Equestria: World War II (1939-1941)

14TH JUNE 1940

-----------------------------------------------------------------CANTERLOT CASTLE------------------------------------------------------------------
It was now 9:00am here at Canterlot Castle, and the Princesses had felt that the times were soon going to get darker. Four days earlier, the Italians had invaded southern France, and besieged the British overseas territory of Malta. Close to 400 had already died on both sides in France, and close to 1,200 had died in Malta, mostly Italian and German soldiers. However, some of the dead from the Allied side had been pony soldiers. 50 ponies had died in Malta, making the current pony toll in the war around 350.

As if that was not enough, witness reports from these battle sites revealed that the Germans were somehow using Equestrian magic. They had already heard reports of super soldiers from the German Army who were strong enough to tear people apart, but now they had another concerning threat. Multiple RAF units and Royal Army units had reported seeing that the Germans had somehow used magic to disguise their Bf109 fighters as the Allied forces' Hawker Hurricanes.

That was horrifying, as they now had to keep checking even their own Allied planes to make sure they weren't these disguised German fighters. The only way they had been identified was that they had pulled maneuvers which would cause a real Hurricane to break apart mid-air, and that some of them had markings from planes that had either been shot down or removed from service. The worst part was that a British spy who had been planted in Germany had gone missing, as he had not made contact with his handler in a week, and now rumours were starting to come from Germany that he had been caught and killed by the Germans.

That wasn't even the beginning of the bad news. The Soviets had also started occupying the Baltic nations of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, as they had signed pacts with them earlier to create military bases in those nations. The Soviets had not really invaded the countries, just casually marched into them, and their militaries had done essentially nothing to stop it. Now, those nations were being occupied by the Soviets.

Plus, Equestria had suffered the rather grim milestone of its ever air accident. To keep up with the growing strength of the Royal Equestrian Air Force's fighter squadrons, they had leased some older model Hawker Hurricanes from the Royal Air Force in Britain. During a night training flight over the ocean in one of these Hurricanes, one of the pony pilots had crashed his plane into the sea. The wreckage and the body of the pilot had been recovered, and the new Equestrian Aviation Safety Board (EASB) had started an investigation into the crash, and they were already suspecting that the pilot was disoriented.

As the Princesses got ready to deal with a lot more paperwork, they knew that some more good news had also come. The expedition team hunting for the Destroyer of Discord had finally made contact with them. However, they had not found the piece with the tribe in Brazil, and they were now heading to another location they believed held the Destroyer of Discord, somewhere in Peru.

As for the hunt for Discord, they had centered on a figure who they thought was Discord. The mysterious Oberguppenführer, Abelard Möller. He had just showed up out of nowhere, around February or March. They had used some of the intelligence supplied by the spy, now presumed dead, Albert Lancaster. Möller's background seemed normal, but as human and pony analysts had dug into it, they had found some small discrepancies that suggested his identity was fake, created in haste, as if to disguise a certain someone, in this case a certain spirit of chaos.

This was making them think that was most probably Discord's human guise. It certainly matched, and he was the man behind a secret German weapons programme, presumably the one that was making these strange super soldiers and making whatever was disguising the German aircraft. It was also probably the one behind the strange injuries on some of the dead pony soldiers.

The hunt for the HNA was also in full swing, the CBI working days and nights sleeplessly to find Slick Shady and the HNA, before they could complete the Rift Gate. Now that they had the Aetherium stolen from the Western Bank of Manehattan, they would probably be working full steam to complete the Gate. As before, it seems they had gone completely off the grid, ever since Slick Shady suddenly betraying Neighsay and his government. The CBI had also figured out how Shady had gotten the gun he had used to murder Neighsay and the bank manager during the robbery. He had gotten it from a black market dealer based in the more dingier parts of Manehattan, whom the CBI had arrested.

While all that was going on, the Princesses had also been working on a new arms deal with the Americans, to get their technical help, to license build the brand-new Consolidated B-24 Liberator bomber in Equestria, to try and help get an aerospace industry into Equestria. Under the contract, which would be signed within a few months, a few prototypes of the B-24, which had made its first flight in December last year, would be flown to Equestria, and a factory would be built in New Hoofshire, which was a small city, where the new Equestrian government company, Equestrian Aerospace, or EA, would assemble the B-24 under license from Consolidated Aircraft.

As the Princesses walked out into the main throne room of Canterlot Castle for today's work, they were wondering what their old enemy, the ENA, were up to. They really hadn't heard much from them since they used the documents that the late Former Chancellor Neighsay had sent them to reveal Discord's existence to Earth.

It was if the ENA had gone basically silent, except for the protests they were still holding, and an incident a day earlier where stones and bricks had been thrown by ENA members at the Equestrian embassy in London. They had done some minor damage, breaking a couple of windows. A brick had also hit a pony who was standing outside the embassy for some fresh air, and caused a minor concussion. The culprits had been arrested, but had gotten bailed out around six hours later, which had infuriated a few people.

The migration of ponies to other countries on Earth was also still going up, but not so much. A decent Equestrian community had built up in New York City, which was the next state visit that the Princesses were planning to do, and a smaller Equestrian community was also starting to build up in London. The Princesses were also planning to make state visits to China, some other Asian countries, and maybe some South American countries as well. As the Princesses began planning for the next few months, little did they know that at the ENA headquarters in Chicago, something big was going on.

---------------------------------------------------------ENA HEADQUARTERS, CHICAGO---------------------------------------------------------
It was now 12:00pm in Chicago, and at the ENA headquarters, Bret Stiles and his men were getting ready to execute another plan. Thankfully, one of the richer members of the ENA had bailed out their members who had been throwing stones and bricks at the Equestrian embassy in London, or as Stiles had called it, 'raining down projectiles of righteousness at the evil horse aliens'.

The plan that Stiles and his inner circle had charted up was hopefully going to bring back the influence that the ENA had been losing lately. Already, their member count had reduced from 25,000, to just around 23,000. They had mostly been quiet for the last few months, and soon, they were going to be back with a bang. This plot was already being put into action, and in a few months, it would all culminate in one big fiery showdown. Stiles had a plan that not only involved rallying his dwindling members but also drew from a reserve of old extremism that he hadn’t tapped into for far too long.

The purpose of the plan was to craft an event so loud it would roar across continents, an audacious act meant to shake the very foundations of Equestrian and human society alike. He envisioned something that would rival the chaos sown by Discord himself, who had, after all, had put Earth in a state of war in the blink of an eye. What if he could use a fraction of that chaos?

Gathered in a dimly-lit back room of the headquarters, Bret laid out his grand vision for his inner circle—men and women who hungered for a cause. "We need to reclaim the narrative," he said passionately, drawing fervent nods from the band of ardent followers. "We’ll hijack their attempts to integrate with Earth! Instead of welcoming them with open arms, we’ll unveil them as the culprits behind every problem we face! War? Strife? Economic downturn? It’s all because of the ponies washing ashore, spreading magic and chaos!"

With the flickering overhead light adding a sinister aura to his determined expression, he continued, “I want to disrupt their state visits. A black market deal that spirals out of control, loud enough to draw media attention and spark fear among the masses. We’ll claim they’re preying on our weaknesses, establishing mines and influence in our backyards before we even know it.”

The circle murmured their agreement, their excitement palpable. "What if we forged documents implying they were hoarding military secrets?" one suggested. “Rouse the public, make it seem like they’re preparing for something sinister while they pretend to befriend us!” Another chimed in, “And gather evidence of their supposed magic-infused technology while we’re at it!”

Bret smiled deviously. “Exactly! A classic smoke and mirrors. And while we’re at it, let’s target Gatsby to the horses themselves. We infiltrate their embassies, leak misinformation, and spread panic. They thrive on smiling faces in the sun while they grin around back with malicious intents. It’s time to unveil the truth!” said Stiles, beginning to laugh, along with the ENA's inner circle. Soon, the time would come.