Schmidt finished his word-for-word recording of his Oberstleutnant's recalling of the chariot. He wanted to double check, since the entire thing seemed highly ridiculous to him.

"You are sure this is what you saw? A golden chariot, pulled by two winged ponies, one grey and the other white, both also wearing golden armor—" He looked over to the next page in his notebook. "—Has two sets of golden wheels, attached to the winged horses and the chariot by a golden chain and has a small flag?"

Heinrich nodded, "Yes, this is what I saw."

"Very well, you are dismissed." Schmidt looked up from the notebook for a second to wave Heinrich away.

Heinrich clacked his heels together and saluted before walking off to his tank, his patrol having recently ended so Schmidt could ask him without disrupting his schedule. He walked over to Johnson's command tank, Johnson himself looking over what supplies they had left.

Schmidt lightly rapped the side of the hull. "Johnson, this is what one of my men saw moving towards the city." Schmidt held up his notebook to Johnson, making sure to hold the notebook by the spine so that the pages with the recording were face-up.

Johnson looked up from his supply list, placing it nearby on the Sherman's top. "Thanks for letting me know." He grabbed the notebook and started reading, while Schmidt took the chance for a close-up look at a Sherman, since most of the Shermans he saw were either destroyed, disabled or shooting at him from a distance. This one looked to be one of the more powerful 76mm Shermans, as the barrel design had extra holes for better air cooling. 'Although, there seem to be multiple "Sherman" designs.' Schmidt thought. he noticed that Johnson had just about finished reading and decided to stop his inspection.

"Well, that's... kinda far-fetched, to be honest." Johnson held up Schmidt's notebook. "I mean, winged horses? Flying chariots? Those things sound like they're straight out of a fantasy story!"

"While I do have my doubts, my men do not lie." Schmidt held out his hand for his notebook back.

"I'm not saying your men are lying, but that your men might be seeing things." Johnson handed back the notebook, carelessly closing it in the process.

"I have considered it, and I shall refrain from announcing this until we have more evidence." Schmidt closed the leather-bound book and held it firmly in his left hand.

"Thanks Schmidt." Something occurred to Johnson as Schmidt turned around to leave. "Hey, do you have any plans?"

"As of now? No. I will make sure to notify you when I do have one." Schmidt turned around to walk back to his tank.

As he walked back, he noticed that his scout team was returning. He waited as the tank and the accompanying infantry moved towards him. The leader of the scout team, Leutnant Adalard saluted Schmidt on top of his tank.

"Hauptmann, we have successfully scouted the local area." He carefully handed his notebook, filled with drawings of the local area.

Schmidt grabbed and took a look. "What's this?" He pointed at a small shaded spot.

"That's a rock."

Schmidt looked up from notebook, his eyebrow raised in confusion.

"There was nothing there for miles. I did the best I could." Adalard shrugged apologetically.

"Very well. Is there a forest down there?" Schmidt pointed to a spot on the map which had multiple trees.

"Yes, there is. "

"That's great news. Some shelter and the possibility of a fire." Schmidt returned the book to Adalard. He then pointed in the direction he assumed the forest would be in. "The forest is this way?"

Adalard nodded. "Yes."

Schmidt nodded his head. "Thank you. You are dismissed. However, be ready to move out."

Adalard saluted Schmidt as the team dispersed, the infantry back to their respective tanks, while the tank stayed where it was.

Schmidt returned to his tank, contemplating his plan. He decided to notify Johnson first. He noticed that Johnson wasn't at his tank, so he looked around, him not knowing the American uniforms made finding him somewhat difficult.

He did manage to find Johnson, who was talking to Smith about something. He used this time to memorize the American Captain uniform. Eventually, Smith stormed off, fists clenched. Johnson noticed Schmidt in his peripheral vision and turned to face him.

"Oh Schmidt, sorry about that." Johnson tilted his head towards Smith. "What did you want to find me for?"

Schmidt nodded and pointed his finger at the direction the forest was supposed to be. "My scouts have discovered a forest there. I recommend we relocate."

"Alright. I'll get the men ready to go." Johnson clambered back into his tank and retrieved his headset. "Men, get ready to haul ass." Johnson stopped to look at Schmidt. "Why didn't you use the shared frequency we agreed on earlier?"

"Ah. I'm still not used to using it." Schmidt tipped his cap and left.

He clambered back onto his tank, making a mental note that there was a new frequency to talk to the Americans. He grabbed his own headset and replaced it on his head. "This is Hauptmann Schmidt, I want all tanks to be ready to go in five minutes." He watched as all the Germans dropped what they were doing and returned as quickly as possible to their tanks. The sound of tank engines rumbling soon filled the air, and Schmidt started mentally counting down five minutes.

"Finally something that's not snow!" WIlliam exclaimed as he pointed towards the trees. "I don't know how you guys deal with it, but I can barely stand this cold." He lowered himself inside the turret and closed the hatch.

Schmidt took off his cap with one hand and used the other to wipe off the snow that had built up on top of his Crusher Cap. Grabbing the hard plastic front, he replaced it on top of his head, covering his brown hair. They soon arrived at the grove, Schmidt ordering his men to leave their tanks as the trees were grown tight enough that tank's couldn't pass, while Johnson jumped out, his men following him inwards.

Schmidt withdrew his boot knife from his belt, using it to cut through the branches that would block his way, along with keeping an eye for the local wildlife.

"Everyone, fan out and scout the forest. Do not go beyond the tree line." He adjusted his grip on his boot knife and cut down another tree branch. "Try to find a clearing where we can set up camp."

He glared at the branch that had decided to smack him across the face before chopping it off the trunk.

"Pick up any twigs, sticks or rocks you can, we'll need 'em to make a fire!" said Johnson, before using his hand to part another branch in his way.

Schmidt echoed the command in German, picking up the branch he just chopped off. He pressed on with the branch in one hand, the boot knife in the other. He managed to part into a clearing, probably big enough to fit them all. He threw the branch onto a slowly growing pile of random twigs and branches as more and more men poured in with their own additions. Johnson arrived soon enough.

"Start making fires, maybe we'll finally get some warmth." Johnson started inspecting the ground for rocks while his men did the same.

Schmidt grabbed Hans by the shoulders. "See what you can do getting us some meat."

Hans nodded and picked out his tank crew before turning off into the forest, MP40s by their sides.

Johnson slightly surprised Schmidt as he tapped his shoulder. "What did you say to him?"

A part of Schmidt briefly considered lying, before it was promptly discarded as a an utterly stupid idea. "I just asked him to go fetch us some meat."

"Ah. Why him?"

"He came from an upper-class family. Thus he had time for hunting, riding horseback and other frivolous activities." Schmidt held his hand up to stop Johnson from asking his question. "He joined the army since he wanted to experience adventure. He got a whole lot more than he bargained for." Schmidt gave Johnson a small smile. "Although, I wasn't much better." He sighed in longing.

Johnson patted Schmidt's shoulder. "I also wish for the old days before The Great Depression and all this war." Johnson noticed something out of the corner of his eye. "Talk to you later." He said, moving to deal with the private who was trying to thaw out some snow with his cigarette lighter. "That's not how you do it, Private!"

Schmidt gave a small smile of thinking of the older days where the biggest headache he had was trying to figure out why whistling, making "bang!" sounds weren't allowed near his father. The thought of his father caused Schmidt to furrow his brow. 'Don't worry Dad. I'll make it out of this war soon enough.' He whipped out his notebook and was about to start planning the zones that each crew would have for themselves when something occurred to him. He stopped the nearest German he could, this being a Unteroffizier, and told him to start camouflaging the tanks to prevent them being spotted by enemy aircraft. The Unteroffizier snapped a salute before running back towards the tanks, picking up crew along the way.

Schmidt returned his attention to his notebook, additionally thinking about how the tanks could be concealed.

Hans finished gutting the deer he had managed to capture earlier, and he moved the carcass over to the pile of processed animals. He wiped his knife off on some nearby leaves to get the blood off the blade when he noticed a glint through the mass of trees and leaves. After checking that it was not coming from the sun, he decided to investigate. Parting the trees, he noticed a few specks of gold, he didn't know why there was gold, but he was sure as hell going to get them. Maybe they would buy the others' families some supplies.

"Disperse circle. Follow me," he said.

He focused on moving towards the direction where the glints were coming from. He expected maybe a few small nuggets of gold in a river, instead he found four horses with golden plate armor standing around in a field.

"Hans, are you seeing what I'm seeing?" One of his men tapped him on the shoulder and pointed towards the horses.

"If what you are seeing is horses wearing golden armor, then yes," Hans said, "Pass it down, they are seeing golden armored horses, they are not hallucinating and they should prepare for circle formation."

The men to either side of him nodded and passed on the information and orders as discreetly as possible, while slowly positioning themselves until they encircled the horses.

"Come on. We've rested long enough." Stiff Spear used her hoof to poke the nearest guard. She was sergeant of the pegasus patrol team "Blazing Sun". "We still have to complete this patrol route."

"We just need to fly around a few times, it's not like there are any threats to Equestria anyway," said Golden Axe, the heavily armored grey guard leaning his heavy battleaxe on a nearby tree. "Except maybe Nightmare Moon."

"It's Princess Luna, Axe, not Nightmare Moon," said Swift Sword, the white pegasus poking Axe with the hilt of her sword. "Do you want to get dismissed by Celestia like the last pony who said that?"

Golden Axe quickly waved his hooves in front of his face. "Oh no! Of course not!"

"Well then shut up and get ready to move, " said Stiff Spear, before she stopped suddenly. "Axe, are you making those rustling sounds?"

"Uh no, sergeant." Golden Axe scanned the nearby forest for any signs of what was making the rustling. "Maybe it's some animal or—" He froze up when he noticed the familiar glint of the sun reflecting off a metal surface. If he focused more, he could start seeing what he firstly glanced as boulders were instead some sort of clothing for... Whatever the hell those were. Using the one he had spotted as a reference, he quickly scanned the local area. "Sergeant, they've surrounded us."

"I can see that!" she hissed back at him. "Alright, no sudden movements. Try not to appear threatening." She slowly inched her wing closer to her spear."Get your weapons." she whispered, using her wings to holster her spear. She watched as the creatures started talking to themselves in a strange language. "Alright, we're leaving. Now. Ready to take to the skies on my mark."

"I haven't gotten my axe holstered yet!" whispered Axe.

"No time!" They flapped their wings to start flying. "Get another one!"

The creatures quickly realized that they were going to lose their meal and rushed towards them. But it was too late as they managed to propel themselves high enough in the air to be out of reach of the creatures. They did not stick around and quickly flew back to Canterlot to report this new breed of creature.

"I think we lost 'em!" said Swift Sword, putting on the flight goggles that all pegasi were equipped with.

"Yeah, seeing as they can't fly!" shouted Golden Axe.

"Shut up!" yelled Stiff Spear.

"Yes ma'am." Swift Sword looked embarrassed.

"Sorry ma'am." said Golden Axe, not a trace of guilt.

They soon landed at the Canterlot Walls, the crossbowponies clearing the landing area for the pegasi to land. They quickly went to report in to their Lieutenant, who was sitting in his office, directly connected to the wall.

"What happened, Stiff Spear?" asked Stalwart Bastion, Lieutenant of the Royal Guard. "I know you normally don't come back this early."

"Our intelligence was wrong about Great Rock Forest." said Stiff Spear, between breaths of air from the effort of flying that far.

"Oh? Well, you'd better go inform Pen Scroll. You are dismissed." said Stalwart Bastion, boredly returning his attention to the paperwork that lay at his desk.

"You two are dismissed too. I'll go tell Pen Scroll." said Stiff Spear, as she descended down the white walls to the Royal Guard Intelligence Department. Golden Axe and Swift Sword returned to the barracks.

Stiff Spear moved through the front lobby and into the familiar side corridor that lead to the Head of Intelligence. She knocked on the door and waited for a response.

"Come in." came the muffled voice of Pen Scroll.

Stiff Spear opened the wooden door to Pen Scroll's office, with numerous scrolls generally strewn around the place, red ribbons tying them so they wouldn't unfurl. The office was lit with sealed lanterns to prevent any of the scrolls accidentally burning.

"Pen, your information was wrong." she said to the Chestnut colored unicorn, who was wearing a pair of black-framed reading glasses.

"Really?" He dropped the scroll he was currently reading and levitated a piece of blank parchment, an ink pot and a quill. "Do tell."

"There are these strange creatures in Great Rock Forest, that weren't mentioned in the briefing." she growled as she mentioned the briefing. "They had strange grey clothing, had metallic objects that they were using, quite similar to our daggers."

"Wait, metal daggers?" Pen Scroll raised an eyebrow. "That's unheard of!"

"So you see the problem when we weren't informed properly?" she waved her hooves angrily at Pen Scroll. "They also had some sort of skin that was white, and as far as I saw, they also had brown eyes. The strangest thing was that they walked on two legs, like a Diamond Dog."

"Maybe they're related?" Pen Scroll suggested.

"No way in Tartarus. These were smart, they had us surrounded before we even knew what happened." she sighed at the laxness of her team.

"That's quite interesting." said Pen Scroll. His quill was now scribbling quickly over the piece of parchment. "I can't remember anything about the creature you're describing off the top of my head, I'll do some further research later in the archives." He tied the scroll with a purple ribbon to differentiate it from the others and placed it near the doorway. "Thank you for informing me, Stiff Spear, you're dismissed." He levitated the scroll he dropped earlier and unfurled it again.

Stiff Spear walked out and silently closed the door, walking back to the barracks to take off her armor and take a nap.

Schmidt sighed with content at the smell of roasting deer. "Danke, Hans. Nice to finally have something more than just rations."

"No problem, sir." He was still thinking about the ponies he had nearly caught, his brow furrowed in concentration.

"What is it?" Schmidt patted the spot next to him as a gesture to get him to sit down, and he obliged.

"Well sir, you might think me insane for saying this, but I saw talking horses in the forest." he mentally cringed at how insane that sounded to his own ears.

However, rather than just dismissing it as insane, Schmidt actually looked interested. "Really? Tell me about them."

"They wore this golden armor and had white or black skins. They were carrying medieval weapons, one was carrying a battleaxe and another a spear. The strangest thing was, they seemed to be talking in English."

Schmidt sighed in response. "That just about settles it, there are intelligent horses here. Hopefully we can get some answers out of their caretakers."

"You've seen them before!?" Hans cried, the shock evident on his face.

"Yes. Heinrich saw some from pretty far away." Schmidt rubbed his head in annoyance. "I hope they know how we can return back to Germany." He saw Han's expression and quickly put on a fake smile. "Hans, stop worrying. We'll find a way. Alright? For now, enjoy some meat, worrying about it isn't going to help."

"Yes sir." Hans grabbed a piece of cooked deer meat and savoured the flavor to try to relax himself.

Schmidt made a mental note to inform Johnson of the discovery of intelligent horses later, when Johnson had finished enjoying the relative peace for once in their generally chaotic lives.

Author's Note

Reasons for this taking so long:
~~1. Chris is an asshole and made me delete the chapters~~
1. I had exams for a month and really couldn't focus on this.
2. I fell into the very annoying trap of Procrastination.