONE OF THOSE PUNY BASTARDS!”
Vakty saluted and walked out the tent.
“Overkill much?” Venotenko mocked him.
“Look asshole, I’ve planned too much and for too long for this thing for go down just like that. Being defeated by the humans, telling my soldiers to scatter and reproduce while not revealing themselves, you stashing all those guns away and the spell that froze you into position for 5000 years and escaping tartarus. All too carefully planned, and now we lose? No sir.”
“Calm down. You are no losing. So what? A small pocket of resistance? Easy. They will all die, and we’ll rule Equestria, then this world.”
“I hope you are right, Venotenko.”
---------------------------------------------<Defense Force North>---------------------------------------------
Everyone was cheering for two reasons. One, they had just pushed back a massive enemy attack. Two, the train had been fixed and was about to leave for Canterlot.
But soon the cheers died down as everyone saw what was nearing them. The whole enemy army. Eleven airships and thousand or orcs and goblins, more than what they could count, heading towards them.
‘We’ll not be able to survive that.’ Wenck though ‘But I’ll damned if all those civilians die and our sacrifice is in vain.’ “Smoking Shot! Tell the train drivers to get the fuck out of here now!”
“Yes sir!” the pony bolted off in direction of the train station.
“Everyone get to cover! Rifles at the ready! Come on!”
The defenders could feel the ground slightly shake and their enemies advanced. They were closer and closer each time. Wenck ejected the magazine in his mp40 and was going to load a new when he noticed he didn’t have any. He sighed. They were dead meat. No one had ammo left. There weren’t many defenders left either. They braced for the charge.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, a giant beam of pure white light shot out the sky. The beam hit the middle of the xanthian battle formation and there was a massive explosion. Everyone had to shield their eyes from the blinding light of the blast. Such power unleashed on earth. It disintegrated the ones nearby, the ones further away lost limbs and sustained broken bones and serious internal damage. The airhsips were thrown away and ripped apart as if they were nothing. The shockwave finished devastating what was left of the xanthian army. The Equestrians and Novenor were left watching with their mouths agape.
“Quick!” Wenck yelled “Let’s get the fuck out of here!”
Before more enemies could attack them, they boarded the ERA Sunshine and accompanied the train back to Canterlot.
It was finally over. They had won, maybe with a little help from above, but it was a victory nevertheless.
“I said.” wenck said as he opened his eyes. His body still aching from the fight two days ago. “Go. Fuck. Yourself.” he was serious, he wanted to sleep.
“Oh, but I already have you for that. Or perhaps I could change you for Archie.”
“Sure...”
“I talked to one of the nurses that changed him, and it appears he has a pretty big co-”
“I’M UP! I’m up, goddamnit.”
“That’s the spirit.”
Wenck smiled and gave the mare a kiss before he got out of bed and realized he was naked.
‘Dear...What happened now?’ Wenck though as he sighed “What happened last night?”
“Well.” Silky said “Yesterday we were partying, you got drunk, horny, and now I can barely walk.”
“AAAAAALRIGHT!” Steiner tried to ignore what she just said and put his casual clothes on.
“Why does it bother you we had sex? Isn’t it normal for couples in your world?”
“Well, yes, but...I don’t want it to be all sex. I want to caress you, cuddle with you, hug you, kiss you...”
“Aaaww, you are so adorable and cute.”
“Ich bin major Wenck Steiner des 3rd Panzerjägerabteilung! I am not cute nor adorable!”
“Aw! You’re so much cuter when you get angry and speak german.”
Wenck pushed Silky backwards in the bed and kissed her “Shut up.” he said as he smiled. Finally, since he had lost everyone he loved, he was happy now.
“Come on honey, everyone, including your friend Archie is waiting for us in the small docking port on top of castle.”
A single airship was heading at 490km/h towards Canterlot Castle. The wind giving a refreshing cold to the crewmen, they were all quiet except for a few talking here and there. The ship itself had it’s hull painted grey, on it’s side the name engraved in pure gold ‘VIA Carolus’.
“Well well, here come our other heroes.” Luna said with a smile.
The four princesses, the other five elements, Shining Armour and the two humans were waiting for them. Archie, even though he was able move, they had to be slow and careful movements. Behind them, ponies rushed to and fro fixing the ERA Sunshine and ERA Solar.
Wenck smiled for a second, but then something come to his mind. “Casualty count?” he asked.
“Wenck, please...” Silky pleaded, but he ignored her.
“Casualty count?” it was more of an order than a request.
Jean sighed. “Of our 1493 soldiers we have 856 dead and 283 injured, 354 soldiers unharmed. The enemy lost 7640 out of around 50000 and 4 airships, not counting the thing...” he said as he glanced at Wenck.
“You haven’t told them?” Wenck asked.
Silence. Everyone looked at the unspoken-leader of the humans.
“Major?” Celestia asked.
He sighed. “After we repelled the second hostile wave, Novenor sent everything he had left of his 1st army, god knows how many more armies he has. Anyways, I thought we were all dead, when suddenly a white beam of light shot out the sky and impacted the centre of the enemy formation. The great majority of them died.”
“So that was it, what we felt.” Cadence said.
“And what exactly did you feel?” Wenck took a step towards the princesses. What were they not telling him?
“AIRSHIP APPROACHING!” a pony sentry yelled at the top of his lungs.
“Damn! Both ships are damaged!” Silky cursed.
“Hold on.” Luna said “That is...no, it can’t be...”
“What’s going on?!” Jean demanded.
The incredibly fast airship slowly came to a stop and just stood there, floating in mid-air for a few moments. The humans clutched their weapons tighter. Everyone took that time to gaze at the ship. It was the same size at the ERA Solar (113 metres long and 35 metres wide), except it was painted all gray, and had smaller though longer guns, 5 on each side. On both sides it had two small black sails for quickly steering. On both in the back it had its name engraved in pure gold ‘VIA Carolus’, and on the front, a painting of an inkpot and quill. They could also see some crewmen running around the deck, though they could not determine their race. Then, a little airship took off from the ship. It looked like a yacht made of copper, it had a propeller on the back, and two small plane wings on the sides for steering, also made of copper. On the front and back, two machine guns manned by...by...humans? Yes, they were clearly humans. Inside they flying yacht they could also see the pilot and three more soldiers. The two machine gunner and the pilot all three had a black uniform consisting of a trench coat, a sailor cap, trousers and boots. However, the three other soldiers had a gray uniform just like Wenck’s, but without the German symbols. Instead, all of them they had on the left sleeve, a patch with that inkpot and quill again. On the front, in the upper left part of their trench coats, a metal red ‘V’.
The yacht deployed its landing gear, four copper sticks just like normal landing gear but without the wheels, and landed softly on the ground. Its edge stood one metre from the ground. The three gray uniformed soldiers descended. The first one was a tall man with green eyes and black hair, he had a commander cap and a holstered handgun which looked very much like a Colt 1911. He was followed by the other two soldiers who had helmets, probably his guards, who had rifles resembling Mosin Nagants. The man regarded the group in front of him for a few seconds before speaking “I am Generalfeldmarschall, or Field Marshal, Sven Lundstörm. Commander-in-chief of the Valyrian armed forces.” he looked at the princesses “Celestia, Luna, a pleasure to see you again old fri-” he couldn’t finish his sentence as he was hugged by both Equestrian rulers.
“We thought you were dead!” they both said in unison, with tears in their eyes.
“Well...” he said as he pulled away from the hug “A friend up there decided it wasn’t our time yet. We have unfinished business with a certain orc.” He looked to the rest of the ones present “You are Cadence.” He paint at the pink alicorn, and then looked at the purple one “And you...You are destined for great things Twilight.” The man then walked forward and came face to face with the humans “Ah, so you are the ones summoned to stop Novenor.”
“Hmm?” was the sound Jean emitted.
“Let’s just say, you’re the heroes now.”
Wenck coughed and got everyone’s attention “Sprechen Sie Deutsch? (Do you speak German?)”
“Deutsch? Das ist altes Valyrian. (German? This is old Valyrian.)”
“In meiner Welt wird Deutsch gesprochen. (In my world that language is German.) Ich bin Major Wenck Steiner. (I am Major wenck steiner.)”
“I see...” Sven said “Sind sie gute Soldaten? (Are they good soldiers?)” he asked.
“Die besten. (The best.)” Steiner answered.
Sven gazed around for a few seconds in which silence reigned. “Well, We can continue introductions and catch up later. Now, I’ve got to help organize the rest of the fleet.”
Ten. Ten airships, all of different sizes were floating around the city. The biggest was without a doubt the VIA Odin which was stationed right above the Castle. It was 430 metres long and 90 metres wide. It had two giant turrets, one in the back and one in the front, each with three 500 mm guns which fired AP and HE shells. It was also painted gray. It’s anti-gravity system ‘AGSMKIII’ allowed it to have an altitude of 1900 metres and its four propellers powered by four Maybach MPEMKV engine (Maybach Magical Powered Engine Mark V) gave it a max speed of 250km/h, very fast for a ship that size. Only HEAT or very powerful AP projectiles could penetrate its 400 mm of steel armour. In the middle on the hull there were actually runways for planes to land and take off. The Valyrian planes were much like the WW2 ones back on Earth. They had two types of fighters and two types of dive-bombers. The fighters were much like the Focke-Wulf FW 190 D-9 and Supermarine Spitfire Mk I.
The dive-bombers looked a lot like the SBD-5 Dauntless and the Hawker Typhoon.
Interestingly enough, the names were the same. At the time, two FW 190s were scouting the only road into Canterlot, looking for any signs if the Xanthian army.
On the walls of the city, mgs and some Flak 18 (88mm) cannons were set up along with gray uniformed human infantry and some that wore brown uniforms, they were called ‘Cadian Shock Troopers’, natives of Cadia, an old province of the Valyrian Empire.
Jean walked to the the door of Wenck’s bedroom and as he was about to knock he heard some muffled voices from the other side.
“Mmm...Yes there.” that was Silky.
“Heh. You like it there?” he heard Steiner say.
“Oh yes, oh harder! Faster!”
‘Holy shit’ though Jean ‘Hehe, this is my chance.’ he opened the door and saw something he did not expect. Wenck was giving Silky...a massage. Really? Jean had opened the door so violently and made so much noise that he instantly fell over the gaze of the couple.
“Need something?” Steiner asked.
“Well...I didn’t expect to find this.”
“What did you expect to find? A white flag?”
“Oh, ha ha.” Pierre laughed sarcastically “Lunch is ready kraut.”
“Hey Jean.” Silky called him.
“Hmm?”
“I was wondering if you wanted to be in a threesome with me and Wenck.”
“WHAT?!” screamed the humans in unison.
“Yeah, you know one in each hole.”
“WHAT?!” they screamed again. But this time Silky couldn’t keep herself together and started laughing her ass off.
Jean laughed too and then walked off to the Throne Room leaving Wenck staring at Silky blankly.
Archie was sitting in his bed staring at a picture of his parachutist squad when a knock on the door was heard.
“Come in.” Archie said.
The door was opened to reveal Celestia. “Hello Archie.” she said in her usual kind and loving voice.
“Oh, ‘ello there.”
“I noticed you are spending all your time alone.”
Archie just stared at her.
“He cares about you, you know? Wenck may put up a though face, but inside he is not like that.”
“I know. he is the same as me, just with a different uniform. Just like most soldiers. You know, I’ve always been told about how Germans are horrible nazi monsters and all that. That’s all bollocks.”
“I’m glad to hear you say that. So...Don’t you have your any on anypony?”
“Oh, uh...No, not really. It’s just I...I don’t feel like being in a relationship right now.”
“Alright. Just remember that if you ever need someone to talk you, you’re surrounded by people who’ll listen.”
“Thank you, Celestia.”
“Oh, and please don’t think I want anything with you. Not that you’re a bad pnoy or anything, it’s just that being immortal...I...I...”
A large rectangular marble table with mahogany chairs to the sides was in the middle of the Throne Room. Around the table the princesses, elements, Shining, Wenck, Jean, Archie and Sven. The room was illuminated by the sunlight pouring in through the stained glass of the windows. At the end of the room there was a large set of stairs, and at the top the two thrones.
“Anyways.” said Sven “We have sighted the enemy, they are still at Ponyville, probably licking their wounds. If they get close and besiege Canterlot we’re ready to evacuated the civilian population to the tunnels under the mountains.”
“That is great news.” Celestia smiled knowing that her subjects would be safe from the soon-to-come siege of the Equestrian capital.
Everyone continued eating in silence until Twilight spoke up “So, how did Valyria get such a powerful army?”
“Diesel.” was Sven’s answer.
At the mention of that word the three other humans looked at him with surprise and interest.
“Ten years before the Great War” he begun “all Valyrian vehicles and power plants run with diesel which was a type of fuel, until magical powered engines were invented in the Anchorage Research Centre. This new engines only needed to be charged once by unicorns and were able to work forever, and thus the Maybach series of engines were born.”
“Amazing.” the purple unicorn was truly amazed.
“Indeed. Anyways, this made us have an incredibly huge excedent of diesel, which we sold to several nations around the world. Since the world practically ran on diesel, we made a crap lot of money. This money was used to improve and refit our military and make several researches go faster.” Sven took a sip from his glass of water “The most important ones were the Anti-Gravity systems our airships, and yours, use; the composite armour, much stronger than steel flat plating; and the HEAT, High Explosive Anti-Tank shells.”
“Tank? What is a tank?” Shining asked.
“A tank is a tracked, armoured fighting vehicle designed for front-line combat. Firepower is normally provided by a large-calibre main gun in a rotating turret and secondary machine guns, while heavy armour and all-terrain mobility provide protection for the tank and its crew. There are several types of tanks. For example light scout tanks and heavy tanks for engaging other tanks.”
“Do you have any tanks here?”
“Only a few light tanks called ‘Tretrach’ which were designed to be parachuted into the battlefield, we are keeping them for flaking and encirclement operations against the Xanthians. Anyways, HEAT rounds could cut through all tank armour and almost every airship plating. However, due to several problems they couldn’t be mass produced until late in the Great War.”
“That ship of yours, the VIA Car...Carlos?” Archie asked.
“Carolus. Yes it does have all the aforementioned equipment.”
“C-can I fly it?” Silky asked.
“Hmm...Well, from what I’ve been told you are an amazing ship commander and were a hero in the Battle of Ponyville. I’d be honoured to have you command the Carolus.”
“YES!” she yelled in excitement making Wenck jump a bit “Oh, hey Wenck, I have something to tell you.”
“What?” Steiner said before starting to drink his glass of water.
“I’m pregnant.”
Wenck instantly spit out his drink and let the glass slip his grip as he clutched his chest and coughed uncontrollably.
Silky started laughing very hard as everyone stared at her and, after composing herself from the fit of laughter, she said “I’m *giggle* kidding. My parents want to meet you. They are from Stalliongrad but are living in Canterlot."
“Was zum teufel?! Are you insane?!”
“That means 'what the hell', right? I’m learning a bit of German from you.”
“Don’t do that ever again.”
“Aaw, fine. Will you meet my parents tonight?”
“Yes yes, fine.” Wenck turned to look at the princesses “Why is every city some verdammt horse pun?”
The moonlight entering through the bedroom’s windows washed over Wenck as he looked at the mirror. His uniform looked good as new since he had given it to Rarity for her to fix it. His boots were so polished they shined. He sighed and put on his commander cap and Knight’s Cross.
At that moment Luna entered the room “Hello.”
He turned around “Oh, hello Princess Luna.”
“Luna is fine.” she smiled.
“Alright Luna. did you need something?”
“I understand you are about to meet Silky’s parents.”
“You are correct.”
“Well, you see, they are from Stalliongrad. In that city there is an old greeting that coltfriends say to the parents of their marefriends.”
Wenck and Silky stood in front of a mid-size white marble house. The wooden door opened, revealing two pegasus. A stallion with a blue coat, black mane and green eyes that had a sword with wings to the sides as a cutie mark. And a mare with white coat, green mane, green eyes and a cutie mark of a cannon behind a red cross. ‘ex-guards probably.’ Wenck thought.
“Silky!” both yelled in excitement.
“Mom! Dad!” the cream coated mare yelled in turn as they hugged.
“And this must be the one you've been sending letters about. Hello, my name is Silky Clouds, and this is my husband Winged Sword.” the mare said, happy to meet her daughter’s coltfriend “So you are Wenck Steiner, the hero of Ponyville.”
“Hero? No, no such thing, just another soldier ma’am. Major Wenck Steiner, Panzerjägerabteilung 3.” ‘I still can’t believe this is an actual greeting in Staliongrad, oh well, let’s get it over with’ he said in his mind. “Also, may I say, your daughter has absolutely amazing deepthroating abilities.”
“...and once again I am so sorry.” said Wenck as he held an icepack against his left eye “I was told by a friend that that meant that your daughter could drink a lot of beer.”
“Hehe, it’s quite alright. I still can’t believe you got tricked into that.” Winged Sword laughed.
“Well, believe this, when I get back to the Castle that friend will have a boot up her ass.”
The whole table shared a light hearted laugh. In a well lit room filled with furniture against the walls, there was a marble table in the middle , were Silky and Wenck sat opposite of Silky Clouds and Winged Sword.
“So tell us about yourself Wenck.” Clouds said.
“Well, I come from a city called Dresden I joined the army when I was 28 years old because of...personal reasons. When the war broke out in 1939 I’ve been fighting all over Europe.”
“What branch of the army were you in?” Silky Winds’s father asked.
“Panzerjäger battalion or anti-tank battalion.”
“Anti-tank?” he raise an eyebrow.
“A tank is basically an offensive armoured vehicle. My battalion specializes in destroying them.”
Silky Winds’s eyes suddenly widened in realization. She hadn’t told them about Wenck’s family.
“I...My family...” memories played in Steiner’s memory. The damn truck had hit every single bump in the dirt road, but finally they were close, he continued to look at the farms which extended as far as the eye could see. He was outside Dresden, high command had finally let him visit his family. He was nearing the city when he heard the engines roar and the air raid alarms go off. He watched as the phosphorus fire-bombs burned the city, civilians helplessly dieing, the flak kept firing as the bombs kept falling. He looked around to see if the Luftwaffe was anywhere to stop them, they weren’t. After it was over, he sprinted to the city and looked all around for his family and of course didn’t find them through all the chaos. Buildings were damaged and burning, some totally collapsed. In some areas, there wasn’t anything left, only a wasteland of shellholes. Dead burnt bodies all around, people crying for having lost everything. Weeks passed and Steiner’s family was not found, he knew they were dead, they probably could not be recognized due to the fact that they were burnt. He then remembered his rage, how he could not do anything. He remembered the things he most regretted in the world. He remembered giving those orders to his battalion. ‘Do not take prisoners’ were his words. After a while he realized that he was killing innocent prisoners who had nothing to do with the bombing. But his friends helped him through that, until they died. And now, he had Silky. He was scared, scared that he would lose her too. A little part of him wished he had never meet her, so that he would not suffer losing her, or her losing him.
“Wenck?” Silky Winds’s voice shook Wenck out of his trance, a single tear rolling down his face from his right eye. He hugged his marefriend. He didn’t want to lose her too.
“Heh, weren’t you the one that said ‘Don’t worry about the casualties’?” Novenor was amused at Venotenko being so angry.
“Yes! 10000 casualties! Not the goddamn whole fucking First Army! And now the fucking Valyrian Army is here!”
“No matter. I have what I need, I thought it was lost, but my scouts found it. Not even Faust will be able to stop me now.”
Venotenko raised and eyebrow “And what, pray tell, is that?”
Novenor took out a necklace from the pocket of the black robes he was wearing. It was a little black stone with a string that let it hang from someone’s neck.
“Truly impressive!” Spaci said sarcastically “What are we supposed to do with that? Throw it at them?”
Novenor laughed light-heartedly “Nothing of the sort my dear Spaci Venotenko. This little pendent does not look intimidating. However this will give me to the power to summon countless creatures from Tartarus, and on top of that, overtime I will gain an incredible magical power. I will just have to keep them away long enough and I will more powerful than Faust herself.”
“I want to believe you, but I can’t."
Novenor grunted and put the necklace on. For a few moments nothing happened.
“Oh well. Looks like your little trinket di-”
He was cut off as Novenor was engulfed by darkness which then disscipated. “Now...” the orc said “It is on.” He laughed maniacally as the sky was covered by black clouds and the horrible ear-piercing scream of Tartarus’s creatures could be heard.
Sven looked out the window for a few seconds and then ran to a nearby radio that was set up. He set it to all frequencies and yelled to the microphone “INCOMING ENEMIES! FIRE AT WILL!”.
The peaceful silence of the night had been broken by the roar of cannons and rifles, machine guns and plane engines, cries of pain and anger, and of course the the giant monsters that were attacking Canterlot. The illumination came from the shining moon, muzzle flashes and explosions. The air riddled with planes, monsters and anti-aircraft fire.
The MGs place on the City and castle walls were spitting bullets non stop, trying to kill the fast and agile creatures that were terrorizing the city.
These monsters had two giant dark green serpent heads; the body of a lion with golden fur; pure white angel-like wings; a dark purple scorpion tail and black, large, sharp claws. They were three times of big as a human, could shoot fireballs from their mouths and were actually good dogfighters.
There were hundreds of this monsters, which were called Vellemons, some of them were dogfighting with the human planes, but others were fighting in land, though they were no match for the rifles and machineguns of the Valyrian army. However, outside the city there were 10000 goblins and orcs waiting for the gates to be opened.
Focke Wulf pilot ace Erich Müller throttled up his plane to engage a small cluster of Vellemons ahead. The monsters tried to turn away and dodge, but Erich aimed ahead of one of them and fired a burst of his 20mm cannons and 13mm machineguns, the creature was torn to pieces.
Four fireballs from behind barely missed him. Müller looked back and saw he was being tailed by two Vellemons.
Erich pulled the flight stick up as hard as he could making a loop and getting on his opponent's tails. He quickly took aim and fired two bursts, killing one of the monsters while the other one at an incredible speed made a 360º turn on its own axis and as it spit two fireballs at Müller. One of the fire projectiles impacted on his left wing, almost ripping it off. The flaps were barely working. Still, he gave chase to the Vellemon and after two minutes of dogfighting pirouettes around the air, he finally killed it.
Suddenly, there was a small explosion and the cockpit’s window was shattered. Flames burning the pilot’s face. Ahead, a badly injured Vellemon was heading right towards him. Erich’s left wing flaps gave away and as he pulled the trigger he realized he was out of ammunition. The ace throttled up his plane at max speed. Two seconds later, plane and monster impacted, both turning to an unrecognizable gory goo of mashed flesh and aluminium.
As the battle was still raging on, a music was heard emanating from several of the city’s speakers that had been set up by the humans. The men recognized it as the national anthem of Valyria and started to sing together.
United forever in hardship and battle, Our mighty empire will ever endure. The Great Valyria will live through the ages. The dream of her people their fortress secure.
Long live our elder Motherland, Built by the people's blood and sweat. Long live our people, united and free. Strong in our courage tried by fire. Long may our battle flag inspire, Victoriously shining over scorched battlegrounds.
Through days dark and stormy where Great Rommel lead us Our eyes saw the bright shine of Faust above And Haldir our leader rallying the people, Inspired us to fight for the land that we love.
Long live our elder Motherland, Built by the people's blood and sweat. Long live our people, united and free. Strong in our courage tried by fire. Long may our battle flag inspire, Victoriously shining over scorched battlegrounds.
We fought for the future, destroyed the invaders, And brought to our homeland the guns of her sons. Our glory will live in the memory of nations And all generations will answer the call.
Long live our elder Motherland, Built by the people's blood and sweat. Long live our people, united and free. Strong in our courage tried by fire. Long may our battle flag inspire, Victoriously shining over scorched battlegrounds.
“Reloading!” yelled the MG gunner as he reloaded the gun.
“Cover fire!” shouted the squad leader as the he and the rest of his ten men fired their rifles.
Eleven soldiers were dug in one of the streets of canterlot. Some were in buildings; others, like the two men of the MG crew, behind sandbags set in the street; others only used rubble and debris, which was scattered around, as cover.
The five Vellemons twenty metres away responded with ten fireballs which exploded on impact. Some fireballs hit the soldiers, carbonizing clothes and flesh alike.
“MG reloaded!”
“Fucking fire!”
The MG roared again, turning three Velemons to Swiss cheese. However, the soldiers then made a horrible discovery. Approaching down the road there were orcs, goblins and more Vellemons.
“Men!” the squad leader yelled “Plug bayonets!”
As they prepared to charge, they heard the sound of an engine. That characteristic sound was that of a Maybach T1M2 engine, the very same one used by the-
“TIGER!” someone behind them shouted as an giant tracked vehicle stopped alongside the soldiers and started firing its main gun and MGs.
“...and the goblins have broken through the main gate of the city!” Sven yelled “How could they have taken us by surprise like this?! And where the fuck did this things come from?! Why didn’t our scouts report anything?!”
The elements, the princesses, Shining, Sven, Wenck, Archie and Jean were gathered in the throne room. “Where did this...things even come from!” Wenck asked to no one in particular.
“Hans.” the Valyrian commander called the radio man near him “How is everyone holding up?”
Hans turned to him “Sir, the situation is bad. We’re barely holding them off. Unless we get reinfor-”
The soldier was cut off as the radio crackled to life “To all frequencies. This is Commander John LeMay of the 3rd Armoured Division, most of us are outside the city while some tanks are inside to mop the enemies up. I repeat. This is Commander John LeMay of the 3rd Armoured Division, Valyria’s pride of steel rolling in the battlefield.”
As the tanks rolled forwards LeMay talked into his radio “Starzwick, where are you?”
“We are at the main gates sir.” a voice responded “We are holding them off for now, but the enemy has gotten stronger, it seems they have reinforcements. The tanks will not be able to hold for much longer sir.”
The tank shook from the force of the main gun being fired.
“Copied. Keep fighting, relief will be there soon. Out”
“Copied and out sir.”
LeMay switched the radio to the HQ frequency. “Sven, this is John LeMay. Do you copy?”
“I copy John. How are you lads holding up?”
“Bad. You need to launch those dive bombers and have them hammer the shit out of the hostiles out here. They’ve gotten stronger.”
“I’ve got everything out there trying to fight the Vellemons in the air.”
Once again the 88mm gun roared.
“Fuck! Then you ge-” he was cut off by a loud war horn. “What the fuck?” he asked to no one as he put the radio down and opened the hatch to take a peek outside.
He saw something he didn’t expect. From behind him an army of zebras, minotaurs, diamond dogs and griffons, though the latter were on the sky, were running past the tanks and soon clashed and engaged the xanthians.
LeMay smiled as he got back inside and picked up the radio, he switched it to his division’s frequency “All tanks, we got friendlies with us. Full speed ahead, run over this sorry sacks of shit!”
The armoured vehicles threaded forwards squashing all orcs and goblins that opposed them as the rest of the allied, or actually axis troops, killed the ones that survived.
The onslaught continued for a 30 more minutes until the xanthian army turned around and fled in panic. However, many of them did not get far as the Typhoons and SBD-5 dive-bombers killed a lot of them in a big barrages of bombs and machine gun fire in an amazing display of human firepower, if the tanks weren’t enough.
As the sun came up in the sky, the damage of the battle could be seen. At least half of the buildings in the city were destroyed or damaged. Many were still on fire.
All the ponies had already been evacuated to the undermountain tunnels during the night. The humans had lost about 44 of their 200 planes and had one damaged tank tanks. However, they had at least 6000 dead soldiers and 458 dead pony civilians.
The silence of the morning was suddenly broken by a loud alarm coming from the deck of the VIA Odin. The crew quickly emptied the deck, got inside the ship and held on to something.
The speakers of the ship sparked to life “Attention, main gun being fired soon, clear deck now. I repeat. Attention, main gun being fired soon, clear deck now.”
“Aim the first turret towards Ponyville, time to give our friends a gift.” Fleet Commander Dimitri Petrenkov told the gunners through the radio. He watched from the cabin as the turret took aim at the target. He switched the radio frequency to the ship speakers and said “Attention, main gun will be fired in ten seconds, be ready. Main gun will be fired in ten seconds, be ready.”
He held onto some of the pipes on the wall of the cabin and counted down in his head. ‘Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one.’
Suddenly, the three guns of the first turret fired at the same time, the sound of the explosions was so loud it could be heard kilometres away and it actually shook the city and castle below.
The ship itself was pushed back thirty metres. Some humans had lost grasp of what they were holding onto and were hurled towards the walls of the ship.
“FUCK! Over four hundred dead civilians!” Sven cursed, the group had not left the throne room and stayed awake all night. “It would have been worse if you hadn't appeared LeMay.” Tank Commander LeMay was with them too.
“Sven, it is not your fa-” Celestia was cut off as the castle suddenly shook with an incredible forces and a deafening explosion was heard.
“...and many dead civilians” the goblin finished his report.
“Great!” Novenor said laughing. “You are dismissed.”
The Xanthian soldier left the command tent leaving Nevenor and Venotenko alone.
“You know, I still don’t get why you hate them.” Spaci asked.
“Why do you?”
“I don’t hate the, I just want power. You, on the other hand, really hate them.”
“They hated us first!” Novenor snapped. “Since the beginning, they didn’t even give us a chance, they judged us based on appearance. And then they started killing us, just like that, without a second thought. Heroes they call them, heh.”
“Then why are you killing innocent civilians? Isn’t that what you hate them for?”
Novenor actually looked guilty for a second. “Meh, what does it matter now? We’ve gone down this road, and there’s no turning back.”
Spaci grunted in agreement. “So what now?”
“Now...Now I’ll send as many monsters as I can. Until I can summon him.”
“Him?” Venotenko inquired with a confused look on his face.
“Runaan. The most horrible and powerful monster of all. Well, he is actually a demon. With him, Canterlot will fall in no time, and then, I can kill Celestia, Luna and every single being in this land.”
A distant explosion was heard.
“What was that? Are th-”
Suddenly, three deafening explosions were felt close to them. For a few second, everything was so bright you had to shield your eyes. Then, the pressure of the shockwave pushed them down.
A few moments later they got out the tent and saw three large shellholes that had scorched the earth nearby, not to mention they incinerated many xanthians and injured even more with shrapnel.
Wenck sat in the bed in his room as he rubbed his temples. Silky Winds came up from behind, put her hooves around him and gave him a kiss on the cheeks.
‘Do I really have to do this?’ Steiner thought ‘It’ll make her suffer. But won't she suffer even more if I die?’ he sighed.
“Silky, I have something important to tell you.”
“What is it?” she asked in a concerned voice as he sat down next to him.
“I...I don’t love you, I never did.”
“W-what?”
“I am seeing another mare too.”
Her eyes began to water. “No, no this is not truth, you are joking.”
“I am sorry. I love another one, not you.”
Silky flew off a windows while crying, Wenck saw her disappear in behind a cloud in the sky.
He walked to the room’s mirror and punched it with enough strength to shatter it, a single tear rolling down his left cheek.“Es tut mir leid meine Liebe ... Es tut mir leid, aber ich kann nicht entblößen, um dich weinen über mich denken. (I am sorry my love...I am sorry, but I can't bare to think about you crying over me.)” he whispered.
Private Gregory Sultany sighed out of boredom as he strapped his PPSH-41 smg. He and his friend, Sergeant John Stracheli, had been underground for five hours already.
They were tasked with guarding the door to the only path that led from where the civilians were hiding in the mountain to an exit of the giant rock formation which lead to the footpath to Ponyville.
Since the path was unknown to most, Sven didn’t deem it necessary to station more that a few guards.
Sultany was sitting near a campfire, the only source of illumination in the darkness, which was about five metres from the door.The door was a very old dark brown colour covered by a lot of dark green moss and wet from the humidity of the mountain. It had a single gold doorknob.
“Ugh.” Sultany groaned “I hate this dark shithole.” he complained as he dusted some dirt off his dull, lifeless gray uniform.
“Quit bitching Grag. We still have three more hours in here.” John answered.
“But I’m bored!”
Stracheli put both his hand against his face and sighed. “For fuck sake” he muttered and then walked over to him. “Look, I’m bored too, just find something to do.”
“There is NOTHING to do down here Johnny! Come on, let’s play a game”
John was starting to get irritated. “Alright. there is this really fun game called ‘Shut the fuck up’. How does that sound?”
“Ugh. Why are you always so-” Sultany cut himself off as he heard several footsteps closing in towards him. He and his mate painted their PPSH-41s towards the noise, finger on the trigger. The footsteps stopped.
“HALT THERE! Show yourselves, states your name and business here.” John shouted at the darkness.
The answer came in two quick bursts of sub-machinegun fire. the first burst of two bullets reached Gregory first. A bullet found its way through the space between the first and second ribs and exiting his body from his back, shattering the scapula of its way out. The other one went right through the trachea and got stuck in his spine.
The other burst was much deadlier a three lead projectiles penetrate John’s cranium. One through the left eye socket and the other two making two holes in his forehead, turning his brain into a mashed goo of blood and gray matter.
Just like that. The two soldiers that had been guarding the secret path had died. mercilessly murdered. Five shots rang out, and then, there was silence for a few moments.
Three figures made their way towards the little fire which still illuminated as much as it could.
“Archie, pick up the guns and ammo and put them in your bag. Jean, get a torch and put out of the fire.” Steiner’s voice ordered.
Wenck sat in the bed in his room as he rubbed his temples. Silky Winds came up from behind, put her hooves around him and gave him a kiss on the cheeks.
‘Do I really have to do this?’ Steiner thought ‘It’ll make her suffer. But won't she suffer even more if I die?’ he sighed.
“Silky, I have something important to tell you.”
“What is it?” she asked in a concerned voice as he sat down next to him.
“I...I don’t love you, I never did.”
“W-what?”
“I am seeing another mare too.”
Her eyes began to water. “No, no this is not truth, you are joking.”
“I am sorry. I love another one, not you.”
Silky flew off a windows while crying, Wenck saw her disappear in behind a cloud in the sky.
He walked to the room’s mirror and punched it with enough strength to shatter it, a single tear rolling down his left cheek.“Es tut mir leid meine Liebe... Es tut mir leid, aber ich kann nicht entblößen, um dich weinen über mich denken. (I am sorry my love… I am sorry, but I can't bare to think about you crying over me.)” he whispered.
“Ja, now that that is taken care off…” Wenck made his way out of his room and towards Jean’s room. He knocked three times quickly, three time slow, three times quickly again. ‘SOS’ which was morse code for ‘Help’.
The door opened, revealing Jean who had bag under his eyes. He signaled Steiner to enter the room.
Sitting on the bed was Archie reading a book which was on his lap, who had a pile of more books next to him. The afternoon sun washing over him.
“So?” the Major asked.
Archie looked up to him. “Celestia confirmed it, it is the Lord’s Stone.”
“Verdammt. Can anything stop it?” Steiner said as he walked to the bed and sat down. Jean just leaned against the wooden door.
“Apparently only hitting it against the Element of Magic will stop it.”
“Hitting it? Just...clashing the rock against the crown?”
“Yes. However, that will cause quite a powerful explosion.”
“Well, at least there’s a way. Anyways, we need to get the Element of Magic.”
“Not so easy.” Jean got into the conversation. “The Elements are behind two giant blast doors stronger than a fucking German bunker. Only Celestia’s or Luna’s magic can open it.”
“Hold on…” Steiner started searching his memories for-”I remember! Sven said there was a one of a kind device that could copy and replicate magical signatures.”
“So.” said Archie “We’ll have to steal the device, copy Celestia's magical signature, then get the Elements, and somehow leave Canterlot without anyone noticing.”
“Yes. That means no loose ends.” Wenck sighed “We’ll have to do it at night. As for an escape route, I read about an unknown path under the mountains were the civilians are which takes you to the path to Ponyville.”
“Alright, so we do all that. Get to Ponyville…” Jean said.
“And meet up with Novenor.” Steiner finished the sentence.
Wenck walked down the stairs to the Canterlot Storage Room. He Luger and knife in their respective holsters and MP40 strapped to his left shoulder, hanging by his side.
He got to the door where two human soldiers were standing guard. They saluted and he answered with his own salute.
Steiner opened the door and closed it behind him. ‘No guards in here? Strange. Well, I guess everyone is needed to defend the city.’
“Hello?” a voice said behind him. He turned around and in front of him was a yellow coated mare with pink mane, green eyes, and a cutie mark of three pink butterflies. Fluttershy. ‘Oh no.’
“Uhh, mister Steiner?” the shy mare said “C-can I help y-you?”
“Oh, eeh, yes…I...I am looking for a machine. Sven told me to come get it.”
“Oh, o-okay. What is it?”
“It is a device that copies replicates magical signatures.”
“Oh! Yes. I remember it. Hold on a second, i-if you want of c-course.” Fluttershy said as she started going through an inventory list.
‘Scheiße! Verdammt! I can’t kill her. But...I have to. No, no, there must be another way. Ugh, Scheiße! Scheiße! Scheiße!’
“Umm, mister Steiner?”
Wenck turned around “Yes?”
“I left your machine by the door.”
“Oh, thank you very much. Oh, hey. you have something in your face”
“W-what? G-get it out!”
“Calm down, I got it.” Steiner kneeled as he put his left hand over his knife. He stared at her for a few moments before saying “I’m sorry.”
Before Fluttershy could reply the Major folded his right arm and spun his upper body around. His elbow connected with her temple, and knocked her to the ground. She was unconscious.
“Fuck me.” he got up and walked towards the device and picked it up, it was really simple. It looked like a big rectangular calculator made of copper. It had several buttons and a large metals stick of about thirty centimetres protruding from the top. Next to it there was a folded sheet of paper with a title what read ‘Instructions Manual’.
Wenck put the instructions in one of his uniform’s pocket and with the device in his left hand he walked towards the door. As he was about to open it, he got an idea on how to take out the human guards.
He opened the door and put on a worried look on his face “Fluttershy just fell to the ground unconscious, she blacked out. she need help now.
“You go get the medic herem I’ll keep watch.” One of the guards told his the other which nodded and started to run off.
“Hey, wait!” Wenck called to the guard that was about to run for help ”Take this.”
As he approached Wenck, the valyrian soldier suddenly felt something in his neck. He barely had time to react as the darkness started to swallow him. His friend who was with Fluttershy already didn’t hear him fall to the ground and choke.
The other soldier hear footsteps behind him. He turned around to see a knife as it travelled through the air into his right eye socket. That was it. The guard fell to the ground dead.
Wenck sighed, he had a few spots of blood on his uniform. He picked up his knife, cleaned it with the clothes of the dead guard and walked away.
Wenck stuck to the shadows as he walked through the palace. Hiding every time a patrol passed by as he made his way to Celestia’s chamber. He couldn’t afford to be seen with the device or blood stains in his uniform, not the same night several murders happened.
He also had to be fast, or else someone would find the bodies.
As he was walking along the last hallway to his destination he failed to notice a patrol of three soldiers coming towards him, he was lost in his thoughts.
“Sir.” a voice made Wenck stop in his tracks and look at the three men less than a metre from him.
“Good evening si- Hey...What is that?” the soldier that was in front inquired.
“A device that Sven told me to get.”
“Sven doesn’t trust no ones else than his own men to fetch things. Specially important things like those.”
“Important? this rusty old thing?”
“That is the ‘Magical Signature Copy & Replication Device’ not some ‘rusty old thing’”
“No, it’s no. Here, look at it.” Wenck handed the MSC&RD to the soldier, which took it and began inspecting it.
Steiner quickly pulled out his combat and surged forward, stabbing the first soldier in the neck, then pulling back quickly, the man’s trachea cut open.
Fast as lighting, and before any of the other two could react, he slashed the other soldier across the neck, cutting open his yugular as a torrent of blood erupted from it and the soldier fell to the ground, hand on the wound.
As steiner turned to slash to other man’s throat, he was hit with the butt of a rifle, making him slash the guard on the side. Wenck fell to the ground. He could shoot him, it would be too loud, and his knife has slid away too far. It he went to get it he’d be shot.
The Major quickly got up and kicked the soldier in the chest, making him lose grasp his rifle. Then, Steiner lunged towards him, inserted his hand on the wound on the side on the man and pulled out his intestines. In a horrible act of gore, Wenck got behind the man and used his intestines to choke him. The man couldn’t even scream because of how fast steiner moved.
After a few moments the man fell unconscious, a pool of blood already forming under him. Wenck laid him down, got up and stomped his foot down on his throat, crushing it. He then picked up the device, his knife, and ran towards the room.
The door to Celestia’s room opened. Revealing a German soldier covered in blood.
Archie and Jean were already there.
“What in bloody fuck happened to you?!” Archie yelled in a whisper.
“No time. There are dead soldiers right outside. We have to hurry.”
“Shit shit. Alright. You got the thing?”
“Yes, it’s right here.”
“Alright. Do it.”
“Wait.” Jean stopped him as he pulled out a magical dampener “Just in case.”
Wenck nodded and made his way to the bed. Celestia was peacefully sleeping, the shining yet smoothing light of the moon washing over her. For such an old being, she was very pretty.
“Okay, so it was…” Steiner turned the device on by pressing a red button. He then put the stick against Celestia’s horn and pressed a blue button. The little screen showed a green bar which was getting filled as the seconds passed. After a hell of an intense minute, the bar was loaded and the screen showed the word ‘Magical Signature Copied Successfully’.
Wenck pulled the device away. Celestia was still sleeping.
“Let’s get the fuck out.” Archie ordered, and they got out of the room.
“Right around the corner!” Jean yelled as they sprinting group turned left and got to the large doors of the stained glass room.
“No guards? The fuck?” Archie asked.
“Doesn’t matter, let’s go.”
They pushed the doors open and sprinted towards the even larger double doors that held the elements.
Wenck inserted the stick into the hole where Celestia’s horn should be. and he pressed a yellow button. In the screen of the device it could be read ‘Replicating Magical Signature’ as the stick started glowing a bright yellow.
The doors didn’t open.
“So? What the fuck are you waiting for?!” Archie yelled.
“Why is nothing happening?” Wenck inquired.
“Hold on!” he said. Steiner turned a knob on the device and the stick glowed an even brighter yellow.
This time, the doors glowed light blue and then opened. Revealing the elements.
Jean took the case and stuffed them in Archie’s bag.
“Let’s bug out!” Archie said, eager to get to the tunnels.
But as the group turned around they came face to face with a very pissed off Celestia.
It was sunrise. After several days of walking the three soldiers finally reached the outskirts of the town of Ponyville. The orange-like glow on the sun illuminating the landscape below.
The ground was scorched in many places. Shell-holes scarring the only green fields. Roads and houses since long gone.
Only a few tents were set up among the giant clusters of goblins, orcs, vellemons, and some more unknown nightmarish creatures. Inside said tents were the officers.
Steiner was holding his commander cap on his left hand while his right hand was on the trigger of the mp40, which hung from a strap in his right shoulder. The uniform in his chest and belly along with his leather gloves and boots were completely stained with dried blood. His Luger was still in the old, worn out brown holster in his right hip; the knife sheathed on the other side. On his back hung a simple dark brown leather backpack in which he had some magazines for his pistol and smg, first aid kits and human’s melee weapons.
To his left stood Archie with his own backpack which held the elements, uniform covered with dirt, same as Jean who was on Steiner’s right. The young british man had his rifle at the ready, bayonet plugged; while Jean clutched his mp18 tightly.
The soft bright light of the moon bathed, in different colours thanks to the steiner glass, the three human and the solar princess standing in the long hallway where the elements were located. Said magical artefacts were in Archie’s leather backpack along with another one which held ammunition, a first aid kit and the human’s melee weapons.
Celestia had a look mixed of confusion and anger. Second turned to minutes as both partied stared at each other, as if trying to win a competition on who would falter first under the other’s gaze.
“What are you doing?” Celestia’s question was spoken with a neutral voice, not a shred of anger or rage. She expected a very, very, good explanation for what was going on.
Suddenly, he heard the small device Steiner was holding fall to the ground as he drew his Luger and aimed it directly at the princesses forehead. His comrades did the same with their main weapons.
“Get out of the way, Celestia.” Steiner’s voice was just as neutral as Celestia’s.
“Are all those dead ponies and humans your doing? Have you harmed MY PONIES? MY ALLIES?” Now there was pure anger in Celestia’s voice.
“I will not ask again.” Wenck did not even flicker from the sun goddess’s outburst.
“You know you can’t defeat me. And as we speak more Royal Guard and Valyrian soldiers are heading this way.”
Steiner was about to pull the trigger when he was hit in the back on the head by a rifle butt, Archie’s rifle. The brown uniformed soldier then kicked Jean in the chest strong enough to make him lose grip of his mp18.
Celestia was just as surprised as the other two humans. “Don’t move.” Archie ordered Steiner, who was about to get back on his feet.
“Was zur hölle?! What are you doing?!”
“Shut up german scum! Heh, you really thought I would let you go?”
“Let me go? What are you talking about?”
“You german bastard killed my best friend, and I’ve been waiting for a bloody long time to get back at you. Even if it is just you Steiner.”
“Verdammt traitor!”
“Traitor? Me? Wasn’t it you who killed at those friendlies? Wasn’t it you the one who robbed the elements just now?” Archie turned to face the princess and threw both leather backpack at her hooves.
“Princess Celestia.” He approached her, though Celestia was still wary and confused about the human’s sudden change of loyalty. “I hand you the traitors.”
Celestia nodded her head at Archie and began walking towards Steiner.
Just as she passed him, Archie reached from behind him and took something off his belt. With lightning speed, he put the magical dampener on Celestia’s horn. The object was a stone cylinder with the same shape as a horn and it attached itself to the top of the goddess's horn.
The british man hit her in the temple with his rifle just as she turned around. she fell to the ground with a thump as didn’t move, she was unconscious.
Archie helped his friends up and handed Steiner the backpack with the supplies while he kept the one with the elements. “Let’s bug out, now.”
As the group was running out the main gate of the hall they saw several Royal Guards and Valyrians approach.
“Feuer frei!” came the order from Steiner as the three humans let loose a hail bullets upon the charging enemies, many going down among a red mist of blood in the process.
They quickly rounded a corner and kept running. They sprinted down the stairs. As they got to the base they saw several pnoy civilians along with four Valyrians guards.
They group stopped and opened fire. Archie fired an accurate bullet which entered through the left eye socket of one of the black uniformed humans.
Jean fired five rounds at the leftmost enemy. One bullet penetrated the stomach, ripping it and spilling gastric juices over the other organs. Another one entered exactly through the middle of the abdomen and got stuck in the spine. The final bullet went clean through the right lung, puncturing it and leaving the soldier gasping for air on the ground. The other two bullets missed the target and continued their path just barely going over the heads of ponies only to be stopped by the rock wall some metres behind.
Steiner fired a two bullet burst. The first projectile struck the enemy's lower jaw, shattering and spraying bone and some undamaged teeth around. The other bullet penetrated just below the right eye socket, smashing its way through the cranium and then exiting.
The last Valyrian aimed his PPSH-41 at Jean, but before he could fire he felt something in his throat. He caught a glimpse of Archie pulling his bayonet out before collapsing and drowning in his own blood.
“RUN!” yelled Wenck and then group continues their sprint. After they left the chambers were the civilians were behind, they stopped at a large gate. It was a giant, thick wooden liftgate which separated one chamber from the other.
They walked to the chamber further ahead and simply destroyed the lifting mechanism on the other side by riddling it with bullets. The liftgate then collapsed and locked them away from the castle.
*
“Get moving.” Wenck ordered.
The group resumed their trek towards the now wrecked Ponyville.
*
Archie, Jean and Steiner were standing inside of a big tent. Their backpacks and weapons on a corner. Across from a simple and thin wooden table sat Novenor, his dark eyes inspecting the humans in front of him with detective-like professionality, not missing a single detail. From his neck hung the Lord’s Stone.
Next to him was Venotenko, who was too thoroughly studying the new guests.
Atop the table was an open purple box, inside, the elements.
“So let me get this straight.” The orc finally broke the reigning silence. “You killed many of your own species and ponies too, just so you could steal the elements which are the only defense the ponies have against what it to come and brought them to me. So what’s the catch?”
“There is no catch. Celestia is a tyrant. She should not be in power.” Steiner answered.
“Ah! She is a tyrant, so you come join us. The role model of democracy, huh?” shot back Venotenko.
“Well, you’ve got to be better than her mate. I mean, look at this cutie mark business. A tattoo that magically appears and tells you your destiny. Sound like a pretty good control method for me.” Archie could not believe that those words have left his mouth. He and his two friends actually began to ponder for a second is maybe what he was saying was true.
“Well shit. I thought I was the only one who saw that.” Venotenko said with a grin.
“Hmm...Tell me, human. Do you know why I am here? Why I am leading an army besieging Canterlot?” Novenor inquired.
Steiner shook his head.
“Let me tell you. Thousands of year ago, before I existed, before the Great War we lvied in peace. Goblins and orcs, which were already united under the banner of the Xanthian nation; gryphons, humans, ponies, minotaurs, zebras and whatnot.” the orc took a deep breath before continuing. “Well, this one time the humans and ponies decided they did not like us, just because we look ‘horrible’ ‘as if we were out of a nightmare’ as they put it. So both of them became allies and fought us. We put up a good fight, but the pony magic and human technology, not as advanced as the one now, eventually defeated us. We were exiled from our lands, just because they did not like us.”
“Shortly after we found a new home, and quickly prospered. But we were isolated. The centuries passed and my race lived in peace, still no contact from anyone. Until one day, we heard of a brewing civil war between the humans. W saw this as our chance to get revenge, so we sided with my friend Venotenko here.”
“Have any of you lost their whole family?”
Wenck nodded slowly.
“Then you know what it feels like. I was a young farm orc, just minding my business, tending to the family farm. I went to the nearby river to get some water since the humans had unleashed their chemicals weapons on our underground water system. I was walking back to my village when I saw a black thing in the sky above it, a Valyrian airship. And then I could only watch helplessly as it mercilessly bombarded the town. It was a simple old town, no military there, no tactical ground, nothing of importance, yet they just...annihilated it.”
“I joined the military shortly after and worked my way up, it costed me a lot, but I finally got where I am...only to be defeated by those fucking humans. At least I had the consolation that their race had sustained such heavy casualties that it went extinct shortly after. So what happened then? Well I ended in Tartarus along with Venotenko here. However, not all goblins and orcs died, no. They just went into isolation again. We finally broke free, gathered my kind and rallied them to war and I was just about to crush those fucking princesses until you showed up, along with the goddamn Valyrian military.”
“Faust...The creator of this spinning ball of shit I call my homeworld. She thinks she is a white knight, that she knows right from wrong. Heh, all she cares about are her perfect, innocent little ponies. Meh, no matter, she’ll die too. Anyways, you want to join? You’re in, but I’ll be watching you closely, now get your things and scram.”
*
The three men sat around a campfire on the outskirts of Ponyville, the sun above them about to set and give way to the night.
They were in silence, the only sounded were those of the the flames burning and the occasional Xanthian that walked by them.
Archie was the first one to speak up. “I didn’t think I’d say this, but I don’t want to kill him anymore.”
“Me neither.“ Jean agreed. “Looks like we’ve been fooled from the beginning.”
“This is just two sides fighting a war. Remind you of something?” Wenck told them.
“Yes, but, mate. Everyone hates the orcs and think they’re evil. Everyone- Well, not everyone, but a lot of people hate germans and think they’re horrible nazis. It was just like you. Before we knew you, we hated you. But now...We see you’re a soldier just like Jean and me.”
“And the same happened with the orcs.” Steiner said. “I still can’t believe they lied to us like that. ‘Celestia and the humans are the best, bla bla, kill the orcs’. Verdammte stück scheiße (Fucking pieces of shit).”
“Look, I know you guys love your mares and will probably go back to Canterlot, but I‘ll stay here.” Archie’s voice indicated he wouldn’t change his mind.
“I do still love Applejack but...I...I just...I can’t look at her the same now.”
Wenck just sat there, silent. Suddenly he stood up “Stay here.” he ordered, and walked off.
*
Steiner practically stormed into Novenor’s tent. The orc in question was standing next to Venotenko looking over a map of Canterlot city and another one of the Ponyville plains.
“Tanks.” Wenck said.
Novenor raised an eyebrow. “Care to elaborate my good sir?” he said in a mocking tone.
“You have the Lord’s Stone and the elements. They know that unless they take you down quickly you’ll continue to gain strength. So they have to attack, they have tanks, so they can make a successful attack on land now. Tell me Novenor. Can you, with the power you currently have, get object and beings from other worlds?”
“I do…”
“Any can you revive dead people?”
“It’s hard, but it is possible.”
“Can you read my mind?”
“If I tried. Why are you asking all this?”
* Three days later *
Steiner stood atop one of the hills near Ponyville, he was wearing a German Field Marshall uniform. Next to him were three human and one orc, all equally stunned and with their mouths open.
“Gentlemen.” Wenck said “I present to you the 3rd, 653rd and 654th Panzerjäger Abteilung.”
“ANGRIFF SOLDAT!” Oberstleutnant Heinrich Slukovsk yelled to encourage his squad as the 88mm AP shell of a Nashorn sailed over their heads and easily penetrated the turret of a Valyrian Tiger one hundred metres away killing the commander, loader and gunner.
Heinrich looked up and saw a Typhoon heading to strafe their trench. “IN DECKUNG!” he ordered as and his 4 soldiers threw themselves to the ground. The Typhoon’s bullets hit the ground around them.
As the plane turned around a german soldier runned up to them. “Oberstleutnant!” he called him “Die Ingenieure müssen abdecken Feuer, während sie die Spur eines Nashorn reparieren! Nicht zurückfallen! (The engineers need cover fire while they repair the track of a Nashorn! Do not fall back!)”
“Jawohl!”
“Neuladen! (reloading)” yelled the machinegunner.
“Alle, feuer! (Everyone, fire!)” at the command, all the soldier except for the mchinegunner and loader started providing cover fire.
A bullet hit a german soldier in the yugular, said soldier fell to the ground applying pressure to the wound, but to no avail as the blood keep coming out like a torrent.
“Geladen! (Loaded!)” yelled the mg gunner and started spraying the ground before the squad just in time as over 30 valyrians soldiers were charging the trench.
As the mg opened on them they started dropping like flies. Head jerking back, and mists of red coming from where the bullets hit. Soon, only a quarter of them remained.
* Earlier *
“I...I didn’t think you’d convince them to fight.” Novenor said with a dumbfounded look at his face.
Down the hill there were 3023 german soldiers, 20 Ferdinand tank destroyers, 10 Nashorn tank destroyers, 20 Jagdtigers, 10 Stugs and 15 Marder III.
“I have more good news, I found the hidden stashes of rifles.” Venotenko told Novenor, who was now sport an ear-to-ear grin.
“Perfect.”
Steiner’s grin faded. He turned to the left and walked 10 metres, a clear frown on his face. He just stared at the ground, feeling a knot in his stomach.
“Wenck?” a voice called him.
Wenck turned around to see Jean and Archie.
“Are you alright mate?” the British Private asked.
“This...this is all a verdammt mess. There are ponies and xanthians that have nothing to do with this conflict who have been dragged here. On top of that I brought German soldiers to die here too. I jus-...I just want to be home.”
“Hey.” Jean called him. “Then ask Novenor to send you back. This is not our war after all.”
“Und do what? Keep fighting for Hitler? Not a chance, besides Germany is almost defeated. Become an allied PoW? Pff. Nein, danke. Besides… by home I ment I want to be with my… meine familie… But they’re dead, so I have nothing left to lose or live for. Might aswell help this guys out.” Wenck sighed. “You guys go home. You still have people to care for.”
“No.” Archie said. “I have none I care for left.”
“Neither do I.” Jean had a sad look on his face. “I...I was told my family was in Villers-Bocage when the USAAF pounded it to shit. I still haven’t heard from them.”
“Jean, wh-”
“I don’t want to talk about it. Look, we’ll stay here and fight with you.”
Steiner grunted and felt a small grin tug at his lips. “You know, for a second there in Fluttershy’s cottage, back when we just got here, I really thought the war had ended, I thought we wouldn’t have to fight anymore. Seems it is true that ‘only the dead have seen the end of war’”.
“Well, look at it this way. We won’t have to kill any innocent ponies.” Archie tried to confort his friend.
“But are the Valyrian soldiers really guilty? They are just following orders, just like you, Jean and me. I think Sven, Celestia and Luna are the only guilty ones here.”
“Really?” they heard a voice behind them and turned to see Nocenor and Venotenko standing there, their stupor having left them long ago. “Add me and Venotenko to that list. we 5 are guilty for all the ones that have died and will die.”
“But at lea-”
“Silence.” Novenor cut Archie off. “We 5 are guilty for all that is happening and that’s it. On another topic, we still need a way to destroy the enemy airships, especially the Carolus and then Odin.”
“Odin? Carolus? Luftschiffe? Wo zum Teufel hast du uns Major? (Odin? Carolus? Airships? Where the hell did you bring us Major?)” A voice said as they heard several footsteps approach them. Wenck recognized that voice, it was...it was...Schultz?
Steiner turned around. “Hans! Schultz! Manfred! Albert!” he yelled as he ran to his friend and they group hugged. “Mein freund.”
“Sie werden nicht loszuwerden uns so einfach. (You will not get rid of us so easy.)” Schultz said.
“Ich bin froh. (I'm glad.)”
*
Wenck, Archie, jean, Manfred, Hans, Albert, Schultz, Novenor and Venotenko were sitting around a round wooden table inside a large tant.
Steiner had to explain to to other germans what was happening. When he finish all of them had a dumbfounded expression.
“Das ist-”
“Hans, english.” Wenck cut Hans off.
“Ja, sorry. That is quite a story you have there. Und don’t be sorry for bringing us here, it is gut to be alive again. But I have ein question. Why didn’t you bring more soldiers und equipment?”
“Yes, I’ve been meaning to ask you that too.” Archie told him as he poured some water into his glass.
“Well, Novenor said that if he touched anything else he could upset the balance of the space-time or something. So no tanks or artillery for us.”
“Ich know that we have to defend for now. But eventually we’ll have to attack, uhh...Canterlot, was it? And you’re the only one with urban kämpf experience.”
“Really? Where did you fight?” Jean asked him.
“Well, I never told you guys, but I fought in Poland, then France, and then was deployed to the Eastern Front.”
“Bloody hell, really?”
“Yes. First with Army Region Centre, fighting towards Moscow. Then I got reassigned to Stalingrad from 1942 to 1943. After Kursk I was assigned again to the Panzerabteilung.”
“You were panzergrenadier?”
“I still am.”
“Steiner.” Novenor called him. “We still need to think about how to take out the airships.”
“Why don’t you use your power?”
“Because I’ll use it to stop Odin’s giant HE shells, and they’re anti-magic too. so I’ll have to use extra power. Besides I’ll need to be ready if Faust decides to interviene. And the Alicorn sisters will be protecting it and the Carolus probably.”
“Do you know how long it takes to reload?”
“Each cannon takes around 5 minutes or so to reload.”
“Sehr gut. When they’re all reloaded, a squad of your vellemons will drop a large ammount of explosives into one of the howitzers, the explosion should make the shell explode, which should make all the other shells explode.”
“Seems like a good enough plan, and the Carolus?”
Suddenly, an orc entered the tent. “Lord Novenor, an Equestrian soldier has surrender as is requesting an audience with one the human Steiner.”
“Later, take the pony and put it under arre-”
“Wait!” Wenck stopped Novenor from giving the order. “What is her name?”
“Wenck it is me!” yelled Silky Winds as she bust in the tent. The orc guard unsheathed his sword.
“HALT! Senken sie ihre waffe! (Stop! Lower your weapon!) Steiner ordered.
“Put that away, soldier.” Novenor ordered.
“What are you doing here?” Wenck asked her.
“I...I needed to see you. First you dump me and say you don’t love me, then you steal the elements, kill soldiers and leave the castle. What is going on?”
“Soldat, aussteigen. (Soldiers, get out.)”
Everyone, even though some didn’t speak german, understood what he meant and immediately left the tent.
When Steiner was alone with he rushed to her and hugged her. “I do love you. But what are you doing here?”
“W-wenck.” Silky started sobbing as she hugged back. “What are YOU doing here? Why did you leave?”
“Because…” Wenck broke the hug and sat down. “At first we were planning to steal the elements and use them to destroy Novenor’s stone of power. But then...he told us what really happened. And...seems the humans and the princesses aren’t saints.”
“Wenck I-”
“Look, you can’t go back, they’ll take you for a dissertator, maybe even a spy. You...Y-you could hide, yes. You’ll hide and when all this is over We can be together!”
“Wenck, no. I want to be with you now.”
“Silky, I’ll be back. I swe-”
“NO! Don’t lie to me Wenck, please. I’m a soldier too. I know as well as you you could die tomorrow. I just want to be with you, be with you now.” She said as tears fell from her eyes and runned down the cream coloured coat of her cheeks. “Wenck...I...I-”
She was cut off as Wenck passionately kissed her.
*
“That...That fucking piece of shit!” Sven yelled as he slammed his fist on the table in front of him. In the table there was liad a map of Ponyville and the nearby fields.
“Calm down Sven, we need to plan our attack.” Celestia tried to calm him.
“Don’t worry, this is simple. I’ll send the Tigers, Cadian Shock Troops and the 4th Infantry to engage them. Then The Odin will deploy the Tretrachs light tanks on their back and they’ll be caught in a pincer. I’ll fucking murder those bastards!”
“That is what’s wrong…” Luna almost whispered.
“What was that?” Sven asked.
“What we did is finally catching up to us. Everything we did all those centuries ago...We will pay for everything, for every single bit.”
“WHAT!? NO, NO! THE EMPIRE WILL NEVER FALL. THEY ARE THE BAD ONES, THEY WILL PAY! THEY! NOT US, THEY!” Sven screamed angrily.
“YOU DON’T GET IT, DON'T YOU? IT WAS ALL OUR FAULT! ATTACKING WITHOUT REASON!”
“Luna! Don’t you speak likes that to us! Now go to your room!” Celestia scowled her sister.
“You can go fuck yourself Celestia! I’m not a little filly anymore!” With that, Luna stormed off the room.
“Celestia...Prepare the attack.”
*
“You know. I’ve never seen you smile out of pure happiness.” Venotenko told Novenor.
“Did you distribute the rifles?”
“Yes. Most goblins have their rifles and are training right now, same as the orcs who have their pistols and swords.”
“The uniforms?”
“We couldn’t find them.”
“I see…” Novenor looked at the horizon. The sun was setting, soon the moon would be up in the sky. The battle getting closer by the second. He hoped Steiner would make them win. “Venotenko…the day I spit in the face of Faust, I’ll smile out of pure happiness.”
*
Jean was sitting in a little green hill. The light of the setting sun hitting him of the back. His eyes were red of having been crying.
Archie came up behind him. “Hey Jean. How are you mate?”
The french soldier didn’t respond.
Archie sat in front of him. “Oi, mate. what’s bugging you?”
“S-Silky Winds came all the way from Canterlot for Wenck...I couldn’t even say goodbye to Applejack.”
“Don’t worry. I’m sure she wants to be here with you. But she’s one of the Elements, she can’t just leave.”
“I suppose you’re right…”
“Oi, when all this is over, you will be able to live happily with her in her farm. A peaceful, quiet life. Sounds good, huh?”
“Yes...it does. Archie.”
“Yes?”
“Do you think we’ll survive this war?”
“...No…”
* The Day of the Battle *
A german soldier was on watch on the edge of Ponyville, behind him there were 10000 entrenched orcs and golbins with their Mosin Nagant rifles.
The young soldier though he heard a noise, but shrugged it off. However, the nosie got louder, it sounded like an engine...many engines. He looked towards the source with his binoculars and saw tanks and infantry, he aimed the binoculars up and saw several airships.
