“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.)”

“Lieutenant Jean Pierre.”

“Private Archib *cough* Sorry, Archibald Stantson.”

“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.”

“T-the rest?” Celestia stuttered.

“Well. You didn’t think I came alone, did you?”

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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.

It was going to be very hard besieging this city.

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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.

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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...”

“I understand.”

The princess of the sun smiled and walked away.

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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?”

Celestia shrugged and continued eating her food.

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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.”

“Oh, really?”

“Yes, what you want to say is...”

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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.”

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“...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.”

“Interesting. Do you have a family?”

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.

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“HOW CAN YOU STILL BE SO RELAXED?!” Spaci yelled.

“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.

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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!”.

Author's Note

Chapter 8 ladies and gentlement. I hope you are ready for the upcoming battles. Dogfights, bombardemnts, urban combat and more.

Again, if you enjoyed the story, please like it!

So, from 1 to 10. How sad is Wenck's life?