Winters bite was an unkind one. Something the Germans know all too well. Their crusade through Russia was brought to an end in Stalingrad where the Russians overwhelmed them and the winter starved them. They were unprepared for winter and faced the consequences. Luckily, Leutnant Christian Eichel wasn't bothered by it in anyway. He personally liked the cold, to him it was soothing and refreshing.
Hiding just within the snow covered treeline was a formidable metal machine. It’s winter camouflage made it hard to spot, but if you are lucky to see it you would be running like the devil himself was your tail. This machine was a Panzerkampfwagen IV, a powerful and deadly machine. It had a box-like shape to it, and unlike its main opponent, didn't have slopped armor.
Poking his head out of the commanders cupola, Eichel raised a pair of black binoculars eye level. Looking over the terrain he scanned for anything that could be considered a threat to him and his crew. Just beyond where his tank was hiding in wait was a large snowy field. If anything wanted to get to them, they would have to cross it. The advantage was the range of the Panzers 75mm gun. If they could keep their enemies at a range it would be easy pickings.
Finding nothing of interest Eichel sunk back down into the turret. Inside his crew sat at their stations trying to stay as warm as possible. Luckily for them, during the retreat from Stalingrad they had confiscated a few winter jackets. It wasn’t like they were going to miss them anyway. Either way, it kept his crew alive and that is all that mattered to Eichel.
“Did you see anything?” Asked his gunner with a shiver. Despite the jackets it was still very cold.
“Nein.” Eichel responded. “Walter, how is the radio coming?”
“Not good, I haven't been able to get a single radio signal since three days ago.” His machine-gunner and radio operator responded while messing with the various switches on the radio.
“Scheiße.” Cursed Eichel. They had been stuck here in this forest for a while. They had wanted to save fuel and waited until a supply truck could help them. Though they had enough fuel to get them a dozen miles or more they didn’t want to run out when they were in the middle of battle. So the opted to wait until they could meet up with friendlies. Sadly, over the past few days it seemed that wasn’t going to happen. At night they could hear distant cannon fire and explosions. Sometimes they would hear a Russian patrol walk through the clearing, no doubt talking about “How they would crush the fascist Germans for the Motherland.”
“How’s our ammo doing?” Eichel asked his loader, Johann.
“Thirty APCBCs, Seven HEs, Eight HEATs, and ten APCR.” Johann responded. Eichel was kind of impressed, they had more ammo then he thought they had.
“Well at least some good news.” With a sigh Eichel slowly reopened the commander's cupola and scanned around with his binoculars again. He abruptly stopped when his eyes fell on ten T-34s and a KV-1 heading towards their position with five civilians trucks loaded with infantry moving across the field. They had their sides turned towards them, which would make the tanks vulnerable. At this range, the Russians would have a hard time finding them. “Ten T-34s, a single KV-1 and five infantry transports, roughly less than five-hundred and fifty meters front!”
His crew bolted into action. His gunner, Ingomar, quickly turned the 75mm towards a T-34 before ranging it. Johann got ready, waiting for Eichel to tell him what kind of round to put in the gun. Walter got on the machine-gun and loaded a new belt into it. Finally the driver, Rudolph, hadn’t heard him and was still sleeping in his seat. Eichel groaned, this was not the time for this!
“Someone wake Rudolph!” Rudolph soon received a kick in the back of the head from Ingomar. He yelped from the sudden hit before hissing in pain as he rubbed the back of his head.
“What the hell was that for?!” He asked as he turned to face the rest of the crew.
“Well, if hadn’t noticed, we have Russians less than six-hundred meters from us!” Rudolph flinched at the commanders tone. “Now get out and start up this damn thing. I don’t want to be a sitting duck in case we have to retreat.”
“Jawohl, mein kommandant.” Rudolph said jokingly, only to receive a glare from the rest of the crew. Not wanting to push his luck on how Eichel hadn’t exploded on him yet he quickly climbed through the tank and outside before making his way towards the back of the tank.
“I swear, he’s going to be the death of us.” Ingomar said out loud. As much as the commander wanted to say “shut up and do your job” he couldn’t help but agree. Rudolph had a tendency of being lazy and inconsiderate. He was a good tank driver none-the-less, but Eichel always wondered how he got passed training. So, instead of answering he just nodded.
“Load ballistic cap.” Eichel ordered. Johann quickly grabbed the round from the ammo rack before putting it in the chamber. “Gunner, target the lead tank and wait for my signal.”
The insides of the tank fell silent as Ingomar waited for the order. Focusing his eyesight on the lead tank that had an inscription on the side of the turret, Eichel recognized it as the new 1942 models and waited until it got a bit closer. The T-32 suddenly stopped before trying to turn towards them. It seemed that they have been spotted. To bad the Ivan wouldn't be able to get a shot off!
“Feuer!” The cannon barked as the APCBC round flew through the air. It took less than a second for the shell to slam into the turret, the round punching a hole straight through the armor. The projectile exploded within the turret, turning into shrapnel and bounced around the tank's cabin, killing the crew.
Back at the Panzer the casing ejected out of the cannon and onto the floor. The Russians had stopped and began searching for where the round came from. Loading another ballistic cap the gunner took aim at a T-34 1940s lower armor, right behind the wheels. Eichel ordered him to fire again, on command the ballistic shell rocketed out of the barrel and straight into the side of the T-34. It had hit the back portion of the tank, more specifically, the fuel tanks. Upon detonation the shell caused the fuel to ignite, leading to the tank explosion into a large fireball.
The Russians, now panicking, began to spread out as the remaining tanks began firing in random directions. The infantry dismounted their vehicles and began to spread out. By this time another T-34 exploded, a few infantrymen were unlucky enough to get caught in the explosion. Some were killed quickly by shrapnel as others yelled in pain as fire ate away at their bodies.
A T-34 soon turned towards Eichels position and began rushing towards him. Aiming towards the hidden Panzer the T-34s 76mm cannon fired, but the shell missed by a longshot.
Aiming towards the approaching threat the 75mm cannon fired back, the shell punched through the cheeks of the turret and exploded inside. The T-34 however did not stop. The driver and machine gunner were still alive. The machine gunner began wildly spraying the Panzer, however the 7.62mm bullets were not enough to penetrate the 80mms of steel armor. The Panzer's cannon fired again hitting the upper glasius, killing both the driver and machine gunner.
The remaining six Russian tanks spotted them and began firing at their position. However, due to their poor training the shells missed. Taking aim at the closest Russian tank the Panzer returned fire, once again aiming for the turrets cheeks. Apparently it was a lucky shot as the ammo rack exploded and caused the turret to go flying feet into the air.
The infantry using the T-34s as cover soon began running towards the Panzer. Walter seeing the threat opened fire, the German MG34 tearing into the Russians. The machine gun continued to bark as the infantry got closer, bodies began to fall one by one from short and accurate bursts of Walters machine gun. The green tracer bullets entered their bodies before quickly exiting with a fine red mist following them.
The first wave of Russian infantry now lay dead, during that time another T-34 was destroyed. An APCR went straight through the upper glasius and back into the fuel tanks and must have caused a spark. Instead of exploding like the last one, it instead turned into an oven. The drivers hatch opened, a Russian climbed out as flames licked at his form. His skin had turned black and he screamed in pure agony. With a quick, but merciful burst from Walter's MG his pain was ended. No man deserves to die like that.
The remaining T-34s realized they were out skilled and now had only four tanks left began retreating. As if on cue the engine started up and Rudolph soon made his way inside, getting into his seat he grabbed the sticks in front of him.
“Forward!” Ordered Eichel. The Panzer soon drive out of it’s snowy cover. The sight was rather intimidating, seeing a large metal machine coming straight towards you. The remaining Russians turned tail and ran. Even the T-34s were trying to turn for they could have their backs facing the Panzer, hoping to outrun it. Not only was it a stupid move, they wouldn't have been able to get far.
“Ready!” Ingomar took aim at another T-34 who had his side exposed. “Aim!” Aiming for the lower armor again he eagerly awaited the command. “Fe-” Then, as if someone had dropped the sun right in front of them a bright burst of light blinded them.
“Stop!” Ordered Eichel, using his arms to shield his eyes. The Panzer came to an abrupt halt as Eichel and most of his crew had their head slammed into something. Sound seemed to drain from the area as the light began to weaken. Finally, it soon died down to a small glowing ball of light that hovered just off the ground. The snow around it had melted away and looked like spring had bloomed under it. Both the Germans and the Russians gawked at the sight before them. The air became very warm, comforting even. Arcs of golden energy danced across the surface of the miniature sun. For some odd reason Eichel wanted to touch it.
Then it exploded.
________________________________________
“Spike! Spiiiiiike!” Called out the newly crowned Princess Twilight of Equestria. She had been searching the entire castle for her little assistant. Despite the size of it on the outside it was much, MUCH bigger on the inside. It kinda reminded her of Canterlot castle in a way, she remembers when she was a filly and would spend hours trying to navigate the halls.
Opening the Castle’s Library door she trotted in. Looking up to the second level she spotted her #1 Assistant sitting in a chair reading one of his comic books. Said assistant looked away from his comic book to see who had entered the room.
“Oh, there you are Spike. I was wondering if you could send this letter for me to Celestia.” The baby dragon sighed before closing his comic and getting out of the chair. Climbing down the circular staircase leading up to the library's second floor he made his way over to her. Taking the letter from Twilight's magical aura he inhaled a large amount of air before exhaling a burst of green fire. The letter turned to ash before quickly flying out the nearest window.
“Mind telling me what’s so important about that letter that you interrupted my break?” Asked Spike, a bit miffed that Twilight had to send a letter right in the middle of an action scene.
“Oh, I’m glad you asked! That was the research data I got from my magical probes around the Everfree forest.” Twilight answered. You see, she had been working on a project to find out why the Everfree was so erratic in its behavior. She wanted to know the patterns of magic that occurred within the forest.
“Don’t you usually wait until the end of the week to send those?” Spike asked.
“Usually, but this week something different happened. The Everfree is giving off a massive amount of magic deeper inside it. Three of my probe spells were almost overwhelmed by it! Do you know what this means?!” Twilight was now in front of Spike holding him by the cheeks just a few inches in the air.
“Uh…” Before he could respond Twilight let go of him and he was dropped onto the floor. Not expecting the sudden drop he fell unto his arsh.
“Something big is happening inside the Everfree! If something big is happening inside the Everfree, then it could be harmful to Equestria if not worse!” Twilight went into her frantic and creepy mode. Only now did Spike realize it. Her hair was messy, her eyes bloodshot, and most of all her pupils were tiny. This only happened for two occasions. Either she was very, very concerned about something or she was in heat.
“Or it could be normal. I mean, you only started this project a few weeks ago! For all you know this is a normal occurrence.” Spike said, trying to calm his boss/sister/mother down.
“That too.” She said sheepishly, a blush forming on her face from embarrassment. Spike merely rolled his eyes before making his way towards the staircase. However, he was interrupted by an all too familiar pressure building up in his chest. He stopped, waited for a second, and burped out a cloud of green fire and ash. A scroll miterialized from the ash and landed in his already outstretched claws.
The scroll was soon surrounded by a purple aura before being taken from his grasp. Twilight under the wax seal embedded with the royal insignia that held the letter closed.
Dear Twilight,
I need you to gather your friends and Discord and head immediately to Canterlot Castle. I will explain everything once you arrive.
Sighed,
Celestia
Twilight had to read over the letter a few more times before it finally registered in her head.
“Spike, I need you too get Fluttershy, Discord, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie and tell them to meet me at the train station. I’ll go get Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and pack up a few things.” She quickly darted out the door and down the hall. Spike soon ran after her trying to keep up with his stubby legs.
“Geez Twilight, at least tell me whats going on!”
“No time to explain!” Before Spike was able to object she had teleported. Growling and muttering a curse under his breath he made his way out of the castle.
