Equestria: World War II (1939-1941)

27TH AUGUST 1940

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It was now 9:00am in Equestria. Today was a bit of a special and a sombre day for the Princesses, as this day marked exactly one year since Equestria and the Crystal Empire had been sent to Earth by the storm that Faust had sent. Most ponies still didn't know what had sent them to Earth, only the Princesses did. They would never give out that fact, since it would probably spook ponies that Faust had done it, and most of them probably would not believe that Faust was real anyways, since it had been 1,300 years since her final physical appearance, back on Equis. In fact, a few conspiracy theorists had suggested that as theories, which had promptly been laughed off by ponies as crazy.

In fact, a group of ponies had put forward a petition that this day be celebrated as a national holiday in both the nations, as a sort of 'Welcome to Earth Day', but another group had put forward a petition to make it a 'Mourning Day', to mourn the loss of Equis, and the beginning of an era of war in Equestria and the Crystal Empire, as well as the loss of things such as the ponies' ability to control weather, the Princesses' tradition of controlling the Sun and Moon, since they could not control those of Earth, and many other things.

Some had even rioted at first, when they found out that ponies and horses were used as beasts of burden on Earth. That had lasted until they found out that the ponies and horses on Earth were just animals, and were not sentient, not like the ponies from Equis. So far, the Princesses were looking at the idea of a 'Welcome to Earth Day', but now, they had had to put those plans on hold.

Almost a month earlier, the Italians had made another move against the Allies, by invading Britain's territories in Africa. They had brutally taken the territory of Somaliland from the British, and brutally killed any British soldiers who stood in their way. The death toll from this alone had taken the total war toll to 11 million, which was just around half that of the Great War, now called the First World War, since this war, the Second World War, seemed like a repeat of that, but worse. Unfortunately, the pony death toll had also risen in the war.

The toll earlier had been around 400, but now it had gone up to almost 4,000. Majority of the fatalities had been during the battle in the Atlantic, when two Royal Navy vessels leased temporarily to the Royal Equestrian Navy had been destroyed by torpedoes from German U-boats. One, a destroyer, had been attempting to protect a British civilian ocean liner, that had inadvertently lost its way and sailed right into the battle. They had been able to save the ocean liner, but at the cost of their own lives. Of the 214 sailors aboard the ship, only 11 had survived to tell the tale.

The other ship, a battlecruiser, had been snuck upon a German U-boat and destroyed. Of the 1,433 crew members aboard the ship, only three had survived. Both of these ships had been sunk within 24 hours of each other, with the loss of more than 1,600 sailors. Multiple ponies serving with the Royal Army had also lost their lives during the Italian invasion of British Somaliland, so the toll had shot up by 10 times.

It had been a grim time for Equestria, and the previous night, the bodies of around 1,200 ponies who had died in battle had finally been returned home. Celestia had been at the docks in Manehattan when the ship carrying the coffins arrived, and she had had to help console the family members of the fallen.

Celestia pondered how much Equestria and the Crystal Empire had changed in just one year. In her life, compared to a regular pony, one year was like one day, but it was much busier and stressful. Some more news had also come back from the team that had been looking for the pieces of the Destroyer of Discord. They had got another location, in Peru, which seemed to have better hopes than the previous locations they had been looking in, so they were refreshing themselves before they left for Peru.

In the meantime, the Princesses were also trying to figure out Discord's location, which they now knew was somewhere in Germany. They knew that he was probably behind the German weapons program. The same program that had created the strange soldiers who were strong enough to rip a human in half with their bare hands, and the strange German fighters. They had also found out that he had somehow convinced the leaders of Germany, Japan, and Italy, to sign a document that had apparently been called the Tripartite Pact, which formally gave them the title of the Axis powers.

After this, the Princesses had made a short state visit to London, where they had signed with a pact with Winston Churchill, to unite them formally as the Allied powers. The hunt for the HNA was also still on, but still hadn't turned up any leads so far. However, a small, rather suspicious energy spike had been picked by Chaos Energy Detectors up in the forests surrounding the Swamps of Neigh Horseleans. However, it had not turned up since then, and experts had felt that it was probably due to equipment sensitivity.

As the Princesses began another busy day, they felt that something big was going to happen, very soon.

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In the dark forests of Neigh Horseleans, surrounding the infamous swamps, in the dilapidated house, Riftweaver Spark and his friends were still stuck at the HNA's compound, forced to build the Rift Gate. Before their plan had failed thanks to Slick Shady erecting the lead shielding around their workspace, which stopped the Aetherium emissions from being detected. Due to this, they had to find another way to have the Princesses find them.

They couldn't just escape, as they were way too weak for that, and besides, even if they could, they wouldn't get far, before they were recaptured by the HNA, and even if they were able to avoid them, they didn't know the area well. They knew they were somewhere in the deep forests of Neigh Horseleans, extremely far from society. They would probably just end up dying in the forest, either of starvation or from being attacked by a wild animal.

They only had one option left, and that was to wait until December, when Slick Shady would carry out 'The Reckoning', the finale of the HNA's plan. The day he would send Equestria and the Crystal Empire back to Equis, and destroy Earth in the process. Their plan was to sabotage the Rift Gate as it began, which would destroy it in the process and save Earth. It would probably kill them and the HNA, but it was better than killing an entire planet. That would be their plan. They had to just bide their time and wait for the right moment. They would either die as heroes, or live long enough to see themselves become the villains.