Das Wiederaufleben

Inside the palace, oblivious to the impending horror forcing entry into the building, the diplomats continued to negotiate their services and demands, holding a surprisingly civil conversation, in the eyes of any outsider. Fang and Marks stood watch, making sure no trouble makers tried breaking in.

Just as the royals were finalizing their arrangements, however, the entire hall suddenly found itself plunged into perpetual darkness with a heartstopping snap. Everypony present began chattering, a growing discountenance slowly filling their voices.

“What is this trickery?” Chrysalis demanded, now highly expecting an assassination attempt from the ponies as her mind played out worst case scenarios in an attempt to make sense of this sudden turn of events.

“I was about to ask you the same thing.” Twilight countered, adopting a defensive pose.

“Fang!” Scootaloo called out. “Get to the light switch. Everypony, stay on your guard” The nocturnal thestral picked her way through the dark, her specialised eyesight guiding her faultlessly in the poor lighting. Within moments, she located the light switch and flicked it with her hoof. The second the lights blazed back into life, everypony present was stunned to find that there seemed to be nothing different about the meeting room since the lights mysteriously cut out. They didn’t seem to be surrounded by potential assailants, as they had previously imagined.

In fact, the only thing different was…. a large projection being cast down from somewhere above the table onto its crystalline surface?

All eyes were drawn to the skeletal face that seems to sneer up at them, the figure’s twisted expression seeming to say “Surprised to see me, bitches?” Fang’s eyes widened in horror as she studied the terrifying face, her hooves clumsily scrambling for balance as she tried to back away hurriedly from the figure.

“Nein.” She whispered, hoarsely. “Lieber Gott, nein. Nicht ihm. Wie? Wie konnte es ihm vielleicht sein? Nach all den Jahren ... Ich dachte, dass ich sein Gesicht vergessen. Bitte lassen Sie diese einige grausamer Alptraum.”

Marks quickly rushed over to Fang’s side, pressing himself against her encouragingly, prompting the terrified mare to whimper and bury her face in his neck as she tried not to let her fear show. The figure on the table chuckled sadistically, as if he could see Fang’s fear… and was enjoying it.

“Hello, everypony,” he sneered, smugly, “allow me to formally introduce myself. My name is Schadenfreude. And you motherbuckers would do well to remember it; You will all be screaming it, later.” Schadenfreude turned his head, seeming to look directly at Twilight. “Especially you, so-called Princess Sparkle slut.” He snarled, practically spitting the title of “Princess” like a bitter pill. “Princess, indeed. You are not worthy of such a title, false alicorn.” He turned as if to address the whole room and spoke again. “Now. Listen up, bitches, because I never repeat myself for any bucker. Here’s how shit’s gonna go down. Imma buck every hole that sparkle bitch has, then I'm gonna just make more holes to buck until she looks like a damned changeling! Capiche?"

Everypony witness to this bold claim instantly came back with venom.

“Now you listen here!” Spike roared, slamming his claws down on the table, cracking its surface and distorting Schadenfreude’s projected face. “I don’t know who the buck you think you are, you snivelling little scumbag, but threats like that towards Twilight will not go unpunished. Do you hear me!?”

As if in reply, the sounds of gunfire and screaming flooded in from the hallways outside the hall. The grand doors to the hall swung wide open as a cream furred mare ran in, her maid’s uniform coated in a dark, sticky red fluid before she collapsed on the floor, her eyes rolling back in her skull as she fell, a stream of red liquid gushing from a large hole in her neck like a fountain and splattering her face and the floor beneath her. Not far behind her, the pony from the projection strolled in, toting a large, smoking firearm and flanked by numerous pony androids.

“Loud. And. Clear.” He smirked, as if enjoying the looks of sheer horror on everypony’s face at the barbaric sight before them. In the blink of an eye, everypony went for their guns and trained them on the intruder. Schadenfreude didn’t so much as bat an eyelid at this, rather looking like he was enjoying and revelling in having multiple war weapons trained at his head, continuing to smirk smugly. Hermes inspected the teenage stallion with his acute changeling eyesight, his gaze falling upon the helmets that donned his companions’ heads. He noticed that the headgear seemed to all bear the symbol of some sort of irregular icosagon, made of a sort of cross with extra arms extending from its sides.

“What’s that symbol on their helmets?” He whispered to Scootaloo, prompting her to take a look for herself.

“Hmmm…” she hummed, her brain piecing together why that symbol looked so familiar. She remembered reading about it in school when she was a teenager, and it certainly wasn’t good news. “Oh. My. Bucking. Buck.” She cursed, the bit dropping with a horrible clang. Marks turned his head to look at the metal ponies Hermes had pointed out, his eyes widening before narrowing to letterbox slits as he snarled.

“Swastikas?!” He exclaimed, incredulously. “We're being attacked by bucking skinheads?!" Schadenfreude’s smirk split into a full grin before he roared with laughter.

“We prefer the term ‘Nazis’, if you wouldn’t mind.” He croned, causing everypony present to open fire, without prejudice. Schadenfreude barrel rolled to one side while his metal friends soaked up the bullets as if they were insects trying to swarm them like mosquitoes. Immediately, the other machines leveled their weapons and opened fire, prompting Marks to push Fang away behind cover and duck behind a pillar of his own as he reloaded his gun.

"The hay are these things made of?" Scootaloo shouted as she fired her pistol from behind cover.

With the hail of lead shot firmly distracted by his strategic bullet sponges, Schadenfreude trained his own weapon on Twilight’s head, lining up his shot to ensure he made as much mess as possible when the bullet passed through her skull and splattered her brains all over the place.

As he lined up his shot, Fang managed to pull herself out of her shock and went for her gun, going to help her comrades as they filled the metallic Nazis with even more metal. As she raise her weapon, however, the sight of another raised weapon caught her attention from the corner of her eye. She turned her head to find Schadenfreude aiming his gun at the distracted Twilight, using the commotion of the gunfire from Scootaloo and the others to hide himself behind a pillar as he readied to shoot.

“Princess! Achtung!” She hollered, swinging her gun around just in time to fire at the would-be assassin, the bullet whistling past his sights, barely managing to gouge out a small chunk of his hoof, causing the Earth pony to yell in surprise just before he pulled the trigger. The bullet struck the solid crystal floor with an earsplitting scraping sound before ricocheting into Twilight’s ankle.

“GYAH!” She screamed, collapsing in shock as her ankle gave way beneath her.

“Twilight!” Spike instantly rushed on all fours to her side, rearing up over her to protect her from further harm as he opened fire upon the stricken teen.

Schadenfreude ducked behind his pillar for shelter, hissing and cursing under his breath at Fang. “Nicht gerade stehen dort, ihr Idioten!” He yelled to the droids. “Schnappen Luna und Bein it!”

Fang gasped at Schadenfreude’s command. “Luna!” She called out to the princess of the night. “I zink you’re zeir primary target!”

Before Luna had time to react, Chrysalis stepped out in front of her, her crooked horn glowing fluorescently as she readied her magic. “Enough!” She hollered, proceeding to fire at the drones one by one with a powerful beam of magic that reduced each drone it touched to dust. Once again, Schadenfreude cursed and activated a radio strapped to his chest.

“This is Schadenfreude. Abort mission, I repeat, mission has failed. Release the flood, plan B it is. GO!” His order given, he sprang out from cover quickly enough to fire a cheap shot at Chrysalis’ horn, snapping off the hooked tip and staggering the changeling queen while he and the drones made good their retreat. “You may have won this round,” he croned, turning around just long enough to quickly gloat, “But how about a quick game before I leave?” His smirk turned grim. “The floor is lava. Think fast, bitches.” And with that, he was gone.

Before anypony could question what was happening, there was an almighty boom from somewhere from the top of the castle, followed by an alarmingly rapid increase of temperature.

“Quick! We need to get everypony still alive outta here!” Twilight cried, attempting to get to her hooves, only to be put back down on her belly again as her hoof failed to hold her weight.

“You’re in no fit state to try running outta here, Twilight.” Spike chided, picking the stricken princess up over her shoulders. Before anypony could even move, the crystal doors slammed open, and a huge mass of molten liquid came pouring in from anywhere possible, including the roof which was cracking under the weight of all the molten fluid. The air quickly turned sour with a metallic tang, and a suffocating thickness.

“Lead!” Marks shouted. “Damned skinhead motherbuckers are trying to encase us in molten lead! We have to leave. NOW!” Everypony ran as fast as they could, along with any of the castle staff left alive and/or uncrippled by the ambush, to escape the approaching flood of molten metal. Less able, or slain, ponies were less fortunate, the screams of the damned snuffed out one by one as the lead made swift work of those unlucky enough to be unable to outrun it.

Faster and faster, the surviving ponies fled before finally escaping onto the streets of Ponyville. Luna and Celestia sealed the castle doors tightly shut with their magic and sealed all conceivable gaps to prevent the toxic metal oozing out and harming civilians. Everypony collapsed in exhaustion, sucking down greedy gulps of much needed oxygen.

“Dammit,” Marks swore, beating his hooves in the dust. “I can’t believe we got our asses handed to us by a load of metal skinheads!” Hermes glanced to Scootaloo, his chest heaving as he gulped in the fresh air he desired.

“So…. I have a question.” He started, tilting his head curiously. “Just what are these ‘Nazis’?” Fang leapt to her hooves, a vicious snarl burned into her features.

“Herr Führer vas a bucking disgrace to Germaney! He vas a cruel, merciless, tyrannical scumbag who vas only out for ze destruction of all peace und friendship in all of ze world!” She raged, her body twitching with violent muscle spasms. “His only goal vas to eradicate unicorns ponies in order to breed, vhat he called, ze 'Aryan Master Race' of ponies, vhich only consisted of scheißkerl Earth ponies!” Marks placed a calming hoof on Fang’s shoulder.

“Calm yourself, Fang. Remember, Führer was not a true Germane citizen, and only rose to power by playing on the prejudice and social attitudes of the time, and brainwashing the good Germane ponies to side with him in his misguided crusade.” He reasoned, gently rubbing her shoulder encouragingly, helping the thestral pony to relax and calm her nerves.

“Gah. You’re right.” She growled, still rather irate about the subject. Scootaloo slowly approached her and placed her own hoof on her other shoulder.

“Say, uh…. Fang?” She asked delicately. “I, er, couldn’t help but notice you sort of…. cowering… when Schadenfreude showed up on the table in that hologram. Do you mind explaining why?” Fang bit her lip with her sharp canines before giving a defeated sigh and staring at the ground.

“It vas ze vay Schadenfreude looked.” She confessed. Seeing Scootaloo’s look of confusion, she elaborated. “He looked like ze mutter bucker who raped me.” Scootaloo and Marks immediately gave her withers a reassuring squeeze, and she leaned into Marks’ neck for support as she fought back her tears.

“Rape... That’s when another pony forces you into a mating ritual against your will, correct?” Hermes asked, earning a glare from Marks.

“Yeah, it’s totally that simple, you stupid gnat!” He cried as he caressed Fang’s withers. “I don’t know how you changelings mate, but to us, sex is a sacred and personal thing. To be forced into it is humiliating and traumatizing!”

Fang grabbed Marks’ hoof. “I-It’s okay, Marks...” She said as she wiped her tears, turning to Hermes to explain a little. “I’m not in ze mood to go into detail, but, suffice to say, I had just moved to Equestria vith my mother und father, I met a colt, went out a couple times vith him until he drugged me, chained me up, und... violated me several times...”

Hermes’ ear-like antennae drooped as he bowed his head to the sergeant. “F-Forgive my insensitivity, ma’am. I’m still learning the ins and outs of Equestrian society.” he said earnestly.

Fang weakly smiled, offering a soft nod to her new subordinate. “Forgiveness granted, Private.”

“I DEMAND ACTION!” The group heard Chrysalis scream. “That insolent bastard slaughtered good soldiers and innocent civilians! He must be made to pay!”

“No pony is disagreeing with you, Queen Chrysalis,” Luna placated. “We shall gain justice for those who lost their lives.” She turned to Twilight, who was nursing her shot ankle. “These ponies have committed an act of terrorism. We must look into this group and try to work out their motives, and what they hope to gain from these atrocious acts.”

Chrysalis growled, turning her head away indignantly.

Celestia bowed her head. “I’ve dealt with Herr Fuhrer’s Third Reich nearly three quarters of a century ago. Groups of so called ‘Neo-Nazis’ have sprung up from time to time but have never committed an attack this brazen!” She explained. Turning to Scootaloo, Celestia beckoned. “Commander Scootaloo, come here.”

Immediately, the orange mare spread her wings and hovered to the white alicorn, and saluted. “Yes, my Princess? Do you wish for my team to give chase?”

"Negative", the ivory colored mare stated. "I think our first priority right now is to tend to our wounded."

"Understood, your Majesty." Scootaloo said with a respectful bow.

Celestia nodded and turned to Spike. "General, I want you to put out an alert for that terrorist after Twilight receives ample medical attention. Are we clear?"

"Of course, my Princess." Spike said as he hoisted the wounded Alicorn. "I'll be sure to send for paramedics and put out an alert for the little runt. Centurions! Front and center!"

Without a second’s worth of hesitation, Marks, Fang and Scootaloo all rushed to the violet dragon, all saying “Sir!” in unison.

“I want you to take the new recruit to the outpost and help him get settled in. After that, I leave you to spend the day as you wish. I’ll make sure Twilight remains safe. If you come across that Schadenfreude, do not engage, but alert me as soon as possible. Any questions?”

“No, sir!” Was the universal answer.

Spike nodded and helped Twilight readjust her position, trying give her injured leg a rest, as he turned away.

As the dragon left, a strange thought occurred to Scootaloo.

“Did anyone catch that Schadenwhozit’s cutie mark?” Scootaloo asked, drawing blank stares from the other ponies.

“You know, now that you mention it, I don’t remember seeing a cutie mark on that skinhead’s flank whatsoever.” Marks replied as his eyes widened.

"What? Impossible..." Scootaloo thought out loud. "The Tartarus is going on here?"

Fang shuddered and whimpered against Marks' side, nuzzling him for comfort. “Hey, uh…. I-I think Fang and I need to, uh…. get her back to base and to bed. She needs to rest and recover, after all that drama.” He suggested as he gently guided the thestral away.

Scootaloo blinked as she watched the pair depart. “Uh… sure. Herm and I can just…. I dunno, I guess I’ll show him the ropes and then we can get looking into this Nazi group.”

“Sounds like a plan.” Marks called over his shoulder.

With that agreed, Scootaloo lead Hermes to a parked army cart and instructed the cart pulling ponies to take them back to base. The journey was spent in total silence, neither pony nor changeling knowing what to say, given the horrendous events that had recently unfolded before them. After a long, jolty ride back, the cart door was opened, and Scootaloo showed Hermes his new home, marching him down corridor after corridor toward the sector where she, Marks and Fang lived.

"Here we are." The orange mare stated. "Home sweet home." She approached a door left ajar and pointed inside. "Will this suffice? I don't know what you changelings are used to."

Hermes took a step inside, his turquoise eyes scanning the room. "It's very... Plush."

"Plush?" Scootaloo asked. The cold, metallic chamber wasn't cushy in any sense of the word. "What are you talking about?"

Hermes turned to his new commander and said "Back in the hive, we slept in little burrows dug into the wall of a cave, not very cozy compared to this."

"Huh." Scootaloo grunted. "Interesting."

Suddenly, panic filled the young changeling’s voice. “N-not that I’m unappreciative!” He declared. “I thank you, commander!” Hermes cried as he saluted.

“Hey, buddy, you don’t have to be so formal with me.” Scootaloo explained. “I’m not your CO when we’re not on duty. I’m your friend. Just call me Scootaloo.”

With a nervous chuckle and a green blush, Hermes saluted again. “My apologies, command-... er... Scootaloo...”

Scootaloo chuckled. “We’re gonna have to work on that stick, aren’t we?” She teased.

“Stick?”

“The one up your ass.” Scoots answered cheekily. Hermes turned around to look at his abdomen, clearly not understanding the colloquialism.

“Oh boy, we’ve got some work to do.”