Equestria: World War II (1939-1941)

15TH NOVEMBER 1940

------------------------------------------------------------SOMEWHERE IN EQUESTRIA------------------------------------------------------------
It was a warm day here on the coast of Equestria, and the time was now 9:00am. This would be the spot where the Return, as Shady called it, would begin. This would be the place where the Rift Gate would be activated, and it would be the spot where Earth's destruction would begin, and the barbarians would be destroyed. But not if Riftweaver Spark had something to say about it. The four scientists had made a promise, that they would either die as heroes, or live long enough to see themselves become the villains, and they intended to die as heroes, as they would not allow Shady to finish his plan to send them back to Equis.

They were still a couple of weeks away from the activation of the Rift Gate, however, and Shady wouldn't let them out of his sights, not now, after the destruction of the HNA compound. One of their own had gone missing in the chaos, and while they had been pretty much isolated from the outside world since the destruction of the HNA compound, they knew that their comrade would probably have died in the explosion, if he hadn't been able to make it to the CBI squad in time.

Despite the fact that this place was entirely off the grid and totally isolated from the rest of Equestria and the Crystal Empire, they were able to survive as they were on the coast, and Shady had made a small vegetable patch, just like how there had been a small farm at the old HNA compound, so they had a good supply of food, and since they were on the coast, they were able to desalinize the seawater to drink, and they could take baths in the sea as well.

That was good for Shady, because they were fully self-sufficient, they would not be detected at all, but for the scientists, it just lowered their hopes of being saved, since this place was off the flight paths taken by Equestrian military aircraft, and they didn't conduct any army or navy exercises in the area either, so they were pretty much stranded. The only way to find them would be to send a beacon to the Princesses, but Shady had placed a spell on the cave, so that any spells being directed outside would be stopped instantly. They were essentially fully cut off from the outside world now. They hadn't even heard from the outside world in some months now, not even a single update on the news or the war, in the seven months since their abduction.

The war would probably still be raging, and at a fiercer rate by now, considering that it had been seven months, and the last update they had heard was from a new member of the HNA who had joined just two weeks before the destruction of the HNA compound, and they had heard that France had fallen, and the Allied forces had managed to defeat the Italian forces in Africa. Since then, they had not had a single update on the war.

The scientists were now working on a new plan to try and get the message out to the Princesses of their location, and they knew they had to do it before Shady activated the Rift Gate, but they were not even getting time to do so, as Shady was purposely making them work for longer hours, sometimes making them go whole nights without sleep, to have the Rift Gate up and running in time. In the meantime, their abuser, Shady, was in the warmer parts of the cave, protecting himself from the cold weather, as winter was beginning to hit Equestria and the Crystal Empire again. He was thinking back to the nights he spent with his brother, and all the sacrifices they had made to keep each other alive.

He had often wondered why it had been his brother who had gone missing that day in the battlefield, and why it had not been some other pony, or even a human. Why? WHY?! WHY COULDN'T IT HAVE BEEN SOME DUMB HUMAN INSTEAD?! thought Shady, remembering all of the moments he had with his brother, knowing that they were all from a time that would never be his again. Soon, the humans would pay for killing his brother. He'd show them. He'd show them all.

------------------------------------------------------------SOMEWHERE IN GERMANY-------------------------------------------------------------
It was now 10:00am here, and at the Erweiterung facility in the forests of Germany, Discord was preparing for his next programme. Only a few squads of the super soldiers enhanced with the E-serum were deployed in the field, before Discord had axed this part of the Erweiterung programme, and had begun working on a new idea entirely. He was going to create monsters, ones that would entirely be controlled by the Germans, and ones that would be invincible in a battle. He would be splicing humans with DNA from multiple animals to create them.

Yes, there had been Vryolakas, created from a failed trial of the E-serum, but she was more like a wild animal than a sentient creature. These would have sentience, but controlled by the Nazis, and they would submit only to their orders, and not to anyone else. They had already figured out certain species whose traits they could use in these monsters, such as the Habu snakes from Japan, the black widow spiders of America, the Bengal tigers of India, and many other such animals.

These monsters would also be under the control of Discord, and would be his puppets, just like how he was controlling Hitler. Soon, the gas chambers at the Nazi concentration camps would be fully operational, ready to begin the annihilation of the Jews, their Final Cleansing. These had been tested previously with prisoners of war, and while the gas they would use, Zyklon B, was not so great as a field chemical weapon, it was great for making people suffer, and so would be used in the gas chambers.

This would be the beginning of the end of the Steps to Death, and the motto of this stage was, 'You Have No Right To Live'. Now that the Jews, the disabled, the mentally unfit, the blacks, and all of those who were not white Aryans were now in the ghettos and concentration camps, they would finally get rid of them, and make the German population pure, devoid of their corruption.

That was the end goal of the Steps to Death. The purification of the population of Germany. Only the Aryan Christians were welcome as residents. If anyone from another religion came here as a tourist, that was okay, but not if they wanted to live here. As Discord got ready to see which test subjects they would use to create their new monsters for this new programme, he wondered how the Princesses were dealing after narrowly surviving the German air raid during their visit to London a week previously.

-----------------------------------------------------------------CANTERLOT CASTLE------------------------------------------------------------------
It was now 5:00pm in Canterlot Castle. Today, it was more quiet than usual, since Luna was taking a quick nap ahead of finishing her day's work. However, rather than a peaceful sleep, Luna was having a horrifying nightmare, thinking back to that day in London almost a week earlier, when they had been caught in one of the many German air raids that had been striking the city.

The Princesses were inside the underground bunker at the Treasury building in London, along with their aides, the Prime Minister of Britain, Winston Churchill and his aides, and some soldiers from both nations. All they could hear was the sound of the air raid sirens going off, warning them that German planes were about to start bombing London. The bunker was heavily fortified, and had enough food and water to last fifteen people a month, if the exit path was blocked to debris causing a collapse.

The Princesses had lived through many dangerous things, considering that they had been alive for more than 2,000 years, but this was something else entirely. The closest anything on Equis had come close to this was the time Celestia had dropped a large chunk of Equis' Moon onto the Ponysian kingdom and destroyed it, more than 150 years earlier. Even then, Celestia had been a few miles away from the kingdom when the impact occurred, which had not only destroyed the entire kingdom, but killed around 2,000 Ponysians, all of whom were the remnants of its new tyrannical government, which had enslaved not only creatures of other species, such as the Griffons, Zebras, and Yaks, but also other ponies, of their own kind.

It had been due to Celestia wanting to end the war quickly at the behest of the United Lands, which was an organisation similar to that of the League of Nations on Earth, that she had crushed the Ponysian Empire with a large chunk of Moon rock. As Celestia was thinking about it, they heard a loud boom, that was muffled by the thick steel walls of the bunker, but still quite loud, and it shook the entire bunker, and possibly the building as well. That could mean only one thing. A bomb had landed either on the Treasury building itself, or very close to it. This made the ponies panic, but the Princesses and Churchill stayed calm. They were panicking internally, yes, but they could not show it, to motivate everyone in the room.

As the Princesses wondered what was going on, as soon as the air raid siren had started sounding, it stopped. Luna checked her new hoofwatch, a new innovation that were pretty much pony-friendly version of the wristwatches worn by humans, and saw that it had only been 20 minutes since the siren had started sounding. That was when the door opened. Multiple human soldiers, all British. "Your majesties, Prime Minister Sir. The German planes suddenly turned back, even before British air defenses were scrambled. It's as if they accomplished their mission, without even bombing any civilian targets." said one of the soldiers.

"What? Do you think they were sent in simply to kill us?" asked the Princesses.

"I'm not sure, your Majesties. It looks like that, because these were the new Bf109s that were disguised as Allied Hurricanes, and the Germans also disguised a pair of those new Heinkel He 111 bombers as Bristol Blenheims, which we haven't seen before, so it looks like that was the case. That explosion you heard was a bomb that narrowly missed the building, you can come out now, its safe." said the soldier, as they all began leaving the bunker.

They could smell smoke as they climbed back into the building. As they passed by the windows, they saw that shrapnel from the bomb had penetrated the building, and one had started a small fire that had now been extinguished, but was still smouldering. As they headed towards the door, they saw a scene of carnage, and the Princesses instantly ran to help, along with their soldiers. The bomb had exploded right in front of the building, and had created a large crater. Tragically, a mother and her small son had been caught just as they were about to enter the building.

Celestia watched horrified as the badly injured mother cradled her son, who was only around 8 years old, in her arms, who was also badly injured. The two sisters instantly ran towards them, and the mother instantly held out her son to the Princesses, sobbing. "Please, your Highnesses! Please, save my son! I don't care if I lose my own life, please, save my son!" wailed the woman, as Celestia got ready to use her magic to save the gravely injured boy. He was in bad shape, with a large piece of shrapnel that had pierced his stomach. Despite that, he was still alive.

Celestia tensed herself quickly, as the spell she would use to save the child would require a decent amount of energy, as she began to cast it. A golden aura enveloped the boy's body, while Luna began to use her magic to try and save the lady. However, just as the magic began working its effect on the boy, the mother suddenly began to violently convulse, with blood dripping out of her mouth, as Luna tried desperately to save her. As Celestia continued pushing harder, she saw the shrapnel piece began to leave the child's body, and saw that the wounds were starting to heal. Soon, the shrapnel was gone entirely, and the wounds begin to heal, including the internal organs.

However, as for the mother, it was a different state. While she had stopped convulsing, she was barely conscious, and Luna was unable to figure out what was causing this, as the shrapnel in her body had also been removed, and she was trying to figure out if it had been an internal injury. As she tried to do so, the child was finally healed, and Celestia lowered the boy gently to the ground. He was now out of danger, and was about to wake up, and human doctors took over, as they took hold of the boy for observations. As Luna continued to try and save the mother, she saw the mother open her eyes barely, and looking at her child, who was now starting to wake up, she muttered one last thing, looking at the Princesses. "Thank you." said the mother, with a grateful smile, as she suddenly closed her eyes, and her heart stopped beating.

Remembering this horrifying sight, Luna suddenly woke up with a start, remembering how the woman had barely held on, and how cruel it was that her son had lived, but she had not survived. She remembered having a breakdown and crying in her room later on, feeling guilty for being unable to save her life, despite the fact that even her sister, and Prime Minister Churchill himself had told her that she had done everything that was possible, and could not have expected the sad outcome.

As Luna headed towards her bathroom to freshen up, she noticed that her pillow was covered in tears, and her own eyes were full of tears, from that horrifying and tragic memory, that she wanted to remember, just to realize the cost, of what innocents would pay, if the war was not ended, and Discord was not stopped.