The little Knights

by Bronycommander

Rating: teen
Tags: Gore, Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Other, Violence, Death, Human
Length: 38935

Jens Meier, once a man with a good looking future, is now a widow, having nothing that he can look forward to. But can he help three lost Knights?

Fate can be cruel. Fate can be kind. A widower has to take care of three lost ponies, but is he up to a bigger challenge? Something, he never thought might be possible.

Published 2018-11-18 13:30:01 UTC
Last updated 2018-12-01 02:47:04 UTC

Chapter 1 Knights in need

Chapter 1: Knights in need

Germany, 2018

Jens Meier was once a man with a good looking future, being husband of a beautiful wife and father of a son.

But fate had other plans for him.

During a protest of neo-Nazis during the summer of 2017, he and his family were making through the town, enjoying the warm weather, as the protest escalated into a street battle.

One protester threw an improvised explosive device towards the police forces, unfortunately landing near the family before anyone could react.

Jens had survived with much luck, his wife and son had died in the hospital.

This caused him to be deeply depressed but he had found a way to help himself.

My little pony: Friendship is magic, a TV show for young girls, having been on the TV since 2010, also gaining a lot of male adult fans, who called themselves bronies. He was a Brony since 2010, his son and wife included.

The show not only made him feel better, but also made him determined to prevent that others would have the same or a familiar fate, joining the Harmonious Guard.

It was a German PMC founded in the late 1980s, using German WW2 equipment that was updated to today’s standards. But that wasn’t the reason he had joined, the PMC was known for having many bronies in its ranks, earning the nickname “Brony Army”, allowing many to share their hobby with each other.

Right now, Jens was on leave at home, looking through a photo album, as sometimes, the depression got the better of him.

The young man let out a sigh. “Maybe a walk will help feel me better.” He spoke to himself as it was a nice warm spring day.

He lived in Volkach, a small town in Bavaria, also being the home of the founder and leader of the Harmonious Guard.

During his walk it started to rain, not that it bothered Jens, he liked rain, it was somehow relaxing to him.

Little did he knew that today, his life would change.

As he made his way back, he heard a faint confused voice coming out of an alley.

“Okay...two things. One; What happened? Two, very important; WHAT THE BUCK HAPPENED?!” It sounded like a young boy.

It reminded Meier of his son and he couldn’t live with himself letting a child freeze in the rain. “Hello?” He called out but got no reply.

Slowly walking into the alley, he took notice of three silhouettes, looking strangely like foals, lying against the wall.

One of them jumped up upon noticing him. “Stay back! I don’t want to hurt you!” The voice sounded female, followed by a growl.

The man held his hands up. “Calm down, I intend no harm. I just want to help.”

The girl slowly stopped to growl and looked at the other two silhouettes.

“I can’t say we trust you, sir, but I can tell you are honest.” The boy he had heard before said in a neutral voice and stood up, coming slowly out with the others.

The German couldn’t believe his eyes as the silhouettes became fully visible.

They were indeed three foals.

The first was a grey bat pony colt with pure white eyes, the second a Pegasus filly with fiery navy-blue coat with matching eyes and flowing silver mane and the third was a unicorn colt with green coat, a blonde mane and completely light blue eyes, having no pupils and fluctuating like water.

The Brony tried to make sense, realizing that was impossible and would be every brony’s dream, blinking but the foals didn’t vanish.

So, sir, where do you live?” The unicorn asked, tearing him out.

“Not far from here.”

They followed him silently and he was glad that the streets were deserted at the time, allowing him to get home without anyone noticing the foals.

Upon arriving at home, Jens saw that the foals were trembling a bit, probably being cold from the weather, so he got a towel out of the bathroom.

The two colts said nothing but had an expression that said “Thanks” as he dried them.

The filly looked at the towel with a displeased look. “Careful, please.” She said to him.

“Of course.” He replied as he dried her two, being careful of her wings, knowing how sensitive they could be.

“How rude, my name is Jens Meier but Jens is just fine.” He introduced himself.

“Pleasure. My name is Midnight Blade and those are my friends White Wolf and Fletcher Fray.” The bat pony pointed to the Pegasus and unicorn.

Jens smiled. “Nice names. Do you fancy a hot chocolate to warm yourselves up?”

Midnight gave a barely noticeable smile. “I wouldn’t mind that.”

“Me neither,” Fray replied.

“Count me in,” Wolf added.

“Alright then.” With that as answer, Maier made three hot chocolates for his young guests, which they enjoyed with happy expressions.

“That was good.” Fray said after he had finished.

“Glad to hear it. How did you end up in that alley?” Maier asked, despite it was obvious but better safe than sorry.

“Well…Uh…Princess Luna was experimenting with a new portal spell with us and two friends but something went wrong, as far as I can remember. And turned us physically into foals for some reason.” Midnight explained, his ears lowered in embarrassment.

It took Meier a few seconds to fully understand it. “I see. I take Luna is your ruler?”

“Yes…how did you know?” Wolf asked suspiciously.

“Educated guess, a princess is mostly the rule a kingdom, am I correct?” Maier countered calm, having already suspected such a reaction.

“I…guess that’s a fair point. There are actually two rulers. Princess Luna, being in control of the moon and her older sister Celestia, being in control of the sun in Equestria. As you can see with my friends, there are unicorns and Pegasus ponies. And also Earth ponies.” Midnight explained.

“Fascinating,” Jens replied, although it really wasn’t for him. “You said you were turned into foals, so I take you are adults?”

“Yes. To be precise, we are the specialists of Princess Luna’s bodyguards, the Eternal Knights.” The bat pony replied.

“And what are you?” The filly asked Maier.

“Well, have you heard of humans?” The man asked.

“They are only a myth in Equestria,” Wolf replied before realizing something. “Wait, are we…”

“On earth? Yes.” And with that, the young man told the Eternal Knights where they were exactly and what year it was, earning neutral expressions as reaction.

They stayed silent for a moment before Fletcher broke it.

“Well, I never thought I would be in Earth again so quickly, neither to see this town again.” He mumbled surprised.

Jens blinked in awe. “Did I hear that right?”

Midnight cleared his throat. “I know it would be interesting but can this wait for another time? We should figure out how this happened.”

“If you see that as top priority, I won’t stop you. If you need something, I’m in the basement.”

“Okay.” the three foals replied as he walked down the stairs towards the washroom, to make the laundry and to check if he still enough beverages, leaving the living room to his guests.

The man almost lost track of time whenever he was in the washroom, only noticing it was getting late as it was getting dark outside but was finished with his work.

Should check how the kids are. Although, can they be called kids as they technically still adults? Meier wondered although he decided to think about it later.

Upon entering it, he saw the group was Brainwriting, having several notes in the ground, together with some food, eliminating the need for dinner.

Jens cleared his throat, the Knights turned to him slowly, almost expectantly. “It’s getting late.”

“We're aware” Fray replied in a neutral tone.

“We've work to do,” Wolf added.

“...won't you get tired?” The young German asked in return, knowing that everyone needs to rest regularly.

The trio gave him an unimpressed look. “I wouldn't think so.” The grey colt replied.

“Okay,” Jens said in an unimpressed voice and left the room, having to chuckle.

His son was just like that, saying he wouldn’t get tired, only to fall asleep shortly afterward.

Having done his work, Jens ate bread to dinner and watched the news in the kitchen, which took a quarter of an hour, then looked after the trio again.

His heart melted at the sight.

The foals had been fallen asleep on the floor.

He had to chuckle at this, as suddenly, Wolf snapped awake holding a knife and looking about wildly, sniffing the air. Meier watched still and silently as the Pegasus settled down and fell asleep again.

Did she took one of the kitchen knives or had she already those with her? He wondered as he gently carried them to the guest bed, tucking them in.

“Goodnight.” He whispered as the foals were sleeping peacefully, going to his own bed.

Before Meier fell asleep, he had one last thought.

I hope Luna finds them soon.

Author's Note

A story idea I had to pass the time when I was bored back in March. I want to thank my friend Purple Patch for helping me to make this story possible.

Chapter 2 A tour

Chapter 2: A tour

The three Eternal Knights stirred in their sleep, awaking with yawns.

“Good morning.” Wolf smiled at her friends.

“Morning, Wolf.” The colts returned it as they all climbed out of the bed.

The Pegasus stretched herself like a dog or cat would, earning a confused look by Midnight. “What are you, a dog?”

“Woof,” Wolf replied playfully before they went into the kitchen for breakfast, Fray took notice of the pictures on the wall and furniture in general.

“Looks very comfortable, don’t you think?”

“Yes.” Midnight replied, making himself some oatmeal. “Makes me wonder though what happened to his family.”

“We can ask him later,” Wolf suggested, Fray and Midnight nodded.

After having breakfast, they looked after Jens, gently opening the door, seeing he was still asleep.

“What about making him breakfast? It’s the least we can do as repayment for his hospitality.” The unicorn suggested.

“Sounds good to me.” The filly liked this idea.

“Fine by me.” The bat pony shrugged.

Meier awoke as a delicious smell entered his nose and the door opened. “Good morning!” The green colt greeted as he carried a breakfast board, a toast and a glass of juice, his friends next to him.

“Thank you.” Meier smiled, appreciating the generous action.

After breakfasted and getting dressed, he asked, “What have you planned for today?”

“Trying to figure out what went wrong.” Midnight replied, wanting to continue.

“And stay the entire day in here? With that warm weather? I’d suggest I show you the town, taking some fresh air could help you with your research, getting the mind free. Plus, you make sure to get enough Vitamin D.” Jens countered.

The grey colt gave a slight grin. “Fair point. But how should we stay unobtrusively? I mean, talking foals are not common here.”

Fray raised his hoof. “If I may make a suggestion Midnight, do you remember what I did when I was in a human town the last time? It worked perfectly, despite being a grown pony, so why shouldn’t work it there?”

“And I suppose it was pretending your pony appearance being a costume? Because that was my idea.” Meier replied, getting a nod from the unicorn as response.

“It’s worth a try,” Wolf commented in a neutral tone.

“Well, first try for everything I guess.” Midnight mumbled as the young man grabbed his keys and went out with them.

As he showed the Eternal Knights the town, he took notice that Fletcher seemed to be interested the most in it, looking at the buildings in awe. While barely showing it, Meier could see that the three ponies were a bit nervous, slightly trembling when other peoples passed by, afraid the trick might not work.

However, everyone who saw them just smiled and commented on how cute their “costumes” were putting their fear at ease.

The three ponies seemed to enjoy the tour, that was what Meier suspected, as their expressions were neutral most of the time.

After going home, Wolf wiped the sweat off her forehead. “It’s really hot today. And it’s spring.”

“Yes. How about some water ice?” Jens suggested.

“Good idea.”

In the basement where the freezer was, Fletcher took Woodruff, Wolf peach and Midnight Cola, the cooling was really a bliss for them.

“That’s much better!” Fray exclaimed in glee. “Nice place you have here. If I may ask, what happened to your family?”

The man then stared emotionless for what seemed like hours as the memories came back.

It was a warm summer day, his son was walking ahead, laughing as he enjoyed the sun.

Coming to marketplace, angry yells echoed as they came closer, seeing a protest of neo-Nazis, watched by officers of the Bereitschaftspolizei and members of the Harmonious Guard.

“We should go home before it’s gets out of control.” His son said with fear, knowing that such people were unpredictable.

“Yes.”

In the moment they had spoken, the protest escalated into a street battle, the protesters throwing stones and bottles at the police officers and mercenaries, who defended themselves with batons and riot shields.

“Watch out!” Jens’ wife yelled as one protester threw what seemed to be an improvised explosive device looking like a pipe bomb towards the police and PMC forces.

His aim was bad as the bomb flew towards the family, without hesitation, the young man clenched his wife and son protectively as the explosion came and his vision blacked out.

Slowly, he came to, hearing a beeping sound, his eyes struggling to open.

As his vision cleared, he found himself in a room of the local hospital.

A doctor walked in. “Ah, you’re woken up. How are you feeling?”

“My body aches a bit but otherwise, I’m good. Where are my wife and son?” Jens asked as he couldn’t see them anywhere.

The doctor took a deep breath. “I’m sorry to say this, but we couldn't do anything else for them.”

Meier couldn’t believe what he just heard, heartbeat getting faster, staring. “No. This can’t be happening.”

“I wish I had other news for you, Mr. Meier. But this is sadly the truth, they haven’t survived.”

After the doctor left, Jens stared at the ceiling, trying to process the information.

It seemed like minutes before he started to cry.

“I’m sorry if it woke bad memories.” Fletcher’s voice tore him out, seeing that the colt had his head lowered in guilt.

With a weak smile, Jens replied, “It’s alright, It’s in the past and I learned to get over it.”

“The one who did this...they caught him, right?” Wolf asked, sounding a bit angry.

“He was, I can assure you that.”

“I’m also sorry to hear what happened to you. Though you go me curious, what is your job?” Midnight asked.

“Me? I’m a mercenary of a PMC.” And with that, he told the three ponies about it and the fandom, which seemed not to surprise them, much to his own surprise.

“Well, that does sound very interesting.” Midnight admitted.

“And this doesn’t surprise you?” Meier asked in return.

Fray stepped in front of his friends. “That is because I was on Earth before, twice actually. On my first visit, I learned about the show and on my second visit, I was in this town before. It’s kinda fascinating that despite the changes, that you can still see the old town behind them.”

It took a few moments for Jens to process everything. “I see. How about potatoes for dinner?” He asked as it was getting late.

“Sounds good to me.” The unicorn smiled.

“Me,too.” Wolf added.

“Good idea.” Midnight replied.

The three eat with manners, enjoying their meal, then went ready for bed as the tour had quite taken some energy. “Don’t you sleep normally upside down?” The blue filly asked her bat pony friend.

“Just because I’m a bat pony doesn’t mean I sleep in a bed from time to time.”

“Goodnight.” Jens interrupted them as he went ready for bed himself.

“Night.” The three foals replied in unison.

As the young man climbed into his own bed, one thought wandered through his mind.

How do I make sure this won’t conflict with my job?

Chapter 3 New friends

Chapter 3: New friends

Jens awoke as his alarm clock ringed in the morning, turning it off, stretching himself as he got up and walked into the kitchen for breakfast.

The news had nothing of interest for him as he watched TV, enjoying his toast and coffee.

Without any warning, a yawn came from behind, seeing Wolf and Fletcher walking in. “Good morning, you two. Up so early?” He asked surprised.

“Yeah, we are early risers.” The filly replied.

“Uh-huh. Where’s Midnight?” He asked as the bat pony wasn’t with them.

“He was gone when we woke up, I guess he’s in the bathroom,” Fray suggested.

“Okay.”

Little Meier knew about his following surprise as he went to his wardrobe.

As he opened, he saw the colt sleeping upside down in it, groaning and using his wings to cover his eyes as the sun shined on him.

Jens cleared his throat, causing Midnight to uncover himself, blushing like a tomato. “Uhh…I can explain?”

The man just pointed to the door, “Hop, out.”

The grey pony did as told, hearing him mumble, “Should have bought a perch.”

This caused Fray and Wolf to chuckle, making Midnight more embarrassed, lowering his head.

Despite this, Jens wasn’t actually bothered by it as he got his uniform on. “I have to go to work, I can let you stay here alone, right?”

“Of course.” White Wolf replied before pretending to strangle Fletcher. “I kill you!”

The mercenary just chuckled at this before his phone got a message.

Morning, my friend. I got a little surprise that might interest you. And I’m sorry to say that one of your guys having double shift got sick, so you have to replace him.

Leo.

Jens sighed. “Well, that’s just great.”

“What’s wrong?” Fletcher asked.

“One of my comrades who has double shift today got sick, so I have to be his replacement. Will take the whole day. So, would you mind coming with me?”

The unicorn waved a hoof. “I don’t mind that.”

“Me neither,” Wolf added.

“Well, it might be able to help us in finding a way to fix this all.” Midnight commented before they went to Jens’ car, a Volkswagen Passat (B8). After putting on the seatbelts, he drove to the outskirts of town to his workplace.

The eyes of the three ponies went wide in awe as they saw it was a reused barrack or depot of the Wehrmacht, the guard at the gate greeting friendly as Meier entered, parking his car on the parking lot. They also saw several pioneers working on military vehicles like tanks and armored cars, all having what seemed to be some kind of miniature, portable, Terminal-like device on the left or right arm.

“Welcome at my workplace,” Jens said as he got out of his car.

“Looks very…interesting,” Fray commented.

“Nice to see you again.” A new voice with a British accent made them turn around seeing a man with an average build, brown hair and green eyes, his face being long, not surprised as he saw the three foals. They noticed he was wearing glasses and a scar over his left eye.

“Morning, Leo.” Jens greeted him. As far as he knew, Leo’s father had fought in the Falklands War, having immigrated to Germany after it was over to find some peace and quiet, probably suffering from PTSD.

As Jens joined the PMC, he and Leo became best friends ever since.

“You didn’t tell you would bring company. Who are you?” The Brite asked the Eternal Knights with a smile.

“I’m Midnight Blade and those are my friends Fletcher Fray and White Wolf.” The grey pony introduced himself and his friends.

“Pleasure, my name is Leo Wood.” He turned to his friend. “How did you found them?”

“It’s kind of a long story. You did say you had a little surprise.”

“Indeed. It’s in the mess hall but first, get your gear.”

“Of course.” Walking to the armory, the young man got his rifle, an updated STG 44 and a Walther P.38 and his personal Terminal-like device. The MP40, Gewehr 43 and K98 were also still in use, the latter mostly by snipers, but also by regular mercenaries, the SMG was used by vehicle crews but some squad leaders preferred it over the Assault Rifle.

Arriving at the mess hall, Jens told his friend how he found the three ponies.

With an expression of sympathy, the Brite replied, “Sorry to hear what happened to you. Sounds like we are in the same boat, Jens.”

“What do you mean?” Jens asked confused.

In return, Leo pointed to a table, where an earth pony colt with bespectacled purple and white patch-patterned coat, a long messy mane of indigo and silver streaks and matching eyes, was eating some toast, his cutie mark hidden by a dark blue cloak with a rising golden sun.

“Patch?” Midnight asked and the colt turned around, smiling as he saw them.

“Guys! You’re okay!” He said relieved, happy to see them.

“Glad to see you are alright too. Where’s Wagensroll?” Fletcher asked.

With an expression of sadness, Patch replied, “I don’t know. We got separated as this accident happened.”

Before anyone could reply, a voice called out, “Fletcher!”

The unicorn turned towards the entrance, seeing another Earth pony colt, having a green coat, blue eyes and a short blond mane, a history book with a black Alicorn, wings spread, with a golden mane on a yellow background with a red borderas as Cutie Mark, running towards him with a happy smile.

“Wagensroll!” Fray exclaimed and the two hugged each other.

Jens and Leo just smiled.

“I guess you are friends?” Jens suspected.

“Relatives actually, me and Wagensroll. Patch is his friend.” Fletcher explained.

“I see. I guess Patch was the surprise you meant, Leo?”

“Yes, I found him and took care of him.”

“Okay. And who found you, Wagensroll?”

The colt grinned. “The founder of this PMC. And he told me a lot of fascinating things, like how he was able to get this up updated, how he managed to get all this equipment…”

Fletcher chuckled. “Your parents always said you were so fascinated about such things.”

“And I guess he’s not alone.” A male voice commented as everyone saw a young man with blond hair, blue eyes, having a round face and narrow chin, with a slightly muscular build entered, wearing a general uniform notable by the peaked cap, which had gold colored Lugs, drawstring and buttons, his Insignia was bright-red. The Oak leaves wreath and national insignia were also golden, his trousers had Crimson leg strips.

“Sir.” Jens and Leo saluted him, he was the commander of the Harmonious Guard, named Jessie Günther, although many called him by his nickname James.

“At ease. When Wagensroll told me about his relative and friends, I already suspected they would be nearby. So why don’t you introduce your friends and relative to me, Wagensroll?” He asked the colt with a friendly smile.

“With pleasure. My friend Purple Patch, my relative Fletcher Fray and his friends White Wolf and Midnight Blade.” The colt pointed to them.

“Hello.” They all greeted the man, which surprisingly appeared to be in his early twenties, way too young to be the founder if it was founded in the late 1980s.

“Pleasure to meet you all. Wagensroll told me this all happened because of an accident?”

“Uh, yes.” Midnight took the word and explained where they were and how this all happened.

“Sorry to hear that. But you have nothing to fear from me.” The General told with sympathy.

“If I may ask, how did you manage to create all this? And, if the Harmonious Guard was founded in the late 1980s, aren’t you too young for this? No offense.” Fray asked curiously.

“Well, Fletcher, it’s actually a long story. You see, I was born 1895, so I’m technically 123 years old but biologically in my early twenties.”

The ponies had their mouths wide open in disbelief. “That’s…fascinating but kinda impossible.” Fray said in awe.

“It was at first too for me. I fought in the Great War, where I had an accident with poison gas. For some reason, it made me ageless and more resistant against injuries. As for how this PMC came to be, During the Second World War, I heard rumors about a secret warehouse with secret technologies of the Wehrmacht. After the war was over, I decided to investigate if those rumors were true. And to my surprise, they were. And it would have been a waste to let those unused.

Another reason, the Bundeswehr was once as strong as 495,000 soldiers in 1985, now it’s barely 200,000. And It’s equipment has been…suffered some difficult problems in the last years, lowering the reputation. And everyone wants security, but, how is a military with few men and equipment with technical problems supposed to ensure this?” He asked them, pausing.

“Also, the technology progress of today makes us very vulnerable. One does simply have to use an EMP or any other way to shut down electronics. The Modern armies are then helpless, relying on their electronics. I saw this weakness and created this PMC. Sure, it’s modernized to today’s standards, but still has the mechanical optics of back then, still working after an EMP would disable the modernized parts.”

“Makes sense.” Midnight commented. “What are your services?”

“Oh, while being a PMC, doing common business, like to perform military tasks in war or crisis areas, we are also providing security of various types and transport of all sorts of items. Even government official hire us for security. For example, the German police forces are understaffed, so we are often assisting them.”

“I see. Sounds like you doing honest business. What’s that device almost every one of your employees on the arm?” He pointed to the one James was wearing on his right arm.

“Oh, that? It’s basically a portable radio, which is also able to display the wearer's stats and ammo. But scientific research in the recent years gave this thing another use.” James explained.

“And that is?” The bat pony wondered, causing the commander to grin.

“Watch.” He pressed a few buttons on his “radio” and a blue-purple light engulfed him, causing everyone to cover their eyes.

As the light was gone, the ponies gasped in shock.

Instead of a human, a grey bat pony stallion in the same general uniform stood in front of them, looking identical to Midnight. “Wow…” The grey pony was speechless, causing James to grin.

“True or false?” Even his voice sounded identical to Midnight before turning back.

“Fascinating. What’s the reason behind this?” Wagensroll asked impressed.

“Well, it was originally thought to help recon teams blend in with locals and to help agents impersonate others if necessary. But as My little pony: Friendship is magic appeared, many bronies used this feature to look like they favorite ponies or their own OCs. They only look like this to others without this device, still seeing each other normally for easy identification. We call it Ponyfication.”

Before anyone could reply, a knock on the door interrupted them. “General?” A female voice asked.

The five foals turned towards the door, seeing six women saluting James, all appearing to be Lieutenant General in rank, judged by their insignia.

The first woman, standing in front of the others, had brown hair and green eyes, wearing a camouflaged uniform. The woman to her right had blond hair and brown eyes, wearing an officer uniform of the Luftwaffe. Behind her was a woman with the same hair but green eyes, having freckles, wearing a pioneer uniform.

Behind them was a woman with blue eyes and a stylish black hair, dressed in a black trench coat and fedora. The last two women were both wearing medic uniforms, the first having blue eyes and brown hair, the other had the same blue color but black hair instead.

They had had neutral expressions, having an avenge build and height, except for the second and third, who were slightly muscular.

“At ease. May I introduce our guests to you?”

The first woman waved a hand. “That won’t be necessary, sir, we overheard your conversation when we were about to report to you.”

“Okay, that saves us a long explanation. “My guests, those are my closest confidants. Linda König,” The woman in camouflaged uniform smiled at them. “Anna Walter,” The Luftwaffe officer gave a quick salute. “Ava Günther.”

“Howdy.” The woman said with a Southern accent in German.

“Lily Marchand.”

The woman tipped her fedora, saying, “Bonjour.”

“And members of my best medics, Stella Becker and Anne Fuchs.”

“Hello,” The brown haired medic greeted with happiness.

“He-Hello,” Anna said shy.

“Greetings.” The ponies replied in unison.

For some reason, the six women reminded them of the Elements wearers.

The shy medic slowly started to smile, looking at Wolf. “Aren’t they all cute?” She stretched a hand out, petting the Pegasus before the filly could react. “Who's a sweepy widdle Wolfie?” You are! Yes, you are!” Wolf started to grin, then broke out in laughter as she was a bit ticklish.

After she managed to catch her breath, she warned with a slight growl, “Touch me again and I'll break every bone in your body!”

“You have to excuse her, she’s sensitive towards that.” Midnight quickly intervened.

“Okay. Sorry, Wolf, but you’re just so adorable.”

“I am not adorable, understand?! I am a blooded and battle-hardened Wolfsong Warrior and Lunar Knight!” The filly hissed.

“Dooly nodded.” The woman replied calmly.

The commander then looked on the watch. “Already noon? Time passes fast.”

“Indeed. If you don’t mind, sir, we should use the time to figure out how to get-“ Midnight tried to say before having to yawn, stumbling a bit, falling on his back.

Linda smiled. “Awww, wook at that. He's so sweepy, he can't even keep his wittle bawance!”

Midnight in response crossed his forelegs with a groan.

“Don’t you worry about that, Midnight, I should be able to help you with that, but it could take a few days. Now, what about a tour?” James suggested.

“Sounds good to me,” Wagensroll replied, the others agreed too to get to know the place.

It was quite fascinating, seeing the barracks and garages for the trucks and armored vehicles, the pioneers repairing and maintaining them, greeted the foals friendly, all having their “radio” turned off to avoid confusion. It mostly was amazing for them how it was possible for so old equipment to be upgraded to today’s standards. But it made them also wonder James was able to get this all approved, or how he recruited all those men and women.

The tour had lasted until evening. “Well, it was quite fascinating,” Wagensroll commented, having to yawn.

“Yes, it was. Pity we have to leave, I really don’t want to be separated from you.” Patch added with a hint of sadness.

“Who said that?” The commander asked with a grin. “You could have a sleepover.”

The ponies started to smile. ”Great idea.” Fletcher liked it.

While being surprised, Jens replied, “That won’t be a problem, I have some sleeping bags at home.”

“Always prepared, I like that,” James said with pride before turning to his confidants. “You’re in charge while I’m gone.”

They saluted. “Yes, sir.”

As the group arrived at Meier’s home, he made a vegetable pan for dinner, the five ponies enjoyed it as Fletcher looked at James with a curious expression. “If I may ask General, how were you able to recruit all those mercenaries?”

“It has several reasons. In the very beginning, many joined for the high earnings or adventures. As the Bundeswehr got reduced in manpower, many who got discharged still had the desire to defend their home or help others. So they joined the Harmonious Guard.”

“Like me,” Jens continued, “After the death of my family, I had lost my job, not knowing how to continue. James then came to me and offered a job. Since then, I serve here, to prevent that others have the same fate as I had. But also because many are bronies and can share their hobby, free from haters.”

“Sounds like a just cause,” Fletcher replied as he finished his meal.

“And way better than our experiences with PMCs.” Midnight commented.

“I believe you that. Reminds, me, I will inspect a base in Hamburg tomorrow, if you want, you could go with me and Jens.” James suggested.

“I wouldn’t mind that.” Wagensroll accepted.

“Me either,” Patch added.

The Eternal Knight thought for a moment, they rather would try to find out how they could go home, but if James said he could help them, it could save some hard work and time.

“Well, it might be better than being the entire time inside.” Midnight spoke for his friends, also accepting.

“Okay then. Now, let’s get some rest, it will be a big day tomorrow.” Jens said and the ponies left to get ready for bed.

“I don’t know why, but they kinda make me feel happy again, like with my wife and son.” He added as they looked after him.

“And you do already a good job, Jens. Stay that way.” His commander gave him a pat on the shoulder, sounding proud.

“Goodnight, Fletcher.” Wagensroll got comfortable in his sleeping bag.

“Night. Night, Patch.”

“Night, you three.”

They all fell asleep fast, looking forward to tomorrow, yet wondered how James was supposes to help them getting home.

Chapter 4 A long day

Chapter 4 A long day

Chapter 4: A long day

It was early morning, they got all ready for the long journey towards Hamburg, breakfasting.

“So, how do you have planned to get here?” Midnight asked the two men.

“Simple, we’ll take the train, I already organized everything,” James replied as they got outside, seeing Jack arriving with a small Bus. “Perfect timing.” He complimented the Brit.

Jack drove to the Trainstation in Würzburg, the five ponies were amazing by how large and alive the city was. “Just like its Farman counterpart,” Wagensroll commented.

“Indeed, a very busy city. Would be much too loud and stressful for me to live here.” The commander said as the bus arrived, and he led them to the platform where the train was.

A large white version was the one they had to take. “An ICE? I always wanted to drive in one of those!” The green earth pony said eagerly.

James chuckled. “Hamburg is in the north, so the ICE is the fastest way to get there.”

The Jens’s surprise, his commander got booked first class, which was empty.

“It will take a few hours, so I suggest we take a nap until we arrive.” He suggested the others agreed, still a bit tired, getting comfortable in the seats.

Due being light sleepers, the Eternal Knights woke up from time to time as the train staff checked on the passengers, also enjoying the landscape.

It was around noon when the train arrived. “Welcome to Hamburg,” Günther announced before a bus driven by Linda pulled up to get them to the base.

Said base used to be a naval base of the Wehrmacht, now it was repurposed to be a base of the navy part of the Harmonious Guard.

As James inspected the base, Midnight asked Linda, “Do you sleep with a knife under your pillow?”

With an expression of confusion, the young woman replied, “Er...no.”

“In that case...I would strongly advise against baby-talking to me again.”

While taking it seriously, Linda said, “Hey, you looked cute when you had to yawn, can’t blame me for that. Besides, it’s a normal reaction.”

“Fair point, but please don’t do that again.” He warned with a light hiss, she nodded in response.

“Say, why did you join the Harmonious Guard? You don’t look like a soldier. No offense.” The blue filly wanted to know, getting curious.

“Well, my father was James’ confidant, so I saw it as my honor to continue his work.”

“And you do well.” The veteran said with pride as he continued, “The same is with Anna. Ava, I’m actually from the USA, son of an American father and German mother, and had a brother. She comes from the family he founded, wanting to help me. Lily, she comes from a French family I saved from the Gestapo and SS during the Second World War, seeing it as a way to show her gratefulness for this. Becker and Fuchs, they both wanted to help others around the world, seeing my PMC as best possibility for this.”

As the officer explained, Jens noticed the Cutie Marks of the Eternal Knights. Fletcher had three arrows fired from a crescent moon, Wolf a white wolf howling and Midnight a broadsword over a full moon as Cutie Marks respectively. The filly had also a small set of canines in her upper and lower jaws, looking like fangs for Jens.

I guess one of her parents was a bat pony.

“Currently, our main ships are stationed here for maintenance.” Jessie tore him out leading his guests deeper into the base towards the docks.

The eyes of the ponies went wide as they saw three big ships.

The first was a Battleship, armed with heavy cannons, missile launchers and AA guns, being 251 m long overall and 36m wide. The second ship was a heavy cruiser, being colored in dark blue, and the third ship looked like an aircraft carrier with several jet and propeller planes on board.

“May I show you: The Bismarck II, the successor of the Bismarck sunk in 1941, the jewel of our navy, together with the Princess Luna, inspired by the Prince Eugene of Savoy and our aircraft carrier the Graf Zeppelin.

The Graf Zeppelin may have been never been finished, but I managed to finish what our country tried to build.” He sounded proud of it.

“Impressive,” Fray commented.

“Thank you. At the beginning, many said it could not be done. They said it was too outdated. They said I could never update and upgrade them to today’s standards. They were wrong.”

“Never tell a smart German that something cannot be done, because you will lose,” Linda added with a chuckle.

“You got experience in that with your nanomites, haven’t you Fray?” Midnight asked with a sly grin, causing his friend to giggle.

“Yes, I have.”

The ponies then took notice of several soldiers in camouflaged uniforms, having a small golden or dark blue shield as patch on their uniforms. “Who are those?” Wagensroll asked.

“Oh, those? The men and women are my elite troops and apart from my confidants, the most loyal. They are based on the Royal Guard and are the heavy frontline infantry.” As James said this, some of them activated their radios, looking like stallions in either golden or lavender-colored armor identical to the Royal Guard. “Their dogged determination and access to the best equipment make them a force to be reckoned with.”

He then showed his guests a shooting range/training ground, where said mercenaries fought in a simulation. “Forward!” Their squad leader yelled before they aggressively advanced with Assault rifles, eliminating every hostile until they reached a red flag. “What we take, we hold.” He said as they captured it.

“They almost like the Waffen-SS in combat.” The green earth pony colt shivered at the thought.

“In combat efficiency, yes, they are, some say they are the new Waffen–SS. Whoever says that clearly doesn't know enough about just how the SS fought...and who.” James let out a sigh. “Anyway, let’s show you the air force of the PMC.”

The veteran led them to a nearby airfield, seeing German WW2 planes of all kind, landing, starting, or being maintained. There were also helicopters of the type Huey, Cobra, Hook and Hind.

The foals also took notice that some of the pilots and paratroopers had golden yellow lightning patterns with either a winged lightning bolt or a long streak of lightning as badge on their uniforms.

“Those pilots and paratroopers belong to the Nightcrawlers and blue devils, a fighter squadron and paratrooper division, based on the Wonderbolts, only the best serve here. Anna is in command of them.” Linda explained as she showed a video of Walter training some new paratroopers.

“Jumping out of an airplane is one of the safest things a human can do, provided he follows proper procedure. When the red light goes green, you jump. Follow the soldier in front of you. Don’t stop, don’t think.” The woman pointed to her forehead as the light went green.

“Go! Go! Go! Go! Go!” She yelled and the recruits jumped out revealing what looked like hundreds of planes in the sky, together with white parachutes landing on the ground.

Everything happened over the airfield at sunrise, looking very beautiful, the recruits were mostly nervous as the jumped out.

“The static line will deploy your chute automatically. The chute is designed to drop you straight down. If you’re headed for a bind, you can manipulate the risers and steer away from obstacles. Steer into clearings, look for green smoke.” She explained as the recruits had landed near green smoke, most did well in their landing by landing in the middle of a white circle, others landed a bit outside if it but still near it, with a greased Landing.

“You know why we look for green smoke?” Anna asked back on the plane. “Because it's proper procedure! Go! Go! Go! Go! Go!” She ordered and the recruits jumped out again.

“Only rookies and civilians botch their landings. You’re not a rookie, aren’t you? Flaring your chute will allow you to survey the DZ. It’ll also make your landing less painful. If you’re heading towards danger, adjust your incoming trajectory and attempt to grease your landing. You’ll be battle ready much faster.” The recruits had to land on white arrows near green smoke to make a flaring landing by flaring their chute right before they touched the ground, bending their legs so they were able to move forward the moment they touched the ground, most succeeded.

At the third jump, she yelled. “Do you read me?! Move! Move! Move! Move!” This time, the recruits had to land on small wooden platforms to demonstrate their flexibility, many did flared landings, others landed hard on their side or had to use their hands to press themselves up as they landed almost face-forward, doing botched landings due to their inexperience but landed where they should.

After the recruits finished, they gathered at the base, feeling proud of having earned their wings as she gave a short speech.

“Vertical envelopment, troopers. Death from above. Honor and Praise. You represent the successors of the roving elite infantrymen, known as the green devils. Some may say you’re nothing but failed experiment living in the past. They don’t know you like I do. I’m convinced you all are worthy of being the elite in our glorious air force. Don’t disappoint me.” The woman had pride in her voice, knowing they would do their best, to stand up to the green devils.

“They look well trained to me,” Fletcher commented as it ended.

“Indeed, they are. We also do support the Bundeswehr when needed, as such, we have specialized troops for such operations. And while Jet planes are the standard planes for the military today, the propeller planes like the Bf 109 and Fw 190 are still in use for close air support. The Huey and Cobra may be designed in the 1960s but are still used today and the Soviets know how to make good helicopters, the Hind is a good example, a gunship with the ability to transport troops. A smart idea, I give them that. Guess it was a good idea to keep them from the NVA of the former DDR after it collapsed.” The commander explained his guests.

“And I guess you made them EMP proof?” Midnight figured out.

“Correct, Midnight.”

“Mind if we take a look around ourselves?” Wolf asked.

The veteran waved a hand. “Not at all, I still have something to do that takes some time.”

With that at answer, the four ponies explored the base on their own, finding it very fascinating in general how those old machines were still working perfectly, the unicorn looked at the aircraft carrier in awe.

“The Graf Zeppelin was never finished, and still after years, he manages to complete it. I really wonder how he managed to get permission to build it, and the recourses for it.”

“That is really a good question, Fletcher. I could imagine if you had an aircraft carrier back then, that you would be the captain of it. “Wagensroll was sure of that, causing his relative to chuckle.

“Quite a possibility. And I guess you, Wolf, could be with the pilots or paratroopers.”

“Except I don’t need a parachute, I got wings.” She countered with a grin.

“I guess I would probably in the scientific department.” Patch suspected.

“Do you think a fedora and trench coat would suit me?” Midnight asked as he thought about it.

“Depends which color you would choose and such, Midnight. But I guess it would-“ Wolf couldn’t finish as she tripped, falling into a ditch, hitting something metallic. “Ouch!” She yelled in pain, rubbing her head as she looked up, freezing in fear as she noticed what it was.

“Wolf, are you…Ahh!” Fletcher let out a scream as he and the others saw a big metallic object, covered in dust and dirt, formed like a small torpedo.

“Is that….a dud?” Midnight asked in fear as he saw the aerial bomb, knowing that such things could explode when least expected.

“I’m afraid so…” Fletcher replied. While the Eternal Knights had experience with duds, even they were nervous around them, knowing only one mistake would mean death.

Wolf tried to move slowly, hoping it wouldn’t be set off by movement. But as she did, a metallic groan came from the bomb, causing her to cover herself.

Luckily, the explosion never came, causing her to let out a breath of relief.

“We should report that in before it blows up,” Wagensroll suggested with fear.

“O-okay.” The unicorn used his magic to get the filly carefully out of the ditch.

But then, something inside the bomb clanked and the foals looked at it with wide eyes, fearing of what was happening.

A ticking noise came from it.

“Everypony take cover!” Midnight yelled and they all ran away, diving behind a bush, covering their ears from the imminent explosion.

It seemed like hours before they noticed it didn’t blow up.

“That was…close…” Patch said relieved as he corrected his glasses.

“Yes.” Midnight replied as they moved on.

James was just about to inspect the Bismarck, as the young foals echoed in his ears. “James, we got a problem!” They yelled nervously.

“Calm down, calm down.” He said to them, wondering what was going on.

“We found…a dud…in the ditch.” Patch pointed to it with a shaking hoof.

The veteran let out a frustrated sigh. “Great, just what I needed. Alright, I get the bomb squad. Jens, Linda, get them home, sorry it ends so early.”

“It’s okay sir, safety first.” The young man waved a hand, not minding it at all as they left.

“Well that went not as I had imagined, but what about a movie evening?” He suggested, making up for the short tour.

The foals smiled. “Good idea, what movie had you in mind?” The bat pony asked curiously.

“Do you have star wars in Equestria?”

“Well, yes, we all watched all six movies, save for the sequel trilogy.”

“I see. Then we could watch the first movie of it. Catch some sleep, it will be a long ride home.”

They took his advice, closing their eyes and rested for the rest of the ride, arriving in the evening.

“Do you want your Popcorn sweet or salty?” Jens asked them.

“Salty, please,” Wagensroll replied.

“Okay then.”

The two earth ponies shared one bowl, the Eternal Knights another with each other as the movie started.

It 11 PM as it ended, they all had enjoyed the movie, Jens yawned. “My son also liked the movie. I gonna hit the hay, goodnight.”

In the moment the man had said this, he instantly fell asleep on his bed, Wolf put the blanket over him, Patch and Wagensroll also fell asleep fast in their sleeping bags.

Before the Eternal Knights went to bed themselves, they discussed one of the movie characters. “Captain Plasma has some things in common with Solomon, don’t you think?” Fray asked as her armor reminded him of his former enemy.

“Yeah, although he would rather defend the Base, rather than lower the shields without a fight.” Midnight suspected.

“But still have the same reaction as her about the trash compactor.” Wolf added with a giggle.

“Most likely.”

They then also went to bed, being fast sleep, wondering how the next day would be.

Chapter 5 Playtime

Chapter 5: Playtime

„Sir?“ A voice next to Fletcher said as he opened his eyes, finding himself in a trench near Mondelein, seeing a soldier next to him.

“Don’t worry, they won’t get through here.” He calmed the stallion down as big metallic dragons were visible in the distance.

As far as Fray knew, those were some kind of new vehicles, designed by Solomon himself.

In the head of the commanding dragon, Solomon was confident of victory, grinning. “This is Grandmaster Solomon. Begin your attack.”

Without warning, two of the dragons started to sprint, making a drag race.

“What the hay are you doing, slow down!” The commander of one of the dragons yelled to the pilots.

“Here they come!” Fray yelled as they came closer, flying over his head in slow-motion, he couldn’t help but admire it.

“You just passed them you have to…Look out!” The commander yelled as the dragon was steered towards a family, only for one of the pilots to break sharp, causing the machine to crash.

Solomon could just stare in total shock at what just happened, as a magic hologram activated, looking like Princess Celestia. “Grandmaster Solomon, report on the attack.”

“Uhh…” Still being in shock, too much to get up with a reply, Solomon put a cup over Celestia.

Fletcher rubbed his head as he awoke in the middle of the night, wondering what he had just dreamed. Could have done with that in the war. It certainly would've made the behemoths less of a pain.

In the moment he closed his eyes, a strange noise entered his ears, it sounded like some broke a lock open.

“Can’t you be quieter?” A male voice hissed.

All Eternal Knights were light sleepers, so Wolf and Midnight were also awake by this, realizing what this meant.

Burglars.

“Stay here, I’ll take care of that.” Midnight said before his friends could react, using his wings to get out undetected.

Due to his eyes, he could see in the dark without problems as he came to the living room, seeing two men in back clothes.

They were scanning the room for anything valuable. Too busy to notice him as he flew high into the air and yelled, “Surprise!”

They jumped and turned around, only seeing his white eyes in the dark. Their masks showed only their eyes but it was enough for Midnight to see they were scared. One of them drew a knife, his hand shaking.

“S-Stay back!” He yelled in fear.

His friend grabbed his arm and lowered it. “Forget it, let’s get out of here!”

They didn’t even put up a fight, being so scared that they made a run through the window they had come from.

“What’s that noise?” Jens asked sleepy as he walked in.

“Burglars. I scared them off.” The bat pony explained.

The man yawned. “Uh-huh. Back to bed.”

In the morning, Jack and James picked up Patch and Wagensroll while Jens saw the window that got lock picked open. “Thank you, Midnight, they will think twice about coming back.”

“Your welcome.”

“I come back in the evening, you can use my TV, PC and console to pass the time if you want. I also bought you a little surprise.”

And that is?” Wolf asked, getting curious

The man reached for the fridge, getting out what seemed like a bag of fruit gums. “Those are Nimm 2 Lachgummi, fruit gums with fruit juice and essential vitamins in many delicious flavors. I thought they would taste you.”

“Thank you.” Fletcher smiled, appreciating it.

“It’s also very hot today, so stay in the shadow and drink much.”

“Of course.” Midnight replied before Jens walked out and closed the door. “Okay, okay, we need to figure a way out of this-“ Before he could finish, he felt how he got pocked from behind, turning around with a scowl. “Did you just poke me?” he asked the blue Pegasus.

“Yeah.” She said with a relaxed expression.

“Well, stop it!” The grey pony yelled annoyed.

The filly just grinned. “Why?”

“Because I don't like it.” In response to his reply, she poked him a few more times before he tried to swat at her. “We're not going to get back to adults if none of you behave like them. For Luna's sake, focus and we'll-”

“Poke.” The unicorn said as he poked him, only to pale as Midnight bared his teeth. “It was her!” And with that, he ran off, pursued by Midnight who hissed, with Wolf laughing at the situation.

Eventually, the two colts joined her laugher, lying on the ground. “I admit I hadn’t that much fun for a long time…” Midnight caught his breath.

They then tried out some video games, Fletcher used the PC, playing a Star Wars RTS game, called Empire at war against Wagensroll, who happened to play the same game on James’ PC.

Fletcher took the Empire, his relative the Rebellion.

They both were passive at first, upgrading their technologies and building up massive fleets and ground troops. The unicorn had the first turn, attacking Dantooine with a fleet of two star destroyers, several heavy and normal frigates and a few corvettes, along with Vader and a fleet commander, against a Level 2 space station.

“So much for Dantooine being abandoned.” Fletcher taunted via headset as his fleet broke through the defense without loses.

“It wasn’t of use for me anyway.” Wagensroll replied as his relative moved his troops towards Yavin IV. “I’m afraid the space defenses will be quite operational when your troops arrive.”

“That doesn’t matter. This day will soon see the end of the Rebellion.” The Eternal countered, confident of victory.

It turned out the Rebel defense consisted of the home one, with a level II space station and the Millennium Falcon, Red Squadron and dozens of bomber and fighter squadrons and a few frigates.

Wagensroll used a defensive tactic, ordering his fighters to attack the Tie-Bombers, while his bombers tried to attack the star destroyers with the frigates and home one, showing he was skilled in such games.

Fletcher however, ordered Vader to attack Red Squadron, while his fighters took care of the bombers, his frigates and star destroyers fighting the other ships, eventually breaking through. He hadn’t in mind fighting a ground battle, oh no.

“Now witness the firepower of this fully armed and operational station.” He brought the Death Star to the base, destroying it, securing victory.

“Good game, another match?” The green earth pony asked with his headset.

“Sure thing.”

This time, Fletcher used Veers to win his land battles, announcing with excitement, “General Veers. Prepare your troops for surface attack.”

As he went for Kashyyyk, Wagensroll grinned. As Fletcher’s fleet came into view, he sent several Mon Calamari cruiser as reinforcements behind the Imperial Fleet, causing the Eternal Knight by surprise.

“What?!”

“It’s a trap!” The Earth pony pronounced with pride.

Realizing he couldn’t win, Fletcher ordered the retreat. “Even an Eternal Knight can’t win every battle.” Wagensroll taunted.

Fletcher just grinned. “Maybe, but it’s unwise to lower your defenses.” He countered as Wagensroll had withdrawn troops for the defense of Kashyyyk from Alderaan, laughing as the battle began, only to swallow the wrong way, having to cough like he was choked.

“You choked by Vader now, Fletcher?” Wagensroll asked.

“Maybe.” He took a sip of his water bottle and ate some of the fruit gums, enjoying the sweet taste, looking briefly over Midnight and Wolf.

They played Call of Duty: World at War on the console.

At the moment, the two were placing the level “Heart of the Reich”, making the final push toward the main entrance of the Reichstag, using both a K98 for long range and an MP40 for short range, taken from killed enemies. Midnight had the player character by the name of Dimitri, Wolf a random soldier.

The two had attempted to try the level on Veteran at first, but the enemy AI's tendency to throw several grenades at the player at one time was too much even for them, so they tried it on Hardened.

On this difficulty, they had little trouble fighting through the enemies. “Cover me!” Wolf yelled as she went for the Flak 88s protecting the building.

“Copy that.” He switched to the rifle, firing at every enemy he saw, noticing a German with a Panzerschreck in one of the windows.

The colt aimed at him and fired before the soldier could use the anti-tank launcher, allowing the filly to blow up the last flak.

“Push them back!” The leading NPC by the name of Reznov yelled and they killed any remaining defenders.

The flag carrier, Chernov walked to the entrance by himself, getting burned by a lone German flamethrower.

“Chernov, NOOOOO!!!! Dimitri!” Reznov yelled as the Flamethrower fell dead to the ground.

Chernov was panting heavily, Reznov crouched beside his body and took his journal.

“Someone should read this... Move inside. This is what you came here for! Kill them all! Pound them to dust!” He yelled as they all entered the building, ending the level.

The intro cutscene was playing with Reznov saying, “The path towards our glorious victory has been a journey of blood and brutality. All of it has been necessary. When the flag of our Motherland flies atop the Reichstag... All of Berlin will know that the evil of the Fascist Reich has been wiped from the face of the earth.”

Then he read an entry of the diary. “April 30th, 1945: When he first spoke of Dimitri, Reznov told tales of a hero, someone we should all aspire to be like. His bravery on the battlefield is beyond question, but he has also shown mercy amidst the brutality of the Red Army. He is indeed a hero.”

In the previous levels, both ponies had to choose to spare Germans that were surrendering or bleeding to death or not, they took the former, knowing that killing them would not make them better than the Germans who killed dying Russians themselves.

At the start of the level, Reznov was seen giving his squadron a pep talk, before entering into battle.

“Steel yourselves, men, for the final push to victory. Today, we crush what remains of their fascist Reich. As heroes we will return to Russia's embrace... Our land... Our people... Our blood.”

Upon moving out, the main political officer gave also a speech.

“Your motherland needs your final commitment. The SS honor guard defending this building will fight to their last breath. Crush the last remnants of resistance and this night our flag will fly over this city...We must not falter. Show courage... Show strength... Show pride... But show NO mercy.”

The two ponies proceed to fight their way through, Wolf swapped her SVT-40 for a MP40, Midnight swapped his for a STG-44 instead.

“No matter if they fight to the last breath, nothing can stop us!” Wolf exclaimed as she and Midnight fought their way through the Reichstag until they reached the top of the stairs of the roof, where a giant armada of SS soldiers was making their last stand.

“The bloodied heart of the fascist empire will soon beat for the last time! Up there! On the balconies!” Reznov yelled as he fired his SMG.

At the other end was a fortified MG42 firing at the Russians, but Midnight took care of it with a well-aimed shot, while Wolf killed all solders with Panzerschrecks.

They slowly made it through the German defenses, the flagbearer was killed by the last remained defenders before an airstrike killed them all.

“They have nowhere to go! Move up! Clear a path for the flag! Claim our victory!” Reznov ordered as Midnight picked the flag up and moved towards the German Flag, noticing he and Wolf shared control over Dimitri.

However, as they were almost at it, a lone SS-soldier revealed himself, shooting Dimitri with a P-38, causing the Russian to fall panting to the ground, his vision blurry.

“DIMITRI!”

Everything looked like Slow motion as the German staggered and fell on his back, probably from injuries, straggling to get up as Reznov stabbing the German into the arms, then from the back through the torso, and kicked him off the roof before helping Dimitri up.

“You can make it, my friend. You always survive.” He cut the rope holding the German Flag. “The honor should be yours...”

With cries of “Ura!” from the Russian soldiers and the heartbeat of Dimitri, the two ponies made him limp over to the peak of the roof, and planed the flag beside the pole that held up the German Flag.

Reznov smiled at him and gave him a pat on the shoulder. “As long as you live... The heart of this army can never be broken. Things will change, my friend. As heroes we will return to Russia's embrace...”

The scene changed to a cutscene of real life videos of American soldiers talking and the bomber Enola Gay lifting off. President Harry Truman could be heard talking.

“General Eisenhower informs me, the forces of Germany have surrendered to the United Nations. The victory won in the West, must now be won in the East.”

The videos now showed the Enola Gay flying in the air and the explosion from the nuclear bomb that the Enola Gay dropped on Hiroshima. After the explosion, there was a video of General Douglas MacArthur speaking to a group of soldiers.

“We are gathered here, representatives of the major warring powers, to conclude a solemn agreement, whereby peace may be restored. It is my earnest hope, and indeed the hope of all mankind, that from this solemn occasion, a better world shall emerge out of the blood and carnage of the past. A world founded upon faith and understanding, of man and the fulfillment of his most cherished wish, of freedom, tolerance and justice.”

After that scene, there were words in white text displayed. It read:

60 million lives were lost as a result of World War II. It was the most destructive and deadly conflict in human history.

As the credits rolled, they both stared in shock, not able to believe this war had been caused to so many deaths.

The civil war they had fought in had cost many lives, but it couldn’t compare to the losses of the Second World War, being relieved something like that hadn’t happened to Equestria.

Also, they were terrified of the Atom bomb, having looked at its destructive power in shock.

“Sounds like Fletcher got out at the right time. It sounds this war just escalating until...whatever that was. Does Equestria have anything that can do that to a whole city? I hope not.” The filly shivered at the thought of her home getting turned into an atomic wasteland. “I wonder though, if the Reichstag had no use after the Third Reich was founded, what did they saw then in defending it?” Wolf asked.

“Beats me. Wonder how Patch does keep himself busy.”

At the same time in Jack’s house

“You never catch me!” Patch yelled as he played BeamNG.drive, a vehicle simulation video game, featuring unique soft-body physics on PC.

He was driving a Grand Marshal on a long highway, being chased by two Al police cars of the same car type.

He pushed his car to the limit, causing the engine to overheat and to explode.

“Oh no!” The colt yelled as his car slowed down due to that and both police cars crashed into him, obliterating his car completely, being pressed into a cube, flying off the highway into the water.

The cops hadn’t had it better. The front of their cars was completely pressed into the cabin, the engine destroyed.

Patch laughed at this, crashing cars in this game was so much fun.

He then checked what other cars could be added, spotting something interesting.

“A drivable trashcan? Well, let’s give it a try.”

After having added it to the garage, he selected it, finding it strange to hear an engine sound from a trashcan.

As he drove it through the same highway, he exclaimed, “I could make a “Take Out The Trash' joke here but it's too easy.”

In the evening, Jens returned from work, seeing the three Knights smiling happy at him. “Welcome home!” They greeted in unison.

“Thank you. How about another movie after Dinner?” The young man suggested, earning grins.

“Sounds good to me.” Midnight replied. “Can I have sweet Popcorn this time?”

“Sure thing.”

Jens made wedges for dinner, the Eternal Knights enjoyed it, getting comfortable on the couch as their caretaker prepared everything.

As he putted in the disc of the movie, Star Wars: The last Jedi, the continuation to the Force awakes, he noticed that Fletcher was gone. “Where’s Fray?”

“On the balcony, catching fresh air.” Wolf replied before faint sobbing entered her ears, taking a look with Midnight.

What they saw next surprised them, yet broke their hearts.

Fletcher was watching the sunset, crying as an old memory came up in his head.

Fires...Fires at home. Higher than ever.

His father's voice over the screaming.

"Take our son, Alemannia! Find a way out of here...I'll make sure they don't follow."

Her mother's foreleg like a pillow round his shoulder.

"Where's father? Is he coming? Is he alright?"

"Run, Fletcher!"

A mare's voice.

Then her scream. So loud, so piercing. And the laughter of a mad steed.

"Scream, you filthy nag! Scream for me! Scream for the father you scorned!"

The sound of flesh slicing and splattering in his ear. No other sound quite like it.

The fire's reached his chest, his jaws grinding so tight they could shatter.

A ray of light forming a spear. So light. So beautiful.

The laughter ended.

"You...colt...Put that down! Put that d-"

The screaming was lower this time, like a mad dog in agony.

Rolling on the ground, one forehoof raised.

"No! Don't! Please! Please don't kill me! I beg-"

Then with a short, angry scream, he slams his forehooves upon the balcony's edge, before breathing heavily, blinking, then slowly lowering his head to weep quietly into his forehooves.

“Fletch, don’t cry.” Wolf comforted him as she slowly approached, giving him a hug.

“S-sorry…I…this entire situation we’re in now reminds me of back then when I was forced to flee my home…no one to comfort when having nightmares, having to kill to survive…” He cried into her shoulder.

Wolf and Midnight couldn’t imagine how hard it must have been for him, forced of his childhood.

“Fletcher, I know it’s hard but it’s in the past, remember? You did what you could. And it was one of the reasons you joined us, wanting to prevent other foals from having the same fate. Would you want that Dinky suffers something like that?” Midnight asked.

“N-no…”

“There you have it. You can’t change what happened, but you can make the best out of it.”

“Indeed. I may have lost my family, but it made me who I am today, fighting to help others. Sometimes, a bad thing is the origin for something good.” Jens added.

The unicorn wiped his tears away. “Right. Sometimes, it’s just gets the better of me.”

“You’re not alone, Fletcher. But now, let’s enjoy the movie, shall we?” Meier asked, earning a playful salute from Fletcher.

“Yes, sir.”

After it had ended, the three foals chatted about it. “It’s good but if the Admiral told Poe about the plan, they could have saved this whole trip.” Wolf commented.

“Plus the Dreadnought should have targeted the cruiser first, the base can’t escape. But I loved the scene where Poe stalled Hux and the Hyperspace jump, as well when Luke stalled the First Order.” Wolf added. “The first and least, I could imagine that even Solomon hadn’t seen this coming had you used it against him, Fray.”

The green unicorn chuckled. “If I had done that, I had loved to see his face. And the way they made Yoda in, just perfect.”

“Agreed.” Jens said as they all went to bed.

In the middle of the night, a strange noise woke him up, sounding like quiet howling.

Carefully walking out, not sure what caused it, he followed it to the door of the balcony, seeing the blue filly looking at the full moon, her howling sounded sad.

“Are you okay, Wolf?” He asked, causing her to flinch as she startled.

“I’m o-okay.” She replied hastily, her voice cracking.

The man could quickly tell what was wrong. “You’re homesick, aren’t you?”

The filly turned slowly around, her eyes filled with tears, head lowered. “Yes…I miss my family, I don’t want to imagine how worried they must be…”

The man thought for a moment. “I can understand that. But no matter how long it will take, they will look for you, not giving up fast.”

That caused White Wolf to smile weakly. “You are right, they will not rest until they have found me. The Wolfsong never leaves a member behind.”

The man grinned. “Now that’s the spirit. It's almost three am.”

“Yeah.” The blue Pegasus then went back to bed.

Fletcher couldn’t remember what happened, but he found himself in a city of the Middle East, having to find Dinky. He had to prevent that she would suffer again, like when he was first dispatched to find her.

“Back in the desert, eh Fletcher?” A male voice next to him asked.

“What are you doing here?” Fray asked as he saw Solomon was the one the voice belonged to.

“Helping you find her, we both got dispatched to find her, remember?”

Confused, he just nodded before they both moved on, hearing gunfire in the distance.

Peeking around the corner, they saw locals fighting mercenaries of the Harmonious Guard.

The locals suffered heavily casualties, yet the PMC retreated as the sound of mooing echoed, causing the locals to look around in confusion, even the two stallions were confused.

“Uhh…. A cow I guess?” Fray looked around before something landed on the ground, causing him to cover his eyes from the dusk.

Once uncovering them, he stood there in shock.

It was a large half robotic, half organic creature, having a large mechanical turret-like head whose shape gave the impression of a distinct face and snout, and biological three-toed clawed feet, letting out the moo sound, it sounded rather angry as it stared at him. “Uh-Oh…”

“May I suggest a tactical retreat?” Solomon asked with fear.

“Agreed!” Fletcher shouted in panic as they ran before a shadow appeared under him and he got crushed.

The unicorn woke up with a gasp, looking around, relieved to see it was just a dream. “Phew…Working with Solomon…I would never do that.”

“You don’t say.” A voice said and he turned to his right, seeing Solomon as colt, sharing the bed with him.

Quick as a flash, Fray’s eyes opened, seeing Wolf and Midnight peacefully, causing him to rub his head.

I really, really should ask Luna why my brain comes up with such strange dreams lately.

Despite this, he quickly fell asleep again.

In the morning, he breakfasted with his friends, telling them what he had dreamed.

“That sounds very…strange, Fletch.” Midnight commented.

“Yeah, and very unlikely. You should talk with Luna about this, it could mean something.” Wolf added.

Before Jens could say something, his phone ringed, he was surprised to see that his boss was the caller. “Yes, sir?”

“Good morning, Jens. I just wanted to say I got a little surprise for our guest.”

The young man told the Knights about it, they didn’t mind to come with him but were eager to see what the veteran had in mind for them as they drove to the base.

They got led to the dining hall by him. “I thought it might be nice for you to meet someone of your physical age.” James explained as three young girls walked in.

The first had the same hair and eye color as him, the second had stylish brown hair and green eyes, while the third girl had short black hair and brown eyes. They all looked quite confused at the ponies.

“May I introduce: Ava’s, Anna’s and Lilly’s little sisters. Lisa, Clara and Linda.”

Lisa slowly started to smile and stretched her hand out. “Hello.” She had a South American accent in her voice.

Midnight shook it. “Hello, I’m Midnight. Those are my friends White Wolf and Fletcher Fray, Fletcher’s relative Wagensroll and his friend Purple Patch.”

Clara started to grin. “This so exciting! Meeting ponies from the show in reality!”

“Yep. Nice fangs and wings, Midnight. You too, Wolf.” Linda added.

The bat pony and Pegasus chuckled in response. “Thank you for the compliment, we don’t see that often.” Wolf replied.

“I guess you are also bronies?” Fletcher asked, earning a nod from the young German-American.

“Eyup. To be exact, female fans are called Pegasisters. And we are founders of a fan club.”

And so, the three children had a happy conversation with the five ponies about it, making Jens smile at the sight, as the Eternal Knights and the two earth ponies seemed to enjoy it too.

“Now, let’s do our work, my friend.” Jack tore him out.

“Right.”

Most of the time, Maier and Jack did guard duty on the base but they took part in foreign inserts in the past, assisting the Bundeswehr in its tasks in its own foreign inserts, so they had experience. James often did assist his men personally, together with his confidants, boosting morale, he cared for everyone under his command, earning him high respect.

The two men couldn’t ask for a better leader.

Around noon, they had their break together. “If I may ask general, how do you think you can help them to go back to Equestria?” Jens couldn’t help but feel curious about it.

“You will see, don’t worry about it. Speaking of them, how are they, Jack?” James asked the Brit.

“I last saw them near the barracks. And they do this at the moment now.” He showed them a recording of a Security Camera, which showed Patch in a soldier uniform watching a signal board.

“Intruder Alert! A RED Spy is in the base!” A female voice yelled.

“A RED Spy is in the base!?” Patch stared in shock before grabbing a toy pump-gun, dashing down the stairs, while saying "Hut, Hut, Hut!" with every step he took.

“Protect the briefcase!”

“We need to protect the briefcase!”

The scene then showed Wolf dressed as Scout trying to open the code-locked 'Briefcase Room' door. “Yo, a lil' help here!?”

Patch pushed her aside before typing in the code. ”All right, all right, I got it. Stand back son. 1, 1, 1, umm... 1!”

“Let's go, let's go-“

“INCOMING!” Linda yelled, being the heavy, shoulder-barging the door, destroying it. The three of them were sent tumbling and screaming into the Intelligence Room.

Wolf reached for the desk to discover the briefcase is perfectly safe. “AAAAAHHHH- Hey, it's still here!”

“Alright then.” The heavy replied before someone cleared his throat.

“Gentlemen”. The camera showed Midnight in the doorway, being the Spy, carrying Fletcher on his back, who played the dead Sniper. “I see the briefcase is safe.”

“Safe and sound, mm-hmm.” Patch replied.

“Yeah, it is!” Wolf added.

“Tell me... did anyone happen to kill a RED Spy on the way here?” Midnight asked, earning shrugs from the others. “No? Then we still have a problem.”

He deposited the Sniper's body on the desk, revealing a bloody Knife in his back. “...and a knife.” The soldier added.

Wolf approached the body and removed the knife. Oooh, big problem. I've killed plenty of Spies; they're dime-a-dozen back-stabbing scumbags - like you! Ow!” She attempted to do tricks with the knife like the spy did, only to cut herself with the blunt end on her hoof, dropping it. “No offense.”

“If you managed to kill them, I assure you, they were not like me.” Midnight said as he took the knife, flicked it shut and gave it back to the filly. “And nothing... nothing like the man loose inside this building.”

“What're you? President of his fan club?” As Wolf said this, the soldier and heavy chuckled as the bat pony faced her.

“No... that would be your mother!” He revealed a folder and slapped it down on the table, revealing several compromising photographs of the RED Spy and the Scout's mother, leaving the blue Pegasus to stammer out of shock and disbelief.

“Indeed, and now he's here to f**k us! So listen up boy, or pornography starring your mother will be the second worst thing that happens to you today.”

The soldier and heavy examined the photographs. Heavy leaned over and showed the Soldier one photo in particular “Oh!”

“Gimme that!” Wolf yelled frantically as she retrieved the photos as Midnight lit and smoked a (fake) cigarillo.

“This Spy has already breached our defenses...”

The scene faded to the RED spy, which was also Midnight, creeping through the corridors. He paused at a corner, as the camera pulled back to reveal a BLU Level 3 Sentry Gun with its Engineer, portrayed by Lisa. He slid a Sapper across the floor, disarming and destroying the Sentry Gun immediately.

“Sentry down!” The Engineer dropped her wrench and frantically reaches for her Pistol, only to have the Spy shoot her in the head with the Revolver. The dead Engineer crashed through a door and the Spy stepped over her and fired at a target off-screen.

The scene switched back to the Intel. The BLU Spy leaned over the dead Sniper, gesturing frantically. “You've seen what he's done to our colleagues!”

The scene showed Fletcher, still alive and sniping from a dusty attic. The RED Spy creeped up on him and stepped on a creaking floorboard, alerting the Sniper, who engaged him with his Kukri. Spy deftly dodged and parried Sniper’s flailing attacks and countered with fatal strikes; the Sniper is cut across his left cheek, gutted under the right rib cage, cut across the back of his skull, and is ultimately backstabbed.

“And worst of all, he could be any one of us...”

The scene then showed the RED spy fighting a BLU Medic, played by Wagensroll, breaking the Medic's arm, disarming him. The camera closed up on Midnight’s face as he disguised as the Medic, sans spectacles.

Wagensroll gasped. “Nein...”

Midnight killed the Medic with a well-placed chop to the throat, knocking off his spectacles, which he caught and wore, completing his disguise, before the scene switched back to him as the BLU spy, looking frantic.

“He could be in this very room! He could be you! He could be me! He could even be-“

The Spy is cut off as his head exploded violently. The camera switched to the Soldier, Shotgun in hand, with a confused Linda and a panicked Wolf.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa!”

“Oh!”

“What? It was obvious!” Patch pumped his Shotgun, discarding the spent shell. “He's the RED Spy! Watch, he'll turn red any second now...”

He and Linda approached the dead Spy, the pony prodding the Spy's foot with his Shotgun. “Any second now... See? Red! Oh, wait... that's blood.”

“So, we still got problem...”

“Big problem...”

The Pegasus lingered behind, her expression sinister. She approached the Soldier and Heavy, retrieving the knife she pocketed earlier, and flicking it open easily.

“All right, who's ready to go find this Spy?” The Earth pony asked as the scout approached, she flickered and melted, revealing herself to be the RED Spy.

“Right behind you.”

The camera cut off, only the cries of pain of Patch and Linda could be heard before it stopped.

“I guess they had much fun with their roleplay.” James commented before they heard laughter.

“That was kinda fun! But honesty, even with his disguise kit, the dead Ringer and invisible watch, the Spy could never fool us!” Fletcher said with happiness to his friends.

“Yeah. But despite all the good fandom…I really hope we aren’t featured in…you know…” Wolf shivered at the thought, the others knew what she meant.

“Best not to think about it, Wolf. Besides, given how honorable our creators made us, I highly doubt they would ever go that low with us.” The bat pony spoke in a calming voice.

”I agree with that. Still, is it weird that I wonder who my creator is since we are on Earth?” Fletcher asked the others.

“Frankly, I’d want to meet my creator too.” Midnight admitted, feeling embaressed about it as they entered the mess hall.

“Hello again, I take it you enjoyed your roleplay?” Jens asked though it was obvious.

“Yes, the three girls are quite some good friends.” Patch replied, having enjoyed it very much.

“Glad to hear it. Actually, I know your creator, Fletcher.” James told him, causing the colt to raise an eyebrow.”

“You do?”

The veteran grinned. “He’s right in front of you.”

The unicorn gave a sly grin. “Prove it.”

James chuckled. “You were born in Farmany, Stuttegart, to Fabelhart and Alemania Fray, the Armbrust household, having earned your cutie Mark at the age of eleven, by taking part in a defense of a wight attack on a nearby orphanage.”

“That’s…correct.” Fletcher replied, wondering if this man was really his creator.

“You met Wolf and Midnight as they helped you clearing your home of corruption, thus joining the Eternal Knights. To continue your service to Luna, you choose nanomites as your way of agelessness and later became a hero to Ponyville in saving Dinky Hooves from an old enemy.”

“That…how…” Fletcher mumbled in surprise and shock before passing out, his relative with him.

“Fletcher is dead. Not big surprise.” Wolf joked.

“You couldn't have handled that with any less tact, could you, buddy?” Midnight asked with an unamused expression.

“Would you have reacted different when meeting your creator?” Jessie countered, causing Midnight to think.

“…Nope.”

“Me either.” Wolf added.

“Me too.” Patch replied.

Jens just stared, trying to process that his boss was one of the creators of the Eternal Knights. “Sir…did I...get this right?”

“Yes, you have. And you did a good job taking care of him. Now, get home, it’s getting late.” James pointed out.

“Of course, sir.” The young man gently picked the unconscious colt up and carried him to his car.

As Fletcher came to, he had a terrible headache. “Ugh…my head…” He slowly got up, finding himself on the couch in Jens’ house.

“Easy, Fletch.” The grey colt brought him an ice pack.

“Thank you. Can you believe that a veteran of two World Wars and leader of a PMC is my creator?”

“Well, he has some things in common with you, so it kinda suits. But best not to break your head about it.”

“Yeah. I wonder though how Wagensroll is processing this.”

In Günther’s home, the general tucked the green earth pony in. “Goodnight, Wagensroll, sweet dreams.”

“Night, dad.” The colt replied.

“Dad?” James asked in surprise.

“Well, since you are the creator of me and my relative, you are technically our father here.” Wagensroll explained.

“I guess you have a point. Sleep well.”

“You too.” The pony replied as the man put out the light, falling asleep fast.

In the next morning, Jens and the Knights breakfasted as the phone ringed.

The young man saw that Jack was the caller. “Morning, Jack, what is it?”

“Man, I won’t believe it! I just got news that…” The Brit sounded very excited.

“Calm down, what’s the big deal, my friend?”

“I just received news that…that…”

“That what?” Jens asked, not understanding why Jack was so excited.

“One of our comrades had a car accident this night and got brought into the local hospital. He was found dead this morning.

Murdered.”

Author's Note

Empire at war as my first RTS, love it. And BeamNG drive, it's so much fun crashing cars!

Chapter 7 When Bronies Go To War

Chapter 7: When Bronies Go To War

Everyone just stared at what they just heard, unable to process it.

It seemed like hours until Celestia asked, “Did I hear that right, officer?”

“Yes, your highness. The class was supposed to be on the way back from the school trip, but never returned.” The guard reported, now much calmer.

“Then…we must organize a search party.” Midnight tried to get up, but collapsed on the bed.

“You’re still too weakened. Your Highnesses, if you allow, I could send one of my recon teams to find the school class.” James offered.

Luna and Celestia looked at other, unsure what to say. Humans were only a myth, how would the ponies of Equestria react to this? But, it may be the only chance they had now. “Permission granted, but they shall be undetected to the public,” Celestia replied, wanting to avoid a mass panic.

“Not to worry, your highness, those mercenaries are specialists in staying undetected, no matter what their mission is.” He assured and spoke into his radio, “Nocturnals, report to me ASAP.”

“Copy that, sir, we are on our way now.”

It took only a few minutes for them to arrive and the princesses, as well as the families of the Eternal Knights, saw two men and a woman in camouflaged uniforms before them. “Reporting as ordered, General. What is your request?” The man with short black hair and blue eyes asked him.

The ponies noticed an emblem on the uniform, divided into four parts.

First was a full moon on a black background.

Then a black sword over the moon, pointing north.

Then two crisscrossed daggers with silver blades and blue hilts over the sword.

Then three golden arrows with green fletchings pointing south, south-east and south-west.

The Eternal Knights recognized it, it resembled their weapons, called the Seal of the Watch Eternal.

“Cheerilee’s class went missing, we need you to find them.” The officer turned to the guard. “Where went they missing?”

The Royal Guard thought for a moment. “Appleloosa I think.”

“It is as good as done, general.” The apparent leader of the Nocturnals said and they moved out.

Twilight took notice of the device on James’ arm. “What’s this?”

“Oh, that? A portable radio, which is also able to display the wearer's stats and ammo. But it allows also allows recon teams to blend in with locals and to help agents impersonate others if necessary. Watch.” He pressed a few buttons on his “radio” and a blue-purple light engulfed him, causing everyone to cover their eyes.

The purple mare gasped in shock as the light cleared.

The man known as James was now a pony, looking identical to the Royal Guard. “Wow…” She was speechless.

“Pretty great, isn’t it?” The human asked in the guard’s voice before changing back. “That will help my soldiers to stay undetected wherever they are.”

“Fascinating. Celestia, we still should inform the public about this, it might calm them to know that we are working on it.” Twilight suggested.

“Very well, my former student.”

“And you, my loyal knights, focus on recovering,” Luna said to the Eternal Knights, they nodded in response.

About one day later, the same guard reported in. “Your Highness, we received a distress call from one of our search parties.”

“What is it?” The white mare asked with worry as the got turned in on.

“This…squad 42… unidentified hostiles…assistance!” It came through scrambled.

“It last known location was near Appleloosa.” The stallion added.

“Okay then.” James said and got his radio again, “Nocturnals, we got a squad of Royal Guard in need of assistance near Appaloosa.”

“We’ll be there in no time, general.” Their leader replied.

Sergeant Kidney Bean and his squad were holding their position at a small stone wall, being completely surrounded by enemies. They could only tell that their enemies were also ponies, wearing dark, dull blues, greens, khakis and grey, their faces covered by masks that looked like sort of amalgamation of eyes, skulls and tentacle, armed with rifles.

The guards fired their rifles in a desperate defense, holding them off, hoping their request for help had come through.

Bean was actually a medic, having been promoted to squad leader not long ago but was experienced enough for this role.

They ran low on ammo, knowing they were done for would help not arrive soon.

“Where’s our backup?!” A private yelled in despair, close to breakdown.

“I don’t know!” The sergeant yelled in response, aiming his rifle at a hostile that charged at him.

Click.

“Damn rifle’s jammed!” The unicorn yelled as he tried to fix it in time, seeing how the hostile came closer.

Noticing it was too late, Bean raised his hooves to brace himself, his life flashing before his eyes.

Bang!

Startling, the stallion saw that the charging hostile got thrown back, leaving a bloody, dusty trail in the sand as he fell to the ground, with all other enemies falling in the same manner shortly after. “What?” He asked in confusion.

Kidney turned to the side, noticing three humans with their weapons smoking before him. He was aware of the human mercenaries that were supposed to assist them, but never thought he would see them with his own eyes.

In surprise, he could only say, “We weren't expecting Special Forces.”

The squad leader of the Nocturnals gave him a pat on the shoulder with a smile. “That’s the point, Sergeant. What’s the situation?”

“We…We investigated reports about sightings of the class not far from here, as out of nowhere, those ponies attacked us.” The Sergeant replied, trying to catch his breath, his soldiers were breathing heavily.

“With them eliminated, we can search the area, if they tried to stop you there, we must be close.” Gottlieb concluded, confident of it.

“Most likely, thank you for the help.” Bean said with a relieved and grateful tone.

“H-help!” A young voice called out, sounding in pain and close to exhaustion, desperate for help.

They all turned around, seeing two Pegasus colts limping towards them from a distance, leaving a bloody trail in the sand, looking very relieved to see the Royal Guards, sweat running down their faces from the heat.

One had a gaunt stature and slight build, with a brown mane color, matching eyes, a short brown tail, and a cream coat, bleeding from the left wing, the other one a bluish gray coat, a two-tone dark gray mane and tail, and purple eyes, collapsing and crawling as his right hind leg was bleeding.

The medic wasted no time to get over and stabilize them. “Don’t worry, you gonna be fine!” He said a calming voice as he stopped the bleeding, they screamed in pain but eventually calmed down and he brought them with the others to the local hospital.

The confidants waited outside with the guards until the medic, together with a doctor walked out. “They are stable and responsive. It appears they got their injuries as they tried to escape from something.” The soldier reported.

“Good.” Gottlieb replied and walked in, seeing the two colts on hospital beds, they looked rather surprised at the humans, their wounds bandaged.

“H-humans?” The small colt asked confused, his eyes wide.

“Yes, we are humans. You have nothing to fear from us, we are here to help. The princess called us to find you as you went missing. What’s your names?” The officer asked in a friendly tone, although he knew them already.

“Rumble!”

“Featherweight!” Two voices called out, and the mercenaries saw three adult ponies ran in, looking very happy and relieved.

“Rumble...I...I thought I lost you like we did mom and dad…” The dark grey stallion cried tears of joy.

“My little Featherweight…” The colt’s mother hugged him.

For several minutes Thunderlane held his little brother close and so did Featherweight’s parents with their son, crying, happy to see each other again.

Then the three adults stopped to cry and looked at the humans. “We owe you something. If it hadn’t been for you, our child had ended up in a bag in the morgue.” Featherweight’s father said gratefully.

“It’s nothing, we are just doing our job. Now, boys, can you tell what happened? It will help us find your friends.” The officer asked.

Rumble started to tremble. “We thought we were going to die. On our way back from Appleloosa, some masked ponies surrounded us. As Miss Cheerilee asked them kindly to get out of the way, they used some gas or spell that made us all sleepy.” His voice was filled with terror.

“As we woke up, we found ourselves strapped on operating tables in a cave, gagged, unable to scream. Our friends and teacher were still unconscious in similar conditions. One of the masked ponies spoke about a….blood sacrifice to…h-harvest magic, so they could resurrect their leader and rebuild his army.” Featherweight finished with a shaken voice, his eyes small in fear.

The eyes of his parents and Thunderlane widened with a look of shock, gasping at what they had been heard. “My poor baby!” His mother hugged him again.

The three mercenaries had neutral expressions but were disgusted at what they had heard. “Sounds more serious than the princess suspected. We must report this at once to her and the commander.” Gottlieb said, knowing there was no time to lose.

Back in Canterlot, James put a hand to his chin. “Those are indeed very concerning news. We have to act quickly.”

“Yes, but the Eternal Knights are still too weakened, they are the only ponies experienced enough to deal with this.” Luna realized they were running out of time.

“It was smart of them, I give them that, eliminating the Knights by manipulating the spell, so nothing can stop them. But they don’t expect us.” James countered. “If you allow, apart from the Nocturnals, I could send a unit that is…specialized in dealing with such threats.” James suggested.

Again, both sisters looked at each other, not sure what to say, but they knew the lives of foals were in great danger. “Granted, General,” Celestia replied and left for Ponyville to prepare a statement of the situation

At the town, she could see the desperate looks of the foals’ parents, Derpy, her husband known as the doctor, Tootsie’s sister Sparkler, Ruby’s mother Berry Punch and Pip’s mother Nancy looked at her for answers, looking most concerned out of all ponies.

The princess of the Sun took a deep breath. It’s never getting any easier.

“My loyal subjects…Today is a dark time. I’m afraid to say that the missing of Cheerilee’s class was a well planned and executed kidnapping.” Many ponies gasped in shock as they heard this. “And they incapacitated our best hope of freeing Cheerilee and her class. “She paused to find the right words.

“In this desperate situation, I and Luna accepted the help of foreign specialists.” She stepped aside to reveal James, earning confusing looks from her subjects.

“Your children will be saved with-in the day, that, I promise.” He said in a determined and honest voice. While the ponies were confused to see a human here, as they were only a myth, his promise was somehow calming, something told them he could be trusted.

Twilight walked up and cast a spell into the sky, looking like a canvas. “This will allow you to see the progress of the rescue team.” And with her word, they all saw through the helmet camera of a soldier preparing to enter a cave.

Dinky awoke with an aching head, trying to remember what had happened.

She and the others were on the way home from their school trip, as suddenly, several masked ponies attacked and knocked them out.

Slowly, her vision became clear, seeing her surroundings, only to panic. The filly was strapped on an operating table in a cave. Dinky tried to scream but she had been gagged and her magic was being nullified by a suppressor ring, looking around in fear as her teacher and fellow friends and class mates had suffered similar fates. Diamond and Silver were crying, Pip was frantically looking around.

“Well, looks like our guests are finally awake.” A voice said as she turned her head into its direction, spotting a pony in a dark, dull blues, green, khakis and grey armor, the face covered by masks that looked like sort of amalgamation of eyes, skulls and tentacle. Her heart soared as he stroke her mane.

“Such a sweet and nice mane and body, almost a pity to destroy. But…”He turned around. “Since you were responsible for our master’s defeat, and are the doctor’s child, you will be sacrificed and harvested first, together with your sister and friend.”

The unicorn looked at the pony in horror as it grabbed a bone saw and a syringe, two other ponies did the same and got closer to Tootsie and Pip.

The foals tried to break free as the masked ponies got closer, not wanting to end like this, their lives flashing before their eyes as the medical instruments were only inches away from their skin.

A loud piercing chill echoed in their ears, followed by screams of pain. The children breathed heavily as they saw that the ponies were holding their hoof in pain, the bone saws and syringes landing on the ground.

Out of the corner of her eye, the unicorn saw three silhouettes looking like ponies, holding rifles that were smoking. They walked out of the shadow and Dinky couldn’t believe her eyes.

Those ponies looked like the Eternal Knights, but they were wearing German WW2 uniforms and strangely stood on their hind legs.

Something told her those weren’t the ponies she had befriended, but this was also way too good for changelings to be like this.

“Move in!” A rasp, automated, deep and segmented voice followed from behind, sounding like a cold robot as the filly saw several red glowing eyes behind the three, coming of the shadow too.

They turned out to belong to ponies wearing dark blue armor, also standing on their hind legs, their faces covered by gas masks which lenses were the red glowing eyes, looking very terrifying.

“You strike at me...and you shall bring upon you the wrath of The God himself!” The masked pony that had spoken to her yelled at “Midnight.”

“Suits me. God or mortal, you're all gonna' feel my blade for this.” He replied cold, not impressed.

“You...blaspheme!”

“You bought him into this, not me. I admit, I'm no expert, and I've seen more scum that hide their dirty deeds behind the words of the divine than I care to remember...But if, however unlikely, that any god approves of what you do here...well...do you know what the phrase Gotterdammerung means?” The bat pony asked.

The masked pony stared for a few seconds before replying, “...no.”

Midnight smiled. “That's fine. Hell will. Don't expect to get out of here alive. If you want to live, you should surrender now, and put your weapons down, before the preachers arrive.”

Before the masked ponies could form any response, a hiss, followed by a wave of flames through one of the entrances, causing every masked pony and the school class to look into its direction in fear. “Too late.” Midnight added.

Out of the flames stepped a stallion in dazzling golden armor and a trailing gown of white with ribbons of saffron, ochre and crimson, having a collar made of giant dove wings and the back of his shoulder pads curved upwards into a great arch above him like a halo, his hooves being made of brass, making a clang with every step. He was armed with a rifle that had a flamethrower attached to it.

Another stallion with dark brown fur and with a grey mane, joined him and there was the sound of an engine, as a APC stopped behind them and more ponies armed with flamethrowers jumped out of it. They, together with the armored ponies surrounded the kidnappers.

“Come any closer and we kill them all!” The apparent leader of the kidnappers threated, sounding slightly scared.

“Try it, you’re dead before you can even blink.” The grey stallion countered.

One of the kidnappers started to scream and fired his rifle at the blue armored ponies. The bullets missed completely and they returned fire with LMGs, perforating the pony before it fell to the ground in a puddle of blood.

The golden stallion then pointed at the other kidnappers. “Burn them!”

Then all hell broke loose.

The three soldiers looking like the Eternal Knights charged forward, leaving the school class to stare in fascination.

“Midnight” fired his rifle with deadly precision, using the attached bayonet with mortal strikes whenever he was in melee range.

“Wolf” slicing the enemies with a knife or did throw her knifes at them in quick succession, firing a few rounds with her rifle at enemies that were out of range for her throwing knifes.

And the one looking like Fletcher fired a bow at the enemies. Despite being an elegant weapon, inferior to firearms, he fired his arrows rapid, using a knife and a pistol when a cult member got too close.

“Here we go!” The dark brown stallion ignited his flamethrower with the other preachers, suppressing with the dark blue armored soldiers the cult ponies, using their rifles and flamethrowers to keep them back from the school class.

But Dinky’s eyes went wide in horror as she saw one of the masked ponies lying dying against the wall, trying to aim his rifle at her, ignored by the attackers.

She closed her eyes, waiting for the bullet that could end her life.

Clang!

Despite the noise around her, the filly slowly opened her eyes, seeing a preacher, carrying a ballistic shield and a SMG standing in front of her, effectively protecting her from harm as one of the dark blue dressed soldiers cut her restrains.

“Stay behind us!” The preacher said to her and despite still feeling numb from the spell, the adrenaline made it easy to move, seeing that her class mates and teacher got freed in the same way. The shields formed a wall in front the foals and mare as they moved to the entrance the APC was parked.

The foals were terrified, shaking, but still relieved to be rescued, Cheerilee too, trying to say calming words to her students, as she saw to her own horror, how some of the kidnappers were set on fire by the SMG rounds, they screamed in pain and tried to pat the fire out before dying.

Only a group of hostiles was left, firing hopeless at the wall of shields before Dinky noticed how the golden stallion prepared to throw a grenade. “Incendiary!” He warned as he threw it, releasing a wave of fire upon detonation, burning the group.

“Sector’s secure.” A normal voice said and Dinky saw something she never thought would see again.

A human.

She had last seen them as she accidently landed on Earth, with Fray getting her back, also befriending a girl from an alternative Equestria. This human was a man, featuring an avenge build, black hair and green eyes, his face broad.

“I know this is confusing but we’re here to save you.” He said to Cheerilee who stared in shock at him.

“Th-thank you.” She managed to say.

Without any warning, the cave started to rumble and the soldier that looked like Midnight looked up. “The ceiling’s about to collapse! Move!”

The class wasted no time, running towards the entrance they were led, but Dinky tripped. She screamed as a large rock fell from the ceiling towards her.

With only a second to spare, the human pulled her away before the rock had been squashed her.

She was shaking as she tried to process she barely just escaped death, hugging him. “Thank you!”

“It’s my job. But we won’t go out here.” He said as debris had cut them off from the others, the golden and brown stallion, Pip, Tootsie, Ruby, Noi and two foals, one being a unicorn colt with grey coat, grayish olive eyes and brown mane, the other was a earth filly with brown coat, moderate aquamarine eyes and magenta mane, were with her and him.

“Hans, report in!” The terminal device on the golden stallion’s right fore leg buzzed.

“I’m fine, Gottlieb, and so are Fritz and Jens, Dinky, Tootsie, Pip, Ruby, Noi and two other foals are with me, we made it to the north entrance.” He replied.

“That’s good to hear, anyone seen the CMC?”

“Sergeant Müller reporting in, I have the CMC with me at the East entrance. “A male automated voice replied.

“Okay, the rest of the class and the squads are with us at the West entrance. Good luck, we meet you all outside.”

“Do-do you think there’s another way out of here?” Pip asked, afraid of being trapped in here.

“Of course, that cave is actually an old mine, all ways lead to Rome.” The stallion known as Hans replied and took the lead.

Despite this all, curiosity got the better of Dinky. “Who are you all?”

I’m Jens. And it’s a long story, Dinky.” He told her about how he found the Eternal Knights, who he belonged too and why they were here.

The filly smiled weakly. “I must thank you for helping uncle Fray and his friends. I was so worried when I heard they went missing. And why do your co-workers look like ponies?”

“Simple, we thought it might look more calming for you than our actual appearances.” The leader of the Preachers replied in a neutral voice.

“Makes sense, but why then do you look like our father, Mr. Fritz?” The grey colt asked curious.

“Your father appeared as background pony once and I liked his design, that’s all.” He quickly replied, “What are your names again?”

“Keen eye and Lily Pad.” The colt replied.

“Nice names your parents gave you.”

“Yes, they really suit you.” Jens added with a smile.

“I’m sorry about your…burns.”

“It’s okay, it’s in the past.”

“How…how did this happen to you?”

“Did your father ever tell you about his past?”

“N-Not really, he never talked much about it.”

“Let’s just say, I suffered a similar past as him.”

Keen Eye and Lily Pad pondered as they recalled Fritz’s words. Both children began to think that Fritz knew something about their father’s past. It had been something they had wanted to know for some time, but nobody, their parents, Grandmother, and even their friends or other ponies they know have ever really told them. They pondered until Lily Pad suddenly spoke out.

“Hey, Fritz?” Lily Pad asked.

Fritz looked up at Lily Pad. “Yes, Lily?”

“I…I have to ask you something…” Lily Pad briefly hesitates before summoning the courage to speak. “Do you know anything about our dad?”

Keen Eye, hearing this, spoke out too, realizing his twin sister had the same thing on his mind. “Yeah. I recall you said that he and you suffered a similar past. What do you know about dad, and what happened to him? You know, Fritz. We know you do.”

Hearing these children’s questions made Fritz become concerned. “I…I’m not sure I should tell you that.”

Lily Pad gave Fritz a pleading look. “Please tell us, Fritz. There’s a chance we might never see Mom and Dad again. This could be our only chance to know. Please?”

Fritz looked into the little filly’s pleading eyes with conflict. He was unsure whether he should tell them, but the sight of those children, along with the chance they might never see their families and friends again made him soft-hearted. He dropped his head, and let out a quiet, but reluctant sigh.

“Well, I guess it’s only right that you have the right to know,” Fritz said. “But what I will tell you two could be quite a horrible shock to you. And even if you do make it, the truth might affect you. So are you sure you want to know?”

Both Keen Eye and Lily Pad thought for a moment, before giving a determined nod while saying, “Yes.”

Fritz nodded. “Alright. But first, let me ask you what you know about your mother and father’s past. For instance, did they ever tell you about Tiger Lily?”

“Tiger Lily?” Keen Eye ponded briefly. “Yeah. We’ve heard of her. She was a mare that was married to Dad, before our mom. She was also Mom’s best friend.”

“Mom, Dad, Nana Mare, and everypony back home in Ponyville say that she was the sweetest, loving, helpful pony they knew. She was Nana Mare’s daughter.” Lily Pad frowned. “But they said that she died in a horrible accident.”

“A house fire, actually,” Keen Eye said. “That was years ago, about nearly four years before we were even born.”

Dinky and her friends had only heard from their parents, it was a tragedy what had happened back then.

“And what did they tell you about what happened after that before you were born?” Fritz asked.

“Well, like we said: Mom and Dad never really talked much about it.” Lily Pad sighed. “They said that all that we need to know is that Dad was so, so very sad when Tiger Lily died, and that something happened to him that we’re not ready to understand.”

Keen Eye took over. “And every time we try to ask then, they get upset, especially Dad. We even asked some ponies in Ponyville about it, and they either can’t tell us, or some even said “You don’t want to know.”

“I don’t blame them,” Fritz said. “For the story runs deeper than either of you know. But now you’re about to know the horrifying truth.” Fritz took a deep breath to gather his thoughts. “You see…what your parents and everyone back home in your world have avoided to tell you two was…well…your father was sent to prison.”

Both Keen Eye and Lily Pad were shocked by what they had just heard. “Prison?” The other children shared their reaction.

“You mean Dad was arrested and locked-up?” Keen Eye asked. “Why? What did you do wrong?”

“Well, it’s a bit complicated.” Fritz sighed. “But I will tell you.”

Lily Pad tilted her head. “What happened?”

“Well, on the day after Tiger Lily died in the house fire, an investigation team from Canterlot was called upon at your grandmother Mayor Mare’s request to investigate the cause of the fire. Then right after Tiger Lily’s funeral, a pony from a life insurance company in Fillydelphia came to your father to give him a large life insurance payout of over a million bits that Tiger Lily had arranged with the help of your mother and your grandmother Arithma.” Fritz pause to compose himself, knowing the two foal’s reaction. “But a few days later…police from Fillydelphia came to the apartment of your grandmother where your father was…and they arrested him…for Tiger Lily’s murder.”

“What?” Both foals could not believe what they heard. Their eyes were wide with shock, as wide as dinner plates.

“Are you saying Dad was a murderer?!” Keen Eye asked, his voice was loud with shock.

“It’s like I mentioned before: It’s complicated.” Fritz continued. “Over a week later, your father stood trial for Tiger Lily’s murder. Chief Inspector Blue Ward and Detective Lieutenant Cover-Up of the Canterlot investigation team presented the evidence against him in court, where he was found guilty of arson and her murder, and sentenced to life imprisonment at Hoofstrong Prison Center.”

Lily Pad began to shake her head, with sad tears slowly forming in her eyes. “No. …That can’t be true! Daddy wouldn’t do that! How could they think he’d do such a thing?”

Fritz turned to Lily Pad. “Well, this is where everything gets bad.” He continued to tell the story to the two foals. “When he got to Hoofstrong Prison, he found out the truth. Blue Ward and Cover-Up revealed to your father that they had framed him, and created false evidence in court to convict him so they could get his money.”

Keen Eye blinked. “They framed him?”

“In addition, they also were in league with Hoofstrong Prison Center, and crime rings, convicting innocent ponies for crimes they didn’t commit. They even had members of the royal EUP guard working for them, and even secretly recruited criminals to be guards within the prison.” Fritz groaned with suppressed anger. “Including one criminal that knew your mother and father all too well. A criminal named Rotten Eggs.”

“Rotten Eggs?” Lily Pad asked.

Fritz nodded. “An earth stallion who bullied your father in his childhood, and later in life got arrested for the kidnapping and violent rape of a mare. Your mother was the one who arrested, and got him sentenced to life plus fifty years. Secretly, Blue Ward and Cover-Up heard about his horrific crime, and organized to have him transferred to Hoofstrong, where they secretly recruited him into their ring. He was thrilled when he found out that Blue Ward and Cover-Up had chosen your father as their next victim.” Fritz groaned with suppressed anger. “It was there that he extracted his revenge.”

Keen Eye blinked. “Revenge? You mean…?”

“That’s right,” Fritz said. “The Canterlot investigation force were intercepting your mother’s mail to insure she could not interfere with their plans, until it was too late. They even wrote a fake letter to your grandmother Arithma to pose as her to say she couldn’t help. In my opinion, your father suffered a fate worse than death itself. For over two years, he was beaten, tortured, and raped by Rotten Eggs, and the other guards of Hoofstrong. No nightmare either of you ever had would even come close to rival the horrors he took and witness in that evil place.”

Keen Eye and Lily Pad’s eyes were wide with horror, and so were that of the other foals, Jens had an expression of disgust instead. The tale of hearing their own father being framed by members of an investigation force, and suffering from such horrors was beyond their wildest dreams. It was almost too much for each of them to bear. Seeing their looks, Fritz continued telling the tale.

“And all the while, your mother tried to get your father out and clear his name. Little did she realize that if she did find even the smallest thing to clear him, the scumbags at Hoofstrong would kill him, like they did to every other victim Canterlot force framed. Which he would have been, if it weren’t for someone telling her. That someone was Turncoat, a unicorn stallion who was part of the corruption ring, and was the right-hand of the evil warden of Hoofstrong. It was there, he secretly met up with her, where he told her everything, and even gave her the real evidence file of your father’s case.”

“The real case file?” Keen Eye asked, with a raised eyebrow. “Wasn’t there only one case file? And how did this Turncoat get it anyway, and why would he want to help?”

Fritz turned to Keen Eye. “Whenever Blue Ward and Cover-Up selected a target, they would construct a real one, and a false one. They would do it to show off to their victims that they framed them, then they would destroy the real case file in front of them, to rub in their faces, while the false one would remain in the records to cover their tracks.” He picked up a canteen, and drunk some water from it, before continuing. “As for your other two questions, it was because he didn’t want any part of what they were doing.”

“Turncoat was horrified at their secret crime operation, but kept his peace, knowing he would’ve been killed too. So he pretended to be on their side, biding his time, waiting patiently for a good opportunity. While also secretly studying the teleportation, and the duplication spell in secret until he mastered them to a point where he could use both those spells simultaneously without any suspicion. He would use them to create a duplicate of the real case files, and teleport them to a secret hidden bunker he built himself without everyone knowing. That’s how Turncoat was able to acquire your father’s real case file.”

Lily Pad blinked. “So…it was a copy they destroyed?”

“That’s right. And the fact that your mother was a private-eye detective at the time, it was the perfect opportunity for him to secretly come forward. At any rate, after hearing the information from Turncoat, your mother made contact with members of the F.P.I. office in Sydneigh, through connections she had. When they too heard of the corruption within Canterlot investigation force along with the horrors of what was happening at Hoofstrong prison, they took the case, and set up a secret task force.” Fritz sighed. “But sadly, there was another tragedy to come. While that happened, your grandmother Arithma got had developed terminal stomach cancer from her grief to what happened to your father, her son, her only child… and she died five months later. She passed away, never getting to see her son again.”

“Oh my gosh,” Lily Pad said. Her eyes began to form tears as she sniffled. “Poor Nana. She should’ve died.”

Keen Eye began to frown. “That’s so sad.”

“I know. Your grandmother did have one dying wish, and that was to be buried in Ponyville, right next to Tiger Lily. And as you know, that’s where she’s buried to this day.” He took another gulp of water from his canteen, before continuing. “After that, your mother continued to work with the secret task force with the F.P.I. that they dubbed "Task force River". They started an undercover operation against Hoofstrong Prison, as well as have members of the Canterlot investigation force put under surveillance. But they also needed help from another source. The F.P.I. office in Sydneigh had good connections with the Trottingham secret service, and was able to get help from them. They sent one of their best agents, Southern, to go undercover as a criminal convicted for a violent rape the F.P.I. had set up.”

“Hang on a minute!” Keen Eye suddenly spoke. “Southern? That’s the name of one of our parent’s closest friends, who’s also one of the police ponies back home. Are you saying…”

Fritz nodded. “That’s right. Southern used to be a secret agent for the Trottingham secret service, before retiring, and joining the Ponyville police force.” Pip knew Southern, he was his uncle, looking up to him as he did with Purple Patch.

“Wow, I had no idea!” Keen Eye said.

“Southern was successful in getting into Hoofstrong, where for the past eight months, he pretended to be part of their operations, while also gathering intel for Task Force River. At the same time, they organized a planned raid with members of the royal guards. Prince Shining Armor of the Crystal Empire was in charge of it, and selected random members of the royal guards to take part in it, though under royal command, he did not mention what the raid was.” Fritz cleared his throat. “Then on the night of the raid, Southern was able to weaken the security of the prison, which resulted in the raid being successful, and all the ones involved in the crime operation within the prison were captured, and arrested, including Blue Ward and Cover-Up, who were conveniently there with their last victim. But at the time of the raid, your father was severely injured.”

Lily Pad’s eyes widened. “What? Dad was injured?”

“Yes,” Fritz said. “Rotten Eggs and some of the other guards raped, and Rotten Eggs tried to force oral sex on him, only your father bit off his penis in a savage, psychotic rage. For the first time, your father fought back. But that resulted in the warden sicced his vicious dog on him, and nearly ripped his face off.” He groaned. “That dog would’ve killed him if the royal guards hadn’t raided the prison at about that time. Your father and Rotten Eggs were taken to the closest hospital, but because of the prison policies, he was unable to say in hospital for long. So they gave him minor to fix a torn blood vessel, and to get skin grafts on the damaged part of his face. The result gave him horrific scarring on the side of his face.”

Dinky winched at this. She had heard of how her mother was in Glanders Gate Asylum once, a horrible place, but that was nothing compared to what Abacus went through.

Lily Pad’s eyes widened with a mix of shock and sadness. “Oh, my gosh! So that’s how Dad got the scar on his face?”

“Well, Dad wasn’t lying when he got it from a dog attack,” Keen Eye said. “But I thought it was when he was younger. And it doesn’t look as bad as you say.”

Fritz turned to Keen Eye. “Well, not now, it doesn’t. That’s because he got plastic surgery sometime after he was released.” He turned his attention to both foals as he continued. “Anyway, your mother came to visit your father in prison a few days later. …she was horrified to see how much damage was done to him. And not just physically either, but also mentally too. He was even afraid of the royal guards that took over. But there was two within the prison that your father grew to trust. Again, they’re ones you also know. Lock Down, a prison class royal guard, and Rehab, who was the new warden of Hoofstrong at the time.”

Keen Eye blinked. “Lock Down? As in Uncle Lock Down?”

“Uncle?” Fritz asked Keen Eye.

“Well…he’s not really our uncle, but we call him that since he and his family are very close friends, and we don’t have any aunts and uncles. He’s also works with our mom at the police station, and is our god father.”

“And Rehab is another police pony friend of our family,” Lily Pad said. “He and his friends Derpy and Time Turner come by for tea and coffee.”

“Well, now you know that they were both prison guards. Rehab gained your father’s trust, only because your mother encouraged him to trust him. Lock Down however took much longer, until he was given the task of watching your father’s retrial at Equestria supreme court in Canterlot three months later.” Fritz picked his canteen, and drunk some more water from it, before continuing. “Which reminds me. As soon as the royal guards and the F.P.I. arrested all members of Hoofstrong prison, and members Canterlot police investigation force that were involved, your mother was able to successfully grant your father a retrial, since he was now out of harm’s way. However, it very expensive because it was to be in Canterlot. So in order to get the money to pay for it, she had to sell your father’s mother’s apartment, as well as her own in Fillydelphia. That apartment was so special to your father. He was born there, and grew-up there.”

Lily Pad frowned sadly. “That so sad.”

“Who would’ve thought that freedom would cost so much,” Keen Eye said. “And it costed two homes to do it.”

“When he attended his retrial, the judge found him “not guilty” on all charges, and was to walk out of prison as a free pony the next day.” Fritz looked up to Keen Eye and Lily Pad. “Although, by royal command, he, your mother, and everyone else was ordered to keep silent about everything that went on to the public, because the F.P.I. still had to find the rest of the crime ring members, and everyone else who was involved. If the word got out before they were found, the F.P.I. would never be able to find them.”

“Anyway, the next day, your father was released, but he felt distraught and betrayed, that he ran away before your mother was scheduled to meet with him. Where a day later, he attempted to take his own life by hanging himself. Fortunately, however, Princess Luna found him and broke the tree branch that had the rope, saving his life. And while he was unconscious, she created a dream of your grandmother Arithma telling him that her grave was in Ponyville, and that lead him to journey all the way to Ponyville, that took about a week to search for her.”

Keen Eye and Lily Pad’s eyes were wide with shock. “What? Dad really tried to take kill himself?”

Fritz turned to Keen Eye. “Yes, he did. And not just once.”

“Well, at least everypony in Ponyville must’ve welcomed him back and supported him.” Lily Pad said.

Fritz sighed. “I wish I could say that it was true.”

Lily Pad tilted her head. “What do you mean, Mr. Fritz?”

Fritz hesitated for a moment. “Well…you see…when your father was arrested, and when Blue Ward and Cover-Up presented their fake evidence in court…nearly the whole town believed it. They even called him by another name. Abacus Scum, instead of Sum. And when they found out that he was released and reported missing from copies of the Equestria Telegram newspaper, they were outraged, frighten, and still believed that he was guilty. Only a handful of those in town believed otherwise. Princess Twilight Sparkle and her friends were among them.”

“How could they still believe he was still guilty?” Lily Pad asked.

Keen Eye nodded. “Yeah. Even if they didn’t mention anything about the whole crime ring, Dad was released, and was proven innocent. It doesn’t make sense.”

“It’s influence,” Fritz answered. “Canterlot police investigation force was regarded as one of the best when they were called upon. Also, Tiger Lily was a dearly loved mare in Ponyville. You see when people, or ponies in your case, are persuaded by those in such high regard, it can have a great influence on them. And given that it was to investigate the death of someone that was so loved by so many, and that there is a stigma of those who were in prison, it was all the greater.”

“When Princess Luna told your mother that he was Ponyville through a dream, she made her way down there on the next train. When she got there, she discovered that your father was found by Princess Twilight and her friends. They cared for him, and tried to get the town to see he was innocent. Sadly, it was a failure. The whole town made your father’s life so miserable, that he tried to take his life a second time, and it was a fail, yet again. When Princess Luna took him back to Canterlot with her, they made it clear that the truth had to be revealed to the whole town of Ponyville. So she and Princess Celestia extracted his memories, as well as the memories of the scum involved, and showed them, in every horrific detail. But sadly, by the time the whole town realized their mistake, it was already too late. Your father developed an understandable hatred and anger towards almost everyone in Ponyville, and vowed to never return.”

Lily Pad put a hoof over her mouth, looking rather distressed. “That’s so horrible. Poor Daddy.”

"I can’t believe the whole town treated him so badly." Keen Eye said.

Fritz look at the two foals. “There’s something else too. There were two ponies in town who were influenced the most, and were suspicious of your father, even from the first day he and Tiger Lily came to Ponyville. Blue Ward and Cover-Up even used it to their advantage. Those two ponies were Lady Justice, the town’s court judge…” He hesitated once again, concerned, knowing that this would be another great shock to them. “…the other…was Mayor Mare, your grandmother.”

Fritz watched as the faces of Keen Eye and Lily Pad’s eyes widened with a mix of shock and confusion, confirming his concern. Both foals could not believe what they were just told.

“Are you saying Nana Mare believed Dad was a murderer?!” Keen Eye asked, not bothering to suppress the shocked volume in his voice.

Lily Pad shook her head, with sad tears of disbelief running down her face. “No! Please tell me it’s not true!”

Fritz sighed. “I’m sorry…but it’s true. All true.”

“But why would Nana Mare believe he did it?” Lily Pad asked.

“Well…it has something to do with your grandmother’s past, and how her daughter, Tiger Lily was born.” Fritz picked up his canteen, and drunk some water from it, before continuing. “A long time ago, when she was a late teenager living in Canterlot, she abducted and raped by a stallion. A unicorn florist who was a once socially awkward, but close friend of her family. When he was arrested, he took his life, before he could be tried and sentenced. She was pregnant as a result of the rape, but her parents wanted her to have an abortion, because of their hatred towards that stallion.”

“Your grandmother hated that stallion too, but she couldn’t go through with taking the life of an innocent life at aborting a child. So she pretended to go have an operation and go on a vacation, but she didn’t. She just went away, and have that baby in secret. She travelled around until she got to Fillydelphia, and gave birth to a baby unicorn filly in her hotel room. A day after she gave birth, she found a foster care home, and left the baby on the front door of the foster care home in a box, wrapped in a blanket with a note that had her date of birth, and had a solitary fake tiger lily flower she got from the hotel bathroom.”

“Years went by, and your grandmother became a politician, and eventually became mayor of Ponyville, but she never forgot about her daughter. Then your father and Tiger Lily came, and moved to Ponyville. One day, when your grandmother came to her flower shop, she mentioned about her past, when asked about the tiger lily flowers. How she was abandoned as a new born, how her mother left a note of her date of birth, and a plastic tiger lily flower that she still kept. When hearing this, your grandmother began to suspect that she rediscovered her long lost daughter. So, with help from Lady Justice, she took some strands of her hair from her hair brush, and ran a DNA test with her own.”

“The DNA came back as a match. Tiger Lily was pregnant with her and your father’s baby at that time. She was planning on telling her, but sadly, Tiger Lily was killed in the house fire before she could.” Fritz sighed. “She felt angered and sad that her only daughter was killed. And when your father told her everything on what happened, she and Lady Justice got suspicious of his story, and even suspected that he possibly had something to do with Tiger Lily’s death.”

“They foolishly told Blue Ward and Cover-Up about their suspicions, not knowing that they were rogue, and part of a crime ring. So those scumbags used Mayor Mare and Lady Justice’s suspicions of your father to use to their advantage, and brought false evidence to convict him, with the motive being for the very high life insurance payout. When hearing the fake evidence, the two mares hated your father, and had no issue of not convicting him.”

“And when the truth that your father was innocent came out over two years later, they felt more shame and guilt than ever before. They took it out on themselves that they were equally responsible for what happened to your father. He even hated those two mares more than they once hated him. And finding out that Tiger Lily was Mayor Mare’s daughter, intensified your father’s hatred even more.”

Lily Pad and Keen Eye were saddened and shocked. To find out that Mayor Mare, the one who they knew as their grandmother, was part responsible for what happened to their father, and even hating him was heartbreaking. Lily Pad’s eyes began to water, as she silently began to cry from sadness and heartbreak.

Keen Eye looked down bitterly, saddened and angered by what he heard. "I can't believe Nana just assumed our dad of murdering her like that! Just because of what happened to her, it doesn’t mean other ponies are like that. No wonder nopony ever told us about any of this. Not even our own friends and family."

Fritz, seeing how emotionally affected by the whole truth of their family, stopped and looked at them. He kneeled down to their level, and placed a gentle hand on each of the foal’s shoulders. Lily Pad and Keen Eye looked up as Fritz began to speak to them.

“Listen,” Fritz said. “You shouldn’t hate your grandmother or Lady Justice. Your father did hate them, but he eventually learnt to forgive them both. Princess Celestia herself taught him about grace and mercy, and how one who hates, can never truly heal. But if you want to hate someone, it’s Blue Ward, Cover-Up, and all the ones involved with the crime ring.”

Both foals began to calm down from Fritz’s words of comfit. Then, Fritz removed his hands from their shoulders. “But there were positives to what happened. All the ones involved in the crime ring were arrest, tried, and sentenced to prison for the rest of their lives. Though, personally, I think they deserve to be sentenced to death for what they all did.” He got up and sat back down where he was sitting before. “And many good things happened to your father. He got his good name back, he made friends with many interesting ponies, including royalty, He became famous in Equestria, and even became one of the wealthiest ponies in Ponyville. But most importantly: he got something else. Something more than anything.”

“What’s that?” Lily Pad asked.

Fritz smiled. “Your mother, and you two. Your father still has post-traumatic stress, and depression, but he will always have friends and family who care and love him dearly and unconditionally for life.”

Lily Pad looked with a serious look. “Well, when we get back home, we’re going to talk with Nana Mare, and our parents about this.”

“Yeah,” Keen Eye said. “We need to understand more from them.”

“You two are very special, like your parents. It’s one of the reason why I admire your father greatly. He and I share a lot in common.” Fritz sighed. “But unlike him, I don’t have a happy ending…not yet at least.”

Keen Eye tilted his head. “Well, what’s your story of what happened to you? And how do you know so much about our mom and dad anyway?”

“That’s another story to be told another time,” Fritz said.

Dinky smiled weakly, feeling a sense of pride for her parents having helped Abacus back then.

“Stay quiet and alert, we don’t know if there are any stragglers down here,” Hans warned, Jens and Fritz nodded in response.

Dinky could get a look on Hans’ nametag, his last name was barely readable, mostly blackened by soot, but it was somehow familiar to her.

Pip could swear he had seen a shadow up ahead but it was so dim he couldn’t really tell. “Thought I saw something…”

“Probably nothing…” Jens mumbled before something knocked him down with great force out of nowhere.

The foals gasped in shock as it was another of those ponies, trying to stab him with a knife, he struggled against it.

The two preachers were engaged in close combat with another two ponies, struggling to keep the upper hand.

Without hesitation, Dinky, Tootsie and Ruby lit up their horns, firing a defensive spell at the attackers, knocking them back. Jens used this to draw his sidearm and shot his attacker onto the head.

“Hyaaaaa!” One of the masked ponies drew a small axe and hit Hans in the side of his mask, a hissing sound followed as he stumbled back.

“Gotcha!” The other one yelled as he did the same to Fritz, he had the same reaction as he got hit.

Jens barely managed to get up, aiming his P38 at the two cult members, who breathed heavily, but didn’t attack, just staring.

The foals watched as the two preaches removed their gas masks, seeing that one of the lenses had been broken, covered in blood.

They gasped as they managed to see the faces of the two men.

They both were heavily scarred, 3rd degree burns, only the back of their hair was left, breathing heavily.

Jens and even the cult members were shocked to see this, the letter stepping slowly back in fear.

The now de-masked golden armored stallion growled angrily and raised his rifle, his second hand did too, causing both hostiles to run.

They never came far.

The brown stallion shot one member in the head, blood splattered as he fell on the ground, Hans scored a shot on the left hind leg of the other, he grunted in pain as he hit the ground. Hans then made a sign to move forward before looking at the downed follower who crawled backward in fear.

“Come on, you're just delaying the inevitable.”

The grey unicorn managed to get a look in his nametag again, seeing a few letters on it, her eyes went small as she read them.

-sch-r.

Her mind raced as she processed the information, this man had apparently a German name she knew.

A name she would always remember.

The surname of the very human and found and took take of here as she landed on Earth.

“Why did you join the preachers?” Tootsie asked Fritz, it just slipped out.

“The preachers consist of men and women who have lost everything to such guys like those cult followers. Our goal is to prevent that others suffer the same fate as we did. Our light is a beacon of justice. One that brings sanctuary to the good and punishment to the evil. Drastic times call for drastic measures. Tough work but someone's got to do it.”

None of the foals could reply as a white light blinded them, coming from ahead.

Yet, they all realized, whatever had happened to the two men, truly awful for their faces to be scarred in such a way. The loss of family? Home? Friends?

They didn’t want to imagine but it had been bad enough to change those men into what they are now.

The children let all let out a sigh of relief as they had made it out alive.

“I hope the others are doing well,” Ruby commented with a hint of worry in her voice.

In the eastern part of the mine, the CMC was fascinated as they got told about the PMC by Leo and Müller, the latter being a part of the night squad, the personal unit of the Nocturnals, consisting of carefully selected members of the PMC.

“So, Müller, why did ya join?” The country filly was curious.

“To help to make the world and my home a better place. Back then, my family got attacked but I managed to overpower the intruder until police arrived to arrest him. However, due being understaffed, he got released without trial and punishment. I wanted to join the police force but they had no free job near my home and I wanted to stay near my family to protect them. Then I tried it with the military and made it in, but shortly after, the barrack got closed, and I was discharged.

In the Harmonious Guard, I can protect those in need, helping them when the authorities fail.” He explained, his voice changer was turned off, so they could understand him without problems.

“Sounds like a good cause t, me.” Scootaloo commented.

Suddenly, a round object rolled towards them, the mercenary looked at it and yelled, “Oh damn it! Take cover!”

Leo quickly pushed the foals out of the way before Müller pushed him out of the way and threw himself onto the grenade.

The explosion was deafening and the stallion got thrown against the wall.

The CMC and Leo coughed from the smoke, their eyes went wide as they saw that Müller was still alive, his armor having a few dents and exposed parts, showing he was a blue pony, appearing to be very muscular, more than Big Mac, his mask was also damaged, showing his hair and eyes were colored blue as he stood up, breathing heavily.

Before them stood an entire group of followers, rifles trained on them. “You won’t escape.” One of them said cold.

Müller grinned. “I beg to differ.” The hostiles fired at him and he…

Flinched, stumbling only slightly. “My turn.” And in a swift motion, he fired his MG42, mowing them down in seconds.

“H-how?” Scootaloo asked in shock.

“This armor was designed to offer best protection with good mobility. And as you could see, it can protect against a point blank detonation.”

“Cool.” Sweetie Belle commented.

“Heads up!” Leo yelled as several more hostiles moved in.

In response, his comrade drew a ballistic shield from his back, holding it with his left hoof, while holding the LMG simultaneously in the other hoof. “I got cover! Better keep your heads down! Leo, clear this AO!” He said and the foals stayed behind him and he and Leo slowly moved up, firing their weapons, cutting through any enemy that dared to fight them.

It didn’t take long until light greeted them, seeing they had made it outside.

“We made it! Thanks to you!” The yellow filly cheered.

“Just doing our job. I doubt the others have problems getting out.” The Brit replied with a smile.

At the West entrance, the rest of Cheerilee’s class was led by the Nocturnals and the rest of the mercenaries, the mare and children were all grateful for the help. They also were confused by everything at first, but that was replaced by fascination the more they got told.

“So, you are like White Wolf?” One of the young Deer, named Feverfew asked Stella, who grinned.

“Yes, young child, I may not be able to fly or use magic, but my fighting skills are very similar to hers, as I identify myself with her in the fandom.”

“And as good as dead.” A new voice added as out of nowhere, a group of heavily armed cult members stood before them.

The children let out a scream of fear before the preachers formed up their wall to protect the class, the Night soldiers also behind them.

Stella stepped in front of them, her rifle shouldered.

“What are you gonna do? You got nothing but your bloody knifes. We have guns.” One of the masked ponies pointed out, causing the woman to grin.

“You have bullets, you hope that when your guns are empty, that I’m no longer standing. Because if I am, you will be dead before you’re reloaded.”

“That’s impossible!” The masked pony exclaimed and aimed his revolver at her. “Kill her.”

Cheerilee and the foals closed their eyes and covered their ears as the woman got thrown back by the bullets, dropping on one knee as the firing stopped, her head lowered, breathing heavily.

She slowly stood up. “My turn.”

In a swift motion, the mercenary threw two knifes towards the bodyguards of the revolver armed pony who started in shock as they got hit in the chest and fell to the ground.

Everything seemed in slow motion as Wolf sliced the others as they tried frantically to reload, blood sprayed from their necks before falling to the ground.

One last member managed to reload it’s pistol, aiming at her, she threw a knife towards the pony, landing right between the eyes.

The apparent leader also had reloaded his revolver, seeing that Stella walked slowly towards him.

“Die!” He fired two shots which the mare shrugged off. “Die!” Another shot. “Why won’t you die?!” He yelled and fired until his gun made clicking sounds.

Stella stared at him. “Beneath this appearance is more than flesh. Beneath this appearance, there is an idea, cult follower. And ideas are bulletproof.” She then grabbed the pony by the throat, strangling it, the follower’s legs kicked for a few seconds before she broke the neck.

The deer stared at her before the second named Bryony asked, “How…did you?”

The woman tapped her chest, and a metal sound came from it. “I wear the same armor as the night squad under my uniform, there’s no better protection in the world.”

“If somepony can change the Phrase ‘never bring a knife to a gun fight’, it’s the Eternal Knights.” The third deer called Chamomile commented.

“And us. What I say is 'Never bring a gun to a knife fight.” Stella replied as she saw the light of the entrance up ahead.

The teacher let out a sigh of relief, happy that this nightmare was finally over.

In Ponyville, all of the ponies were happy and relieved to see that the class was alright. “In the name of Ponyville, I thank you.” The major said with a light smile to the human.

“It’s nothing, me and my loyal soldiers are only doing what is right.” He then turned to the crowd. “There’s no need to worry, the class is brought to a nearby FOB for medical treatment. The transport will be no problem.” As he said this, the sound of engines greeted the ears of the ponies, seeing a convoy of transport trucks pulling up at the town.

The parents of the kidnapped foals wasted no time to get in, wanting to see their children.

In Canterlot, the families of the Eternal Knights were surprised. “Wow…I must admit the woman called Stella is really similar to you, Wolf.” Lightfoot commented impressed.

“Yes, she is, I’m kinda impressed myself.” The blue Pegasus admitted.

“Well now, let’s meet our young tribe members, shall we?” Fallingleaf suggested.

“Of course.” Her husband replied.

Dinky groaned as she awoke. She could only remember that she reached the entrance with the others and suddenly everything went black.

Blinking, her vision slowly cleared, finding herself in a hospital room, her classmates and friends were on other hospital beds, all, save for Tootsie and Pip, were unconscious.

Her ears twitched as she heard hoof steps. To her surprise, a young woman in doctor clothes with blue color and black hair, avenge build and height walked in, having a smile on her lips. “Hello there, little one. How are you?” She asked with a calming voice, reminding the filly of Fluttershy.

The unicorn tried to get up, only to grunt in pain and fell back on the bed.

“Easy there, that knockout spell and gas they used, hit you pretty rough,” The woman explained as she turned and pointed a light to her left eye for a few seconds. "Pupil reacting normally, good. Your family should be arriving soon.”

“That’s nice to hear Ms.…”

“Just call me Anna.” The woman replied and walked out of the room.

“I thought that was it. That our lives would end.” the colt let out a breath of relief. “Thank the princesses they were around.”

“Yeah. It really was a close call. Too close.” Tootsie added.

“Dinky!” Derpy called out as she ran in, hugging her daughter with tears of joy.

“M-mommy…Daddy…I thought I'd never see you again!” The filly returned the hug, crying her heart out as the memories came back.

“Shh, Dinky, it’s over now.” Her father comforted her.

“Tootsie! Sparkler exclaimed as she ran.

“Pip! My son!” Nancy exclaimed. “I was so worried!”

Then in a matter of seconds, the parents of the other foals walked in, Berry was crying as she hugged her still unconscious daughter.

The unicorn then noticed a group of Deer entering the room, looking very relieved at Feverfew, Bryony and Chamomile as they slowly woke up.

“I really thought we had lost you…” one young male deer said with happiness in his voice.

Bryony chuckled weakly. “Your soft side is showing again.”

“You may be though on the outside, but soft on the inside.” Feverfew added.

“A big softy.“ Chamomile finished, teasing him, he let out a groan, his head lowered.

Dinky then noticed what appeared to be the emblem of this PMC, being hanged up on the wall of the room.

A silver and gold badge with Twilight Sparkle's purple star in the center.

For a PMC named the Harmonious Guard, it really suited.

She then looked out of the window, seeing two mercenaries chatting. “Hey, you know why the commander is called the Greybeard?” One of them asked.

“Tsk. Everybody knows that. He fought in the First World War, having suffered an accident withsome kind of experimental Poison Gas that made him ageless, having severed as medic and Sniper, being able to draw his weapons very fast, which earned him his nickname James, after the cowboy Jessie James. Then he fought in the Second World War as pilot and infantryman in Africa, France, the Ardennes and Berlin at the end of the war, never leaving a comrade or civilian behind, no matter what. He’s one though guy.”

“Yeah. He really has been through hell...But if anyone can pull this off to help Equestria, it’s him.” The other one replied before the sound of a helicopter interrupted them, seeing it landing on a helipad.

A man in a general uniform stepped out and they saluted him. “General, welcome.”

He made a sign to be at ease, making it possible for the filly to see his face, not able to believe her eyes.

She had seen this man before.

He was a friend of the very man that had helped her.

He walked into the room, getting very grateful looks from all parents, getting told how grateful they were for him helping them.

He held up a hand. “Please, I just did what was right. Rest assured, any remaining kidnappers will be brought to justice.”

He turned to leave as Derpy spoke up, “Wait. Can we know your name, we all owe you something.”

The man opened his mouth to answer.

“General!”

This had not been his voice.

It belonged to a woman in black trench coat and fedora, having blue eyes and stylish black hair ran in, being out of breath.

“What is it?” He asked.

“A few minutes ago, one of our scouts reported this.”

The woman gave him what seemed to be a tablet, his expression went slightly disgusted and angry as he tipped on it and an enlargement of the recording was shown on the wall, making every parent gasp in shock.

It showed an army of heavily armed followers and horrible looking bat pony like creatures at the great hills and mountains east of Ponyville.

“Those guys just don’t seem to know when to quit. So they wanna start a war? Then we’ll take it to their door.” James said with a mix of anger and disgust, turning to the woman. “Scramble all you can get. We need everyone who is available.” The woman saluted and ran out.

“Sorry everyone, but for your own safety, stay here.” The ponies just nodded in response before he moved out.

The Eternal Knights and princesses were also shocked as they had seen this.

The enemy had planned everything perfectly. Getting rid of the Eternal Knights, so they could resurrect their leader and capture Ponyville, if not all of Equestria.

“There must be something we can do to help.” Midnight tried to get up but was still too weak.

“Yes, but apart from you, we don’t have anypony who can deal with this or Nopony who can get to them in time.” Celestia tried to think of something, a worried expression on her face.

“I’m afraid, there’s nothing we can do than to rely on the Harmonious Guard.” Luna replied with unease in her voice.

They saw how the mercenaries were building up defensive lines around and in Ponyville, consisting of trenches and small bunkers as Gottlieb gave a warning.

“Keep alert! The enemy is upon us. They will attack with overwhelming force, but they must not prevail. We must defend our position!”

Günther looked around, quickly inspecting the defensives, having experience from Rommel. The Preachers and Pioneers would be the first defensive line, holding the enemies back with their flamethrowers, while MG 42s would be the second line, followed by normal soldiers, Elite soldiers, night squad members and blue devils. They all were the most loyal, most experienced soldiers selected for this, being also bronies.

He saw how nervous many were, including Jens and Leo as he took a deep breath.

“Loyal soldiers of the Harmonious Guard, madness is at our door. Beasts and demons of Marephistallion want to destroy Ponyville.

After making us all battle hardened and experienced, I brought us here us here to Equestria, unifying our people and our powers in this faraway world—a world that needs us, and our previous battles forged us and sharpened us into a stronger blade. A blade with which we will slit the throats of the traitors that crawl on their bellies toward our door. Soon they come! Soon they try to finish what they started. They want to end Equestria. They want to set up as a tumor on a healthy body, leeching the blood while growing fatter like a parasite. Destroy the world we all love and like. We must not give in. We mustn't allow this to happen. We must see them as they are:

Brutes and barbarians!” He raised his hand. “They are merciless. They are demons by name and nature, in the truest sense of the word. They shall show us no mercy and so must receive none. This is our zero hour, and I call you now to do your duty by the light of the glorious Harmonious Guard. The battle to come is not a fight for Equestria or even a fight for the Guard. It is a fight for the entire world. If we fail here, we fail everywhere. We fail our loved ones. We fail our children. We fail all who crave constancy and light in these dark times.

We pursue no other aim than to protect and help those in need.

Today is the day we fight back and defend our friends.

Today is the day the demon dies at the Guard's hand.

Today we take our future!

The battle is upon us. Here we stand! And here we must stand till the dust clears. Break them upon the walls we've built here. Send them back to the underworld they sprang from and protect this town!” He exclaimed, raising his hand, all defenders cheered at his speech.

He then took with Klaus and Linda position in Ponyville's clock tower as sniper position, his six female confidants activated the radios, looking like the mane 6.

Linda looked like Twilight Sparkle in camouflaged uniform, Anna like Rainbow Dash in a paratrooper uniform, Ava like Applejack as Pioneer with a flamethrower, Lily like Rarity in an officer uniform, while Anne and Becker resembled Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie in medic uniforms.

Ava looked at a fellow comrade that resembled Caramel, armed with a MP40, giving him a slight smile as he looked worried at her, blushing also, Anna did the same with a fellow blue devil that resembled Soarin.

The German-American woman flinched as someone patted her calming on the shoulder, seeing her big brother with a light MG42, resembling Big Mac, and giving her a smile.

Hans turned to his fellow preachers. “Remember why you're here!”

Müller mounted his MG42. “LMG, mounted and loaded! Time to get serious!”

James then saw two tanks pulling up in the middle of the town, having fully enclosed, rotating turrets, armed with twin anti-aircraft guns.

The Kugelblitz, the final development of the Flakpanzer IV in WW2. It never saw action during the war, not yet out of development when it ended, only a pilot production of five units had been completed, some sources said they had seen use during the battle of Berlin.

Those tanks were produced with plans James had recovered from the underground warehouses, and he knew they would be very beneficial against the flying beasts, called Flying Furies.

He knew this would be a hard battle, but not impossible. In past wars, there had been many situations were troops were outnumbered and held out for days against the enemy, so why shouldn’t the Harmonious Guard be able to do the same?

“Yes sir, we shoot them to pieces!” One of the tank commanders sounded ready for battle.

“We’ll shoot their grins out of their faces!” The others one added.

Jens and Leo nodded to each other before a fellow comrade yelled, “Here they come!”

And almost instantly, all mercenaries opened fire, black clouds filled the sky as the anti-aircraft vehicles fired into the sky, tearing the flying creatures apart.

James, Linda and Klaus fired their K98 rifles at every enemy they saw. His confidants used iron sights, due their high skills, he used a scope instead, as he was used to it.

Upon having a hostile in his sight, he pulled the trigger, the bullet went right through the mask, blood sprayed from the head as the pony fell dead to the ground.

The humans bravely stood their ground, moving the cult members down, or burned them with the flamethrowers, causing them to scream in pain before dying.

But despite suffering heavily casualties, the followers were not giving up. It was like on the eastern front.

The hostiles rushed the humans, wave after wave. For every killed follower, 10 others took his place.

Like the Russian Steamroller. Either the mercenaries would run out of ammo or their weapons would overheat.

James looked on his radio to see when help would arrive, smiling confidant as he exclaimed on the radio channel, “2 minutes until our reinforcements get here!”

“General, we get reports that Trottingham is under attack too!” One of his officers reported.

“Damn it!” He cursed and decided quickly, “Divert the air and navy reinforcements here for assistance!”

“Yes, sir.”

Trottingham was not unfamiliar with invasions from it’s past, having built huge bunkers to protect themselves, located in the underground train stations.

Even now, they were still serving their purpose.

Some time ago, demon forces tried to capture this town but got repelled. Now, they were back, trying to slaughter any civilian they could find, trying to get into the heavily barricaded train station, but the doors were holding and the Royal Guards were putting up a good fight.

“Sis, brother, I’m scared.” A young unicorn with dark blue mane, slimmer build, blue eyes and a silver heart surrounded by a platinum flower as cutie mark, said as she was on the back on her older Pegasus sister, who had a dark pink coat, curvier build, magenta mane and tail, the former tied into a ponytail and also blue eyes.

“Don’t worry, Shinelight, you and Passion will be alright.” Her older brother Speedy Silverstreak said in a comforting voice to her.

He was a blue Earth pony stallion in the Royal Guard, having the rank of Sergeant, trying to get his sisters to safety. He had been currently deployed here and his sisters thought about visiting him, which pleased him.

Unfortunately, this was shortly before this attack, and the chaos made them miss the raid siren.

As he saw the attackers, things were just as bad as he'd feared. The followers and demons had the Guards and police forces outgunned, outmaneuvered, and outmanned by five-to-one. It was a Suicide-mission.

The safety of his sisters was his top priority right now, then he would join the others. Tall Toby, the famous clock tower was nearby and would make a good hiding spot for them.

Almost there, almost…

From above there came an almighty screech and the sound of heavy wing-beats as a great gust from behind nearly knocked him and his big sister to the ground.

As they scrambled to their hooves, their ears pricked to a filly’s scream.

“Speedy! Passion! Help me!”

Their little sister was struggling in the grip of a flying fury, soaring high into the air, her face filled with terror.

“Shinelight!” Both screamed and Speedy took aim with his rifle.

The bullet shot through the air and blasted the fury clean through the head, sending it and Shinelight careening into the ground.

With only seconds to spare, Passion caught her little sister in mid-air and hugged her tightly. “Are you okay?!”

“Watch out!” The unicorn yelled before something hard hit the Pegasus and earth pony from behind, knocking them down.

“You snooze, you lose!”

The two turned around, seeing a group of the attacking ponies, their rifles trained at them.

“No, p-please…” The unicorn begged, starting to cry.

Her big sister took a protective stance.

Speedy tried to get up and reach his rifle but one of the cult members knocked him down. “Don’t even think about it. Face it, you have lost.”

The blue stallion looked at his sisters, not able to believe it would end like this.

He closed his eyes. Mom, I’m sorry.

There was nothing he could do but to accept his failure and wait for the…

For the…

Horn?

“What the?” The masked ponies looked around as Speedy’s ear twitched, it sounded like a ship horn.

“Look out! Enemy ships!” One of them yelled as he spotted three giant ships near the coast of Trottingham, firing their weapons on the demon forces outside of the town, one of them deployed fighters and helicopters.

Speedy and his sisters looked in awe and shock at the ships, the former had heard about the human PMC that is supposed to assist them but never thought he would see it in action.

The masked ponies fired their weapons at what looked like a combination of Gunship and transport chopper, he in return fired his MG, tearing them apart before landing and letting troops stepping out.

“Secure this area!” An officer yelled, looking like Shining Armor. He walked over to the three siblings. “Are you alright?”

It took the Sergeant a moment to answer. “Yes, we’re fine. Thank you.” The human helped him up.

“No need, it’s my job. Commander Maximillian König, at your service. Don’t worry, your sisters will be fine. Now, let’s push them back!”

Speedy looked into the sky, the gunships and transport helicopters played music from speakers as they systematically swept the city, with the latter deploying troops if required.

“Target at my niner, bankin' by the left!” König’s radio buzzed as a jet pilot shot down a fury out of the sky.

“That bastard is engaging me?!” Another pilot in a propeller plane yelled as he also shot down a Fury.

But that reminded the blue stallion of something. “Wait a second. We got the train station under siege.”

“No problem.” The human replied and spoke into his radio, “New priority target. The train station needs assistance, target maximum firepower.”

“Copy that, firing for effect.” Another choice replied.

One of the besieger hit the barricaded door with his rifle in an attempt to get it open, before a loud wailing sound came from the sky, spotting dive-bombers. They tried to fire their rifles at the planes but the Stukas, together with the Gunships slaughtered them, splattering blood almost everywhere, some panicked and dived for cover.

“Be careful, Speedy.” His younger sister hugged him.

“Of course.”

He grinned as he joined the other guards. It became a battle; a winnable battle.

Jens frantically reloaded, noticed his ammo was getting short and his rifle was getting heavy in his hands. The hordes simply wouldn’t stop coming.

Leo and the others showed signs of fatigue.

“Do they ever ran out of ponies?!” He heard the Brit yell in frustration.

The cult members wanted to tire them out but they all knew they couldn’t fail here.

“We destroy them! We crush them under our combat boots!” One Elite soldier yelled energetic, showing his dogged determination.

Jens took notice of a fellow comrade having the Russian flag with a bear as patch on the shoulder. “Fight for Equestria! Fight for your families! Hoorah! Fight! Hoorah!”

A scream of pain echoed in the German’s ears, seeing that Leo had been hit, falling to the ground, unable to move, bleeding from the chest.

“I got you! Hang in there!” Jens yelled as he grabbed him by the shoulders and dragged him to the town square, where the last line of defense was, together with a place for the wounded. It was a miracle they had only a few wounded but no deaths so far.

“Watch out! Behind you!” Leo yelled.

Before he could react, a cult member tackled him to the ground, trying to stab him with a knife, he struggled against it.

“Die!” The pony yelled, slowly gaining the upper hand.

The knife came closer to his heart.

A loud echo and the pony’s body became limb, blood coming out of the head and the man threw the body of him.

The shot had come from Anna, her pistol smoking before she switched back to her MP40, firing at some hostiles that used the flying beasts to get over the defenses.

“I'm not gonna let you destroy this city!” She yelled in an aggressive tone.

“You have no idea who you're messing with!” Becker did the same.

Jens had never thought that shy and cheerful people like the two medics, could be so aggressive and deadly, being very accurate, almost always going for the head.

“They’re just throwing themselves at us!” Ava yelled, “We can’t hold the line!”

Making a quick decision, her relative ordered, “Retreat to the town square! Hold the line!”

A terrible roar greeted his ears, echoing through the town. What now?

He saw that his soldiers retreated as told, covering each other as the followers gave chase.

Meier quickly got up and grabbed his rifle, returning fire, noticing that Lily was using her Luger with a tactical Knife in her left hand, stabbing every hostile that came too close. Anna was sprinting from cover to cover, firing her FG42, ramming her bayonet into the enemies that were in melee range.

They all knew what was at stake, their minds only filed with determination to stop the cult from capturing the town.

Some were nervous, others scared, but together, they buried everything negative to fight. Even Jens was ready to die to protect the universe of his favorite TV-show.

If they would die, they would die fighting for a just cause.

Then there was another terrifying roar and everyone eyes went wide.

A gigantic monster was charging forward. An enormous, hulking mass of flesh, hard as oak, having abnormal muscular growth and covered with numerous scars and lesions.

Jens stared at it in shock, frozen. It seemed like slow-motion as the beast destroyed everything it its’s path, sandbags, barbed wire, it even threw one of the AA tanks over with ease, the guns not even making it flinch.

Only at the last second, he managed to dive out of the way.

All mercenaries that were in its path jumped out of the way as it charged towards the clock tower, ramming itself into it.

The shock was strong enough to throw the three snipers out, luckily landing in a carriage of hay.

“Like in Assassin’s Creed.” James mumbled as he quickly got out with the others, firing his rifle.

He knew the cult was gaining the upper hand but if they would win here, they would take the rest of Equestria and possible Earth too.

He saw how his soldiers concentrated fire on this beast but nothing seemed to stop it as it shrugged everything off, but he knew it could be defeated somehow.

Then he got an idea. “Hey! Beast! Over there!”

The monster seemed to hear him as it looked into his direction and roared before charging at him, he calmly waited as it came closer.

In the moment it was only a few meters away, he drew his side arm, a M712 and fired a short burst at its eyes and dived out of the way as it fell to the ground with a cry of pain.

To his surprise, it was still breathing, the mouth wide open and he knew it would soon get up again and fight.

Dodging bullets, he ran towards it and took a grenade from his belt, stuffing it into the monster’s mouth. “Bon Appetite!” He yelled as he jumped behind cover, the explosion splattered blood everywhere.

The veteran then had to realize in shock that his soldiers were desperately holding the position at the town hall, getting surrounded by the enemy.

It seemed hopeless, but the reinforcements were only a minute away.

Suddenly, the followers ceased fire, the humans looked in confusion and suspicion around.

The Cultists made way for a pony with the same mask and helmet as they wore but golden in color but instead of armor, he wore what looked like an exoskeleton bored into his flesh, apparently the commander. His body was scarred, his fur mostly gone, showing the flesh, it was pale.

“I admit I wasn’t expecting you.” The leader said with a cold, echoing voice. “You fought decent and admirably, but it will give me great pleasure to take you myself.”

The leader took his helmet off, showing that he was a unicorn. His face was pale and scarred, the metal covered the forehead, his lips were missing, showing his bare teeth. “Bow to me.” The voice said without any emotion.

“How does he talk without lips?” One mercenary whispered at a comrade who shrugged in response.

“We bow to no one.” James countered, causing the commander to laugh evil.

“Poor little apes...You're in the master's world now...” As he said this, the humans aimed their weapons at him but James held a hand up.

“Stay back! I will deal with him myself.”

“Sir?” Jens asked in disbelief as the officer stepped forward and Hans laid a hand on Meier’s shoulder.

“Trust me, he knows what he’s doing.”

Still, he watched his commander with worry as the cult commander said, “As you wish. I know more pain than you can possible imagine. I am Sepulcher!”

And with that, his horn started to glow in a golden light, causing James to cover his eyes.

As he uncovered them, he found himself in a burning Ponyville, corpses everywhere.

“What joy it is to fight such weakness, such pain, such a broken mind.” Sepulcher’s voice echoed through the town as the man moved through. It reminded him of Würzburg all those years ago, the most horrible moment in his life.

“What do you still fight for? If only the mirror of what you have become.” The voice taunted him. It was terrifying, yet Jessie stayed calm, he knew something wasn’t right.

Suddenly, a soft humming greeted his ears, the voice as very familiar to him.

It can’t be…

He walked towards the source, noticing a woman with brown hair in the distance, having her back to him, standing at a table, not paying attention to the flames, humming softly.

This is impossible! She died years ago at this horrible day…

James shook his head but the human wasn’t vanishing.

“L-l-Lena?” He asked as he came closer to her.

Without warning the woman engulfed into a golden glow and turned around, revealing herself to be the unicorn. The veteran quickly drew his pistol and fired, but the pony wasn’t even filching.

“Your puny weapons do not frighten me. Encased in this armor, I know pain far greater than any of your weapons inflicts.” Sepulcher then raised James into the air by his throat, the man struggled. “Now…you will join us.”

He lit up his horn and touched Günther’s head, who screamed in pain.

The man struggled to resist and screamed, using all his strength.

To the cultist’s shock, his victim slowly managed to grab him and pushed him back, then rapidly stabbed him into the throat.

The stallion fell on his back, holding his wound. “Only I had the strength to trap myself inside this armor. Will you end my torment?” His voice sounded rather curious, his expression one of hope, titling his head.

The man grinned. “I’ll show you real pain.” And with that, he brought the knife above his head to bring it down with considerable force and rammed it into the leader’s throat, a golden glow engulfed it as the burning town vanished.

The veteran breathed heavily as he found himself back in reality, his soldiers looked at him in shock, the cultists did the same, seeing their leader lying in a puddle of blood, but still breathing.

“The pain of defeat.” James finished.

The sound of several engines made the cultists turn around, their eyes went wide in shock.

Panzer IVs and Tiger tanks moved over the hill towards the town, equipped with pintle-mounted MG42s.

The cult commander breathed heavily in pain, the other followers panicked and started to run, many got shot by the MGs or blown apart by the cannons.

“Damned cowards!” Sepulcher yelled in a fit of rage by gathering his last strength, before looking at Günther with a grin. “You...are strong, human...You have a dark heart...” He laughed, coughing out blood. “I see why the master...favored you.” He held out his forehooves. “Finish me, twisted one. I have served my purpose here...You shall hear from my master...in time.” His laugh grew louder. “He has such interesting plans for you!”

James smirked. “Whatever you say.”

The man stomped him, killing him with a crack as the boot connected with his head.

The tanks quickly surrounded the city, cutting off all escape routes.

“Drop your weapons!” Jens yelled at a small group of survivors, they obeyed, holding their hooves up in surrender. “On the ground!”

The hostiles did as told, hooves behind their heads, some instead did begging gestures, like they were scared of what would happen to them. For some reason, Meier wondered if Equestria had the death sentence for such guys, or what would happen to them.

“We held our position long enough for our reinforcements to arrive, well done!” James praised his soldiers, they raised their rifles into the air and cheered, celebrating their victory. “Secure the prisoners, the princesses will decide what to do with them.”

Jens used this moment to look after Leo, seeing that the preachers were burning the fallen enemies, being relieved to see that his friend was bandaged but otherwise looked fine.

“How are you?”

“I’m going to make it, Jens, don’t worry. We got only a few wounded, no deaths.

The German smiled. “That’s good to hear.”

Shortly after, the princesses arrived at Ponyville. “That was a hard battle. Now rest, you all have earned it. We have prisons for such prisoners.” Celestia said as her guards led the cultists away.

“Good. Let us help clean up the mess and then we…”

“Party!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed out of nowhere, causing the mercenaries to smile.

After the battle was over, the ponies celebrated together with the humans, dancing and drinking.

Even the knights and their relatives enjoyed themselves, dancing with the foals.

“I’m proud of you.” James said to Jens and Leo as they clanged glasses, enjoying the champagne.

“Thank you, General,” Maier replied.

They then turned around, noticing that Hans and Fritz were standing in the corner, watching the people and ponies as Celestia walked up to them, together with what seemed to be the parents of Keen and Lilly. Their father was an earth pony stallion dark brown earth pony with grey mane and greyish magenta eyes, a counting frame as Cutie Mark.

His wife was a grey unicorn with spectacled brown eyes and matching mane, her cutie mark was an opened eye that was the same color as her own eyes. “So you are the men who saved your children. My name is Lawful Eye and this is my husband Abacus Sum. We are very grateful for your help.” The mare was smiling.

“Nothing to thanks, Mrs. Eye, we only did our duty.” Fritz replied, Jens and Leo could now she how he and Hans actually looked like.

Both had a slightly muscular build, Hans had blue eyes, Fritz brown.

Both ponies looked at them with a slight shock, due the burns the two men had suffered. “Forgive me to ask this, but, why? Why do you choose the appearance of my husband and…why joining the preachers?

“Well, we are almost the same.” He pointed at Abacus. “I was going to be a father but the house burned down. I managed to protect my wife from a sting flame, which caused the burns. Unfortunately, my wife died from smoke inhalation in the hospital. Then, I got accused for having caused the fire to kill my wife and got a life sentence.

But a friend of mine managed to prove my innocence after I spent one year in prison, also finding out, it was indeed Arson, with the suspect framing me for it.” He told with a neutral voice.

The parents stayed silent, trying to process it. “Was…Was it revenge?” Abacus asked.

“If the loss of your former wife had been Arson instead of an accident, had you wanted to avenge her death too?” Fritz countered causing Sum to think.

“…Maybe…”

“But I knew that revenge wouldn’t bring her back. I’ll do it to prevent that others suffer the same fate. I had nothing to look forward to after being released. No place to go. No job. No home. No family. Nothing. My friends felt so bad for me that they stayed out of my way, thinking I would blame them. I did not. The Preachers are my family now.”

“That…makes sense.” The grey mare replied, still trying to understand.

“I must thank you, for your hard work, Hans. But I must know…why did you choose…him as your pony appearance?” Celestia asked the leader of the preachers.

“We are kinda familiar in some things. At the age of 8, I lost my parents in a house fire, my mother pushed me out as a gas pipe exploded, burning my face badly. I only survived thanks to the quick response of Günther. He adopted me afterwards and I’m very grateful. As for the reason why I founded the preachers, the same man who was responsible for the death of Fritz’s wife was responsible for the death of my parents.

He was a Neo-Nazi, being very brutal. He burned houses down and killed innocent people, just for his enjoyment, sparing no one. Teaching others to be like him.” The man paused, taking a deep breath and looked at the other preachers.

“Those are, apart from the general and his confidants, the bravest men and women I’ve ever seen in my life. We’ve all lost someone, but they’re still willing to fight for a safer world. Like Heroes.”

The ruler of Equestria could understand what he meant, but it reminded her of a pony that was just too familiar, causing the deaths of many of her subjects. “I understand.”

Leo and Jens then noticed that Müller was chatting with an earth pony stallion that was identical to his pony form. The man himself was muscular, having brown hair and green eyes, being broad.

“So…you’re like me?” The pony asked him.

“Yeah. I joined this PMC to help making my country and the world safer, after my family suffered a tragic incident.”

“Sounds like a good cause.” The stallion smiled and raised his hoof for a hoof/fist bump, which Müller returned.

The princesses then turned to Jessie. “We are very grateful for your help, but how did you manage to get all your troops here?” Luna asked him with curiosity.

“Well, back in WW2, some German scientists experimented with something called the Black Sun Dimension and it’s energy, called Veil. The Allies destroyed everything, but the SS managed to salvage some of the equipment, storing them in the same warehouse I used to found this PMC. This included portals, which I used to get the troops here, and veil-powered armor, which is incredible durable, even without the Veil, which the Night squad wears.”

“Fascinating.” Luna replied.

But eventually it was time for the humans to go home. “In the name of Equestria and my subjects, you all have my gratitude for helping in the time of need.” Celesta spoke to the mercenaries.

“It was an honor, your highness. If you should ever need your services again, you know where to find us.” The veteran bowered respectfully.

The Eternal Knights gave Leo and Jens a friendly hug. “Goodbye, it was nice to be with you and we are grateful for helping us. “Midnight said with a slightly sad voice, Wolf was crying.

“And I need to thank you. You helped me to overcome something I never thought I could get over with.” Jens said as he returned it with Leo before a humming sound greeted their ears.

A big, green portal had opened in front of Ponyville and the humans started to walk towards it. Meier, Leo and James turned around, giving the five ponies a last wave before going through it and the portal vanished. The same happened at Trottingham, the ponies here watched as the ships drove through the portal and vanished too.

“I feel proud that we could help him.” Wagensroll commented.

“Yes, we all helped him through a difficult time.” Fletcher added.

“Indeed. But it is his fate to make the best out of it. “Wolf said as she wiped the tears away.

“I’m pretty sure he will. I can’t say what the future will bring for him, but I something’s telling me he will live positive again. “The grey stallion looked at the sunset.

Maybe they would never know, but they all wished their caretaker the best.

Author's Note

End of the line. Speedy Silverstreak, I hope you like the appearance of your OCs

Chapter 6 Investigation and Special Forces

Chapter 6: Investigation and Special Forces

At first, Jens couldn’t believe what his friend had just heard “M-Murdered?” He asked, to make sure he got this right.

“Yes, James personally is leading the investigation. He wants us both to assist him.”

“O-okay, I’ll be there shortly.” He replied, still a bit in shock.

“What’s wrong?” Midnight asked, a hint of worry in his voice.

Taking a deep breath, the man told him, “That was Leo, he told me that one of your comrades had a car accident and got…murdered in the hospital.”

“Murdered?! In the hospital?!” The bat pony sounded shocked and disgusted.

“That’s…that’s horrible!” Fray exclaimed.

“And gutless,” Wolf added with a hiss.

“Yes. The General is personally investigating it, he wants me and Leo to assist him.” Meier said.

“Can we go with you? We could help with the investigation.” Midnight offered.

The young man thought for a moment, the Eternal Knights could be helpful with their skills, but would James allow this?

It’s worth a try.

“If you want. I guess there will be a lot of police cars, so we go on foot.”

The Eternal Knights agreed, it took them and their caretaker only a few minutes to get to the hospital, seeing a lot of police forces present.

As Jens was near the entrance, a policeman stopped him. “Sorry sir, this is a crime scene.”

“It’s okay, I ordered them here to assist me.” James came from the entrance, the police officer nodded and stepped aside.

“Sir, it is true that…” Jens asked him, hoping it was not true.

With an expression of grief, the veteran replied, “Yes, sadly. The victim is a new recruit, a girl to be exact.” He led them to a hospital room, the foals and young man saw that Leo, Patch and Wagensroll were already there.

On the bed was said woman, her head was mostly bandaged and bloodied, leaving only her mouth and green eyes visible.

“What happened?” Meier asked.

“Her name is Birgit Zimmermann, 19 years old. Five days ago, she had a traffic accident with hit and run. The doctor said apart from paraplegia, she would make good progress.”

“She got a second chance.”

“And somebody thought she doesn’t deserve this chance,” Leo concluded.

“Indeed. Collect the evidence, get me a list of everybody who was in contact with her in the last five days and the EKG recordings.” James ordered and the two mercenaries saluted.

“Yes, sir!”

Jessie then turned to the foals. “You are free to help of course.”

“We will help in any way we can.” Midnight assured with a determined expression.

“Glad to hear it.” The officer then walked over to a weeping woman, which the men and ponies assured was the mother of the girl. “Ms. Zimmerman, my deepest condolences.” He told with sympathy in his voice.

“Who would do that?” She asked, staring up at him with streaming eyes.

“Ms. Zimmermann, everything you tell us about your daughter will help us to find the guilty.”

Jens and Leo brought the body away, while the ponies carried the evidence, consisting of a plastic bag, a teddy bear and the pillow of the bed, noticing that James was talking with the chief doctor. “The dead girl in the intensive care unit. You don’t think one of my own people is responsible for this?” The doctor asked.

“The dead girl had a name, Birgit Zimmermann.” James reminded him.

“Günther, you are an excellent surgeon and doctor, but you have more pity than necessary, and that’s your weakness.” The doctor countered with a neutral voice.

“Sir, I need to talk with all your staff that was present at the unit at the time of death.”

“You can’t be serious.” The doctor said surprised.

“Yes. According to the medical record, every four hours she should get H-2blocker, but the last dose was skipped.”

“What do you want to imply?”

“Maybe somebody has Birgit’s medications discontinued, as the stomach bleeding didn’t kill her, he resorted to more drastic measures.”

“You mean euthanasia? You’re crazy.” The doctor replied in disbelief.

“Did one of your people recommend not reviving her?” James asked.

“This is a normal conversation or do you interrogate me now?”

“Just answer my question.”

“No. Such a procedure was never conceived.”

“And in a private conversation, has somebody thought out loud that the death would be better for Birgit?”

“Of course not, what comes to your mind to imply such a thing to my coworkers?” The doctor asked in disgust, slightly angered.

“Birgit Zimmermann lay in this facility on the ICU unit and only authorized personnel had access. If we find out that one of your workers was the one who killed the woman, and you hold back information, not only this person will be punished but you too.” James countered in a slightly threating tone before he walked away.

“Sir?” A male voice asked and the ponies saw four mercenaries standing at the entrance. The first was a man, wearing a grey officer uniform with a trenchcoat, having a muscular build, short black hair and blue eyes.

Next to him was a woman in paratrooper uniform, having also blue eyes and brown hair, with a man in a camouflaged uniform, the same build as the first man, featuring blond hair and blue eyes. They all appeared to be in their early thirties.

Behind them was another man, he was also dressed in an officer uniform but had a gas mask over his head, making it impossible to see his eye color or hair.

“We are ready to prepare a search for the suspect.” The first man reported.

“It will be a pleasure to make him pay. Command, and your will shall be done.” The gas mask mercenary said very eagerly.

“As soon as we find out who he is, you can do as you like. Dismissed.” James ordered and the four saluted.

The body and evidence got brought to a lab in the local base, it wasn’t surprising for the foals that this PMC had its own labs and research facilities.

The Eternal Knights helped James, Anne and Anna to cut the bandages so they could take a closer look. The bat pony examined the deceased woman’s oxygen content before her death.

“Lack of oxygen in the brain.”

“So she was suffocated,” Fray concluded.

“So we now know how she was murdered. Let’s check if Patch and Wagensroll have found something.” Jessie said before they all walked to it.

Upon arriving at the lap, they saw Jens, Leo and the two Earth ponies looked at diagrams of Zimmermann’s Pulse. “I don’t get it. In the struggling, the pulse was supposed to increase to alerting levels but the entire time it stayed at 110 before the heart failure.” The Brit was clueless.

“It’s strange, yes, but I examined the plastic bag by putting it into the oven. The pillow wasn’t the towel of murder, but the bag, the steam revealed her face on it.” Patch explained with pride in his voice.

“So the bag her mother used to transport the teddy bear as gift was the weapon. Cruel.” Jens was disgusted.

“Yes, but that’s not all. I took notice that there were four electrons but the EKG had only three connections. That means the murder has swapped her pulse with his to avoid that the alert gets sounded.”

“So that’s why the pulse was steady. A smart idea, I gave him that.” Günther commented with a grin.

“Now, we only need to find DNA and if it is in the police database.” Midnight finished, confident they would find whoever the murderer was.

“Yes,” James replied and looked at the ponies. “You all did great work today.”

“Glad to hear it, we help in any way we can.” Midnight smiled, ready to continue.

The General waved a hand. “You already did enough, go home and rest, you have earned it.”

“Okay, it was a pleasure and honor, James.”

Jens and Leo walked to the locker room to change to their normal clothes, they and their guests took notice that James was sitting on a bench, appearing to be deep in thought. “Everything okay?” Wagensroll asked as he climbed on it, sitting down next to him.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” The veteran quickly replied.

“You look tensed since we left the hospital.”

The officer sighed, patting the colt, who smiled in affection. “In my long service time in both World Wars I learned something. Sometimes, it’s just your time. Against that, even the most advanced medicine is helpless. I saw soldiers as young as sixteen die before my eyes.”

“It’s hard to take, we all three learned the same in the civil war. You've seen your fair share of war. Me, Wolf and Fletcher...we've seen more than enough. Enough to last a lifetime...or several. We've already been through way too much...And yet for some reason, we always keep looking for more. But you’re doing a great job, leading your soldiers and caring for them.” Midnight replied.

“I know. Birgit still had her whole life ahead of her and I could tell she would make a fine member of the Harmonious Guard. She deserves that her murder is brought to justice.” The man sounded determined.

“Indeed.” The bat pony replied before they headed home with their caretakers.

Jens and the Knights walked through the park as Wolf asked, “Do you know who the four mercenaries were James talked to?”

“Oh, those? Those four are also part of his closest confidants. Unlike the six women, who work in public, nobody really knows in what military parts those four work. I only know their names.

Their leader is called Karl Gottlieb, the officer that spoke to him, he had a relative who was a high-ranking officer in the Franco-Prussian War I think. The woman is called Stella Wolf and the man in the camouflaged uniform is called Klaus with first name, being a relative of James. And the man with the gas mask, he is kinda an unofficial or indirect member, having his own unit.

As far as I know, he is the adoptive son of Günther. When he was still a child he lost his home and parents in a house fire caused by neo-Nazis. His name is Hans.”

“I see. Poor Hans, must have been traumatizing.”

“Yeah, I guess it’s his way to repaying James.” Fletcher suspected as the filly took a shortcut over a grass hill and started to shriek as she slipped, sliding down it.

Jens, Fletcher and Midnight ran over to check her as she held her right hind leg with a painful expression, struggling not to cry before a tear left her eye.

“Let me take a look,” Fray said in a calming voice as he used his horn to scan her leg, smiling slightly after being done. “Nothing broken, you just seem to overstretch your leg.”

“Okay.” The Pegasus, assisted by Midnight stood up, trying to walk but could only limp.

“Do you mind if I carry you?” Meier asked.

“Thank you, but I got wings,” Wolf replied and tried to flap her wings, only to hiss in pain. “Oh, come on! Did I also overstretch them?” She complained and looked at Jens, grumbling, “Fine.”

The man just nodded, picking her gently up, holding her like a cat and she let out a moan of discomfort at this before glaring at her two friends. “One word and you’re a pair of burlap sacks!” They just made the zipper gesture in response.

Upon arriving at home, Jens took notice that the blue pony was also a bit dirty from her slide. “I should give you a bath.”

Wolf waved a hoof. “Thanks for the offer but I do this myself.”

And with that, she limped into the bathroom and took a shower, letting out a sigh of relief with a happy and satisfied expression as the warm water washed away the sweat and dirt, being in a world of bliss.

But still, a thought of worry entered her mind.

I hope Wolf Cub, Fletcher Junior and Mid-Mite are doing well.

After being done with her shower, Fletcher cleaned himself, followed by Midnight, then Jens. As the ponies had a moment for themselves, Wolf said, “It’s actually good that our parents aren’t here to see this.” She shivered “…Baby pictures.”

The grey colt wrapped a hoof around her. “I think you worry too much. First, you were found as filly, and second, they hadn’t any cameras around back then. Me, I lost contact with my parents as time passed.”

“And as you know I lost everything except for a portrait of my parents when I was a baby in Armbrust Castle,” Fletcher added.

“Yeah…But Patch and Wagensroll aren’t so lucky in that regard.” The blue pony commented.

They all had salad with potatoes as dinner before going to bed.

In the next morning, James had news for them. “We managed to identify the murderer. Arnold Dietrich.” He showed them a police photo.

He was a man with blue eyes, shaved head, wearing combat boots and a combat jacket, his build avenge. His face was broad and had a scar over his left eye, probably from resisting arrest the ponies assumed.

“He’s the leader of a radical neo-Nazi group, having made trouble in the past, until the police with our help managed to arrest him. Battery, Arson, illegal procession of firearms, just to call a few. He got a Life Sentence but broke out of prison and went into hiding. We found him once, we will find him again.” James sounded confident of it.

“I hope so, the longer he’s out, the more dangerous it becomes for our citizens,” Leo said with worry.

“Indeed. We must find him as fast as possible.”

The Eternal Knights passed the time to play tag with the three girls, while Wagensroll and Patch went with Leo to the library to read.

The green pony was reading a book about tanks, while Patch was reading about British history. “Ah...I get the distinct impression you're not here to renew.” Patch commented as he looked up.

“Still haven't gotten your fill of the witty one-liners in the face of danger, huh?” The Farman colt countered.

I'm a Trottingham pony. That's kind of what we do.” Patch replied, kinda feeling if they were watched.

“Are you hungry? I know a good bakery just down the street.” Leo asked and they nodded.

The Trottingham pony mumbled in thought, “If the Harmonious Guard helped to arrest him, it’s highly likely that he wants revenge.”

“Yes, but not to worry, Patch, I’m sure they find and arrest him soon.” Wagensroll smiled, trusting Günther.

“Me too, we have a very well organized recon and secret service team, led by Lilly and Karl, they will have found him in no time,” Leo added as suddenly, something hard hit his head and he blacked out.

“Come with us.” A new voice ordered cold and the two colts turned around, seeing several men with similar appearances as Dietrich, one of them aiming a pistol at them.

They both knew they couldn’t run or call out for help, the librarian was nowhere to be seen. “'After you then.” Patch said without fear before they got led way.

“I told you we should have used the internet,” Wagensroll commented at their situation.

“You try typing with hooves!” Patch countered before both got put sacks over their heads.

Jens just brought the foals some pretzels from the bakery as out of nowhere, James stopped with his car in front of his house, looking surprised.

Something told the man and Knights that his visit wasn’t a good sign, given the worried expression.

It made them wonder what the reason for his visit was, yet hoped it wasn’t anything too worse.

Commander?” Meier saluted.

“At ease. We got a situation. Dietrich’s men kidnapped Wagensroll and Patch!”

“What?” Jens asked in shock.

“I don’t lie, I just got a call from Leo, somebody knocked him out as he was on his way home with them.”

Fletcher, upon hearing this exclaimed in anger, “Mess with my family, you mess with me!”

Wolf hissed. “Which body part would cause the most pain if severed?”

Midnight just bared his fangs slightly, trying to get up with a plan to save the two ponies and make the kidnappers pay.

“Come with me, we already found out where they are held,” Jessie said and they got to the local base.

“Okay, our scouts have found them in an abandoned court in the woods, far from the city.”

“Then what are we waiting for?” Fletcher asked, eager to go.

“Hold up. We can’t endanger their lives, plus without your signature weapons and in this state, you won’t be able to do much.” James pointed out.

The unicorn gave a defeated sigh. “I guess you have a point, but I can’t leave him!”

“I know, Fletcher, but not to worry. My specialists will take care of that.” To Günther’s words, Karl, Stella, Klaus and Hans stood next to him.

“They will pay for that, I assure you, Fletcher.” The man with Gas mask promised him.

“But you still could assist us. As Scouts.” Gottlieb suggested, earning nods as reply.

“Good idea.” Midnight liked it.

“I’d love to come with you, but I have to ensure everything is covered,” James told them with regrets.

The foals got equipped with helmets and lightweight vests, they didn’t mind it, happy to have some protection as they got into a truck with the others, Jens and Leo were also in the team, the latter having his head lowered with a guilty expression.

“I’m sorry, I should have prevented this from happening.”

“Don’t blame yourself, Leo, they took you by surprise,” Fray replied, not blaming him for this.

The truck arrived at a hill overlooking the court, several guards were patrolling around.

“We got several guards outside, we need to take them out first, before storming the house. Klaus, you stay here with Fletcher and give sniper support. Midnight, you go with me, Wolf with Stella.” Karl ordered, they all nodded in response.

“And I’ll get my soldiers for the aftermath. Jens and Leo, you spot targets for them.” Hans suggested and left.

“Oh, almost forgot.” The woman whistled and a short, quiet bark entered the foals’ ears, seeing a grey wolf with yellow eyes. “Let’s do this, Dexter.”

The dog barked in response before going down with his owner and the filly, Karl and Midnight.

As Fletcher looked at Günther, he took notice that his rifle had no scope and that he switched it for a bow. “Aren’t you a sniper?”

“When it comes to stealth, I prefer a bow. Here.” The man gave him also a bow.

“Thanks.”

“Two guards up ahead,” Jens reported as he looked through his binoculars, seeing two guards chattering.

The two archers gave each other a nod, firing at the same time, the neo-Nazis stumbled from the hits before falling over. “Good shot!” Klaus complimented the colt.

“You too.”

On the ground, Midnight and Gottlieb sneaked behind two guards having their back to them, the officer made a sign for the bat pony to take the left guard out.

Midnight quickly charged at the German, knocking him to the ground and stabbed him into the heart with a blade, Klaus charged with his STG-44 at the other, ramming the bayonet onto the other neo-Nazi’s chest, the German grabbed it in shock before dying, as blood spluttered from the wound.

“Hey!” A third guard called out, coming from the side, the officer quickly drew a silenced Luger and shot the hostile in the head, falling dead to the ground in a puddle of blood.

Wolf and Stella saw four guards in front of them, not being noticed as the guards split up.

The woman whistled and pointed to the guard on the far left, Wolf nodded in response, preparing to slice him with a knife as Dexter ran up to him.

“Hey!” The man yelled as the wolf grabbed his gun and ran away, flinching before falling to the ground as the filly had sliced his throat in a flash.

The woman then pointed at two guards chatting and whistled again, throwing a knife into the sky.

“What’s that in the sky?” One of the guards asked before the knife landed between his eyes, causing to other to startle.

“What the?” He wondered, not able to react as the dog tackled him to the ground. “Anyone! Help!” The neo-Nazi yelled, struggling in vain as the wolf went for his throat.

“Damn it!” The last remaining guard yelled in frustration, grabbing his radio to sound the alarm.

He briefly looked up as he saw something in the sky, but it was too late.

The Pegasus dived on him, tackling him to the ground and stabbed him to the throat, killing him.

Dexter walked up to his owner, licking her face. “Good dog.”

Then he did the same with Wolf, already liking her. She chuckled. “I like you too, Dexter.”

“All guards eliminated, good. Now, let’s take care of Arnold.” Gottlieb sounded satisfied on the radio as they regrouped.

Patch and Wagensroll couldn’t tell how long the ride had been as the sacks were removed, gasping for air, looking around.

They found themselves in a dilapidated court, restrained on chairs. “Well, look what we have here.” A male voice said cold and they saw a man coming out of the shadow, looking identical to the one on the police photo. But they noticed that the Letter sequence nsdap was written on his jacket and several tattoos on his arms.

His right arm had the numbers 88 and 18, his left arm had letter sequences, saying JOG and ZOG. Most noticeable was that he was wearing an iron cross on his chest with the swastika on it.

“I'll only give you my name, mobile number, a few bars of 'Jerusalem' and my Robotnik impression.” Patch said emotionless.

“Ah, yes, the Geneva Conventions, but they won’t help you here. Now, tell me something useful.” The neo-Nazi’s voice was cold.

“Okay, how's this...I'll answer your questions if you answer mine. It's very easy.”

Dietrich raised an eyebrow. “...what is it then?”

“How do you make a Nazi Cross?”

“What?” The man looked at Wagensroll in confusion.

“I don't know, how do you make a Nazi Cross?” He asked his friend who grinned.

“You kick him in the bollocks!” Patch then kicked Dietrich into the groin with his free handlers.

The man fell to the ground with a cry of pain, holding his groin. After a few minutes, he managed to recover and stood up, grabbing a compact, retractable baton and hit the purple colt in the chest several times with an angry expression.

Patch cred in pain, yet managed to smile. “Ugh...worth it...”

“The kick?” His friend asked.

“No, the joke.”

“You have quite some humor, I give you that. But it won’t help you. It will be a pleasure for me to send those clowns from the Harmonious Guard a message they won’t forget.” Arnold said in a sadistic tone.

“I'd advise against this, sir. I mean, imagine the headlines! British citizen abducted from a German library and beaten to death by Neo-Nazis! The Daily Mail will have a field day!” Patch warned.

“Why? Why did you kill this young woman?!” Wagensroll demanded to know.

“Woman? Ah, yes, I remember. She was the one who got me into prison in the first place, ratting me out. She deserved it.”

A knock interrupted him. “Sorry to interrupt, but we got some guests.” Another neo-Nazi said as he led a woman and a girl in, both looked scared as their eyes were filled with fear, their hands tied up.

“Another good hunt. Those refuges ruin our country, day by day. I would love to get my revenge.” He drew a knife, walking close to the child who trembled in fear.

“Please…we didn’t do anything…” The mother pleaded.

“Lie!” Arnold yelled, “You pretend you need help as you were forced to leave your country, but in reality, you just want to use Germany’s hospitality as you see fit. If our corrupt government won’t do anything against it, I will.”

“Stop!” Wagensroll yelled, “Don’t you dare!”

Dietrich smirked. “Why? Maybe I should start with you, instead.” He held the knife close to the colt’s throat. “I will enjoy this, you little…

Tick, tack, tick, tack….

“What’s that sound?” He asked confused before an explosion occurred, knocking him and his comrade over, the hostages closed their eyes from the flash.

As Arnold’s vision and hearing cleared, he heard a voice saying, “Did you really think you could escape us for long?”

His eyes went wide in shock as he saw three mercenaries of the Harmonious Guard, the most elite of it, aiming their weapons at him.

Despite this, he managed to grab the green colt, using him as shield. “Stay back, or I’ll blast his brain out!”

“Do that, and you’ll regret it.” The woman replied colt.

“What you gonna do with our old guns? My P8 Combat is way better than yours! Made for Special Forces, featuring only a release lever to ensure fast shot readiness, Instead of the combined safety and release lever. Deadly in the right hands.” He taunted.

Bang!

Dietrich screamed in pain as the woman had shot his gun out of his hand.

Then a Wolf pinned him down, growling at him.

“Bigmouth. If you can hit your target, pretty much any gun will do the trick.” She countered as her comrades freed the hostages, with Klaus comforting the mother and child as he led them away.

“That won’t stop me!” He yelled, throwing the dog off him and threw a smoke bomb, also quickly grabbing his pistol and fired to suppress them, hearing a young cry of pain.

The man managed to get outside as suddenly, he felt great pain in his right leg and fell over, Grunting in pain, he noticed that an arrow was stuck in his leg.

Out of the smoke, a green unicorn colt walked up to him, his eyes filled with rage, grabbing him by the throat and punched him. “This is for Brigit!” Then a stronger punch. “And this is for Wagensroll!”

Two more mercenaries joined, also looking not very happy. “This is for hurting Patch!” One of them said with a British accent and kicked him.

The other one grabbed him by the collar. “You disgust me.” And spit him into the face, followed by a punch.

“We are finished here,” Gottlieb said and they all turned to leave, he carried Patch n his arms, Stela carried Wagensroll. The purple colt had difficulty breathing, his friend was bleeding from his left foreleg.

It left Dietrich wondering why they left him like this, before he spotted several more mercenaries moving in. But they looked different.

They all were wearing gas masks and had flamethrowers attacked to their STGs. They piled up the bodies, but two of them, one of them looking like a stallion with dark brown fur and with a grey mane, strangely having a counting frame on his flank, moved towards him.

The human knelled down to the Neo-Nazi. “Do you remember us?”

“Why should I?” Arnold countered.

“I thought you would remember whose lives you ruined, like the one of a well-known tax agent.” The stallion said and Dietrich’s eyes went wide as he recognized the voices.

“Y-you?!” He asked in shock.

“Yes. We should thank you, as you made us realize something: The country must be cleansed. To keep our citizens safe, we must burn away this mind-breaking disease that instills such sick ideals in others. Our light is a beacon of justice. One that brings sanctuary to the good and punishment to the evil. Like you.” The human explained as his flamethrower come to life with a hissing sound.

At this moment, the neo-Nazi saw that the others burned the piles of bodies before he was burned himself, screaming in pain.

The mercenaries took the mother and child to the hospital, they both smiled at them. “Thank you.” The woman said with a grateful smile, Dexter poked the girl playfully, giving a happy bark.

They then reported back to base, bringing the injured ponies to the infirmary. “Another successful mission, great work. Patch has suffered a few broken rips and Wagensroll a graze shot to the leg but they will be fine.” James reported to them.

“I’m relieved to hear this, James. Though, what was the point of killing everyone instead of capturing them?” Fletcher asked him.

The veteran sighed. “He had been a too great threat to be left alive. I’m law-abiding, but sometimes, you have to go against the law to do something good. The public can’t know, so Han’s unit, called the Preachers, or nicknamed by my confidants, the cleaners, make sure no evidence is left.

His unit consists of men and women, who have lost everything to neo-Nazis or any kind of criminal or terrorists, convinced that the only way to keep others safe, is to burn those threats.

In this line of work, sometimes you have to do things you're not prepared to do. So it helps to command someone who is.” He sighed. “If you think less of me for it...I understand. Just know that you have nothing to fear from me...or from him.”

“I…understand.”

The foals with their caretakers then walked over to the infirmary, seeing the three soldiers, together with Hans and one other soldier outside, chatting.

Midnight got a little curious. “If I may ask, why did you join this PMC?”

Karl spoke up first, “As you know, I had a relative fighting in the Franco-Prussian War as a high-ranking officer and my family took pride in that. As I tried to join the Bundeswehr to maintain that pride, I got harassed for my family’s past by right-wing extremists, one of them was my superior, never letting me become an officer, so I quitted. When James had the idea of the PMC, we all helped it to found it. Here, nobody treats you differently based on your country or color. It’s open-minded and he personally overviews recruits with us to make sure the bigots have no chance here. Here, its the skill that counts. Skill and dedication.”

“As for me, I grew up in an orphanage, never knowing my family. Most of the children had lost their families to such guys like Dietrich or war. I wanted to help prevent this from happening, but the Bundeswehr doesn’t allow women to be frontline soldiers, only to be medical personnel. With James, I made my dream come true.” Stella explained,

“And I’m with James as I saw it as family honor to serve with him.” Klaus said to the foals.

“Sounds like you have good reasons. Hans, I don’t want to wake bad memories, but are the rumors true?” Fletcher asked him, feeling a bit guilty about it.

“It’s okay and yes, it’s true, when I was still a child, Arnold burned my house down, as I had a Jewish relative fighting in the Great War. My parents died, I survived with much luck but it was James who saved me.

He was near it when it happened, and brought me out of the house, adopting me after this. He saved my life and I owe it to him.”

“And I, I was the stallion you saw earlier, call me Fritz. I used to be an accountant and tax agent, being well respected. I grew up in Munich before I moved to Volkach, as I got married, helping many residents and local businesses in town with the taxes, James included. I also was going to be a father.” He paused with a sigh.

“But, one day my house caught fire. My wife and I managed to get out but she died in the hospital from smoke inhalation. Along with our unborn child. But that wasn’t enough for Dietrich.

He made it look like I had killed my wife for money. I spent two and a half year in prison before a friend of mine proved my innocence. All because one of my relatives was a Jew. That was where Hans came to me and offered to join the Preachers. As I had lost my family and home, I took did, helping to prevent that others have the same fate as I had.”

“Makes sense.” Midnight replied in a neutral voice as the mercenaries walked away. “It may sound strange, but Gottlieb, Stella and Klaus kinda remind me of us. And as much as I hate to say it, Hans reminds me of somepony I knew in the Civil War. Somepony who really wasn't fond of us.” He shivered.

“Yeah, they do have similarities,” Wolf added before they walked in, seeing the two earth ponies on hospital beds.

“How are you doing?” The unicorn asked his relative, who smiled.

“Apart from my wound, good. I should be out soon, same goes for Patch.”

Before anyone could reply, happy barking sounded from behind, as Dexter ran in, happy to see the Pegasus filly. Wolf started to pet him. “Good boy! Who's a good boy? You're a good boy, yes you are, yes you are!” She kissed his nose, “I just wuv you...” then scowled at the colts. “What are you lookin' at?!”

“Nothing.” Midnight replied.

“Ah, there you are,” Fuchs said as she walked in. “I thought I make a present for all the trouble you had.” She stepped aside, revealing a strawberry cake on a plate. “I hope you like strawberry.”

The Farman colts grinned. “And how!” they both exclaimed in unison, taking a piece of it each and ate it happily, the others enjoyed it too.

“Apart from Apple pie, Strawberry cake was my favorite as child.” The unicorn commented with glee.

“Me too,” Wagensroll added.

The two earth ponies recovered within a few days, just in time as James had news for them.

“You remember when I said I may be able to help you?”

“Yes, why?” The bat pony asked.

“Well, it is ready,” James replied and reached for something in his pocket, revealing a small necklace that looked like the Elements of harmony.

“That’s a Heximal Pendant! Where did you get that?” Midnight asked in surprise, causing the commander to chuckle.

“You’ll see. Jens, Leo, would you go with us?”

The two men looked at each other and hesitated but said, “Yes, sir.”

“Good. Linda, you’re in charge with the others until I’m back.“ The woman saluted in response.

“Now, cover your eyes.” He said as he pressed a button and the neckless started to glow in a white light.

As the two friends were uncovering their eyes, they stared in shock, unable to believe what they saw.

They were on a Meadow and a castle carved into the side of the mountain was visible in the distance.

Both men were unable to speak, trying to process this before a cry of pain tore them out.

Somehow, Midnight and Fletcher had landed on Wolf, unintentionally pinning her down. “You have strong bones, you know that?” The filly asked.

“Sorry.” The colts said as they got off her.

“Is this…Equestria?” Leo asked in disbelief.

“Yes, it is. Come, we have somepony to meet.” James said as he walked ahead, the others followed him.

The short walk led them towards what the mercenaries assumed was Ponyville, seeing a purple Alicorn looking at the officer with a smile. “Welcome back, James!” She hugged him, he returned it.

“Likewise, Twily. May I introduce: Jens Meier and Leo Wood, two of my men, they found our guests.”

The mare stretched her hoof out. “Pleasure to meet you, I’m Princess Twilight Sparkle but you don’t have to address me with my title.”

Both humans couldn’t believe to see the princess of friendship in front of them, yet did a respectful bow. “It is an honor to meet you,” Jens said, being a bit nervous.

“So it is for me,” Twilight replied and turned to the foals. “You are the ponies he told me about, Midnight, Wolf, Fletcher, Wagensroll and Patch, right?”

“Uhh, yes, Twilight.” Midnight bowed with the others out of habit, feeling awkward as he knew that was a different Equestria.

“Well then, follow me, Princess Celestia and Luna would like to meet you.”

They all followed to the throne room of Canterlot, the princesses smiled upon seeing them. “Welcome. I was looking forward to meeting you all after James told me about you. It is true?” The princess of the moon asked friendly.

Taking a deep breath, the bat pony replied, “Yes.” He then told with his friends what had happened in their universe

We are sorry to hear that. We will do everything we can to get you back to your Equestria and to reverse the side effect of the spell.” Celestia said with sympathy.

“Thank you, your highness.” The foals spoke in unison, being grateful.

“Until then, we hope you enjoy your stay,” Luna added as they walked out.

“So, how did you get that Heximal Pendant?” Wolf asked with curiosity.

“It’s a long story.” Jessie led them to a table and sat down. “As you know, I lost my family in the war. I went into deep depression for 15 years. But in summer 1960, this changed.” He smiled. “That was when I met Twilight Sparkle.”

“You…meet her?” Patch asked confused.

“Yes. She was still a filly back then, I found her during a walk in an alleyway. Taking care of her, helping me to get over my depression and also earned the gratitude of her family and Celestia. As years passed here, foals in Ponyville, like Dinky, Ruby, Tootsie and Noi had similar accidents as her, with their human caretakers staying in Equestria. This reminded Twilight of me, starting to miss me. So, Celestia and Luna gave me this Heximal Pendant so I can visit Twily regularly. It’s specially modified.

Normally, if a human travels to Equestria, time on earth passes a quarter of a length as long in their absence. But this one allows me to come back around the same time I left or with only a few minutes passed on Earth, in case there’s an emergency.”

The ponies and mercenaries were speechless for what seemed like hours, before Jens broke it. “Sir…I’m honored to be with you today. Your actions back then honor you.”

“I’m too,” Leo added with pride in his voice.

“Thank you, soldiers. And we actually met before, Fletcher.”

“You did?” Fray asked in confusion but had a different question. “If I may ask, what did the foals experience?” The unicorn wanted to know.

“If you like, we can show you, but it won’t be pretty,” Twilight warned as she cast a memory spell. Engulfing everyone in a white light, showing the experience of the foals in their stays on Earth, the five ponies watched in shock at the experiences of Dinky, Tootsie, Noi and Scootaloo.

“Can…can we have some time for ourselves to process this all?” Wolf asked after it was over, breathing heavily.

“Sure, take as long as you need.” The mare replied and left with the humans.

Fletcher took a deep breath. “Dear Luna…words cannot express how glad I am that I got Dinky home in time in Africa, and that she did not suffer a fate like her counterpart, or got burned like Tootsie or suffered PTSD like Noi.”

The grey colt wrapped an arm around him. “Thanks to your quick actions, it never came that far, Fletch, you can be proud of that. And frankly, if Luna and Celestia had suffered the same accident as Twilight, I think I and Gusty had also been grateful to James and respected him.”

“I’m frankly surprised that…Balthazar changed and accepted his mistakes, I mean he never looked like he could change.”

“Well, that would not be impossible,” Patch added.

The next days, they all got introduced to the humans and the foals, although the Knights, Patch and Wagensroll knew the latter all from their universe.

It was strange for the two bronies but they were happily welcomed and frankly, they kinda enjoyed it.

The two humans and the foals rested with James at Twilight’s castle during the night, but the Eternal Knights couldn’t sleep.

They wondered if Luna’s banishment had also triggered a civil war here or if they did exist in this universe.

“We should stop thinking about this. I mean, if it did, we probably already had met…ourselves here.” Fletcher whispered.

“Yeah…”Wolf mumbled before falling asleep.

In the morning, they breakfasted together, enjoyed it as Wolf asked her friends, “Can you believe humans living in Equestria? I mean, they are supposed to be only a myth.”

“It fascinating though. And interesting how they get along, despite being from different timelines and cultures.” Patch replied as he ate his toast with a cup of tea.

“Yes, it’s quite interesting,” Wagensroll added.

“I, in particular, find it interesting that they have an Imperial Star Destroyer with its entire fighter and ground troops complement at their disposal for defense. That’s a lot of firepower. Imagine if we had this, we could stop any invader with this.” Midnight pointed out, sounding very fascinated about this.

“Twilight! Message from Princess Celestia!” Spike yelled as he ran in with a scroll in his hand.

“Thank you, Spike.” She took it and read it, grinning.

“Good news! Celestia has found a way to bring you back, we shall get to Canterlot as soon as possible.”

“Okay then, let’s go,” James said, confident that Celestia could help them.

As the group arrived at the castle, Celestia smiled. “Hello. Luna picked up a faint magical aura, she believes is it from her counterpart of your home.

“That’s good to hear.” Midnight smiled.

“Twilight, could you help me and my sister to increase it? That way, we may be able to open a portal to them or at the very least, some way of communicating with the other versions of us.” The white Alicorn asked.

“Sure thing.”

The 3 Alicorns lit up their horns and a bright light blinded everyone, then a humming sound greeted their ears. “Did it work?” Twilight’s voice asked. “I can't tell.”

“What?!” a perfect copy of Twilight's voice said. "That wasn't me! Who's there? Show yourself!”

As the light faded, the group gasped in shock. Before them was a room of Canterlot with the three princesses, the other princes of the moon looked very relieved at Midnight. “Midnight? This that really you?”

“Yes, Luna. As you can see…we are in an alternate Equestria.” He explained a bit embarrassed.

“Then, let me try something.” The purple Alicorn from his universe said as she cast a spell with the others, reinforcing the portal. “Now you should be able to cross it.”

The bat pony slowly stretched his hoof out, hoping it wouldn’t be cut off as it came closer to the portal.

It summed stronger as he touched it, slowly moving it to the other side. Then the rest of his body moved through without incident.

Relived he didn’t die, he made a sign for the other to get through, which they did.

It was a bit awkward for all of them to be with two princesses/ their counterparts, but Luna managed to ask, “So, Midnight, would you be so kind and tell me what happened?”

“It’s a long story.” He replied and told with the others how they found themselves on Earth, how Jens. Leo and James found them and how the Equestria they came from was different.

Luna smiled with pride at the humans. “For taking care of my loyal knights, I’m eternally grateful.”

“We did only our duty, your highness, what was right to do,” James replied.

“May I ask if anypony knows why we were turned into foals?” Wolf asked, causing Twilight to chuckle nervously.

“Well…Turns out, the spell went wrong as somepony had messed with it so it would kill you or mutate you into mindless abominations that would turn on us. Fortunately, we managed to reverse it with the elements, turning you into foals was a side effect. So you see, it could have been a lot worse.”

The foals stared in shock as Midnight exclaimed, “What...worse than standing barely a meter?!”

“Hey, after all, better than being turned into babies.” Fletcher pointed out.

“I guess you have a point. You can turn us back, right?”

“Of course,” Celestia replied and looked at the humans. “You’re welcome to stay until it’s done.”

“It would be a pleasure.” Jens felt honored, Leo nodded with James.

“By the way, how are Dinky and her friends doing?” Fletcher asked the princesses.

“They are on a school trip but we will let them know once they return. Also, three deer of Wolfsong are with them. They are exchange students, we thought it might help to show Equestria’s good relationship with the deer tribes.” Celestia explained.

The sisters lit up their horns and engulfed the foals in a white light, causing the others to shield their eyes until it faded, hearing Midnight’s voice, “I think it’s working.” But it was still too bright to tell.

The light slowly got weaker and the men were able to faintly see silhouettes, looking like adult ponies.

“Ugh…I feel like after a surgery with a too strong anesthesia…” Wolf’s voice sounded weak.

As the light finally was gone, they all saw five fully grown ponies lying on the ground, looking very exhausted, trying to catch their breaths, Patch’s dark blue cloak was apparently also changed back to his normal size.

Wagensroll tried to get up, his hooves were shaking as he struggled and collapsed again.

“A side effect of the spell, but you should recover soon.” The white mare helped Fletcher in a bed, her sister helped Midnight, Twilight helped Wolf, while Patch and Wagensroll were assisted by Leo and James to the beds.

Then, Jens noticed something. “Fletcher, you told me and you and Wagensroll are relatives, which kind of relatives are you?”

That question caught both Farmans by surprise. “Umm…Uncle and nephew.” Fletcher quickly replied, as explaining that he was ageless would make it be too difficult to understand his relationship with Wagensroll.

They chatted with the mercenaries for some time until a voice yelled happy, “Patchy! You’re okay!” The humans saw two Earth ponies entering the room, hugging Patch. They assumed that were his parents.

“My little Wagensroll! I was so worried about you!” Another mare came in, hugging him with tears of joy.

And that must be Wagensroll’s parents. Jens and Leo thought.

“Nancy must have been worried sick for you. The way she enjoyed the dance with you at the gala, she really likes you.” Patch’s mother commented.

“And that Deer, Dawnwind, she really suits to you.” The Farman mare told her son.

“Mom!” Both stallions exclaimed in embarrassment, blushing, Fletcher and Wolf had their heads lowered in embarrassment.

“Now I have to think back when your parents thought…” He whispered.

“DON’T remind me of that.” She whispered back.

The sound of someone clearing his throat interrupted them, seeing several deer standing at the door, one male and female wearing crowns, and another female was wearing a cloak, having her head lowered, growling slightly.

“We will never speak of this again.” The male deer said in a strict tone and the parents nodded in response with embarrassment expressions.

“White Wolf, I can’t say how happy I am to see you’re okay.” Her mother gave her a hug, followed by her entire family.

“I missed you, too. But without them, I wouldn’t be here, right now.” The Pegasus pointed to the humans.

Her father smiled. “You must be the humans Princess Luna and Celestia told me about. I’m Runningwind, the Chieftain of the Wolfsong tribe. This is my wife Fallingleaf and our children Sharphorn, Wintermist and Lightfoot. And Wolf’s Aunt, Dawnwind.” He pointed to her, she had her head still lowered, giving just a wave.

“In the name of the Wolfsong tribe, you have my thanks for helping my precious daughter.”

The mercenaries bowered respectfully in response. “We are honored, your highness,” James said and turned to his men. “Time to go.”

“Yes, sir. It was an honor, we enjoyed our time with you.” Jens said to the five ponies.

“So did we.” The grey stallion replied with a smile.

The humans then moved to the portal, feeling half sad, half happy that the Eternal Knights, Patch and Wagensroll are finally back home.

A loud smashing sound echoed through the room, like somebody had violently opened a door, making them stop and turning around.

“Your Highness!” A Royal Guard ran in, completely out of breath. “News about Cheerilee’s class…” He tried to catch his breath.

“What is it?” Luna asked.

“They went…”

“Went what?”

The guard coughed and cleared his throat.

“Missing.”

Author's Note

Raptormon132, I hope you like the cameo of your OC