The Expedition

Chapters

Aggressive Defense
Two Germans in a Forest
Two Germans And a Pony Town
Two Germans Make a New Friend (almost)
Two Germans Make First Contact

Aggressive Defense

Author's Note

ATTENTION!

Some necessary intel for you to fully enjoy / understand this fic.

Firstly: Since this fic involves two foreign characters that will thus also speak a foreign language, I will be using three different ways to mark direct speech - depending on the situation. These three ways are as follows:

"speech" - normal direct speech. What you read is exactly, what the characters are saying

"speech" (speech translated) - normal direct speech with translation. Will be used when the characters in the scene don't all understand the language spoken. (Will only be used with non-english languages)

"[speech translated]" - immediately translated speech. Will be used, when all characters in the scene speak the same language, but it's not english.

Secondly: Some necessary information on a particular german letter that I presume all of you have thus far already stumbled upon.

The "ß" is not a B. It's a sharp s, spoken like a double-s, but with the difference that the preceding vocal is long.

The letter is called s-z, by the way and came about, when the old-german s (looked like an f) and the old german z (looked somewhat like an italic s in handwriting) were amalgamized into a single letter.

Thirdly: I'm gonna skip translating ranks if they don't translate 1:1 into english. Here's a list with those that come up in this chapter. should there be any other throughout this story, I will note them down in the author's notes as well.

OG - Obergefreiter - PFC, but a bit lower
HG - Hauptgefreiter - PFC, but a bit higher - not a Lcorp
HFw - Hauptfeldwebel - SFC, but slightly different in execution

Aggressive Defense

Nobody could've seen it coming, on either side of the rift between realms. Nobody could've known that a portal would open, with one side in the Everfree and the other inside of a german military base. Nobody could've known that a pack of Timberwolves would seize the opportunity and jump into new hunting grounds. Nobody could've known, that the portal would collapse the moment the response team tried to enter.

It was a foggy morning, typical for the rural german countryside in fall, especially when a river is nearby. The base of the 803rd armoured engineers was busy, even though the day had just barely begun. The morning roll call had just finished and the soldiers immediately busied themselves with their tasks - maintenance, bureaucracy, preparations for the next big exercise... slacking off...

At first, nobody noticed how a slight shimmering glow emanated from the middle of the parade ground. However, when the portal opened and a horde of wooden canines suddenly emerged in their midst, the prior calm was replaced with a wary silence.

And then the chaos ensued.

The wolves pounced, attacking anyone they could get their splinters on, but the soldiers would not just let themselves be eaten. After the first shock had passed, the officers rallied their troops and ordered their men to stand their ground.

They split into two groups. One would hold the assailants back with anything they could get their hands on. Brooms were used as polearms, scissors as swords and old wardrobe doors as shields, all in an effort to buy time while the second group would go to the armory and get properly equipped.

After a few intense minutes, the battle ended when the thunderous roar of a dozen rifles silenced every last one of the attacking wolves. In the aftermath, many had to be treated for wounds of varying degree - some even critical -, but miraculously only one soldier was killed.

Still, this raid could not remain unanswered and so, a squad of volunteers was equipped for an expedition.

A captain volunteered to lead the expedition and together with him, twelve soldiers stepped up - Tom Straßenbauer and Felix Eisenhans among them. They assembled in front of the portal, all prepared in full combat dress and ready for some action, but before they would enter into the unknown, the captain stood before them one last time and called for an equipment check.

"[I'll list off, what each of you should've received. Each soldier is individually responsible for checking his gear and rearming as necessary!]" the captain said, before taking up a clipboard and reading aloud: "[1 Vest - SK1 (equals Lvl 3A), 1 G-36 Assault Rifle, 10x 30 rounds 5.56x45mm - 5 filled into magazines and 5 as reserves, 2 MREs. Furthermore, mandatory equipment includes the gas mask and wetclothes.]"

Once the captain finished, a few soldiers excused themselves to fetch equipment they forgot - the gas mask in most cases - and once everyone had returned, the captain continued.

"[Right. Now, for the special equipment: Eisenhans, you've got the MG, Straßenbauer, you're his assisting.]"

In response, Eisenhans patted the MG3 he already held and Straßenbauer turned to show the spare barrel case hanging from his backpack.

"[Kretschmer, you've got the Panzerfaust.]" the captain continued and Kretschmer showed him both, the cartridges hanging from his back and the pouch with the launch piece.

"[Lastly, Riese, you've got the Radio.]" He said and Riese showed him the radio set stowed away into the top of his backpack.

"[Alright. Any questions?]" the captain asked and Riese raised his hand.

"[Why are we bringing a radio if there's no one out there that we could radio?]" He asked and the captain answered.
"[It's not about us radioing someone, but someone radioing us, in this case the squads that go in after us. Any other questions?]"

When nobody else had a question, the captain continued: "[Alright, everyone don gas masks and then, we go in. Eisenhans, Straßenbauer, you take point.]"

The squad did as they were told and once everyone had donned their mask and the captain gave the signal, Straßenbauer and Eisenhans jumped through the portal. However, as soon as they were through, something seemed to gro wrong. the portal started wobbling and the middle that acted almost like a perfect window before, now became fuzzy and distorted. The soldiers following Tom and Felix just barely stopped, before the portal became filled with small lightnings and started shrinking.

"[Fuck!]" Eisenhans cursed, as he watched their only way home slowly close behind them. Straßenbauer tried to test, if they could still jump back, but jolted back when one of the lightnings hit his hand.

"[OW!]" He exclaimed as his hand was zapped and the portal collapsed completely.

The two stranded soldiers stood silently in the woods they now found themselves in, alone, in a foreign land and with no way to return.

"[I knew we shouldn't have done this on a tuesday.]" Straßenbauer commented off-handedly.

"[Yeah, very funny, Tom. Any idea what we should do now?]" Eisenhans asked with a hint of panic creeping through his voice.

"[... Air check.]" Straßenbauer then said and kneeled next to Eisenhans. He grabbed the front of his mask and Eisenhans made ready to slap it back on, in case Straßenbauer was paralyzed or otherwise unable to re-don his mask. Straßenbauer then cautiously lifted the front of his mask and took some short sips of air, as if sipping hot coffee. His sips slowly became larger and deeper, until he took a full breath.

"[Air seems clear.]" Straßenbauer announced.

"[Thank god.]" Eisenhans sighed, as he and Straßenbauer took off their helmets, to remove their masks and then put the helmets back on again. "[I hate wearing gas masks. Makes my face all sweaty.]"

"[Yeah, but you know what's even worse than wearing gas masks?]" Straßenbauer asked.

"[What?]"

"[Running with a gas mask.]" Straßenbauer stated, making Eisenhans shudder.

"[Oh god, please don't remind me. We did that only once in basic and it was already more than plenty for me.]" Eisenhans said. "[So anyways, what do we do now?]"

Straßenbauer shrugged. "[I dunno, you're the superior here.]"

"[Hahaaaaa, very funny.]" Eisenhans said unamused. "[I'm an HG, you're an OG. You know full-well that neither of us is actually technically 'superior'...]" He then looked around and pointed in a random direction. "[But if you insist, I guess we should march that way]"

Straßenbauer followed Eisenhans's point and saw a slight incline that led them directly towards what appeared to be the morning sun.

"[Gotcha. Any particular reason?]" He asked and Eisenhans shrugged.

"[Not really. I just trust my gut to be just as keen on being shot as I am.]"

"[Fair point. Alright, let's go then.]" Straßenbauer said, as he took his position slightly diagonally behind Eisenhans and they both marched into the sunrise.

An hour of marching and no sign that this forest would ever end. If they didn't know any better, Eisenhans and Straßenbauer would've thought that some cosmic deity purposely kept them trapped in there. However since both had (more or less involuntary) experience in navigating the german forests, they knew that it could very well just be a very large forest.

"[Guess we should take a break. No use wearing us out right now.]" Eisenhans offered.

"[Is there ever any use in wearing us out?]" Straßenbauer asked sarcastically, as he set down his backpack and sat on it.

"[Yes. For example that one time, when we accidentally swiped HFw Hermann's phone off the table and we both hauled ass so he didn't find out it was us.]"

Both shared a short, but hearty laugh at the memory.

"[Ah yes, HFw Hermann, god bless that man. If he wasn't stuck in medical after the attack, he'd've probably already conquered this place by now.]" Straßenbauer joked.

"[Yeah, but unarmed. Why waste ammo, when your presence alone is powerful enough to make your enemies just spontaneously drop dead?]" Eisenhans added and they both shared a chuckle.

But their jolly little break was suddenly interrupted, when they heard rustling in the underbrush next to them.

Both immediately fell silent and readied their weapons. Eisenhans grabbed the MG3 and Straßenbauer attached a bayonet to his G36, before putting the spare barrel and an ammo box next to Eisenhans on the ground.

A few tense seconds passed in complete silence, but the soldiers knew that this was distinctly not good. The birdsong that had filled the air up until now had completely subsided. Neither dared to even breathe, lest they'd make a noise loud enough to be heard by whatever was stalking them.

A few more moments passed with nothing happening, but the birdsong yet didn't return. Then, suddenly, Straßenbauer felt this severe feeling of dread and this strong, tickling itch in his back, as his instincts went into overdrive.

"[Behind us!]" He screamed, as he whirled around and spotted a shape lurking in the shadows.

He grabbed the ammo box and Eisenhans grabbed the spare barrel, as both hauled ass to get away from whatever that beast was - and just in time. Only moments after they started running, the beast tried to pounce and once it realized that its prey had managed to evade, it let out a mighty roar that shook the earth.

Once they'd gained enough distance, Eisenhans slammed his MG3 down onto its bipod and started slinging lead, while Straßenbauer did the same with his G36.
It was only now that they came to see their opponent in full - a Lion-Dragon-Scorpion hybrid, that stood tall enough to touch the treetops. However, even the mighty manticore couldn't survive over a dozen 7.62 bullets slung directly into its face and that, combined with the 5.56 support from Straßenbauer, made the beast drop relatively quickly.

"[Holy fuck, what was THAT?!]" Eisenhans exclaimed, once they saw their assailant collapse.

"[Umm, I'm not quite sure, but if I remember greek mythology correctly, this might be a 'Manticore'. Interesting.]" Straßenbauer commented.

"[Wha... I mean, the question, why a greek myth beast exists in this dimension, aside: How the FUCK are you so calm about this?]" Eisenhans asked loudly, adrenaline clearly still rushing through his veins.

In response, Straßenbauer turned around and looked at him incredulously, while holding out his clearly shaking hand. "[I'm just better at hiding it, my dude. Now, come help me move this guy. Kitty here - of course - dropped precisely onto our stuff.]"

Eisenhans gave an annoyed groan at their misfortune, before bringing the box and spare barrel with him to where the manticore dropped. There, he and Straßenbauer pushed several times together, to even get the massive beast to move a little. After multiple tries, they managed to get the corpse to roll over just barely enough so that Eisenhans could grab the backpacks, while Straßenbauer held the corpse in place, as best as he could.

Once their luggage was freed from its fleshy trap, Straßenbauer let the corpse drop and leaned against a tree with a strained groan. "[Fuck my life, that was heavy. How 'bout you go on a diet, laddy?]" He wheezed, while patting the manticorpse.

"[Speaking of weight...]" Eisenhans started, before holding the MG over to Straßenbauer. "[Your turn.]"

Straßenbauer rolled his eyes and groaned a bit more. "[Great. Any observations for me to take into account?]" he asked.

"[Yes, actually.]" Eisenhans stated and pointed to their previous position, where two thick skidmarks were visible. "[The ground here is very soft. The recoil was pushing me backwards, even though I had dug my entire feet into the ground.]"

"[Splendid. Well, I suppose, we should get going again. Maybe we'll make it out of this accursed forest within the day.]" Straßenbauer whined, taking Eisenhans's Backpack and stowing his G36 into it. Eisenhans, in turn, took his G36 from his backpack and stowed the extra ammo box into his big belt pouch.

They then both went to don the other's backpack, however while Straßenbauer did so with little difficulty, Eisenhans was clearly surprised by the apparent weight.

"[Good lord, what do you have in there?!]" Eisenhans asked incredulously.

"[Your ammo... or, well, mine now.]" Straßenbauer answered, tapping the MG for emphasis.

"[How much fucking ammo did they give you?!]" Eisenhans groaned, as he adjusted the straps to try and alleviate some of the strain.

"[Two 200-boxes and two 100-boxes 7.62.]" Straßenbauer answered, which made Eisenhans raise an eyebrow at him.

"[200-boxes? What did they think, we'd be doing out here? Dig trenches through this accursed forest or what?]" Eisenhans groaned in annoyance.

"[How would I know? Let's just hope that they filled them with 100-belts or we'll have to get creative.]" Straßenbauer sighed. "[Well, at least we have the two 100-boxes to work with, for now. Should last us a bit.]"

"[You mean, 'should last us until one of us gets a trigger cramp'.]" Eisenhans snarked.

"[Granted. Speaking of which, how much did you shoot?]" Straßenbauer asked and Eisenhans answered: "[Dunno, 30-ish? I only got three bursts in.]" Eisenhans recounted.

"[Alright. Guess, 70 shots will have to suffice for now. Come on, we should get going.]" Straßenbauer said finally, before marching on, roughly into the direction they were heading before and Eisenhans fell into step in the same position, Straßenbauer held at first.

Twilight was unsure what had happened. All she knew was that she was just sitting at the breakfast table with Spike, when she suddenly heard something that sounded like rapid fireworks going off and echoing in the distance. Yet, when she looked outside, there was nothing to be seen.

She asked Pinkie Pie about it, yet the party mare knew as much as she did, which was odd, since Pinkie always knew about all the festivities going on, no matter where or when. What was even more odd, however, was that, when she asked her other friends about it, both, Applejack and Fluttershy stated, that it sounded like it came out of the Everfree...

Equipment Check:

Ammo:
569 rounds 7.62x51mm

586 rounds 5.56x45mm (total)

Food Rations:
2 MREs (can last 3 days, when used sparingly)
2 opened MREs (can last 2 days, when used sparingly)

4x 1.5l Water bottle (4l left in total)

2x 1l Canteen (empty)

Two Germans in a Forest

It was a chilly, foggy morning in the Everfree, when Straßenbauer awoke. The dug-out firepit sizzled its last hisses, as the fire now slowly neared the end of its resources. However, that was not the only thing he heard in the otherwise silent ambience.

He opened his eyes. His rifle was still where he left it: resting with him in his sleeping bag, ready to be used in case of uninvited guests. He grabbed it and slowly opened his sleeping bag and its rain cover, before he rose into a sitting position and scanned his surroundings for the source of the noise.

Eisenhans was sitting on the stump they had used as a 'chair' for the one on watch. He sat slightly hunched over, with his back turned towards Straßenbauer and was audibly and visibly struggling with something.

Straßenbauer squinted at his comrade, wondering what he was doing, but ultimately was unable to see anything from his position. He thus pulled up his pants and donned his shirt, before climbing out of his sleeping bag entirely. The rustling of this had apparently alerted Eisenhans, who was now looking over his shoulder, with a strained face and a somewhat uncomfortable smile.

"[Ah, Straßenbauer. Finally awake, I see.]" Eisenhans greeted. "[And just in time. I... might need your help.]" He said, before turning around and holding up one barrel of the MG3 in one hand, while his other was holding his cleaning chain, that was coming out of the front of the barrel. He gave the chain a few quick tugs, showing that it was well and truly stuck.

Straßenbauer gave Eisenhans a look that was half way between impressed and confused.
"[How'd you manage that?]" he asked, as he came over to have a look himself.

"[Well...]" Eisenhans started, as he handed the barrel over to Straßenbauer, who gave it a thorough look. "[I had the thought that our cleaning supplies are rather limited, so I thought I could save some cleaning threads by using my handkerchief on the larger calibre.]"

"[And so you attached it to your chain, started pulling and remembered a bit too late that the barrel is conic.]" Straßenbauer finished, while giving the chain a few testing tugs, himself.

"[Pretty much, yes.]" Eisenhans confirmed with a nod.

"[Have you tried using a stick to push it back out?]" Straßenbauer asked, to which Eisenhans nodded, albeit more in a 'duh' kinda way.

"[Yes, of course.]" He said. "[But there's no stick around here, that's both thin and stable enough to do the job. Especially since the chain's still in the way.]" He explained.

"[What about the rear end? Tried pulling it out that way?]" Straßenbauer asked further, but was again met with a nod from Eisenhans.

"[Yes. It's just barely out of reach.]" He said with a slightly annoyed look.

A look that Straßenbauer shared, as he sighed. "[Of course it is. Why can't things ever be easy?]"
He juggled the barrel lightly in his hand, as he thought. However, coming up empty, there was only one option left that he saw.

"[Well... All that's left now is brute force and praying that the chain doesn't snap.]" He said, as he handed Eisenhans the barrel and pulled the chain taut. Then, on the count of three, both men pulled on their respective side, trying to force the handkerchief through the barrel with their combined strength.

At first, it seemed like it was a fruitless endeavor, but slowly, the chain started moving. The handkerchief started sliding, squeezing through the way-too-tight barrel, one inch after another, before, after a few minutes of pulling, it finally popped free. As a result, all tension was suddenly lost on both ends, resulting in the pulling force of both men now turning against their previous users.

Eisenhans caught the impulse reasonably well, only staggering backwards a few steps. Straßenbauer, however, had already been standing more tilted than the tower of Pisa and thus suddenly found himself quite painfully seated on the ground. Once the initial surprise had passed, he gave the chain a once-over and determined it to miraculously be okay, for now. He then freed the handkerchief from the chain and gave that a look as well.

The cloth itself seemed reasonably okay, showing only minimal signs of wear. The surface of the cloth, and particularly the print on it, however, were now completely covered by several dark grease marks that drew themselves along the length of the cloth.

"[I mean... at least it should be pretty clean now.]" Straßenbauer said, while handing the dirty handkerchief to Eisenhans.

"[Peh, you know full-well that the armory-guys would still find something somewhere.]" Eisenhans chuckled.

"[True... I still think that they just never clean their fingers. How else would they still find so much grease in that very spot that I've been cleaning for the past hour or so?]" Straßenbauer whined jokingly, as he got up and patted the dirt off of his uniform. "[Anyways, we should probably pack up and start moving now.]"

"[Already on it.]" Eisenhans said, already working to take down his half-tent.

"[I still don't get, why you set up your tent in the first place.]" Straßenbauer half-complained, while he donned the rest of his uniform. "[I mean, we were just gonna sleep here for a single night, so why bother?]"

"[I wanted to do things properly. That's why.]" Eisenhans stated, while untying the ropes from his tent pegs.

"[Ah yes, doing things properly...]" Straßenbauer sassed, now fully clothed. He then went over to his sleeping bag, which he just put on the ground without any other measures taken - except removing a few sticks that were poking his back. He held the bag up, freed it of as much dirt, as possible and then started cramming it back into its sack, making sure to pause regularly and squeeze the air back out. Finally, once the sleeping bag was in its sack, he pulled the straps tight to, again, force all the air out and make the sack as small as possible, before reattaching it to his backpack.

Now done packing up, Straßenbauer turned to his friend, who only now got to work on the poles and was definitely taking his time doing so.

"[Seriously? You're doing this on purpose, aren't you?]" Straßenbauer complained, but Eisenhans only turned to him with a sly grin.

"[Sound discipline, my friend.]" He said, which apparently made Straßebauer absolutely lose it.

"[Wha- Sound disci-?!]" He stammered incredulously. "[My brother in christ, we were just talking in a normal tone, after audibly struggling with that barrel. Last night, we accidentally created a light beacon, because this world's wood apparently burns WAY better than ours and all that on top of our little run-in with the manticore yesterday. I think, we're WELL past the point of sound discipline.]"

"[Doesn't mean, we have to stay loud.]" Eisenhans argued. "[After all, there might still be a hostile force trying to hunt us down, that somehow missed all the other noise, we've been making.]"

"[Really?]" Straßenbauer asked. "[Honestly, I think if there was a hostile force out here, they'd long since finished the job. I mean, seriously, we're just two blokes wandering through an unknown forest. If someone really wanted us dead, they would've just led us into a trap by now, or ambushed us during the night.]" He stated. "[Actually, being loud might be better for now, since loud noises tend to deter wildlife, before they can even get an appetite.]"

Hearing him say this, Eisenhans looked over to Straßenbauer for a moment, then back at the two pole segments he was holding in his hands... and then chuckled.

"[You know, for just a moment, I had the thought of signalling an ABC-Attack, just to spite you.]" He said through his chuckle, but Straßenbauer didn't seem all that amused.

He deadpanned at Eisenhans, in a pose that said 'Seriously?' and groaned. "[If I was a sarge, I'd have you wear your gas mask the entire day for that.]"

"[But you aren't~]" Eisenhans sang, to which Straßenbauer groaned some more.

He dragged his hand once across his face and sighed. "[Just... please get on with it.]" He said, before busying himself with closing the firepit.

Eisenhans, meanwhile, got to back to work on his tent. He disassembled the poles, stowed them into their bag, then neatly folded the tarp and put that into its bag as well. Once everything was stowed, he got to work on his sleeping bag, the same way Straßenbauer did and stowed everything away.

Once their campsite was completely dismantled, both donned their gear, gave the site a last once-over and then took off into roughly the same direction they'd been going the day before.

"[You know, at least you didn't dig a sleeping pit. That would've taken the cake.]" Straßenbauer commented off-handedly, to which Eisenhans answered him with a shit-eating grin:

"[Actually, I was thinking about that at first.]"

"[Oh no, please don't.]" Straßenbauer whined.

It was still early in the morning, when Spike woke up. The sun had barely risen over the treetops of the Everfree and the birds were just about to start their song. He had to hurry. Twilight would wake up soon and Spike prided himself with always having breakfast ready by the time Twilight came down.

He swung himself out of his bed and made his way down the crystal floors, into the kitchen, where he prepared Twilight's favourite: Pancakes.
Once they were just right, he stacked them atop one another and covered them in syrup, before carefully carrying the prepared plate over to Twilight's seat.

Then he waited. And waited. Then waited some more. Normally, Twilight would be awake by now, but there have already been plenty of days, where she overslept. No matter. As her #1 Assistant, it was also Spike's duty to make sure she got out on time. Thus, he went back up and gently knocked on Twilight's bedroom door. When no answer came, he carefully pushed it open, looked through... and saw Twilight's bed completely untouched.

Spike sighed. He knew, what this meant. It wasn't the first time that Twilight had pulled an all-nighter and for some reason, she had been really fixated on these sounds she heard in the Everfree. He went back down, where he saw that the basement door was slightly ajar and light was shining through it. He opened it completely and stepped through, before descending the stairs into Twilight's lab.

A multitude of machines was humming quietly, a few dials and control lights blinking rythmically, when Spike entered the lab.

There she was. Half sitting and half lying on her desk, her head resting on her front hooves and droll lightly dripping from the corner of her mouth. Twilight had yet again fallen asleep during her research.

"Twilight, wake up! It's morning!" Spike said gently, while he shook her awake.

"Wha... Spike? What time is it?" Twilight asked groggily, to which Spike replied:

"Uhh... 7:30-ish?"

Suddenly, Twilight seemed wide-awake and jumped from her chair, shoving Spike off his feet in doing so.

"Oh dear Celestia, I overslept the test results!" She squeaked, as she quickly ran to one of her many machines and took an already printed datasheet from it. Said Datasheet showed a table with a range of strange words, each of which had a number assigned to them. Most likely these were concentrations or frequencies or whatever, and the according number was the respective scale.

"AHA!" Twilight said triumphantly, after scanning the results a few times. "There are some remnants of a spike in the mana flux!"

"What do I have to do with the mana flux?" Spike questioned, only now recovering from Twilight's shove just earlier and still being a bit dazed.

"Haha, very funny." Twilight said unamused. "I mean that something powerful must've either drawn or released a massive amount of mana. Which one exactly is as of yet unclear. However, what is definitely clear is that something happened."

Spike deadpanned at her. "So... you slept in the lab, just to confirm that something happened, as if that wasn't already clear from the beginning."

Twilight fumbled a bit, seemingly wanting to argue against him, but ultimately could only smile sheepishly and give an equally sheepish answer.

"Ummm... Yes? Well, I will get clearer results, once I run a few more tests, but..."

Spike sighed. In moments like these, he really seriously questioned his sister's sanity... and thus, by extension, also his own.

"Nevermind. Breakfast is ready. We should go eat." Spike said, as he turned to make his way back up the stairs.

"Yeah, I could really use a bite now." Twilight admitted. "What did you--" She wanted to ask, just when Spike opened the door to her lab and the smell reached her.

"Oooooooh, pancakes!" She squee'd and quickly ascended stairs, nearly toppling Spike a second time.

Meanwhile in the Everfree Forest, Straßenbauer and Eisenhans had stopped for a short rest - not because they were tired, but because they happened upon a small creek and decided to top off their supplies.

They managed to each empty a bottle by filling the remaining contents into their canteens and other bottles and were now going to refill them... or rather, Straßenbauer was. Since it was Eisenhans's turn on the MG, he was also the one keeping watch now.

While his friend scanned their surroundings for anything that might be off, Straßenbauer went over to the creek with both bottles under one arm, and his opened MRE in the other. He then knelt down next to the creek and opened one of the bottles, over which he then draped a handkerchief - his own, not Eisenhans's. Just to be certain, he folded the handkerchief once, to create a makeshift double-layered filter mesh that should filter out most larger and medium-sized particles.

He attached the cloth with two rubber bands he carried and then submerged the bottle with the opening pointing downstream to reduce the risk of the current pushing dirt through the filter.

It took a moment for the water to make its way through the cloth, but eventually, the bottle started slowly filling up. Once it was at capacity, he took it out, removed the cloth and then took a purification pill from his MRE, which he then dropped into the bottle.

He closed the bottle and let the pill work its magic. Meanwhile, he took his handkerchief and scanned it for any larger particles that might still be stuck in the mesh and which would have to be removed before the next use. Seeing none, he attached the filter onto the second bottle, but used a different spot on the cloth, just to be safe.

After repeating the same procedure with the second bottle, as he did with the first, he now had two bottles with purified water. It was certainly not going to taste good, but it would keep them alive.

As Straßenbauer packed up and went back to Eisenhans to give him his bottle, he came to think about how lucky it was for them to just stumble upon a creek here in the middle of nowhere... though, perhaps luck wasn't as involved as one might think at first.

After all, who in their right mind would build a castle without a water supply?

The castle in question - or its ruins, rather - stood a few hundred metres away from them, where the creek snaked down a small slope and through a ravine, over which a bridge led to the castle's entrance. Eisenhans had chosen the edge of said slope for his watch, not for any tactical reason, but simply because it afforded him a clear view over the ruins.

"[Some watchpost you are, looking at ruins, instead of actually covering.]" Straßenbauer complained jokingly, while handing Eisenhans his bottle.

"[Guilty as accused.]" Eisenhans answered. "[Though, I mean...]" He said, before turning around and pointing at the castle. "[You can't really blame me for taking in the view, can you? Castle ruins in a forest, makes ya feel right at home, doesn't it?]"

"[True enough, I suppose.]" Straßenbauer conceded, while donning his gear. He then stood up next to Eisenhans and joined him in his sightseeing for a few moments, before turning to him and asking: "[Are you thinking the same thing as I am?]"

"[Absolutely.]" Answered Eisenhans, before they both turned around and went back onto the path they had found earlier, that steered them well clear of the ruins, all while singing:

"♫Fuck this shit, I'm out! Mhmmmm, Fuck this shit, I'm out! No thanks!♫"

After all, coming from a country that's filled with ruins of all kinds, they knew full-well that animals liked to seek shelter within those. Seeing their previous encounter with said animals, they would rather not push their luck.

An hour later, Eisenhans and Straßenbauer were still following said path, which now led them up along the side of a mountain and gave them a good overview of the forest, up to the castle they had seen earlier.

They took a moment to take in the sight and listen to the ambience. It sounded peaceful, as if the monstrum they had encountered the day before, was naught but a hallucination.

"[You know, with the forest looking so peaceful, it's hard to believe, what kinds of creatures seem to live in there.]" Eisenhans commented, to which the forest itself seemingly answered, as a hydra shoved its heads through the canopy in the distance, throwing a manticore up with it and ripping it in half, before wandering off to a place unseen.

Both soldiers stood wide-eyed and stared silently at the display, before Straßenbauer turned to Eisenhans:

"[I was about to say: Don't say that! The spirit of the forest is listening and it doesn't like being challenged.]"

"[The spirit of the forest, huh?]" Eisenhans echoed incredulously. "[Do you really believe in things like that?]"

In response, Straßenbauer gave him a pointed look and indicated to where they'd just seen the hydra pop out of the canopy.

"[Fair enough.]" Eisenhans conceded, before pondering for a moment and looking at Straßenbauer with a scheming smirk.

"[You know, I'm actually kinda glad that we haven't found an obvious indicator towards the shortest path to civilisation yet.]" He said.

Suddenly, they felt the mountain rumble, as a landslide sent several small rocks down the mountain only a few metres in front of them... followed by a massive boulder that firmly lodged itself onto the path, blocking it completely. Eisenhans and Straßenbauer looked at it with wide eyes for a few moments, before the latter sighed and turned around.

"[Alright, this either means that the spirit of the forest is now properly pissed off, or that we've been going the wrong way this entire time and honestly, I don't want to think about either.]" Straßenbauer sighed, as he took the MG from Eisenhans and took point on their return trip.

"Same." Eisenhans agreed.

Another hour later, they found themselves back at the creek and the castle. This time without filling up their bottles, seeing as they still had plenty. However, that didn't stop them from taking in the view one last time.

"[Ah yes, beautiful castle ruins. The half-caved halls, the crumbling walls, the partially collapsed towers...]" Straßenbauer mused aloud. "[...makes me really wanna blow it all up. Sadly, we didn't pack any Explosives.]"

Eisenhans slowly turned to his friend with a very questioning look. "[Have you spontaneously joined Al-Qaeda while I wasn't looking, or why have you suddenly gotten a taste for bombing towers?]" He questioned.

"[It's not just the towers, it's the whole thing!]" Straßenbauer defended. "[It's just that, whoever demolished this place has done a really shoddy job at it and that's bugging me. Y'know, like... like how you get, when someone doesn't space the wires on a barbed wire fence properly and you just wanna go in and fix it yourself.]"

Eisenhans had to admit that he knew exactly what he meant, but that didn't mean that he had to concede.
"[So you're saying that you want to demolish this potentially historical site, simply because of a case of explosive-OCD?]" He pointed out.

Straßenbauer paused a moment and then nodded. "[Pretty much, yes.]"

A few moments passed between the two, where Eisenhans was just looking at his friend with a tilted head and a raised eyebrow. Ultimately, he couldn't quite keep his face straight though and started to smirk, as he marched off again.

"[Let's just keep moving, before you find a way to fashion a bomb out of some flowers.]" He chuckled, as he took point again.

"[Ooooh, do you think, some of these plants here might be explosive?]" Straßenbauer asked, with a bit more glee than a sane person should.

Inventory Check
Ammo:
569 rounds 7.62x51

586 rounds 5.56x45 (total)

Food Rations
2MREs (3d left)
2 opened MREs (1d left)

4x 1.5l Water Bottle (2l mineral water, 3l purified water total)

2x 1l Canteen (empty)

Author's Note

I feel like Twilight came out a bit too childish... Meh, I'll just call 4D Character design and fix it in the coming chapters... or not, we'll see. :rainbowwild:

Two Germans And a Pony Town

Another day, another friendship problem solved. Twilight and her friends were strolling through Ponyville, chatting happily as they went on their way to sugar cube corner, where a few well-deserved treats were waiting for them.

"Seriously, though: how should I have known that the best way was to simply throw a party?" Rainbow Dash argued jokingly, hovering in front front of her friends and slowly flying backwards as she did.

"And that's why you never leave home without your best-pal party-pony, Pinkie Pie!" Pinkie chirped. "I can make anypony smile." She proclaimed, eliciting a round of giggle from the other mares.

"Can't argue 'gainst that." Applejack conceded. "Though it felt a tad weird bein' at a party fer a colt we only knew fer an hour or two."

"Yes. It felt scary standing betwen all these unknown ponies." Fluttershy whispered.

"Hey, at least you didn't hide under a table this time, so that's progress." Rainbow pointed out, to which Fluttershy shrunk a bit behind her mane.

"Only because the tables didn't have overhanging tablecloths, so it would've only drawn more attention if I had." She admitted quietly.

Everyone rolled their eyes at that, albeit with an amused smile.

"Well, I suppose it's a step in the right direction, for the wrong reasons." Rarity said.

"But a step nonetheless. We might just see the day, where Fluttershy is no longer afraid of Pon--"
As she was saying this, Twilight suddenly got a very weird feeling and had the urge to look around. Behind her, in the distance, she could see the edge of the Everfree Forest. It was calm. Undisturbed, apart form the wind blowing through its leaves.

"I'm not afraid of Ponies!" Fluttershy asserted. "I just don't... Twilight? What's wrong?" she asked cautiously, when she noticed her friend looking over her shoulder.

"Huh?" Twilight voiced, when she was dragged back into the present. "Oh, uh, nothing, I just... I felt watched, all of a sudden."

Despite Twilight's calm attitude, Fluttershy was still plenty spooked by the prospect that somepony might be watching them and quickly shrunk back into her mane, while her friends were looking around, themselves.

"Watched? Really?" Rainbow asked with a hint of concern. "Who do you think would be watch-- oh." Only for that concern to shift into slight annoyance, when she followed Twilight's gaze and saw she was looking at the Everfree. "This is about these weird sounds again, isn't it?"

"Hm? What? Uhh..." Twilight was a bit confused about what she could possibly mean by that, but the more she thought about it, the more she had to concede: "... maybe? I don't know. I just... suddenly felt like somepony was watching me."

"Well, you were rather obsessed with them for the past few days, if you don't mind me saying so." Rarity pointed out. "Which reminds me, you said something about some further analysis. Would you mind sharing what you found out?"

"Not as much as I'd like." Twilight admitted. "From what I can tell, a few mana streams converged and caused a surge that had a space-bending effect. Likely a portal of some kind."

"A portal? Did you find out, where it went?" Rarity asked.

"Not yet. I also can't say just yet, what the noises had to to with it." Twilight stated.

"Maybe there ain't no connection? Y'know, correlation doesn't mean causality or whatev'r ya said that one time?" Applejack suggested.

"Maybe, but as long as I can't rule it out entirely, I'll treat it as related." Twilight said.

"Geez, have you all suddenly turned into eggheads or what?!" Rainbow suddenly interjected.

"Well, excuse me! A lady can have interests beyond fashion, I'll have you know, or are you only interested in flying fast and napping?" Rarity pointed out.

"Well, I can tell you at least one thing that I'm also interested in and that's right there!" Rainbow said and pointed a hoof towards Sugarcube Corner, which was only a few paces away by now. She then sped towards and through the door to the establishment, leaving her friends in dumbfounded silence.

"HEY! You're gonna replace those doors, you hear me?!" Pinkie shouted after her friend, as she and the rest followed her to finally get their treats.

"[... You think she saw us?]" Straßenbauer asked, as he and Eisenhans watched the town from beneath the forest edge's underbrush.

"[I don't think so.]" Eisenhans answered. "[But man... we're really in magical pony land, aren't we? Now I kinda regret zoning out, whenever my sister started talking about it...]" He sighed, as he put down the binoculars.

"[Yeah, I kinda wish I had watched the show, when I had the chance. Read a few fimfics though.]" Straßenbauer added, to which his friend gave him a rather telling sideways look.

"[Man, I knew you're weird.]" He chuckled.

"[What? You givin' me flak 'cause I'm into fimfics?]" Straßenbauer defended.

"[Nah, I don't judge, and besides: I've seen our chief in a fursuit once, so nothing shocks me anymore.]" Eisenhans remembered with a shudder. "[No, what I actually find weird is that you read fanfictions without actually watching the show. I mean, how did you get context for what you were reading?]"

Straßenbauer shrugged to this. "[Well, I mean, I did watch the first two episodes and for everything beyond that I had the wiki, so--]" He explained, but was cut off by Eisenhans.

"[So you did watch the show.]" He pointed out.

"[It was just two episodes!]" Straßenbauer whined.

"[But you did watch it.]" Eisenhans doubled down.

Straßenbauer sighed and gave Eisenhans a deadpan look.
"[Yes. If you want to be pedantic, I have indeed watched the show.]"

"[See? Wasn't that hard to admit, wasn't it?]" Eisenhans grinned, leaving Straßenbauer to grumble to himself, while they resumed their watch...

For only a few moments, before Straßenbauer noticed something:
"[Wait, what did you mean you saw our chief in a fursuit? When - or rather how - did that happen?]"

Now it was Eisenhans's turn to be uncomfortable.
"[No comment.]" He told Straßenbauer.

"Nenenene, du kommst mir jetzt nicht mit einem 'Kein Kommentar' davon!" (Nonononono, you won't just get away with a 'No Comment'!) Straßenbauer pressed.

"Kriegst aber keinen." (You won't get one, though.) Eisenhans countered.

"Ey, jetzt komm' schon! Ich erzähl dir hier meine Lebensgeschichte und du gibst mir überhaupt nichts?" (Come on, I told you my life story and you give me nothing in return?) Straßenbauer demanded forcefully.

"What a peculiar language I hear,
I can't see the source, but it seems to be ne-EEEEEEE!" Zecora said and, as a result, suddenly found herself looking down the business-end of Straßenbauer's rifle.

"Tja, so viel zu 'Tarnen und Täuschen'1." (Well, so much for staying hidden.) Eisenhans snarked.

His friend turned around to him, his rifle still aimed at Zecora, and told him over his shoulder: "Noch wurde nicht alarmiert..." (They haven't been alerted yet...) before turning back around to Zecora smiling and saying: "Sorry, Zecora: no witnesses."

The next thing Zecora saw, was Straßenbauer's fist rapidly approaching her muzzle.

"[Yo, what the fuck!]" Eisenhans half-shouted, as Zecora went down.

"Relaaaaaax"2 Straßenbauer waved off. "[We're playing by cartoon logic. She isn't actually hurt.]"

Eisenhans blinked at Straßenbauer a few times. "[Cartoon logic? Really?]" He asked rethorically. "[You do remember that Manticore-thingy and, specifically, how it died, after we filled it with bullets, right?]"

Straßenbauer looked wide-eyed at Eisenhans for a moment, before looking down to Zecora and noticing a few drops of blood dripping from her visibly disfigured muzzle. She was still breathing, at the very least.

"Fuck!" Straßenbauer cursed, as he knelt down and immediately rendered first aid.

"[So who was it again, who swore to never harm the innocent?]" Eisenhans snarked, as he stood beside Straßenbauer.

"[Less snarking, more helping!]" Straßenbauer demanded and Eisenhans complied, albeit not without giving him a "[Yeah-Yeah, I'm on it]".

The two worked quickly, adjusting the muzzle back into its original position, stabilizing it with some sticks and a rubber band and then stuffed some Cotton plugs into her nostrils to stop the bleeding.

"[There, that should do the trick for now.]" Eisenhans stated, once Zecora was patched up. "[So what do we do now?]"

"[Good question.]" Straßenbauer replied. "[If I remember correctly, Fluttershy should be living nearby, so maybe we should drop her off there.]"

"[Fluttershy?]" Eisenhans asked, scratching his chin in thought. "[Wasn't she a veterinary or something?]"

Straßenbauer shrugged. "[Yesn't. I think she's more of an animal caretaker, but it's the closest to a doctor we can get, without going into town proper.]"

"[So... why don't we just do that? I mean, she's seen us anyways, so there is no real point in trying to stay hidden.]" Eisenhans pointed out, to which Straßenbauer grinned sheepishly and scratched his head uncomfortably.

"[Uhh, yeah, thing is...]" He paused for a moment. "[Thing is, in some of the fics I read, the ponies were man-eaters.]"

For a few moments, nobody said a words. There were only the trees slowly swaying in the wind, their leaves rustling, their barks creaking and Eisenhans deadpanning at Straßenbauer.

"[Seriously?]" He asked flatly. "[You don't want us to make contact yet, because of some intel you've got from fanfiction?]"

"[Correct.]" Straßenbauer confirmed with a nod.

Eisenhans sighed. He would've liked to argue against him, but unfortunately, Straßenbauer's experience with fimfics was the only source of intel they had for now.

"[Alright. Let's just get moving.]" He sighed and went to get the MG, while Straßenbauer picked up Zecora and slung her over his shoulder. They then both made their way into roughly the direction Straßenbauer guessed, would be where Fluttershy lived.

"[So how did you know it was Zecora, anyways?]" Eisenhans asked out of nowhere.

"[The rhyming.]" Straßenbauer answered. "[That god-forsaken rhyming. You know, I'm actually quite fond of poems and such, but She's rhyming just because and that tends to get on my nerves.]"

"[Ah.]" Eisenhans nodded, before a thought sprang up in his mind.

"[Waaaaaaaaait, so you mean, you don't really like Zecora?]" He asked somewhat accusingly.

"[It's not that I don't like her, it's just her rhyming.]" Straßenbauer clarified. "[But yes, I know what you're thinking and I can't deny the punch might've been premeditated.]"

A few minutes - and a few backtracks - later, Straßenbauer and Eisenhans were standing right in front of Fluttershy's cottage.

"[So...]" Straßenbauer started. "[I guess, she isn't home yet.]"

"[What makes you think that?]" Eisenhans asked, to which Straßenbauer pointed forwards, towards a big wall of pelt that was standing between them and Fluttershy's door with crossed paws.

"[The bear.]" Straßenbauer stated.

The animal in question huffed. It didn't know, what kind of creatures it was facing, but Fluttershy had asked him to watch her home while she was gone and he was determined to perform this duty to the best of his ability - albeit mostly, because he knew Fluttershy would reward him for it later.

Still, seeing them carry that striped pony-thingy that he sometimes saw visit her, was just a tad unnerving.

"[Ah.]" Eisenhans replied. "[You think, he's her bouncer or something?]" He asked somewhat doubting.

"[Well no, a bouncer would be employed. I'd wager, he's just a friend with ambitions.]" Straßenbauer mused.

Eisenhans's look slowly morphed from doubt to something that can only be described as intrigued, and somewhat amused, disgust.

"[How... how would that even work? I mean, a pony... and a bear...]" As he said that, he gesstured the vague heights of both creatures with his hand, symbolizing that that might not quite work out.

Straßenbauer stopped and looked at Eisenhans over his shoulder. He wanted to clarify, wha he had meant, but before he could do so, he remembered something and had to revise his intention.

"[You know, I just wanted to clarify that I didn't mean that, but now I vaguely remember some fimfics, where exactly that happened, so who knows.]" He said and looked back at the bear again. "[In any case, we should probably get back on track, now shouldn't we?]"

He made a few careful steps towards the pelted door latch and spoke to him in german-accented english:
"Greetings, good sir. We've had a little accident and would require some help. Your hostess wouldn't happen to be available, right now?"

Eisenhans wanted to doubt his partner's sanity, but to his utmost suprise, the bear suddenly shook his head, as if he understood.

"Ah, I see." Straßenbauer said, upon seeing the bear's reply. "Well, in that case, would you mind to take care of her for now, until your hostess returns? I know, it's rather impolite to just leave like that, but unfortunately, we have things to do and places to be."

The bear, of course, wasn't fooled by this. He had seen he other one tap this one's foot, once he saw Fluttershy approaching in the distance. However, he could understand these two. Everyone of Fluttershy's friends were afraid at first and scouted her home while she wasn't there, before they actually approached her. It was a pattern he had seen plenty of times before.

Except for the pony with the broken muzzle. That one was new.

The bear took Zecora into his paws and rested her against his pelt, so she wouldn't be sore, once Fluttershy took her in.

"Thanks. Could you also please..." Straßenbauer took a piece of paper from his front pocket and wrote a few words onto it, before folding it and handing ot over to the bear. "...give her this, once she's here?"

Seeing no issue with it, the bear also took the little note.

"Splendid, well..." At that moment, the other one tapped this one's shoulder again, rather forcefully and nodded towards the already rather close Fluttershy. "... I think, we should get going. Until we meet again!"

Straßenbauer gave the bear a quick wave, befoer he and Eisenhans sprinted back into the underbrush and hid in it. They were rather sure that the bear knew they weren't actually gone and might call them out, but it was a risk they had to take, if they wanted to gauge Fluttershy's reaction.

"[... you know what's bothering me, now that I think about it?]" Straßenbauer asked quietly.

"[What?]" Eisenhans replied.

"[That Zecora hasn't woken up yet. Do you think, I perhaps hit her a tad too hard?]"

Fluttershy was a happy mare - and why wouldn't she be? After all, today, she and her friends help a little colt resolve a friendship problem, she had a nice chat with her friends, and she got to fill herself with her favourite treats! Now, all that was left for her to do, was to return home and see that her bear friend was holding an unconscious Zec- wait what?!

Fluttershy gasped and rushed the remaining few metres to her friend.

"W-What happened?!" She squeaked, once she reched him and the bear replied with a fwe growls and grumbles.

"What? Two weird, bipedal creatures came from the Everfree, carrying her and said they needed help after an accident?" Fluttershy repeated and the bear growled some more.

"They also left e a note?" She asked, as the bear handed (pawed?) her a folded piece of paper.

She unfolded the note and saw, that it only had three words written on it, in massive font:

"WE ARE SORRY!"

She blinked at the note a few times, before sighing and hoofing it back.

"Well, I think, they are sincere about it. Let's take Zecora inside. It seems, they've already rendered first aid, so now we just need to keep her warm and cozy, until she wakes up... and make sure to have a bucket nearby."

The bear opened the door for her and made space for her to go inside, while growling some more.

"Yes, I know, they are hiding the the bushes behind me. I saw them run away when I came home. I'm a pegasus, remember? I have bird eyes." Fluttershy said, with a short glance over her back. "If they don't want to introduce themselves yet, it's fine. I won't force them. For now, we should just care about Zecora."

With that, both, the bear and Fluttershy, went inside.

Author's Note

1 'Tarnen und Täuschen' (lit. Camouflage and Deception) is a segment in basic training, the name of which, like in this case, is often used instead of just saying: 'hiding / staying hidden'

2 Yes, he actually said that and I didn't forget the brackets.

Yes, I know, I said that I woud upload more often, only to then upload less often. In my defense: for some reason, my profs thought it would be nice to have us write FOUR THESES this semester.

Pain, peko. :raritydespair:

Anyway, I'll try to go for a chapter a month, at least. Gonna try to upload more often, but can't promise anything.

Well... until next chapter! :twilightsmile:

Two Germans Make a New Friend (almost)

It only took Fluttershy a few minutes to get Zecora to wake up. She cared for her friend, made sure there were no open wounds, and made her a pot of her best tea, to ease the throbbing pain in Zecora's head.

Zecora sat up on Fluttershy's couch when the mare returned. Fluttershy gave her a freshly poured cup of tea and set the pot on the table in front of her. Zecora took a sip and immediately felt nature's wonders begin to work on her sore skull. It was a very welcome relief, not only to her head.

The first thing she had done after waking up was to use the bucket Fluttershy had prepared. It was a natural phenomenon and one that she was only too aware of. That didn't make the lingering taste any better, though.

"Thank you, Fluttershy," she said after taking a sip. "I never knew, how much of--"

Zecora froze and her eyes widened. Fluttershy watched with concern as Zecora lifted a hoof to her mouth and held it there, as if to keep something in.

"Zecora? What's wrong?" Fluttershy asked and Zecora said with a quiet voice:

"My rhyme... They stole my rhyme..."

"... Is that... good or bad?" Fluttershy asked innocently, only to quickly scurry back when Zecora fixed her with a very angry gaze.

"Good?! How could this possibly be good?! It's the worst thing they could've ever done to me!" she shouted angrily, jumping up and almost kicking the teapot off the table. "Rhyming is the symbol of a shaman! It displays our position, shows our wisdom and they just STOLE IT from me!"

Zecora grunted and made for the door, but the bear blocked her way.

"Let me out, you vile wall of pelt! I have to leave, NOW!" She shouted, but the bear didn't budge.

"Zecora, please, calm down. We can help you, if you want. You just need to--"

"I don't want your help, I want their heads!" Zecora screamed, as she tried - and failed - to press past the bear.

Fluttershy sighed.

"Okay, I guess that means we have to take the hard way." she said to nopony in particular, before speaking to the bear. "Would you please be so kind as to hold her while I go and get the joy jacket?"

The bear nodded and grabbed Zecora while Fluttershy went into one of her storage chambers. Zecora screamed and shouted in rage and tried to free herself, but ultimately to no avail...

"[... I feel insulted.]" Straßenbauer stated, as he and Eisenhans looked over the outskirts of Ponyville from their new observation point.

"[Yeah, I getcha. Took me a moment, but I getcha.]" Eisenhans agreed.

The two had relocated after watching Fluttershy take Zecora into her house and treat her. Mostly because it felt a bit weird to watch someone sleep through a window.

"[Seriously, though: who in their right mind builds a castle in the shape of a giant middle finger?]" Straßenbauer asked in playfully overdone agitation, and pointed towards the castle.

"[If you keep screaming like that, we'll have another pony sneak up on us soon.]" Eisenhans reprimanded.

"[Nah, don't worry.]" Straßenbauer waved him off. "[Zecora only managed to do so because I let my guard down. I guess finding to be in magical pony land had me slacking a bit.]" He admitted.

"[If you say so...]" Eisenhans said, unconvinced.

The two then lay there for a few minutes in silence, until Straßenbauer spoke up again.

"[You know, now that I think about it: Ponies don't have hands, so they couldn't know about the middle finger.]"

"[Well, duh, but the animation team probably did.]" Eisenhans replied, making Straßenbauer roll his eyes.

"[Ok, yeah, but I don't think Lauren Faust created this universe, now did she? If anything, this universe probably influenced her when she wrote the story.]" He mused.

"[How?]" Eisenhans asked with a raised eyebrow. Straßenbauer didn't really have an answer for that, which he signified with an overly elaborate shrug.

"[I dunno.]" He said. "4th degree, inter-dimensional warp fuckery?"

After saying that, he looked around, seemingly waiting for something. When nothing happened, he turned back to Eisenhans.
"[You know, I was half expecting Games Workshop to come crashing through time and space, to give me a CnD.]"

Eisenhans almost had trouble keeping up with Straßenbauer's shenanigans by this point, but answered anyways:
"[Why? I mean that quote was from TTS, isn't that a fan project?]"

"[Well yes, but in recent days, Games Workshop has been punching everyone in the face, who even just tangentially-]"

Straßenbauer cut himself off and he and Eisenhans both whirled around to look behind them.

They were being watched.

Only a few metres behind them stood an entity. It looked somewhat like a pony in its shape, but that's where the similarities ended. Its 'coat' was green and mossy, seemingly consisting of living plant matter. The same went for its mane, which was seemingly made out of lianas, hanging down almost all the way to the ground. It stood almost as tall as Straßenbauer and was thus a good bit taller than Eisenhans. Its eyes had no irises, only two black pupils that were trained on the two and its face held neither nostrils, nor a mouth.

Eisenhans and Straßenbauer stood there petrified for a moment, as they beheld the entity. It wasn't threatening in its pose and didn't approach them any further. However, the way that it remained completely still, save for its eyes that flicked between the two every once in a while, made it feel very uncanny. Especially considering that the lack of movement in its chest area also suggested that it wasn't breathing at all - at least not in the usual sense.

"Das Viech ist gruselig." (That creature's creepy.) Straßenbauer said after a few tense seconds.

"No shit, Sherlock." Eisenhans hissed. "'ne Idee, was das für ein Viech ist?" (Any idea, what kinda creature that is?)

"Nope." Straßenbauer replied. "Zumindest sieht's bisher nicht feindlich aus." (At least, it doesn't look hostile, thus far.)

At that moment, they both happened to blink at the same time... and the entity reacted.

Eisenhans didn't notice it, but Straßenbauer, with his senses on overdrive, very much did. The sudden, light gust of air that carried a very brief scent of wet moss. The very subtle and very slight shift in the soil in front of him. The sudden, vague sense that just for a brief moment, something was right in front of him.

When their eyes opened again, the entity was just where it was, seemingly as unmoving as before. Straßenbauer, however, knew better than this.

"Oh fu-hu-hu-hu-huuuck." He cursed with a chuckle that was born of a slight panic that now crept up in him. In a swift motion, he quickly adopted a combat stance, with his left leg slightly forward and his rifle aimed at the creature.

The creature's eyes flicked briefly to the black object it saw in Straßenbauer's hands, before looking up, straight into his eyes.

"Was? Was ist los?" (What? What is it?) Eisenhans asked nervously, as he saw his friend panicking.

"Das Viech... Es war gerade genau vor mir, während ich geblinzelt habe." (The creature... it was right in front of me, when I blinked.) Straßenbauer wheezed, his pulse almost audible in his voice. Though, despite his audible fear, he was... smiling? His face was split with an almost maniacal grin. It was at this moment, that the entity noticed that Straßenbauer was in fact not afraid... he was excited.

"Oh Scheiße." Eisenhans cursed, adopting a slightly lower stance as well. Unfortunately for him, though, his MG and rifle were rested on the ground behind him and he didn't dare turn his back on the entity, after Straßenbauer's statement.

A few minutes passed, both sides staring at the other without making a move. The air was tense, each side staring the other down, but neither side making a move.

Eisenhans's eyes flicked between the entity and his friend. Both of them seemed locked in a stare-down. He knew for a fact that Straßenbauer would not act unless acted upon, but what about the entity? He trusted his friend's awareness, despite what happened with Zecora. That meant that the entity had actually stepped up to them once... but it hadn't taken any offensive action...

Eisenhans took a deep breath. Maybe, they got this all wrong? Maybe, the entity was just as afraid as they were and all it needed was a first contact?

Taking all of his courage, he decided to make a move - literally. He slowly stepped forwards, quickly gaining the attention of the entity. Straßenbauer saw what his friend was doing and slightly lowered his rifle, so that Eisenhans wouldn't pass through his cone of fire.

Eisenhans walked towards the entity, with his hands slightly outstretched in a placating pose, but also so that he could try and wrestle the entity, should it turn out to be hostile. He knew Straßenbauer had his back, but even he needed time to react.

Slowly, he went ever closer to the entity. However, just when he was close enough and wanted to start talking... the entity vanished.

"[Great, now you scared it.]" Straßenbauer complained.

"[I scared IT?! My brother in christ, I think you got something very backwards there.]" Eisenhans wheezed back. "[What was that anyways?!]"

Straßenbauer shrugged. "[I dunno. Maybe Games Workshop sent it? The timing would've matched, at least.]"

Eisenhans didn't have to say his thoughts out loud, for Straßenbauer to understand the look he was giving him.

"[Yeah yeah, alright, I know. But you know, what it could've been? The spirit of the forst that you angered yesterday.]" Straßenbauer pointed out. Eisenhans wanted to say something against that, as well, but had to admit that it wasn't as unlikely, as he wanted it to be.

"[Let's just... hope for the best.]" He simply said. "[In any case, we should probably set up camp, soon. The sun's setting, already.]"

Straßenbauer agreed. The both got their equipment, made sure that everything was accounted for and then went back a bit deeper into the forest.

They were fully aware that this was where the entity likely fled to.

When Twilight entered Fluttershy's home that evening, she was greeted by a rather peculiar sight. Fluttershy and a bear were sitting at her coffee table with Angel Bunny cpnspicuously absent. Right in front of them, on the couch on the other side of the table, sat Zecora with her forehooves bound across her chest and her rear hooves left with just barely enough freedom of motion to keep herself upright.

"Uhh... what's going on here?" she asked uncertainly.

"Hi, Twilight." Fluttershy responded. "I was just having a nice and relaxing conversation with our dear friend, Zecora."

"Yes... relaxing..." The zebra in question parroted, visibly annoyed. "I would be far more relaxed if I wasn't stuck in this stupid jacket."

Twilight found herself thrown for a loop, for a moment. She could've sworn she just heard Zecora speak normally.

Fluttershy read her friend's thoughts and answered, before Twilight could even ask.

"Yes, Twilight, Zecora lost her rhyme." However, before she could continue, Zecora butted in with her voice raised.

"I didn't lose my rhyme, Fluttershy! It was stolen from me by these vile bipeds!"

Twilight looked over to Fluttershy, with a questioning, slightly nervous look. One that Fluttershy almost immediately picked up on.

"She was brought here unconscious by two bipedal creatures who came from the Everfree, and--" she said, but was interrupted again, this time by Twilight.

"Bipedal creatures?! From the EVERFREE?! Ooooh, maybe they're connected to the--" she almost started babbling, her wings twitching with excitement, but stopped when Fluttershy fixed with a look.
"Heh... sorry. Please, go on."

"... So, as I was saying..." Fluttershy continued, slightly annoyed. "They were apparently involved in an accident, and--"

"Pff, yeah, as accidental as a kick to the face can be." Zecora grumbled, as Fluttershy sighed her annoyance away.

"Wait... so you mean, they're dangerous?" Twilight asked with slight concern, but to her relief, Fluttershy shook her head.

"I don't think so. After all, they brought her here, instead of hurting her more, or even... you know."

"I would rather have them finish the job." Zecora spat. "Losing your rhyme as a shaman is worse than losing your life! I swear, once I get out of this stupid jacket, I will--"

Zecora was about to go on a rant again, but then she saw the look, Fluttershy was fixing her with. The mare was clearly fed up with Zecora's antics and showed her quite clearly, that she would never leave the jacket ever again, if she dared finish that sentence.

"I will..." Zecora shrunk down a little and became a bit quieter. "I will... go home... calm down, and try to figure something out, tomorrow."

Fluttershy was visibly pleased by this answer. She and the bear helped Zecora out of the restraining jacket and the Zebra then quietly left, with her ears down, her tail between her legs and only a few glances back towards the still-smiling mare.

Meanwhile Twilight stood to the side, both astounded and also a bit frightened of her friend.

It was a few minutes past 1am, when Eisenhans was shaken awake by his friend.

"[Yo, Eisenhans. Your turn.]" Straßenbauer said, as he knelt next to Eisenhans's sleeping bag.

"[Yeah, yeah, gimme just a minute.]" Eisenhans replied, still groggy. He started putting his clothes on, while Straßenbauer was still beside him.
"[So, anything I need to know, before taking my shift?]" He asked, more as a routine question and not because he was actually expecting an answer.

"[Yes, actually.]" Straßenbauer replied, to his surprise, and pointed off into the dark. "[We have a visitor.]"

There, just barely illuminated by the flickering light of the fire, stood the entity, staring at them both, like it was before.

"[JESUS CHRIST!]" Eisenhans shouted, when he noticed it.

"[Yeah, she just suddenly turned up at around 11 and has been chilling there since then.]" Straßenbauer explained.

"[Wait, she? How would you know that?]" Eisenhans questioned.

"[I walked up to her.]" Straßenbauer stated, as if it was obvious. "[Surprisingly, she didn't teleport away, when I did, so I had a closer look.]"

Eisenhans suddenly looked visibly unnerved and even slightly disgusted. "[Wait, you... You looked at...]"

He didn't finish his sentence, his face contorted and his arms held out in a "What the fuck" - gesture.

Straßenbauer rolled his eyes. "[Yes, I knelt down beside her and saw her teats dangling from her barrel. I know, I get it, you may call me a pervert now.]"

Eisenhans breathed a small sigh of relief. "[No, no, it's okay, I just thought, you... Nevermind, forget it.]" He said and shook his head. "[Anyways, any thoughts on what we should do about her?]" He asked and Straßenbauer shrugged.

"[Honestly, I'd say just let her be. Haven't seen a single Timberwolf, since she showed up.]"

"[Ha-haaaaa.]" Eisenhans intoned, with an eyeroll. "[As if there had been any, before.]"

To his slight horror, he saw Straßenbauer suspiciously look away.

"[There haven't been, right?]" He asked, nervously. However, Straßenbauer only fueled his horror more, by chuckling dryly and scratching his neck.

"[Uhh, you remember the flash fire I caused on the first night, right?]"

"[...You said, you just underestimated, how flammable that wood was.]" Eisenhans said, accusingly.

"[Well yes... but I didn't say, where that wood came from, now did I?]" Straßenbauer said carefully.

Eisenhans, now visibly exasperated, threw his hands up. "[You know what? Don't tell me. I don't want to know!]" He said, very pointedly. "[You're now going to sleep and I'm taking my shift... and tomorrow we'll have a serious talk, about whether it's more risky to make contact with the ponies or to stay in this forest.]"

Straßenbauer nodded his agreement.
"[Fair enough.]"

Inventory Check
Ammo:
569 rounds 7.62x51

586 rounds 5.56x45

Food Rations:
2 MREs (3d left)

4x 1.5l Bottles (2x empty, 2x 1.5l purified water)

2x Canteen (empty)

Author's Note

I think I see a pattern: Every time I say, I will upload more often, the opposite happens. So, this time I will say, I will try to upload LESS often. Let's see, if that works. :pinkiecrazy:

So, I started using ChatGPT to help me proofread this chapter. I haven't asked i to write any sections itself, don't worry. They were all made by me. However, I figured, I might as well give you a short review of m experience.

Overall, I think it worked pretty well, being honest. I'm not afraid that AI might take the jobs of us writers, but at the same time, it also felt somewhat uncanny working with it, at times.

Of course, it's a text generation tool, so I'm pretty much just excitedly babbling about how it worked as intended, after using it exactly for what it was designed in the first place, so eh. :moustache:

But then again... it correctly identified the 'CnD' as a Cease and Desist order, with only the previous few lines as context to figure that out and it even told me that the abbreviation might be a bit obscure. It also gave me a few pointers and remakrs regarding style and text intensity. For example, originally Fluttershy's look only said, Zecora would stay in that jacket "... if she finished that sentence." ChatGPT, however, advised me to increase the line's intensity, by saying "... if she dared finish that sentence."

...On the other side, it cconsistently reminded me that the direct speech of the characters might not befit the overall writing style, hence forgetting that the characters are intended to have their own character and thus might not share my style of language. :pinkiecrazy:

Also, it didn't find everything and I also didn't use everything it suggested, because sometimes it would've just ruined the intended style and effect... That and it told me on multiple occasions to remove the markup-tags, even though I specificly told it to ignore the markup tags!

And yes, it recognized the tags, because it noted them down as, quote: "unnecessary/useless markup-tags". (Because the markup wasn't executed yet, due to being in edit-mode)

Bottom line: I think, I'm gonna keep using it for proofreading, just to make the process a bit faster and avoid having you guys wait for so long... and also to teach me proper english punctuation, because GOSH, there were a lot of punctuation mistakes - and those were only the ones it found! :twilightoops:

Also, no, I didn't have it check these author's notes, so I'm quite certain, there are HEAPS of errors in there... and I'm completely fine with that. :twilightsmile:

Two Germans Make First Contact

Starlight stood in the Crystal Castle's library, a cup of coffee steaming in her magic grip. She took a sip of it, slightly burning her tongue in the process.

She didn't mind.

She was far too busy blankly staring at the frantic chaos that was unfolding before her. It was only a few minutes ago that the map table had shown all six symbols of the elements of harmony somewhere in the middle of the Everfree and now, Twilight was trying to cram every single piece of scientific equipment she could carry into her - enchanted, granted, but still way too small - saddlebags.

She took another sip.

"And... you're sure you don't need any help?" Starlight asked, wincing when Twilight finally forcefully shoved her saddlebags shut. She could've sworn, she heard glass crack just now.

"Don't worry, Starlight." Twilight huffed, slightly exhausted from packing - and cramming - so fast. "The map always shows everypony who will be needed to make everything work. Besides, I need you to look after Spike and the library." She added as an afterthought.

Starlight took another sip to drown the "yeah sure" that she felt coming, before it could slip out. It hadn't been all-too long since she'd been reformed, granted, but even in what little time she spent here, it had become rather obvious to her that Twilight regularly underestimated Spike, just because he was technically still a baby. Starlight was quite certain that if this were a corporation, Spike would probably be regional manager by now. Seriously, he was so competent that it was genuinely scary to her, at times. Especially if you considered his age.

"And... why do you need all this science-equipment for a friendship problem?" Starlight asked and Twilight smiled sheepishly in response.

"Uhh, you know... since we're going there anyways, I thought I could run a few experiments..."

Starlight took another sip of coffee, while giving he friend and mentor a blank look. To say she was surprised would be an overstatement. In hindsight, she was actually surprised at the miniscule amount of surprise she felt at all.

"Right..." She replied.

At that moment, she heard a few knocks on the door, but before she could even move to open them, Twilight had already shot past her and done so herself.

"Hi, girls!" She greeted happily. "Everypony ready to go into the Everfree?"

The others, to their credit, seemed very eager to help, no matter the circumstances, at first. However, once the Everfree was mentioned, their enthusiasm visibly dropped.

"Not really, no." Rainbow Dash told her.

"I'd honestly rather stay away fom this mud and filth, but it can't be helped." Rarity added.

"An' ya sure the map's pointin' us in there? Couldn't it jus' be.. ya know, somewhere near the Everfree or somethin'?" Applejack asked.

Twilight shook her head. "Nope. I double and triple checked that. It's definitely in the Everfree."

It was almost unnerving, with how much glee she said that.

"...Okay..." Applejack said hesitantly. "Ah jus' hope, ya don' lose yerself in yer research an' ferget ta solve th' problem with us."

"Oh please, when did that ever happen?" Twilight waved her off. Rainbow seemed like she was gonna list off a bunch of times, where exactly that had happened, but Twilight quickly shot her down, before she could say anything.

"Don't say it, I know." She sighed. "I promise, this time I will focus on the problem first, and do my research afterwards."

"Do you Pinkie promise?" Pinkie Pie interjected.

Twilight nodded. "Yes, I Pinkie promise."

The group gave Twilight - and her bags, in particular - a scrutinizing look, under which she couldn't help but fidget slightly. A few tense seconds passed, before the girls finally relented and Applejack nodded.

"Alright, if ya Pinkie promise, Ah suppose yer gonna hold yer word." She said. "Now c'mon. 'sooner we go in, th' sooner we can leave again."

Twilight nodded her agreement, and she and the group went on their way towards the Everfree. The forest's edge loomed in the distance, almost as if it was taunting them, daring them to come closer. It felt chilling, somehow - for Applejack and Rarity, at least. Twilight was too occupied with her thoughts to notice, Rainbow was arrogant to care and Fluttershy was too used to it to be affected.

Pinkie was just Pinkie.

"Maybe we should make a short stop at Zecora's place? She could know something." Fluttershy thought out loud.

"Maybe. Honestly, I'm half expecting her to be part of the friendship-problem." Twilight answered.

"Why?" Applejack interjected. "There anythin' wrong with Zecora?"

Twilight hesitated a bit. "Uhhh... Well, you could say that..."

"Listen, Zecora: Wouldn't it be better if we talked before we tried to kill each other?" Straßenbauer tried to placate the VERY angry Zebra that had stumbled upon their camp, that morning.

Eisenhans gave Straßenbauer a rather questioning look, before trying his luck, himself: "Vat mai frend is traying tu sey ist zat... uhhh" He fumbled for a moment, trying to find the right word. "... Zat, uhh... meybe ve kuld tolk änd trei to resolv ar probläms?"

(What my friend is trying to say is that... uhh... that, uhhh... maybe we could talk and try to resolve our problems?)

A few moments of silence followed, during which Straßenbauer blinked at his friend.

"Junge, hast du 'nen Akzent." (Boy, do you have an accent.) He said.

"Ich hab' halt in Englisch gepennt, okay? Fremdsprachen liegen mir nicht." (I slept in english class, okay? I'm not good at foreign languages.) Eisenhans defended.

"Merkt man." (Noticeable.) Straßenbauer jabbed.

"You really are just vile abominations!" Zecora spat, regaining the attention of the two foreign entities in front of her. "First, you take my most prized possession and now you're having a chat while being confronted with what you did!"

Zecora huffed and scraped her right forehoof on the ground. She really seemed like she had abandoned all reason and was now purely out for revenge.

"You shall pay for this insolence in blood! HAVE AT THEE!" She shouted and suddenly came running towards Straßenbauer, stopping just in front of him and whirling around to kick him with her hind hooves.

Straßenbauer saw that one coming - literally - and so easily side-stepped her kick and gave her a light smack to the back of her head while he was at it.

"And here I thought, you shamans would know that blindly rushing into things will get you nowhere." He taunted, earning him a facepalm from his friend.

Zecora quickly recovered from her failed attempt and snarled at Straßenbauer.
"How very little you really know, this fight of ours soon will show!"

The moment these words had left her lips, Zecora's demeanor changed. At first, she just stood there, stunned. Then, she slowly raised a hoof to her muzzle, much like she did, when she noticed that her rhyme was gone. Her lips quivered slightly and her eyes welled up just barely enough to not spill just yet.

Then she looked over to Straßenbauer and Eisenhans, who were now looking at her with a mix of expectation and confusion. Who - or rather, what - were these beings? She had no answer to this. She only knew that, apparently, they were powerful enough to freely command over her rhyme and that is something that even the most advanced mages only barely accomplished.

She threw herself onto the ground before them and said - nay, prayed - to them: "Oh, you gods, forgive the ignorance in my blood. Please allow me to atone, by throwing my muzzle into the mud."

Straßenbauer and Eisenhans just stood there, stunned.

"Gods?" Eisenhans questioned.

However, as if she hadn't heard, Zecora just continued with her prayer.
"Please, oh gods who have descended, allow my sins to be amended. I shall devote my life to thee, so please, dispense your grace upon me."

Seeing that Zecora was apparently completely out of it, Straßenbauer decided to attempt a different approach he had learned during his time as a caregiver.

"Very well, my child." He told her in as almighty and godly a tone, as he could muster. "It really speaks for you that you were able to discern our true nature so quickly. You shall have our blessing - use it well. However, you may not speak of our nature to any of your peers. Is that understood?"

Zecora lifted her muzzle momentarily, before smiling and quickly burying it into the ground again. "Your secret, I swear on my own grave, I will forever keep safe!"

Straßenbauer nodded. "Very good. You may go then, my child. Live your life as pious and righteous as you can and you may prosper from the many graces you will surely earn."

Zecora quickly babbled a few further prayers and thanks, while retreating, though she spoke them so fast that neither Straßenbauer, nor Eisenhans could make out what she actually said. After she had gained a bit of distance on them, she then turned around and quickly galloped into the woods, grinning from ear to ear.

"[...I think I broke her.]" Straßenbauer said after a few seconds.

"Well no shit, Sherlock." Eisenhans sassed back. "[Any idea what we should do now?]"

Straßenbauer thought for a moment and then looked at the sun.
"[Get a move on, I presume? We can deal with Zecora another time. For now, we should just focus on taking one step after the other.]"

Eisenhans blinked a few times, not having expected a serious answer from his friend.

"[Have I ever told you about your tendency to swing from being a hyperactive meme lord to being an ice-cold and serious pragmatist who would make Spock seem emotional?]" He asked rethorically.

"[I get what you were trying to say, but that comparison isn't quite fitting: There are multiple occasions throughout the original series, where Spock is shown to actually be very emotional.]" Straßenbauer corrected him.

"[If you say so, mister super-trekkie.]" Eisenhans snarked. "[Let's just get going. We're wasting time.]"

And so, they went on marching towards Ponyville, to hopefully leave a decent first impression.

A few hours later, Twilight and her friends were deep inside the Everfree Forest, fighting through the thick underbrush that was blocking their path. They should've reached the place where the problem lay long ago, yet hadn't seen anything that would even just hint at what they were meant to be doing here. It was strange, really. Normally, the Map would point them precisely to where they would encounter the problem... or, well, at least as precise as the scale of the map allowed.

Had they gotten lost? That would've surely taken the cake, getting lost on a friendship quest. Sometimes she really wished there was some sort of a mobile version of the Friendship Map that she could just carry in her saddle bags and have a look at, whenever she needed directions.

That was definitely something she should look into later.

She should probably also look into who that weird pony was, who was currently blocking their path. She didn't know anypony else, who would just wander into the Everfree like they did... well, except for Zecora. Unfortunately, the mare wasn't at home, when they dropped by for a visit, earlier that day, so they had to find their way through the forest on their own. Maybe they had gotten lost so badly that they had arrived back in Equestria proper?

"Greetings, my dear princess." The pony - an earth pony stallion with a black and white coat that made it look like he was constantly wearing a tuxedo, a grey-brown striped mane and a small brown moustache - greeted her. "It seems you and your entourage have gotten lost in quite a hostile environment. Please, allow me and my friends to escort you to safety."

On their cue, two groups of three gryphons each leapt out of the nearby bushes. One group placed itself directly between them and the pony, while the other group cut off their retreat.

Great. Just great.

First contact, that was the plan. Originally, Eisenhans and Straßenbauer wanted to go directly to Twilight's castle, introduce themselves and then have her handle further introductions. Eisenhans came up with this plan, as Straßenbauer brought up that ponies apparently tended to be a tad shy around strangers. Though, in all honesty, he would've proposed this strategy anyway, seeing as being introduced by an "inside man", so to speak, tended to be more effective than introducing yourself.

Now, the reason why they hadn't seen this plan to the end was that on their trek through the forest, they found Twilight and her gang going into the forest. Eisenhans had seen it as a stroke of luck at first, seeing as they could make first contact without having to expose themselves to the eyes of Ponyvillians. However, then Straßenbauer pointed out that they might be on a story-relevant quest and their interference might have detrimental consequences.

Thus, they decided to follow them discreetly, to get a vague idea of the situation they were dropped into. After all, while both men lacked in-depth knowledge of the series, Straßenbauer had at least a vague understanding of the overarching plot and main developments.

Needless to say, both were quite surprised, when the kids show suddenly included an armed robbery.

Eisenhans and Straßenbauer had hidden themselves in the shrubbery with some distance to the six mares. From their vantage point, they watched as some weird, mafia-looking dude and a gang of gryphons surrounded the group.

Now that they thought about it, it looked more and more like a kidnapping and not a robbery, seeing as no one had made an attempt to, well, rob them, thus far.

"[Perfect.]" Straßenbauer mused aloud. "[We couldn't have asked for a better chance to make a good impression.]"

"[Come again?]" Eisenhans asked, blinking at his friend.

"[What I mean is that, in order to get as positive a start, as possible, we should go for a situation that positions us as their allies.]" Straßenbauer clarified.

Eisenhans nodded, vaguely understanding what his friend was getting at. "[Alright, so we ditch the 'story-relevant event' - theory and ambush the ambush.]"

"[Yes. However, we should be careful not to kill them. I doubt that the ponies would trust us, if we were to just mindlessly shed blood in their presence.]" Straßenbauer explained.

"[Okay.]" Eisenhans acknowledged. "[So, how are we gonna go about this?]"

To this, Straßenbauer gave him a wicked smile and fixed his bayonet. "[You wait here and cover me. I'mma go have some fun.]"

Eisenhans barely supressed a sigh, as he waved his friend off. He really should've seen this one coming. H watched Straßenbauer make a mad dash towards the group, apparently going for the group around the tuxedo-pony. Eisenhans, in turn, took aim at the other three gryphons, waiting for some kind of signal from Straßenbauer.

He, in turn, ran towards the gryphons as fast as he could. Once there, he used his momentum to kick the first one to sleep, before slamming his rifle's grip into the second's face and using the weapon as a lever to slam the third into the ground. With his goons now out of commission, he put the boss in check, thus forcing them to surrender.

At least, that was his plan...

Turns out that his camo wasn't quite enough to mask a 6ft+ human rhino steam roll through the bushes. That combined with the gryphon's inherent eyesight allowed Straßenbauer's target to evade by rearing up onto its hind paws at the last moment. Luckily for him, though, Straßenbauer was a seasoned martial artist and thus had decent control over his momentum. Thus, he let his kick swing out, giving him some rotational momentum which he used to quickly spin and duck under the claw swing by his opponent, followed by a quick bayonet-stab towards the gryphon's left pinky toe.

"[Ow.]" Eisenhans winced, as he saw that. "[Now there's something to add to the geneva convention.]"

Straßenbauer was relieved to see that, apparently, the gryphon's pinky toes were just as sensitive as their human counterparts, as his target cawed in pain and limped back behind his two comrades.

Twilight was rather surprised at the tall, bipedal thing that suddenly came sprinting out of the bushes, but she certainly didn't mind the help.

Wait, a big biped? Wasn't there something that Zecora said?

An angry caw by one of the remaining gryphons quickly reminded her that this was not the time to get lost in thought.

"Heh, good one, big guy. Now, what's the plan?" Rainbow asked, as if she had known Straßenbauer for ages.

"The plan just died. Gimme a moment." Straßenbauer said, while taking position to fend off the advancing gryphons. Twilight and her friends had done the same and were now standing back-to-back between their assailants.

Straßenbauer contemplated a moment. It wasn't that he didn't have a backup plan, but that the gryphons were closer than he would like. Alas, a lunge by one of the gryphons in front of him forced him into a quick decision and his decision was that he trusted Eisenhans.

"UNTERDRÜCKUNGSFEUER!" (Suppressing fire!) Straßenbauer shouted, as he fended off the attacking gryphon and immediately sent a volley of bullets into the ground right in front of his opponents. At the same time, Eisenhans opened up on the rear group, sending bullets buzzing past and scaring gryphon and pony alike.

Straßenbauer took this chance and sent the three gryphons in front of him to the ground. He then sent another volley into the ground right in front of the apparent leader, thus forcing him into a hasty retreat.

Seeing their leader, and thus their payment, flee, made the gryphons very quickly abandon their positions and follow his example.

The silence that followed could only be appreciated by the two germans with ear protection. The ponies now suffered from a tinnitus.

"You could've at least warned us, you know?" Rainbow whined, her ears still sore from the earlier assault.

"And thus also warned the gryphons, thus hampering the effect." Straßenbauer argued.

After Twilight had cast a few healing spells on everypony's ears, she decided that for now, they should return to Ponyville. Eisenhans had revealed himself to the group meanwhile, without causing any further confusion.

Even without knowing this type of weapon, the ponies had already surmised that there was probably somepony else hiding in the bushes.

"Say, aren't you the ones who brought Zecora to my house?" Fluttershy asked timidly, making Straßenbauer cringe slightly.

"Uhh, yeah, about that..."

"It's fine. I know you aren't bad ponies." She assured him.

"Oh really?" Applejack interjected. "How'd ya know that? From what Ah could see, big guy 'ere was smilin' mighty - a - madly back there."

Fluttershy side-eyed her friend for a few moments, before giving a short look over to Straßenbauer's rifle - specifically, the blade attached to its end.

"I think that if he actually enjoyed violence, he could've done way worse than he did." Fluttershy defended.

"Jus' cause he was restrainin' himself some, ain't makin' him a good pony." Applejack grumbled, eliciting a slight chuckle from Straßenbauer.

" 'Some' - Now there's an understatement." He said quietly in amusement.

"Hintin' at yer ability ta destroy, ain't helpin' much." Applejack chided, before turning to Eisenhans. "And what 'bout you? Ya've been completely silent this whole time. Ya mute or somethin'?"

"Applejack, what's your problem, right now? You've been acting very strangely, since we turned back!" Fluttershy shouted - for her standards. For everyone else, it was just barely above a normal talking tone.

"It's fine. I think I have a pretty good guess at what's going on." Straßenbauer interjected, before any more could be said. "I think, her fight-or-flight instincts are still on overdrive from earlier and she appears to be the fighting type. I can respect that." He then looks to Applejack. "As for your question:"

Straßenbauer looks over to Eisenhans and gives him an urging nod.

"Jah, eim not reely gut vif yur länguidge, so ei let Straßenbauer do ze tolking." He said.

"...Alright." Applejack relented. "Still... that smilin' thing ya did really ain't makin' ya look good in mah book."

"I'm pretty sure, there's a good explanation for that as well. Right, Shtra-- Ztra-- Shhdraz--" Twillight's eyes crossed, as she struggled with the name.

"Straßenbauer." Straßenbauer helped her. "And yes, there is. Thing is, at the moment, it would probably only make things worse, so I'll wait until you can judge my character a bit better and put it into the proper context."

He gave Twilight a friendly smile, as he said so, but other wise refused to comment on it.

By the time the Crystal Castle came into sight, the sun was already setting. The group made its way into the castle, where everyone took a short break, before going home.

At least, that was the plan before Twilight made a strange discovery in the map room.

"Huh... strange." She mused aloud, as she looked intently at the map.

"What? Somethin' change?" Rainbow asked, hoping that it was nothing major.

"Well... yes. The markers moved." She answered, gaining the attention of the other elements.

"What, really?" Rarity asked, her couth attitude momentarily slipping. "Where are they now?"

"That's what's so strange: they seem be with us here in the castle." Twilight said, making everypony jog over and look at the map.

"Huh..." Pinkie voiced. "I wonder what that could mean?"

"I don't know, Pinkie... but I think, I can tell where these markers point to..."

Twilight took a very close look at the map and then held a hoof out. "It should be... right over there."

Everypony paused and slowly followed Twilight's hoof to the door, where their two new friends were standing.

Finding all the attention on them and having vaguely heard what they were talking about, Straßenbauer looked at Eisenhans, who shrugged.

"Umm... I think, we should properly introduce ourselves, shouldn't we?" He asked to no one in particular.
"I'm Tom Straßenbauer and this is Felix Eisenhans. We were interdimensionally displaced and need help." He said with a smile.

Everypony gave a silent "Oh." at that, as their cutie marks started blinking.

Twilight really needed some sleep...

Inventory Check
Ammo:
511 rounds 7.62x51

574 rounds 5.56x45

Food Rations:
2 opened MREs (2d left)

4x 1.5l Bottles (empty)

2x Canteen (empty)

Author's Note

Ah fuck it, once a month it is.

Actually, even that might not work out, because exams are coming up. Also, I'll have to spend some more time properly plannign the story, as I noticed in this chapter that I kinda rushed into it a bit too early... oh well, I'll do my best.

Also, little fun fact on the side: Originally I wanted to have Eisenhans have no english skills whatsoever. However, he needs to talk in some of the upcoming chapters, so I went with him just being heavily accented.