Equestria: World War II (1939-1941)

2ND DECEMBER 1940

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The snow was now falling in Equestria and the Crystal Empire, as winter had finally arrived in the two nations. As the winter morning unfolded, despite the cold weather, school was being held, as the snow was not so much as to cancel school, so a large number of unhappy fillies who wanted to play in the snow were heading to school. Today was a great day for the two Princesses, as the first ever human film starring a pony actress was being released today. It was called Fantasia, made by the renowned American animation studio, Walt Disney Productions.

While the film itself was being animated, which was a novel technology to Equestria and the Crystal Empire, since all of their films had been actually filmed, the actress who would be providing the voice for one of the main characters was the famous pony singer Countess Coloratura, since this film was a musical, and the film itself was using a new type of sound system for cinema theaters, called Fantasound, which Walt Disney, the owner and founder of Walt Disney Productions, had said would revolutionize the film industry forever.

As part of this, the Princesses themselves had been given tickets to the premiere of the film. However, they had been unable to accept the invitations themselves, but instead, the newly appointed Ministers of Culture and Literature of both countries would be attending the premieres of the films on behalf of the Princesses. The Princesses themselves were planning to have a private theater built inside Canterlot Castle, so they could watch films for relaxation, and so could their cabinet and staff, just for this purpose.

However, despite those good moments, dark times were still going on. The pony death toll had now passed 10,000, following the sinking of six merchant ships carrying goods from America to Britain with multiple pony crewmembers on board, three alone by the infamous German battleship, Bismarck, which was the newest and biggest battleship in the Kriegsmarine, the German navy. Rumours had been spread that the Bismarck had been roaming in the Atlantic Ocean, and in an attempt to prevent the ships from being destroyed, they had been split up.

Tragically, these rumours had been planted by the Germans themselves, and the Bismarck had used the opportunity to sneak up on three of the ships and destroy them, killing more than 700 ponies. The other three ships had been picked off by German U-boats. Interestingly enough, despite the fact that some warships had accompanied these ships, their underwater radars had not even been able to detect any trace of the U-boats, and one of the ships had an underwater microphone that had faintly detected some sounds from the U-boats right before one of the merchant ships had been sunk by a torpedo from the U-boat.

This was concerning, if the Germans had been somehow able to silence their U-boats in some way. That was not good, and that meant that the U-boats could easily and silently sneak up on and destroy Allied ships. These were probably being produced as part of the new German weapons programme, and if this was true, they could easily decimate the Allied fleet, and that would not be good.

In fact, a research division of the Royal Equestrian Navy was working hand-in-hand with the Royal Navy to try and figure out how to find these U-boats and destroy them, and see if they could use the Royal Navy's submarines to retaliate. As for the Bismarck, since it was essentially one of the largest ships ever made, it could sink any Allied ship as of now, and the only way to destroy it was with aerial bombing. Worse still, the Germans had built and were currently sea-testing another battleship of the same class as the Bismarck, and this ship would soon enter service, so they would have another one to deal with.

While they were working on dealing with that, they were still working on solutions to deal with the super soldiers and the disguised German planes. Some solutions had already worked in theory, and a prototypes for a few practical ones were also being built, which would hopefully give the Allies an edge in the war. If they could disable those super soldiers and the disguises used by the German planes to pose as Allied aircraft, that alone would give them an edge in this war.

As the Princesses continued reviewing what was on today's cards, they also remembered that they had a meeting with a representative from the American aircraft manufacturer, Consolidated Aircraft Limited, as the plans to assemble their B-24 bomber under license in Equestria was in its advanced stages, and currently, discussions were underway to find an appropriate location for the factory where the bombers would be built, and currently, despite the fact that this bomber wasn't even scheduled to enter service until the next year, Equestria and the Crystal Empire would its second and third export customers, and its third and fourth customers, following the US and Britain.

As they got ready to meet with the representative from Consolidated Aircraft so the plans could be finalized, little did they know, that soon, their hunt for the HNA would be at an end.

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At the Erweiterung facility in Germany, today was a day of celebrations. The Hamburg facility had finally modified one of the Kriegsmarine's Type VII U-boats into a Type VIIE, which was effectively silent underwater thanks to the improvements made to its engine and propeller by Discord, and it had been field tested successfully. Now, Hitler himself had approved the serial modification of regular Type VIIs into Type VIIEs, a process which took at least three months, so it would take sometime to get a few into active service, but it had been approved, which was a win for the program nonetheless.

The facility was cheering, and scientists were chugging beer like it was Oktoberfest, so they were having a large amount of fun, and people were getting drunk as skunks. Meanwhile, Discord was in a corner of the facility, having left the party earlier, and was thinking about how to go about the process of splicing humans with animal DNA to create monsters to serve the Nazi military.

Once the party was over, everyone would be off for the day, and would be back to work the next day. However, Discord had felt that the Erweiterung program needed a new facility, outside Germany, as just one facility was not enough to keep the program running, in case the Allies were able to reach the facility and bomb it. He had been thinking about setting up a second Erweiterung facility in Italy or Japan, and it was high time that he did.

He had decided that the second facility would be located in Italy, probably in one of the islands located off the coast of Italy, and he remembered the day that he had met Mussolini and Hirohito for the first time. They had agreed to work with him to set up facilities, so they probably would agree to his plan, else, he would not be able to take Earth for himself.

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At the new HNA cave somewhere on the coast of Equestria, Shady was finally happy. The construction of the Rift Gate had finally ended. It was now in front of him, ready to be activated, and ready to send them all home. However, the scientists had insisted that it be activated at least once as a test run, just so that they would be sure that the Gate worked properly, and despite the risk that it gave of them being detected by the government and stopped, their relentless asking and pestering him had forced him to agree, so he could be free to read his diary and recount life before the death of his brother.

As he made another look through the letters he had written to his brother in the diary, he looked through one he had written the day after robbing the Western Bank of Manehattan. Dear Honest, I did my duty today. When we and Neighsay robbed the Western Bank of Manehattan, during our entry into the bank, after disabling the security spell placed on the bank, Neighsay suddenly went crazy, and to announce our arrival, stabbed one of the security guards. It wasn't a fatal wound, but it was enough to injure him, and it convinced everyone that we were real.

Originally, our plan was to take some of the bank employees as hostages, and use them to convince the manager to give us the Aetherium, and in return, we would spare their lives. But Neighsay abandoned the entire plan, and directly threatened the manager himself. Even though I was mad at him at first, I guess the sight of a blood-stained knife being held to his throat was enough to convince the manager to give us access to the Aetherium. However, I knew that Neighsay was no longer fit to lead the HNA, and despite the fact that I despise humans themselves, I do like their weapons.

While we were in the vault, I was able to use my gun to end Neighsay's tyranny, and I had to kill the manager as well. We took the remaining Aetherium and then left the city to your old house in the Neigh Horseleans swamps, where I disposed of the gun, and now, construction of the Rift Gate has finally begun, and soon, we can all go back home to Equis. I will make sure this happens at all cost. I promise.

As Shady re-read the diary entry one last time, he knew that the test run of the Rift Gate would happen soon, and he would take all measures to make sure it was not detected by the Princesses. If it was, then he would take them along with him.