“You can talk?” Asked the creature, its voice heavily accented.

Rainbow Dash blinked in surprise. This barbaric killer, this creature of war, could speak! Not only that, but it understood Equish. Rainbow Dash found that to be nerve-wracking. Twilight may have found this interesting, first contact with an alien race and all that, but Rainbow did not like the thought that something from another world could speak. Rainbow finally found her tongue, and responded, trying to ignore the fact that the creatures before her had killed roughly a dozen of their own kind.

“Yeah, I can talk. How can you talk?”

“I don’t know what you mean, but I think that you are asking me how I learned English. I learned it at the university of Berlin.”

The accent was distracting. He pronounced his “Ws” as “Vs”, his “Vs” as “Fs”, and his “THs” as “Zs”. It was disconcerting. What was English anyway? He was quite plainly speaking Equish. Rainbow Dash had never heard of English, and she was certain she could tell what her own native tongue was. Against her better judgment, she tried to correct him.

“You’re speaking Equish. I don’t know what English is.”

“Ja?” Came the response, “I was certain that I signed up for English courses. I assume that you have a name?”

He was cut off by a loud explosion, which caused him to look around nervously. Rainbow Dash squeaked at the noise. The creature turned away to look at his comrades. He made a motion with his hands. They nodded. There was another cracking explosion.

“Scheiße,” he muttered to himself. He turned back towards Rainbow, “We have to go, or we will surely be picked off by snipers."

Rainbow wouldn’t budge. She did not want to go with the creature. Sure, he hadn’t attacked her yet, but perhaps this was a ruse to lure her away. She was not about to go anywhere with him until she knew that he would not turn on her. However, a small half of her mind argued that if he meant her harm, he would have killed her long before. He had several others with him, they were well armed, and she was injured. By all rights, if he wanted to eat her, she would already be dead. She stood there, the argument raging in her head. The creature’s voice snapped her out of her thinking.

“Um gottes willen!” he snapped, “Do you want to get me shot? Do you want to get shot?”

In the distance a multitude of battle cries sounded.

“URA!” the cry was punctuated by distant explosions.

The creature snarled, “We have to go, NOW!”

Rainbow Dash made a split second decision. She began to walk towards the soldier. He nodded. He turned and ran. Rainbow followed him. Several more explosions resounded, and there were tiny pinging noises as objects ricocheted off of pieces of rock. The pain in her wing was almost overwhelming. There was a loud staccato burst. Rainbow saw a group of khaki-dressed soldiers taking cover behind bags filled with sand. They had mounted one of the stick-looking weapons on the sand bags, and were pounding away at her and the others. She resisted the urge to gag as she saw one of the grey-uniformed soldiers pitch back, holes punched through his chest. He spasmed, blood pouring from his lips as he tried to breathe. His eyes glazed over, and his twitching stopped.

“Scheiße!” she heard her companion scream in his harsh language, “”

He threw himself down behind a strange, black metallic construct that looked like a turtle. He gestured for Rainbow to do the same. She threw herself down next to him. She still did not trust him, but at least he was not trying to kill her, as far as she was concerned. The rest of the soldiers threw themselves behind anything that looked solid. Several held their weapons over their heads, firing wildly in the enemy’s general direction. She saw another soldier pitch back, his face a ruin of bone and tissue. Crimson gore spread beneath him in a puddle, and to her disgust, she saw spatters of grey matter on the wall behind him. Her partner cursed and returned fire blindly. She heard several objects ricocheting of the cover they were behind.

“” She heard him order.

Rainbow saw one of the soldiers take a cylindrical object out. On closer inspection, it looked like a potato masher. What was a potato masher going to do to help them? Was he going to try and beat them to death with it? She blinked as she saw him wrench the end off of the cylinder. He jumped up and threw the object at the khaki soldiers. Then, he planted himself firmly to the ground, somehow without getting hit by the strange projectiles.

“” the soldier screamed.

“What does that even mean?” Rainbow murmured to herself.

A thunderous explosion shook the ground, and Rainbow squeaked in fear that she used to believe herself incapable of feeling. She heard screaming and several more thunderous explosions. The grey-uniformed soldiers suddenly stood and began aiming at their targets. Each thunderous report of their weapons was rewarded with screaming. She could not see what was happening, because of her comparatively diminutive size. Perhaps that was a good thing. Her curiosity got the better of her, however and she peaked out from behind her position. What she saw horrified her. The ground where the “potato masher” had exploded was completely scorched. The three man crew of the rapid-fire weapon were twisted in various disturbing positions. One had a large hole in his throat where a large, jagged piece of something had torn through. Blood splattered the walls in a fashion that seemed demented to Rainbow. One of the khaki soldiers had been completely decapitated, the stump of his neck pumping blood violently. The stench of burning flesh wafted to Rainbow’s nose. She gagged at the smell, and stared around in apprehension.

She felt something tapping her shoulder. She looked back to see her companion appraising her.

“Let’s go,” he said, “We should not stay here long. The Soviets will be back in full force.”

The soldier led his bedraggled companions towards a building that was more or less intact. Once they were safely inside, and the doors barred, he turned to Rainbow Dash.

“Now,” he said, smiling, “I believe that introductions are in order.”

Rainbow Dash stared at him, her brain still behind after witnessing the earlier violence. The creature frowned briefly. Rainbow Dash did not want to think what a frown could imply. He shrugged. She sighed in relief.

“I take you haven’t seen action before?”

Rainbow shook her head. The creature smiled in an attempt to reassure her. She interpreted it as a predatory, sadistic smile. Surely something capable of such violence would only think of death and destruction, right?

“Oh,” he spoke softly, “I see.”

Rainbow looked at him closely, observing him for the first time. He had brown eyes. She could not see his hair, which was hidden under a steel helmet. He stood at roughly six feet tall. To Rainbow, who was only four feet tall, saw this as menacing height. He removed his helmet, and placed it on a table by the door. As he ran his hand through his hair, Rainbow could see that his hair was brown. This was odd. These creatures all looked almost identical. They did not seem to have cutie-marks, and they most certainly did not act like ponies, who refrained from taking lives. The fact that she was no longer in Equestria sank in.

The creature spoke again, “I am Unterfeldwebel Hans Richter of the Wehrmacht.” He intoned it almost bitterly. Rainbow was sure there was a back-story to it. However, from what she had seen of this world, she was sure she did not want to know.

“I’m Rainbow Dash,” she replied, trying to pick up her courage through pain and shock.

“An interesting name,” he said, “Tell me, what are you, and where are you from?”

“I’m a pony,” Rainbow mumbled slowly, “I’m from Equestria.”

“Equestria? I have never heard of an Equestria, and I studied geography. Is it in Asia, Europe, Africa, North America, or South America?”

“I have never heard of those places,” Rainbow responded, wincing as she again tried to move her broken wing, “Where the hay am I anyway?”

“You’re in Stalingrad. Or, as we call it, Hell. Welcome, and pray that you do not stay long,” Hans sighed.

Author's Note

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