Chapters Applejack stared at the large metal machine, still confused as to what it is. Applebloom crawled around on top of the large metal husk, rubbing rust off what Applejack was sure the body.
"Applebloom, get off of it and go get the girls," Applejack demanded of her sister. Applebloom whined to herself but left quickly, eager to get back. AJ was drawn to the only coloring on the tank, nine letters painted in a peeling white paint. 'CHURCHILL'.
"What the hell is a Churchill?" AJ asked softly to herself, her tone a mix of wonder, curiosity and nervousness. It was about 6 of her long and 2 and half of her wide, and it doubled her in height. "What even are you?"
AJ grabbed some anti-rust, used mostly for farm equipment left handled poorly, and slowly started chipping away areas around the name. The color of the metal obelisk was originally black or similarly dark in color. She grabbed some white paint and carefully started tracing back over the letter previously there.
"There, looking better all ready," AJ had no clue what to do with this thing, but to let it sit and rust worse than it was definitely wasn't on her list.
"Whoa, what is this thing?!" AJ looked up at RD, invested into the large metal monolith. Following her in was Twilight, Pinkie and Rarity. Fluttershy apparently absent. "Where did you find this AJ?"
"On my farm, down at the new annex of farm land," AJ told her, although she was sure that was all she'd be able to tell her. "Twilight, you know anything about this?"
"No, I've never seen anything so massive, it's nearly the size of your barn," Twilight started circling the curiosity, joining RD in interest.
"It's rather dull, don't you think, so much rust," Rarity kept her distance. Pinkie's eyes glued to the tank, not in interest, but fear. Her eyes almost glazed.
"Uhh, Pinkie, you alright?" Pinkie shook her head and giggled softly. Something about Pinkie put AJ off, but she decided not to press the situation.
"AJ, there's a hatch on top," Twilight told AJ, staring down into the hatch. AJ climbed up with Twilight, and slowly opened the hatch. Inside was a sarcophagous of machinery, electronics, and a single diary, slightly yellowed. "Oh my, it has an interior."
"Um, I'll go down first, I guess," AJ nervously crawled inside, the interior big enough to fit nearly ten ponies in the correct placement. She crawled to the side and popped open another hatch, peeking her head out. "It's spacious."
"Multiple enterances?" Twilight asked herself, jotting down several notes. AJ crawled back inside, looking around at the large interior, cranks and handles surrounded the walls, dials and knobs on another, one seat fashioned in front of the long barrel. A cage had a plaque below it, reading, "Jandy, the best bird of WW2". AJ grabbed the notebook from inside and slowly climbed back out.
"It's massive in there, and I havn't seen anything like what's in there," AJ told her friends. She raised the notebook and sighed softly. "This was the only thing I found, except for a large bird cage talking about something called W W two?"
"Maybe a location from this thing's time?" Twilight asked AJ.
"I don't know, but since you're all here, how about some food, it's late enough as it is," the girls accepted the offer and followed AJ inside after she locked up the barn. The rusted heap of metal sitting alone again in the dark, yet able to breathe. "It's the end of the harvest season, so we have the left over apples that we didn't sell, Granny Smith is either making apple cobbler or apple pie... again."
Dinner was served quickly once AJ made her way into the kitchen, salads, parfaits, and spaghetti where placed on the table, the steam rising slowly from the warm food. Each pony grabbed a serving of the delicious food, the warmth not to hot yet not to cold. The spaghetti was nearly gone by the time Applejack sat down, the evidence of the culprit written across Pinkie's face, as she wiped her muzzle clean of tomato sauce and herbs. Applejack grabbed the rest of the spaghetti, critiquing herself of it as she ate. Everypony left at their own times, Pinkie left first, which was unlike her, again, making AJ feel weird. Twilight followed soon after, with Rarity in tow, and finally RD left, but not before asking to help with the metal monster in the barn. AJ shooed her off with a maybe, causing Rainbow to whine but left quickly out of a window. AJ was tasked with cleaning up after her friends and family, as Granny Smith and Applebloom where already asleep and Big Mac was on a trip to Starlight's old village.
Applejack wiped her brow with her forearm as she finished all of her chores, the sun having been down already for an hour or so. She smiled before walking back out to the barn to grab one item. The notebook she found, she wanted to look into it, to see what this thing is. She climbed inside the metal behemoth and grabbed the yellowed noteboook, careful not to destroy any of the pages or bend it and brake it. She looked at the seat and took a catious step on it, and nearly melted at how soft it was, but was stopped as she shrieked loudly, a screw stabbing into her underhoof.
"Fucking...," she saved her breath as she quickly climbed out of the box before it became her coffin. She put the notebook in a small hankerchief to keep it out of her mouth, in fear of damaging it or biting threw, or catching some disgusting disease. She repeated the same process she did about two hours ago, but this time instead of heading to the kitchen she head upstairs, entering her room. She placed the notebook on her bedside table, but before she retired herself to a night of reading and very little sleeping. Walking to the bathroom, keeping pressure off her pained hoof as she removed her Stetson and unbraiding her hair, letting her hair fall down her head and neck. She smiled at herself in the mirror, her green eyes shining cutely. Turning on the shower, she tested the water once, moaning happily as the warm water hit her sore leg. She slowly stepped into the shower, and felt the warm water run through her mane, and down her face, and down her neck. The sharp piercing of the water hitting her back and flank as it ran down her legs and into the drain. She stood there, feeling the water massage her sore body, the knots in her back similar to obsidian, sharp and hard as it digs into her nerves. She wobbled as she nearly collapsed, her eyes heavier than the moon itself. The water shut off and so did Applejack massage, she stepped out and dried herself off, grease and rust staining the shower basin.
Applejack searched through the family medicine cabinet, finding some bandages to wrap her pained hoof in and some alcohol wipes. She sat with her back and opened the small packaging of the wipes, the intoxicating smell nearly overcoming her. She quickly wiped the deep hole in her foot, the pain imense but barely noticable. She quickly wrapped the hole, blood flowing slowly, from the shallow yet wide hole. She sighed and stood up, keeping weight off her hoof, while she put the bandages away. She through the wipes away, and yawned softly, signing time for her to go to bed. She closed the door to her room and locked the door, before climbing into her bed and pulled her warmed covers over her. She grabbed the notebook and carefully opened to the first page, the handwriting was neat, yet it wasn't perfect. Her eyes threatened to betray her as she began reading.
Day 1
It's my first day inside Jalra, the big beautiful thing she is. Our driver, Jacob, is displeased that he must work beside a Scotts man, and I'm not to pleased to be working with a bunch of English men, but I'm willing to work side by side if it means I get to ride in Jalra. I can't wait till we are on the front lines, I just hope the Danish and Swedish don't get cold feet. Fucking Germans are going to fall, to the hand of Jarla.
The book laid closed by Applejack's side as her body shuts her down, her snores soft as she curled up to the book.
Applejack's day began much differently than usual, instead of the smell of breakfast to wake her up, she woke up to the old smell of paper. She opened her eyes slowly, finding the notebook next to her nose, the papers smell burning her throat. She slowly sat up and stretched, her back popping several times as she got ready to start her morning chores. Her hoof was still sore, but she was able to walk on it now, without having to bite a hole through her lip. Her bed creaked as she got off of it, the sheets still in some order. She grabbed the notebook and slid it into her bedside table, where she would remember it. Donning her Stetson from the bathroom, she hid her mane inside her hat, and walked downstairs, in the early light of morning. She made her way outside and towards the barn, ready for a long day of scrubbing rust and uncovering, whom she presumes, is Jarla, although it says Churchill on the side.
She opened the latch to the barn, and let the large barn door swing open, as early morning rays struck the machine. The light bounced off patches off rust, like a dull sword bouncing off a shield. She stood in the doorway as she started to feel a bit intimadated at the project before her. She approached the machine and decided to gut the interior, maybe find another journal or something to tell her what this thing is. She climbed on and into the machine and started removing objects that weren't nailed down or stuck to the actual metal. The birdcage was moved first, itself covered in rust. She could probably give it to Fluttershy, or just sell it, the cage was large enough to house a small Phoenix. She moved towards what she would guess would be front, as she saw levers, gauges and a seat that resembled more of a bed. She pulled on levers and panels, but nothing budged, so she moved towards where the big barrel ejected out of, able to stand on her back legs and still have room, she spotted what could be a window, but has long since been filled with dirt. She looked around and spotted a small circulur cut out in the metal and reached up to it, finding it stuck, but moveable.
Crawling to the rear of the machine, she found several more circulur holes, trying both of them. One heldfast, and rust fell into the interior, but the other dropped, revealing what looked like mounted googles. Putting herself up the goggles, she looked through and realised they were a telescope. She backed away and stepped on a soft blanket. Looking down she saw that a blanket was covering a part of the floor. She slowly reached down and pulled the blanket away, and felt her breath catch in her throat as she stared back at what was covered. Underneath the blanket was a yellowed and beaten skeleton. She coughed as she fought the urge vomit, as she kept her eyes locked to the skeleton. It was unlike anything she had ever seen before, it was much taller than AJ. She placed the blanket over the skeleton and kept away from it, as she hastily checked over the rest of the interior, spotting two small boxes. She grabbed the two and got out of the machine, her mood severily dimished as she closed the hatch to the coffin.
She placed the small boxes on the table and took a step outside, the sun now in the sky as it's rays shined down on the sad Earth pony. She took slow and deep breathes as she tried to rationally think about this, but her mind was screaming to breakdown. She fought the urge to follow her brain and slowly took steps back into the barn. She walked over to the small boxes and prepared to open them. She opened one and found several pictures and postcards, though the postcards where of places she never heard of.
"Manhattan? New York City? London and Berlin?" On the first few postcards she thought they may have just been typos or misprints, but when she got to where ever London and Berlin where her thoughts flopped. Looking through the pictures she saw pictures of several creatures. Applejack looked through them all and most where just group photos, but some where pictures of four creatures sitting on a big metal machine, the same one sitting in Applejacks barn. On the back of some of the photos there where captions, some where mundane, like "Donna's 15th birthday" or "My biggest fish" but the ones of the group of, what Applejack presumed, male creatures sitting on the machine, read "The crew of the best damned tank in Europe" or "Jarla just got us to the Eiffle Tower". Tank? Eiffle Tower? Applejack's head was running faster than Pinkie's mouth on a sugar high as she tried to figure things out. "Tank? Are you a tank, whatever that is?"
The machine was silent as it rested happily. Applejack put all of the pictures and postcards back and opened the second and saw three cylindrical objects, and an indentation of an object ment to fit in with the three other objects. A note was taped to the top of the lid that had a short message, "If they catch you, this is a better way out."
AJ sighed softly and closed both boxes, setting them next to the bird cage, before returning to the machine. Grabbing some rust remover and a bristle sponge she set to work. She started with the top and scrubbed and watched as metal slowly became rust free, she opened a hatch and scrubbed both sides of it, doing the same with the other hatch. She started humming in her head and lost track of time as she cleaned the machine. Several spots of the body where split or broken, nearly falling off. Some where dented and bent, but still attached. When she pulled away from the machine she saw the dark green metal shining through. The metal was still dirty, but she could have Applebloom clean the body. She looked at the sky and saw the sun was past center sky. She smiled and grabbed the two boxes and quickly ran upstairs to her room, grabbing the notebook. She left the farm quickly, making her way to Twilight's castle. Applejack would prefer to have just her trying to figure out what this is.
"So, you wanted my opinion on the notebook and pictures you found in that machine?" Twilight asked as the two entered Twilight's library. Applejack nodded and set the notebook carefully down on a table, inbetween the two small boxes. Twilight opened the box on the left and picked up the many postcards and pictures. She stared at one picture, the caption reading 'Eiffel Tower' but the picture had no tower, just the same machine in Applejack's barn and four creatures that resembled minatuars in front of burning pile of twisted steel and rubble. She scoffed softly as Applejack picked up the notebook and found a comfy chair to sit in to read through the ancient book. "Well, these aren't any creatures I've ever seen before, I'll see if I can find something on this Eiffel Tower or this Arc De Triumph, maybe somepony elsewhere has found something on these... places?"
"Okay, but I'm gonna read this journal," Applejack told her, not really paying much attention as she skimmed through the first page again. She smiled when she found where she left and quickly began reading the small print on the page.
April 9th, 1940
I suppose I'll write the date so I know when I wrote this or if I become a national hero, I can release a good book. Denmark is gone, they fell before we could land, Sweden is being pushed back hard, the Nazi war machine is great, but not perfect. Our landing has been changed to southern Portugal, and we are to push back against Spanish forces, still weak from their civil war. Sitting inside a tank that's sitting on a ship doesn't make many feel good in the stomach, and definitly isn't making Jandy calm.
July 23rd, 1940
Portugal is falling, and we are still weeks off from landing. Gibraltar has fallen to the Spanish, being backed by Italy and Germany, the turned their attention to Portugal when they realised Portugal, Sweden and Switzerland are helping aid the Allies. Switzerland is holding out well, the Alps keeping German panzers from advancing. Europe is falling to the nazi's and I'm stuck on a fucking English boat.
"Twi, do you think you know anything on a place called 'Germany'?" Applejack asked as she flipped her page. Twilight looked down on her from the upper level of the library.
"Why?"
"Well, whatever this Germany is seems to be a centralized theme in this journal, constantly talking about it is constantly invading things," Applejack told her, scratching her head. "It seemed these creatures where at war with this Germany."
"War? Um, okay, I'll see if I can find anything about this Germany," Twilight answered as she disappeared again.
August 2nd 1940
Portugal surrendered, followed quickly by the Swedish, capitulation and Italian forces invadian the south of Switzerland and taking Albania. Japan finished their war with broken China, the invading Japanese causing China to erupt into civil war. Japan turned their sights to America. The red's invaded the Fins, and demanded the baltic states and Romania. Our commander is sick, his coughing is getting worse, to the point of couphing up blood. I hope I dosen't catch his death.
"I FOUND SOMETHING!" Twilight exlaimed happily as she jumped from the upper to lower level, landing softly with a flap of her wings. In her magical grasp was a newspaper. "Another pony found a machine similar to your's, Applejack!"
"What, really?"
"Yeah, look!" Applejack grabbed the newspaper and read where Twi was pointing. Under the latest news, it said a pony in Manehattan found a machine that he's now using as a way to bring in customers. "Well, you wanna go on a trip to Manehattan?"
"I'll go," Twilight smiled and quickly ran out of the library. Applejack sat confused as she slowly got up, grabbing her items and returning to her home to pack for a long trip to the big city.
Applejack and Twilight quickly boarded the train and waved goodbye to their friends.
"Why can't I go with you guys!" Rainbow whined as she begged them to take her.
"Because, we're going their to see if this stallion knows anything about his machine, and we're coming right on home," Twilight told Rainbow as she shooed her off with a flap of her wing. Applejack chuckled softly as she found a seat on the train, putting her saddlebag next to her. Twilight sat down across from Applejack as sighed. "I wish they could make these trips shorter, but I also don't as it gives me time to think and rest, which I don't get much in Ponyville."
"Agreed," the girls laughed softly as the got comfortable on the benchs. Before long Twilight was asleep, snoring loudly. She kept rolling around as she slept, her wings not giving her room to lay down. Applejack smirked and pulled out the notebook and flipped to where she had put a small bookmark.
August 30th, 1940
America's president is going to lead America into the ground if Willkie doesn't do something about the Great depression. Hell, just joining the war against the nazi's would be enough to pull them out of a rut. Italy has taken most of the Balkan states and is lining troupes up on the Turkish border, ready to invade. Germany attacked Norway, taking Oslo last week, and Japan was surprised when the soviet's declared war on Manchuko, but where quickly pushed back as Trotsky rose up in the Caucus region. We helped pushed the Spanish and German troops back from Gibraltar, but we're low on supplies and being pushed back slowly, unable to advance much further.
February 2nd, 1941
Happy Birthday, Donna, yesterday you were 16, today you're 17. I'm sorry I had to leave you in with our cousin's in London, but I'll come home soon, I promise. Our division, our what's left of it, has been posted in western Africa, to help slow the advancing Italian army. After their success in Turkey, then quickly carving a path through the middle east and Egypt, they connected up their African front, controlling all of the north east, and Germany pushing out from the Congo, Africa is bound to end up in Axis control.
Applejack yawned as she closed the notebook, the rocking of the train tiring her as the moon lit up the train car. She put the notebook back in her saddlebag and dozed off to sleep, putting her Stetson over her face.
Add another to the collection
Applejack and Twilight stood in the line to enter the impromptu museum, which was mostly just a mask for the stallion to sell his terrible wares. Applejack was giddy, a rare feeling for her, as she waited to see the new machine. Twilight stood next to her friend, waiting patiently as she read in the newspaper she brought along. Twilight looked up as she heard a grumpy yell from the front of the store.
"Everypony go home, the store is closed!" the stallion screamed out, shoving several ponies out as he closed the doors behind him. Ponies whined as the walked away upset, several cursing out the greedy salesman.
"Closed?" Applejack walked to the glass door and knocked softly, wanting to get the stallion's attention. He yelled for them to leave and continued to look at a stack of papers. Applejack knocked harder, ready to break the door down.
"What do you want!" the stallion turned around and stared at AJ. He grumbled softly as he opened the door. "What do you want, the store is closed."
"We're here to see the machine," Applejack told him, her voice still calm.
"Doesn't everypony."
"Sir, I found one too, I want to know-" Before Applejack could finish her sentence he slammed the door and walked away. Before Applejack could push the door in, the handle glowed purple as the door swung open. Applejack and Twilight walked in, the storekeeper none the wiser. "We have a machine of our own, and we have proof."
"Huh? How'd you get in here?" the stallion asked as he turned around.
"Magic," Twilight stated as she smiled happily.
"Fine, what do you two want," the stallion sighed as he gave up, taking a seat on a stool.
"Well, you have a machine, similar to ours," his laugh shook AJ to the core.
"Okay, good story, now really, what do you want," Twilight took the box full of pictures out of Applejack's saddlebag and handed it to the stallion. He slowly opened the box and looked at the pictures, before closing the box. "Alright, follow me."
Applejack and Twilight followed closely behind the stallion, as he opened up a large room built entirely out of concrete. He led them inside as he stood next to the door, letting AJ and Twilight get closer while keeping his own distance.
"I found it in my basement, and all this thing has done is bring me bad luck," the stallion told them as he stayed far away from the machine. The walls had news articles, written in a foreign language to what Applejack nor Twilight could read. Pictures depicted red flags with weird star patterns or black crosses overlaid with foreign writing. "I could never figure out what it said, but the pictures depict enough for me to want to know."
"All of these were found within the machine?" Applejack asked curiously as she scanned the walls and shelves, filled with newspapers and pictures.
"No, there was a box buried close by filled with a lot of the newspapers, but some came from with it," Applejack found one picture with a caption "Eiffelturm Zerstört" with a picture of a blown up park, with burning rubble and twisted steel centered in middle.
"Eiffelturm... wait, could that be the same as the one picture we found?" Applejack asked Twilight softly, as she turned around to see Twilight already digging through the box of pictures. She stood up again and held the back of the picture to the caption. "Eiffel Tower, Eiffelturm... what does Zerst... Zerst... what the hell is that 'o'?"
"Maybe a symbol in this language," Twilight put the picture back as she kept looking around. Applejack read the page, looking for other similar to sounding words, but unable to pick out any. She glanced up to the top of the newspaper, seeing the name "Arbeitertum" first, but the date secondly, 17.9.1942. "Applejack, look."
Applejack walked to her friend's side and stared at the picture, two creatures standing side by side, but this picture was in the same language as the journal. The newspapers name called it "The New York Times", the date reading 11/30/1943.
"Do you mind if we take one of these off the wall?" Applejack asked the stallion, who just nodded at the two. Applejack pulled the newspaper from the wall and read just the first page.
Today is a joyous day for the American peoples, as Wendell Wilkie, president of the United States, and Adolf Hitler, leader of Nazi Germany, met earlier today in an attempt to fight off the looming Marxist that loomed over the United States and Germany. President Wilkie said this in his address to the American people, "American's, today we are joining arms with the German's against the Soviet's for Communism is a greater evil that both of us can defeat, we hope to seek closer ties with the German's and Italian's."
At the bottom of the page was a picture of two flags, the same black cross like the earlier newspaper, but the new flag was stripped, with a square in the corner with a single cross with bent arms. Applejack put the newspaper back up on the wall and finally turned her attention to the machine sitting in the middle of the room.
"Do you know what this thing's name is?"
"Name, these have names, what are they?"
"Nevermind," Applejack clambered up onto the tall machine's body. It was quite a bit taller than hers, by a good margin, as well as being quite a bit wider, it was shorter from front to back. The hatch to the machine was heavy, likely from rust, as she crawled inside, seeing the insides entirely empty, no electronics, seats, or personal decorations. She frowned and crawled back out of the machine. The machine itself was useless, but the newspapers were useful, at least partly.
"Excuse me, you said this thing has been bad luck for you, how so?" Applejack asked softly, as she jumped from the top of the tank to the floor, regretting it as the landing sent vibrations up her legs, causing her hooves to hurt.
"Well, when this thing was in the main shop, I thought it would bring in more customer's, but it brought in less, tax collectors became harsher, and.." his face grew distant as he tried to hold back tears. "It took my wife from me."
"O-Oh, I'm so sorry," Twilight apologized to the poor stallion, as she landed next to Applejack. The stallion coughed as he tried to fake a smile.
"Thank you, but you said you had another like it, would you care to take this thing off of my hooves, please, at least just the paper, I can scrap the actual monster," the stallion told them. Applejack looked to Twilight who was tapping a thinking hoof to her chin.
"We'll take the newspapers, but how would we get it out of here?" Applejack asked softly.
"The back wall, I could tear it down and it gives direct access to the street, then you could have somepony drag it away," he told them. Applejack bit her lip softly, as she pondered if she actually wanted a second one of these machines, especially if she had nowhere to put it.
"Alright, I'll come back up here later this week with my brother, and the two of us will pull it back to Ponyville," Twilight dropped her hoof as she looked at AJ.
"AJ, the inside is barren, what are you gonna do with it?"
"I can figure out the inside comparative to the other one, and make new components to fit it, kinda like updating old farming tools, except there extremely heavy and make you wish they could still work."
"Alright, if you think it'll work," Twilight told her friend.
"You can take them for free, as long as they aren't anywhere near me, I'll be happy they're gone," the stallion told Applejack as she reached for her bits. Applejack looked back, but shook her head and gave the poor stallion around 30 bits, the same price as a small house. "I-I... thank you."
"Of course," Applejack turned to help Twilight pull all the newspapers off the wall and carefully set them into each of their saddlebags. The walls and counters empty, Twilight and Applejack were escorted back to the front entrance, where they were given a farewell and hug, as they both left and headed back for the train station.
Twilight rubbed her temples as she stared at the many notes she took on the language the newspapers were printed in. She finally managed to wrap her head around the wording, even if it was sloppy and she had to write down the wording to translate it, she got it to a point where she could understand what was written.
"Twi, do you need any help?" Spike asked her as he hopped up onto the large desk she was working on. Twilight sighed and let out a soft yawn. She had been at this for days now, waiting for AJ to return with the machine, which Twilight nearly knew for certain was the 'tank' that AJ's journal referenced to here and there. She closed the journal and stood from her desk. "A coffee? A Twilight needs to take a break brunch?"
"I'll take a coffee, Spike," Spike smiled and hopped off the table and ran towards the kitchen, flying when he made his way to the door. Her mane was sticky with warm office sweat and dirty from dust and airborne dirt, as she made her way to her room, more specifically her bathroom. Spike walked up to her, coffee steaming in its cup as it rested in his paws. The lifted from his hands and to her mouth, giving a cautious sip as she walked. "Thank you, Spike, I'm going to take a shower, and maybe a nap."
"Okay, Twilight," he ran off, doing whatever he does when he is dismissed. She continued her walk, before pushing two double doors and staring into her room, abandoned for days. She set her coffee down and quickly made her way to her bath. She grabbed a towel and locked the door to her bathroom, turning on the water. She quickly stepped in and scrubbed her mane and coat, watching the dirty water wash off her and down the drain. She turned the water off and slid the curtain aside as she wrapped her coat around her mane.
"Hey, Twilight, when you get done, I got a question," Twilight sighed as Starlight walked away from the door, the soft click of her bedroom doors closing. Twilight hurried up her drying and walked out to meet Starlight, seeing Pinkie and Starlight talking in the hall. Pinkie smiled and bounced away as Twilight approached Starlight. "What are you doing in your office? You've been in there for half a week now and I want to know what's so interesting that it requires you to miss your friend's friendship dinner with Celestia?"
"Applejack found this... machine, and a stallion found one as well, but the language on some of the documents found within are in a different language to ours, so I'm helping Applejack by translating them," Twilight yawned as she stretched her wings out. "You can go take a look if you want, but most of it's unreadable, I'd recommend going to Applejack's farm when she gets back and helping her with the machines."
"Alright... I just wanted to make sure Equestria wasn't ending," she hugged her still slightly damp friend and walked off, letting Twilight return to her room and fall asleep quickly, German wording flowing through her brain.
Applejack collapsed outside her family's farmhouse, her body swore as she pulled the harness off of her. Staring at the large brown machine. Applebloom rushed over with a smile on her face as she looked up at the bigger machine.
"Applebloom, go get the hose and soap, and clean this thing, I'ma go get some ice," Applebloom nodded as she ran off, Applejack slowly standing as she walked inside, her body burning after pulling the extremely heavy and awkward machine a few miles between Manehattan and Ponyville. She nearly broke the door to the farmhouse, as she shoved it open. Applebloom ran a hose from the side of the house to the machine, running back over and turning on the water as she started spraying the machine down, the dirt and dust coming off rather easily, as the actual body looked in nearly perfect condition. The paint was peeling here and there, but the dust brown still noticeable as she washed it. A single black cross sat on the side of the machine. "Wow, it's nearly in perfect condition, excluding the insides being barren, but wow, a new coat of paint and some polisher this thing will look beautiful, okay, Applebloom, that's enough, but you go ahead and play around on it, just don't break anything."
"Okay, sis,"
Applejack slowly made her way to Twilight's castle, with a limp in her step, as Applebloom tried to climb onto the machine. Ponies waved to Applejack, but let her continue on her way. As the sunset Applejack walked into Twilight's castle, walking up the many stairs to Twilight's personal office, where she told Applejack she would be residing for a while. Opened the door to the office, Twilight looked up from her work and smiled at the apple mare.
"Great, you're just in time, I have a way to read the newspapers, and sorted them into which would likely be the most important to read," she smiled happily, her wings flapping in ecstasy. "While the translation may not be perfect, it works, now, I'm going to finish my nap."
Instead of moving anywhere, Twilight collapsed into a beanbag chair, her soft snores filling the usually quiet office. Applejack approached the sleeping mare and shook her head, but turned her attention to the more important newspapers that sat in a small pile on Twilight's desk. Grabbing the stack and Twilight's notebook with a linear translation guide, AJ fell into a similar beanbag chair and grabbed the top newspaper. Some words had lines through them or words under them, as AJ continually looked at the newspapers and the journal she focused her attention and started reading.
Eiffel Tower Destroyed
Earlier today, our great leader gave permission to detonate several explosives attached to the base of the tower, and not soon after, the tower was collapsed, and in the center of it, the German flag was raised. Raising spirits and morale, what can't our leader do?
German-American Axis
Today, American's and Germans celebrate as brothers as the two leaders of the country agree to help each other, instead of impeding each other. Under a temporary alliance to crush the Soviet Union, American raised arms and launched a naval invasion of Vladivistock while Germany slowly advanced on the western border. With Japan pushing up with the American's, the Soviet's are weak.
Great German Nuclear Program!
After the fall of traitorous Poland, Germany's Uranprojekt continued research, and with help from Italian and American scientist's have invented a weapon that would make the British runaway packing, or as German scientist, Otto Hahn, the same scientist who discovered nuclear fusion, quoted, "It wouldn't give them time to run, as they disintegrated into a fine dust."
America Needs Our Help!
America, pushing against the Soviets in the east, where backstabbed by their neighbors, as both Mexico and the Dominion of Canada attacked. America is losing ground in the south but is holding in the north. We are calling upon all Germans who haven't picked up a gun, to consider it for our American brother!
Fall of Mexico
Mexico fell yesterday, as America with the help German volunteers pushed south and seized Mexico city. America in response to the fall of Mexico, was this. "We are angered and saddened that our southern neighbor's thought they could take what wasn't theirs, and as a warning to the rest of Central America and South America if you attempt, you will be thwarted." To show dominance, they quickly took control of the Carribean and the Philippines.
Applejack got to the last newspaper, out of the stack, she frowned. The page was in worst shape than the other newspapers. It appeared burnt, and the parts that were readable seemed to have faded with age. The only words she made out was the actual date, reading 25.12.44 and two words, Atomic and London.
Applejack was still sore as she stared at the two tanks, being named so by Twilight, ready to start fixing the two behemoths and see what they hide. She approached the Churchill, ready to enter it again, happy that Twilight helped her finally give the skeleton a final resting place. She smiled as she effortlessly opened the hatch, staring into the tank. She quickly got to work, attempting to remove the final pieces, those that were screwed in or bolted to the body. Starting with seats, she pulled them out and set them against the wall of the barn, each seat different in its own right.
She bit her lip as she slowly removed the panel of dials and buttons, seeing many wires running down under the actual tank, but they all appeared to be in fine condition. While Equestrian electricity and wiring were still in the early stages of development, ponies that worked with newer equipment in their fields knew how to fix simple wiring. She slowly cut the wires and removed the panel from the tank, setting it on a workbench. She quickly cleaned the panel, removing buttons and dials and laying them in a row, some were broken and shattered. AJ grabbed some rust remover and climbed back inside the tank, scrubbing at the inside of the tank where rust sat, and when she finished that she climbed out and poured rust remover down into where the telescopes sat, hoping she could get them loose. While she let that sit, she went back inside and started washing the interior. Water collected in the interior as she washed the walls, removing dirt and grime. The tank's interior sat clean and sparkly, but still, the metal material shined through the peeling dark green paint.
She shaved a flake off the exterior and sent Applebloom on a mission to gather paint, before turning her attention to the other tank, and it's two major problems. The first, the lack of an interior, and two, the lack of a name. The name was easy, she decided to call it June, the sister of Jarla. The interior was a much, much harder problem to work with, as with the other tank, a slot sat where a plate sat with many wires, the wires being absent from the inside. She found a hatch at the back, with what she was looking for. The engine, but much more complicated than the simple motors the generators her family used, but thankfully it looked to be in good condition, missing a few screws and a cap, it was in nearly perfect condition, or at least to AJ's knowledge. The Churchill's engine was in much worse condition, but the parts where all there, nothing appeared missing, just broken. Applejack silently prayed to a prayer of thanks to the princesses, excited that her toys were in nearly perfect order.
She returned to June, fishing the cut wires through the holes of the body, and closed the hatch. By the time she closed the hatch, the moon was nearly set in the distance. Applejack fell asleep in the barn, being awoken by midday sun poking through a hole in the roof, sending AJ right back to work. She fished the many parts off the engine of the Churchill's engine that were cracked, burnt, or bent, and set them next to the panel. Starlight popped into the barn, mainly just to see the huge tanks, but stayed when AJ asked her to fix the parts on the table. She quickly fixed them, almost instantly in fact as she blasted them with her horn. The parts, while not new, were fixed and repaired, allowing AJ to set them back into the engine. AJ heard a rattle of a cart, seeing a mare walking down to her barn with several cans of paint, as she closed the Churchill's engine bay.
She grabbed the paint and slowly began painting the exterior of the tank, first removing the already applied paint and then coating the exterior in a primer, as she ran a hose into the interior and sucked out the dirty water inside. She removed the interior paint and added a primer, before returning to the exterior and painting it a beautiful dark green color. Hours later, both the interior and exterior were painted the same dark green color. Moonglow enveloped AJ as she started designing the seats for June. She collapsed into the same bale of hay she fell asleep in last night, designs of seats on a piece of paper.
The next morning was quick, with AJ telling Applebloom to deliver the designs to a seat maker, followed with a quick breakfast and a quick shower. She returned to her tanks and installed the plate back into the Churchill, connecting the wiring to the inputs of the fixed and shiny buttons. The rest of the day was stuffing the Churchill's seats and sewing them up, before screwing them into the body at nightfall and making sure the telescopes worked well, which they slid down and up with almost no effort.
When she woke up the next morning, she found her seats sitting in front of the barn, allowing her to quickly install them, and marking the end of AJ fixing the tanks.
"That was my week, and now, I think I deserve a lazy Sunday," Applejack yawned softly as she recalled her week to her friends as they all sat down to eat in Twilight's castle. Her body showed the past few days effort on her body, as her eyes were sunken and baggy, her mane was disheveled, and her Stetson was nearly in pieces.
"Um, yeah, please do," Twilight told her friend as she bit into the sandwich in front of her. "AJ, you do know that no pony asked you to do this, right?"
"Yes, I know, but I have nothing else to do, so I figured why not," Applejack slurred her speech as she fought to keep herself awake. "Ya' know, I'ma go home and get some rest, in an actual bed."
Applejack stood slowly and made her way home, where her bed was calling her.