Chapters Prologue
The clip clop of the carriage on the cobblestone street echoed throughout the main square as the dull taxi snaked through the crowded streets of Canterlot. It's occupants, six ponies, were all eagerly anticipating their visit to the royal palace as their hooves would soon be graced by it's stainless marble floor.
"Twilight? Are we there yet?" The pink pony said wearily in a heavily exaggerated tone.
"No Pinkie, I've told you a thousand times, we'll get there when we get there." The purple mare grumbled.
The Elements of Harmony they were, and they had been traveling for three days straight with only a few rest stops. The guards accompanying the carriage informed the mares that the meeting with the princesses was of the utmost importance and was to remain classified until they got to Canterlot. Not bothering to ask questions, Twilight left Spike to tend to the library while she and her friends set off to the regal city.
"Ugh, I can understand that we needed to meet the princesses on such short notice, but did we have to go in such ragged transportation? This carriage makes me feel so . . . common ." Rarity whined.
"My apologies miss Rarity, this mission is to remain secret until we reach the palace." One of the guards said in a monotonous tone.
The white mare grumbled and eased back in her seat, pruning her eyelashes with the travel kit she brought with her. By now the castle was in sight, and the ponies sitting in the taxi sighed in relief at it's presence.
"Finally! I can't wait to stretch my hooves!" Exclaimed Rainbow Dash.
The orange pony next to her awoke noisily from her slumber, fumbling with her Stetson in her hooves as she struggled to comprehend what was going on.
"Are we there yet? Ah've been asleep way to long to remember where we're at." Applejack said groggily.
Fluttershy nodded from across the cowpony as the gate to the castle opened, the guards manning it ushering the carriage inside. The mares were covertly escorted through the labyrinth of halls that made up the large palace as they passed busts of famous ponies and suits of armor. The group finally came upon a large doorway, entranceway to the throne room on the opposite side. Shining Armor, the captain of the guard, stood close by and beckoned the Elements in.
"Shining? What's going on?" Asked Twilight.
"I don't know Twilight, you'll just have to see for yourself. They haven't told me anything all day." Said Shining Armor.
The double doors opened, and the girls were allowed access into the large room. The doors shut behind them, and the Elements gazed toward the end of the hall at the two princesses waiting for them near the seat of power.
"Princess! It's so great to see-"
"Hush Twilight!" Said Celestia in an alarming tone.
The ponies cringed in surprise, the sudden outburst from their princess completely unexpected. Twilight looked hurt, but was soon reassured by the motherly hoof placed on her shoulder as Celestia motioned for them to join her near her sister, Luna. Assembling by a sealed door, Celestia used her horn to unlock it revealing it's hidden prize. Upon removing her horn, the door opened in a blinding flash of light as the princess of the sun levitated a small, familiar box out.
"Princess, aren't those the elements? Is Equestria in danger?" Asked Rainbow, taking an aggressive stance.
"Not Equestria Rainbow Dash, but the elements themselves." Said Luna.
The ponies looked confused for moment, trading stares until Celestia opened the small box. The sight made everypony reel in shock as they gazed inside the elegantly engraved container. Fluttershy spoke in a nervous voice.
"Princess, the elements! They're . . ."
"Gone." Finished Twilight.
The room was silent for a moment until Celestia closed the box and set it on the ground. She walked by the girls, gazing at them with a confirming look.
"Yes, you are correct my pupil. The elements have been taken from their sanctuary, an event most alarming indeed." The princess noted.
"Who took them? Was it . . . Discord?" Said Rarity, spitting out the last word with hate.
"I knew that big-faker was only fibbing! Why I oughta-" Pinkie Pie fumed as smoke comically emanated from her ears.
Ever since he was reformed, Discord had become a magistrate of Celestia's court, advising her on foreign matters that only a master of chaos could work out. It hadn't been long since he gave up his old ways, giving him a large window to easily turn back to the path of evil.
"Calm yourself my little pony, it was Discord." Celestia said nonchalantly.
Everyone gasped in shock, looking dumbfounded after hearing what they had just heard.
"That's it, I'm gonna give that chump a run for his bits!" Said Rainbow, gearing up to chase down the chaotic animal.
"That wont be necessary Rainbow, I allowed him to do it." Said Celestia.
"You what?!" The girls asked in unison.
The princess shook her head and spoke informatively.
"Not exactly. You see, with Discord on our side, me and Luna believed that such magic could be put to better use on the spot. Upon returning to the castle, I asked him if he would cast a charm on the elements, hindering any evil from ever using it's powers for their own nefarious purposes. I think he didn't mean to, but Discord used an incantation that seemed to send the elements outwards into the ley lines of existence. I've been able to track them using their magical output, but that's about it. Neither me or my sister have the ability to go get them either."
There was a short pause in Celestia's voice, coupled with a small blush of shame.
"You can't because . . ." Asked Applejack, waiting for the princess to continue.
"There is a way we can retrieve the elements, but it's complicated. Luna and I have enough power to put into a spell that can send one pony after each element. We can't all go because the spell takes two castors of phenomenal power to achieve it, and we are the only two with said power. We're going to have to send each of you after your own element. Once you are in possession of it, you will return home." The princess of the sun concluded.
The Elements of Harmony soaked that in, wondering what events were to come.
"We apologize, but we are running out of time. Which one of you desires to go first?" Asked Luna.
A longer silence followed, each of the girls looking at each other as if going first was a death sentence. The princesses stood near, readying the spell as they waited for the ponies in front of them to decide.
"I'll go."
The voice startled everypony in the room as Twilight Sparkle, pupil to the princess of the sun, stepped forward.
"Okay Twilight, plant your hooves firmly on the ground and take a deep breath. When you arrive, you will already be relatively close to your element, just look around the general area and you'll find it." Instructed Celestia as she and Luna leaned their heads down, aiming their horns directly at the purple pony.
"Good luck!"
"You go girl!"
"Good luck Twilight!"
` "Go get 'em Twilight!"
"You can do it!"
Her friends all shouted words of encouragement as a white aura enveloped Twilight, lifting her slightly off the ground. Twilight got one last glimpse of her friends and her mentor as the white light turned into a blinding burst of colors.
Then she was gone.
Author's Note
After each chapter, I will post information about the battle that the selected pony went through just to clarify on what actually happened during her time there in that moment in history.
View Online
July 1st, 1916-The battle of the Somme-The First World War
"The sunken road was filled with pieces of uniforms, weapons, and dead bodies."
-Lieutenant Ernst Junger, German Soldier on the Somme, 1916
Twilight Sparkle flopped down on the ground, belly-side up in what felt like moist dirt.
Gathering her senses, the purple mare got to her hooves and dusted off her frazzled mane. In an attempt to gather her bearings, Twilight started up a small hill that overlooked the land beyond it. From what she could tell, it was still morning, the sun just now glistening the hilly mounds of dirt with it's grace. Twilight was almost at the top, her forehead breaking the horizon from the small summit.
"My element shouldn't be too far away. I've only got to check my surroundings so I suppose I could use this hill as a reference point if I wander too far. Now to find out just where the hay I am-"
Twilight gasped.
After reaching the crest of her rugged climb, Twilight had a striking overview of the fields sitting in front of her. Only, they weren't grassy rolling plains that danced in the wind like back home. The open spaces were filled with flooded craters and long wiry fences with tiny pricks on them. The air around her was eerie; almost as quiet as Fluttershy save the low groan of the wind and the crickets.
"What is all this?" Twilight asked in disbelief, saddened at the damage done to the landscape.
Upon further inspection of the ground ahead of her, Twilight could faintly make out long slits dug into the ground snaking their way through the ground paralleling each other. Shapes shifted and scurried along these narrow dugouts in the soil, each line staring at each other from across the decimated land.
"Something's out there. I better not interfere . . ." Twilight said cautiously as she began a light trot down the hill to search for her element.
Sifting her way through the terrain, Twilight found it harder and harder to take a step as her hooves continued to get bogged down by the muddy earth beneath her. She found it even harder to advance when she came across those wire-like fences. Shrugging it off, Twilight tried to step over them but caught her foreleg on one of the barbs, the cut she received drawing some blood.
"Ow! Why in the name of Celestia would anypony put this here?" She seethed as she rubbed her cut foreleg.
She observed the wire more deeply and noticed several stakes embedded in the ground holding the sharp death traps in place. With careful practice, Twilight enveloped the stakes with her telekinetic grasp and removed them, thus clearing her path forward. The atmosphere around her grew even more uneasy, the sound of metal clinking on each side of her. The noises were coming from the slits in the ground, by now shouting had begun to emanate from these areas.
"C'mon lads, lets go give fritz the business!" Shouted a voice in clear Equestrian coming from her right.
"Hier kommen sie! " Cried another voice on the left in a strange dialect.
Twilight whipped her head back-and-forth between the two lines, gazing at the activity in confusion. The voices were so determined, frantic . She heard more metallic clinking and shouting, then it grew quiet on the side that had been speaking Equestrian. She couldn't understand the others, but she listened closely on the ones speaking her vernacular tongue. The voices shrank to a low murmur except for one soul that seemed to stand out. Twilight couldn't hear it well, but he seemed to be giving a speech, riling his friends up for something.
" . . . No retreat men! For king and country!" The voice finished.
Twilight squirmed where she stood, the tone of his voice insinuating something serious.
"I better get outta here before-"
A high-pitched whistle screamed through the air causing Twilight to cringe and cover her ears with her hooves. A loud cacophony of screams and yells filled the air as hundreds of dark silhouettes rose from the slit in the ground on her right. Twilight stood in awe as she watched the figures rush forward through the misty morning fog, standing stock-still at this stunning display.
Thwip . . . Thwip . . Thwip-Thwip . .
The strange sounds, resembling loud balloon pops, began as soon as the entities started towards the opposite end of the field as the air around Twilight was filled with a sudden heaviness. The area around her head was engulfed with tiny gusts of air, one of the small gusts blowing straight through her hair, leaving it slightly singed.
"What the . . ." Twilight began.
About to reach for the small hole in the locks of her mane, Twilight glanced at the rows of silhouettes moving toward her. Like rain from a storm cloud, the forms began dropping to the ground, each fallen figure emitting a pained cry. The two-legged creatures appeared closer and closer until they emerged from the fog. The ones that had not fallen wore metal caps and were covered in dirty cloths as they ran on two legs, breathing rapidly as they rushed by Twilight, not even noticing her. The beasts wore terrified faces, none of them seeming to be happy about anything.
They looked so . . . alien .
As Twilight ducked low, she couldn't help but notice a smaller being with a smoother complexion approach at a quickened pace just like the others. He donned a panicked face as he ran past several of his fallen comrades. The younger creature abruptly stopped in his tracks directly in front of Twilight.
Had he spotted her? Was he going to turn her in? Thoughts raced through her mind.
So many things were happening that Twilight couldn't piece together. Instead of reacting to the purple pony in front of him, the animal dropped to it's knees, staring straightforward then down at his upper torso. Twilight looked too and spotted a small red blotch forming on the thing's clothing. It reddened everything that it touched, and that was when Twilight realized it was blood.
Blood, and lots of it.
It was then that the alien creature glanced up at Twilight for the first time, acknowledging her presence. It's lower lip quivered as it stared at the mare in question. Twilight could only stare back as the creature's eyes rolled up in their sockets, the frail thing falling over on it's back. Twilight, shocked from what she just saw fully understood everything now. The thing in front of her was dead, just like all the others that had fallen back there.
Dead.
There was a word she had not used in a long time.
A tear had formed at her eye as Twilight took in the full scope of her surroundings. Looking out of the crater, she could see other rushing creatures cry in agony as they slumped to the ground. Some remained still as the blood pooled around their limp bodies. In the distance, Twilight could see another, older creature waving his fellows on while he blew a whistle. The thing twitched, and fell over. It's head slumped towards Twilight, revealing the left half of it's partially mutilated face. Half of it had been torn straight off, revealing the muscles and tendons that sat beneath it's skin.
"Charge!"
"Keep moving, keep mo- ARGH!"
The screams and dying yells echoed around Twilight as she too hit the watery muck that was now mixed with blood, passing out from a sudden, extreme lightheadedness.
Twilight awoke with a start, remembering where she had been before the darkness claimed her.
Her cut hoof ached a dull pain as she shook her head in an attempt to clear her mind. How long had she been out? It was darker now, the sun had been down for hours now. Blinking repeatedly, a dark shape came into view in front of Twilight. As her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she realized that the lump of red cloth in front of her were the limp bodies of the creatures she had seen earlier. The dead things were everywhere.
A wave of memories flooded Twilight's mind, overwhelming her with grotesque scenes.
The ferocious charge.
The older animal's face torn off.
The dead youngling that had fallen at her hooves.
Remembering all of this simultaneously proved too much for the fragile mare, causing her to reel over and throw up. The stench in the air didn't help at all as she emptied her stomach of the daisy sandwich she had consumed earlier. Sitting back up, Twilight inched away from the rotting pile of flesh as she wept tears of fear and disgust. As she backed up, her hoof fell in something squishy, producing a sick meaty sound when she retracted it.
"W-what the? Oh Celestia no . . ." Exclaimed Twilight as she examined the thing she had just defiled further.
Unbeknownst to her, Twilight had planted her hoof in what appeared to be the eviscerated stomach of one of the dead beasts, it's innards and unmentionables covering the purple mare's now-gored hoof. Unable to withstand it, Twilight threw up again, dirtying the puddle that she wallowed in. Ignoring the revolting stew she was sitting in, Twilight hugged herself as she rocked back and forth in the bloodied crater filled with dead things. She began speaking unintelligibly, blubbering hysterical phrases to herself.
"I . . . I wanna go home . . . " Twilight spoke as she choked on sobs.
Her episode continued for another twenty minutes until she calmed down enough to leave the crater. It was getting cold out, and Twilight needed to find some type of shelter. Even though she had just witnessed an unimaginable slaughter, her original mission materialized in her mind.
"Find your element Twilight. You need to be strong." She said to herself.
Upon leaving the hole, Twilight wandered aimlessly through the cooling night, tripping on the dead of the day's previous fiasco. The sight of all these corpses sickened Twilight, causing her to collapse back down to her hooves. She was about to break into tears again until she saw something that brought hope and anxiety to her heart.
A faint light in the distance.
Dismissing her alarmed conscious, Twilight clumsily trotted toward it, on the verge of crying. As she neared the slit in the earth, she could make out faint voices speaking to each other in their own native tongue. It definitely wasn't Equestrian but it was a sign of life, and that was good enough for her. She approached the edge of the trench dug in the ground and hopped in, falling loudly onto the solid boards. Though the impact hurt, she was on a dry surface, much better than the freezing cold soil back there. She was so relieved that she almost didn't notice the burly aliens rush her, pointing long tubes at her head.
"Was ist das? "
She stood up quickly, taking a pathetic defensive stance. The monsters in front of her wore metal helmets similar to those out in the field save the sharp spike protruding from the top. They muttered to each other, probably debating on what to do with her. Growing more frightened by the second, Twilight spoke in a scared tone.
"Please, please don't hurt me! I don't want any trouble!" She yelped.
The beasts recoiled, sharing glances as they spoke to each other in their own language.
"Es spricht? Scheiße "
Twilight stood there for what seemed like an eternity, just hoping that they didn't choose to kill and eat her. After discussing Celestia-knows-what, a distinguished representative of the animals approached her, it's tube still focused on her forehead.
"Englisch? Sie sprechen sie? " It seemed to ask.
Twilight gulped and chose her next words carefully.
"Please, don't hurt me! I just need to find my tiara and then I'll be on my way!" Pleaded Twilight as she took a step towards the thing.
The creature that had just spoken noticed this, and was obviously provoked as it had begun to scream nonsense that Twilight could hardly make out.
"Nicht ein weiterer Schritt! Näher, und ich werde deinen Kopf wegblasen! " It yelled, jabbing it's metal tube closer to her.
Twilight flinched and cowered up beside the wall of the trench, whimpering in fear. She could still hear the creatures conversing wildly until they seemed to reach a realization.
"Warten Sie, Captain. Siehst du nicht? Es ist eine verdammte Einhorn! "
"Was? Das ist lächerlich! Diejenigen, gibt es nicht! "
"Kein Kapitän! Werner ist richtig! Schauen Sie sich die Horn! "
The group of monsters gazed at Twilight for an extended duration until they began laughing foolishly. The thing that had been yelling walked right up to Twilight and grasped her by the scruff of her neck, displaying her to it's friends.
"Heilige Scheiße, es ist ein Einhorn! " It spoke heartily.
The group howled with laughter as the thing holding Twilight moved toward one end of the trench. As she passed the dirtied sections of the dugout, they eventually came to a lit area of the trench where a young creature, much like the one in the field, sat as it flipped through the pages of . . . a book?
"Friedrich! Das ist mehr Ihre Gasse. Kümmern sich um sie! " The thing carrying Twilight spoke.
The younger animal looked up in astonishment as Twilight was chucked into it's lap, both the creature and the purple mare flinching in surprise. In retrospect to many of the other bipedal things, this one must have been no more than a mere boy, it's features hinting something of the masculine gender. It kept glancing at Twilight and back at it's superior with a look of confusion.
"Kapitän, was ist es? " It asked.
"Was bedeutet es aussehen? " The older beast spoke as it walked away, no longer interested.
Twilight and the boy stared at each other for what seemed like hours, not bothering to move. He wasn't laughing like the others, in fact he looked a lot more curious. More understanding.
"Sie sicher sind, ein interessantes Geschöpf. " It spoke with interest.
Naturally, Twilight couldn't understand a thing.
She became fed up with her situation, now more and more assured that she would never find her element and most likely end up a rotting corpse in the middle of a war-torn field. Because that's where Twilight felt she was right now.
In the middle of some heavily disputed war.
Twilight saw that the boy was still observing her, making mental notes in his head. He picked up the book on the ground and wedged the book mark in so as not to lose his place. After he set it down, Twilight could clearly see the title as it glistened in the waning candle-light.
The Canterbury Tales: Geoffrey Chaucer
A German Translation
The boy had noticed Twilight gazing at his book and found some amusement in this, the grin on his face widening. Twilight looked up at the boy just as he did down to her, a new understanding dawning between the two. The boy clasped his upper appendages to his chest and spoke slowly.
"Friedrich. "
Twilight was perplexed.
A name? His hometown?
A wave of confidence rushing over her, Twilight placed a hoof on her chest and spoke in a nervous tone.
"Twilight."
The boy recoiled just as his comrades had earlier, obviously shaken at the pony in front of him uttering words. His eyes went wide and his mouth agape as he seemed to be struggling to comprehend something. Twilight felt like a stranger in a strange land. If everypony was going to react this way when she tried to talk, then she might as well have no business trying to communicate. She was tired, scared, and, having enough of the day's past events, curled up where she sat on the cold floorboards and tried to sleep. The relief of slumber apparently not coming to take her away, Twilight sat with a defeated look on her face.
She was never going to get home.
The boy saw this look of demoralization on the purple mare's face and did something Twilight never would have imagined anypony would do at the moment.
He began to read.
"Hier beginnt die Canterbury Tales . . . "
He read in a low voice so no one but Twilight and himself could hear. Her ears picking up the spontaneous voice, Twilight perked her head up and watched as the boy read line after line. He was engaged in his book, as was Twilight who stood up and trotted over to the younger creature, taking a seat in the open spot next to him. They sat like this for a while, one reading, one listening. Even though she couldn't understand a word of it, Twilight found a peculiar reassurance in his voice, as if nothing could harm her. At times he laughed and rubbed the mane on Twilight's head playfully, ruffling it further.
She didn't care though.
Eventually, the voices in the trench quieted down as did the boy's voice. He was growing tired as the night went on just as Twilight had begun to, her eyelids having difficulty staying open. Closing her eyes, Twilight allowed sleep to take her while she sat wrapped warmly in the blanket of the boy next to her.
Any dreams Twilight may have been having at the moment had faded away, the light of the morning stinging her eyes. The boy was already up, gathering up his spiked helmet and a metallic tube. He pulled back the bolt on it, ejecting a small capsule that fell to the ground with a distinct 'clink'. Twilight stood up and started toward the boy, but he held up a hand in rejection. He didn't look mad nor full of hate, instead it looked as if he was giving a warning. Neither spoke, but Twilight could easily understand what the hand meant.
Stay put.
Twilight sat back down and pulled a ragged cloth over her to ward off the morning chill. The boy, pleased he had done right, nodded at Twilight and walked toward the other end of the trench. Each of the odd creatures were now out of sight, but Twilight could hear a distinct voice that she recognized from the night before.
The superior.
It spoke proudly, and seemed to be encouraging the others. Twilight's mind had flashed her memories of what had happened last time she heard such a familiar speech. As if on cue, a screeching whistle tore through the air and the bipedal animals went over the top, yelling battle cries that seemed to pierce the morning air. Moments later, Twilight heard a sound that sent a chill up her spine.
Articulate pops coming from the distance coupled with pained cries.
It ended as soon as it began, the popping and the screaming seeming to die down like a fire snuffed out by water. A nauseating stench drifted by that resembled death, and lingered in the trench for a long time until the wind blew it southward. Twilight waited hours for the boy and his company to return, but they never came. She grew worried, and decided to take a walk around the trench. Perhaps she could look for food while she was up. Twilight fished through the dugouts, finding only trinkets of sentimental value among other strange things. She cringed whenever she came across pictures of the creatures with what seemed to be a female and their offspring. She was about to move on when she heard a noise . . . no, a voice.
And she could understand whatever was speaking the words.
"Sergeant, do you think fritz is still in there?" A younger voice asked.
"Only one way to find out. Mills! Gibson! Search that trench!" An older voice replied.
Panicked, Twilight looked for a place to hide but found she was too late when two pairs of wrapped leggings hit the ground in front of her, both of the faces they belonged to looking shocked.
"Sergeant! We got something over here!" One of them shouted.
Twilight yelped as she jumped back, hitting the wall of the trench. There would be no running this time.
"What in the blue blazes is that thing?"
"I don't know. Looks like some kid dumped a can o' paint on a Shetland pony."
The others accompanying the two creatures that had spotted her arrived and gazed in curiosity. Breathing heavily, Twilight tried to inch away, but found that there would be no chance of escape considering the amount of the monsters hindering her path.
"Should I shoot it?" One of the animals asked as it pointed it's metal tube right between Twilight's eyes.
"No you daft idiot! Why would you do that?" The other one said as it slapped the helmet of his fellow group.
Twilight was considering making a break for it until an odd sound got the attention of her and the animals surrounding her. A faint whistle. Not like the ones from before, but a lighter, more airborne sound.
"Get down!" One of the things said as an explosion of unimaginable size hit home and claimed the lives of everything in it's wide girth.
Twilight was sent ten feet into the air, landing with a prompt thud. Clearing her head, Twilight gazed upon the charred bodies of the beasts that had cornered her, the guts and gore exposed and simmering in the heat. Before she could allow her stomach to empty itself, Twilight was up and galloping onto a ramp out of the trench. Her hooves clopping on the ground and her raspy breathing was drowned out by the rain of fire that had begun to fall from the sky. Similar from that one in the trench, multiple explosions erupted around her, sending dirt and debris flying through the mid-morning air.
Go faster! Was all her mind could tell her as Twilight raced through a maelstrom of hellfire.
Seeking shelter, Twilight spotted a wooden building in the distance. Galloping up to the large double doors, Twilight stood before the frail structure and wondered if this was a good idea or not. The roof could easily cave in, putting a messy end to Twilight Sparkle. Not to mention the mysterious bombs raining from the heavens. An explosion went off twenty feet from where Twilight stood, pushing all reason out of her mind.
In place of staying outside, Twilight chose the darkened space of the building.
Wandering inside, she could now tell that this had once been a mill of some sorts, it's gears and levers long corroded by time and the war around it. She could hear screams outside as Twilight shut the doors behind her. Seconds later, small holes in the walls ripped open, letting in droplets of light. One ray, by way of complete coincidence, shone upon something that sat in the corner. The light reflecting off of it glinted in Twilight's eyes as she walked over to inspect it. To her surprise, the light had been bouncing off of the last thing she expected to see in this world.
Her tiara, one of the jewels reflecting the light that now seeped through the holes in the mill.
Sighing in relief, Twilight started toward it just as another explosion tore a hole in the roof. The splintered wood fell to the ground, separating Twilight from her ticket home.
"Oh, you've gotta be kidding me!" She cried.
More explosions decimated the mill as Twilight weaved through the debris, getting closer and closer to her element as the fire danced around her. She was within five feet of the tiara when a wooden beam fell to her leg, pinning her in place. The structural supports hung precariously above her, about to fall and crush her skull.
"Come on Twilight, just a little more . . ." she said as she enveloped the tiara with her magic.
The fire had weakened the supports, and a large 2x4 snapped off the roof and careened toward Twilight. Her element was right in front of her prompting Twilight to give it her all and lurch forward, scraping the skin off of her trapped leg.
Her hoof made contact with the tiara, and the purple pony was gone in a flash just as the wooden beam crashed to the ground.
Author's Note
The battle of the Somme river during World War One was one of the bloodiest battles of the war. Twilight landed in the middle of it on the morning of July 1st 1916, more specifically at 7:28 AM, two minutes before the attack began. The British took especially large losses on the first day, three dead accounted for every two feet gained. The Germans mowed the advancing Brits down, racking up a final kill-count of 58,000 British dead on the first day. Twilight found herself in the German trenches at nightfall, and was saved by Friedrich before his unit participated in one of the many counterattacks along the British held positions across the river. As she galloped for the old mill, Twilight found herself in a walking barrage, one of the many tactics used by the British army to clear out enemy fortifications.
View Online
September 17th, 1862-The battle of Antietam-The American Civil War
"Soon we began to hear a most ominous sound."
-Lt. Frederick Hitchcock, Union soldier describing a confederate artillery barrage.
Fluttershy materialized in thin air, falling to the ground.
Thinking quickly, she unfurled her wings and flapped them gently, floating daintily to the ground. Her hooves touched the soft soil as she looked up and surveyed her surroundings. Only, there were no surroundings.
Just a lot of corn husks.
She was in the middle of a giant corn field. She could clearly hear loud pops and screams in the distance, prompting her to duck to the ground following a near-silent yelp. Though they were faint, the noises were not far off. Whatever was happening that may have been causing the loud din was probably going on just outside of the cornfield. She noticed that much of the corn was singed black, the thick smell of sulfur or some other type of gunpowder hanging in the air.
"Oh my . . . " She spoke to herself as she backed away from the destroyed plants.
Her rear hooves stepped in something moist, causing her to whip around in a skittish manner. Looking down, she lifted her hoof and noticed that a sticky red liquid had coated a thin layer on her yellow fur.
Blood.
Fluttershy shrieked, bouncing away from the pool of red. She teetered backwards, and tripped on something in her path. The yellow pony pitched back and fell to the ground, shivering in fear. Blood meant something was hurt, and something being hurt meant that whatever was hurting things was nearby. She shivered behind the log that she had tripped over, hoping that whatever was happening would come to pass, and that she could find her element and leave wherever she was.
" . . Ugh . . ."
Fluttershy jumped in shock.
The log next to her moaned. Logs don't moan. Fluttershy approached the grey thing and noticed that it wasn't a log at all. It was a living, breathing animal dressed in grey cloth. Fluttershy gasped when she caught sight of a red blotch on it's torso leaking the crimson substance all over . . . whatever was laying next to it.
Another creature just like it, only it donned a navy blue instead of grey.
It's torso rose up and down in a rhythmic pattern, signifying breath. It was still alive, just like it's grey counterpart. The blue one however was groaning silently to himself, the pain it was feeling unbearable. Fluttershy was about to run and hide until she remembered her self-induced doctrine towards all living creatures.
"I need to help those poor things, no matter what." She told herself as she trotted up to the two beings writhing in pain on the ground.
After a quick diagnosis, Fluttershy concluded that the one on the left, the grey one, had lost a lot of blood already from an odd hole in it's waist. The blue one had yet to notice Fluttershy, it being way too engaged with the pain coming from a deep stab wound in it's belly. It saddened the yellow mare greatly to think that these poor animals had been left out to die in such a dirty place. Feeling hopeless to treat the hole in the grey one, Fluttershy trotted up to the blue creature and applied pressure to the wound. Though she was reluctant, her need to help the helpless overcame her nervousness as she allowed the blood to run down her forelegs.
"Oh my, there's just too much . . . blood . . to handle!" She said squeamishly, wincing at the red bodily fluids as it poured out from the gash.
The animal had opened it's eyes and stared at Fluttershy, trying to comprehend what it was seeing. Fluttershy matched it's gaze and continued to apply a light pressure so as not to irritate the wound any further.
"Are . . are you an angel?" It spoke in a delusional voice, staring at Fluttershy's wings with glazed-over eyes.
Fluttershy ignored the question and replied in a calm fashion in an attempt to soothe the hurting animal.
"How are you feeling? I hope I'm not hurting you too much!" She said, trying to find something to close up the wound.
"Please ma'am . . . it hurts so much." It said in weak tone, it's voice high and squeaky.
A wave of pity rushed over the yellow mare as tears formed at her eyes. She couldn't possibly comprehend the amount of pain this creature was feeling. It tried to keep it's head up, but the gash had opened up a little more, prompting more crimson fluids to flood out.
"Oh no! Please don't go, please don't go!" The yellow mare pleaded.
The thing's eyes blinked rapidly, and then it's head fell limply to the ground. With a sigh, the last bit of light left the animal's eyes. Fluttershy continued to apply pressure but she knew in the back of her mind that this creature was already dead. The tears erupted from her eyes as she unleashed a wave of sobs over the dead body.
"I-I'm s-sorry . . . I'm so . . sorry . ." She said as she choked on her words.
Fluttershy glanced over at the other animal in grey but had come to the frightening conclusion that it had stopped breathing as well. Just like the one she stooped over now, the grey thing had already passed from this world. She felt like laying down and dying herself until she heard a terrifyingly loud explosion very near to her location. She could hear the rolling beats of a drum as hundreds of voices erupted within the cornfield.
"Charge!"
"Lets go get them rebs!"
"Die Yankee scum!"
The sounds overwhelmed the small pony, causing her to do the first thing that came to mind.
She ran.
Through the cornfield she galloped, trying to avoid the center of the noises that grew louder as she moved. Fluttershy seemed to grow closer and closer to the very middle of whatever she was trying to escape from when she tripped over a large brown pole with a pike on the end, sending her flying into a small clearing in the cornfield. When she looked up, she tried to gasp but there was just no air available to leave her mouth.
She was in the middle of the largest fight she had ever seen.
Strange creatures similar to those back there wrestled with each other on the ground, bashing and stabbing each other in the face and body with the wooden ends of their poles, large knives, and rocks. The carnage was too great for Fluttershy to handle. She could only sit and watch with tear filled eyes as these monsters slaughtered each other in the most horrible ways possible.
"Die . . you . . . bastard!" Said one in blue as it seemed to choke the other in grey.
Nearby, one of the beasts raised his pike and activated a mechanism, causing a large puff of smoke to eject from the tube on the end of his great spear. The animal in front of him wailed in pain and dropped to the ground, clutching what appeared to be his lower abdomen. A deafening explosion tore through the air around Fluttershy, sending many of the creatures flying in all directions. One in particular landed in front of Fluttershy, it's head hanging by a small patch of skin and some loose veins. Shocked and traumatized, Fluttershy screamed a shrilly shriek, piercing the gruesome atmosphere.
A long, terrified scream.
For a moment, her voice was heard over the din of battle, causing many of the monsters to look over at her. Some of them even stopped fighting each other as they stared in awe at the yellow Pegasus. Fluttershy screamed her vocal cords raw until she could no longer scream. The loud concussive noises continued, but the murderers in front of the yellow mare stopped fighting for the briefest of moments to try to understand something.
Why something so innocent could be caught out in the middle of all this fighting.
Another explosion tore through the staring crowd, cutting some of the animals wearing blue in two, scattering their halves all over their comrades and enemies. Some of the blues panicked and ran, dropping their poles and knives.
"Retreat! Fall back to the guns!" Shouted one.
Disregarding the yellow mare, the greys pursued the blue coated animals with fierce, primal yells. After a few minutes, the monsters had passed, leaving only Fluttershy in the middle of the blood-drenched field. She couldn't understand why any of them would do the things she had just witnessed, especially to their own kind. A younger creature dressed in grey lay mutilated on the ground, it's face gored to an almost unrecognizable pulp. Fluttershy shook terribly as she stared at the dead body. A murder* of crows had come to scavenge, one of them dropping by as it picked the youngling's eye out of it's socket and began chewing on it.
Fluttershy watched it happen, then lost consciousness as she fainted into blackness.
Hours later, Fluttershy awoke with a start.
The sun was at it's peak, probably nearing mid afternoon. The smell around the yellow mare stiffened into an unbearably ugly stench. Blood spatter, severed limbs, and strange equipment lay scattered among the dead and dying as Fluttershy struggled to stand up. She tried as hard as she could to ignore the cries of those in pain, for she felt next to no sympathy for them now. They were ruthless killers, and deserved treatment as such. Fluttershy heard rustling in the remaining corn stalks as voices popped up from out of nowhere. Hiding within a patch of weeds, Fluttershy sat still as she waited for them to pass.
"Charlie, search those dead yanks for any maps! C'mon boys, we're moving out!"
"Where to captain?"
"The yanks are makin' a push for that sunken road. We gotta stop 'em."
The voices died down, and Fluttershy emerged from her hiding place. She wanted nothing more than to stop her search and hide, but she knew she needed to find her element so she could escape this horrible battlefield.
"The princess said it would be hidden in the area I came in so . . . that way I guess."
Fluttershy unfurled her wings and flew in her chosen direction, unaware whether or not she was going the right way or not.
It had been more than twenty minutes since Fluttershy had taken off, sticking to the forest to avoid any patrols, and she still hadn't found a trace of her element. She often came across small encampments, flying high above them if she couldn't seek refuge in the trees. Everywhere she went she came across mounds of the dead, their rotting flesh baking in the heat of the sun. She had lost her nerve and broken down twice already, and she was about to do it again until she came across something that got her attention.
One of the animals in blue below her carried something on it's waist.
A shiny, jewel encrusted necklace.
"My element!" Fluttershy gasped from her vantage point as she watched the thief parade around with her necklace.
It strode up to another creature elegantly dressed in blue and spoke proudly.
"Look what I found out in the middle of the field! Pretty flashy ain't it?"
"Yeah, bet a reb sniper would just love to kill you for that." The other replied.
Fluttershy watched them as they conversed, too shy to fly down and retrieve it herself. They seemed to be speaking jovially, not even reminiscent of that days grotesque events. A regally dressed creature walked up to the two, doing something akin to a salute. He spoke to them both, and the two donned serious looks as they started off towards the rows of tents in front of them. Moments later, hundreds of blues were roused from their tents as they snatched up those peculiar brown poles and marched off in an orderly fashion toward what sounded like more fighting. The thing carrying Fluttershy's element accompanied them as well.
"Oh no, now I'll have to follow him until he stops again. Fluttershy you fool, you should have just asked him nicely for it!" She scolded to herself.
Flapping her wings silently, Fluttershy followed the assembly of monsters as they moved toward a deep, sunken road in the distance that had been consumed in smoke.
Thirty minutes later, Fluttershy was in hell.
The pops and explosions below her terrified the fragile mare as hundreds upon hundreds of the bipedal figures slumped to the ground, blood gushing from any open wounds. The battle had begun moments before, the greys and the blues seeming to dispute over large tubes on wheels. The things crewing them picked up their own poles and joined the massacre, kicking and stabbing anything in their way. The smoke coming from the poles blinded Fluttershy, but she could still hear the voices cry out throughout the battle.
"Take those cannons!"
"Beat them Yankee bastards back!"
"Ready! Aim! FIRE! "
The bodies piled up on top of each other until the monsters that remained had to trudge over their fallen, stepping on the bodies as if they were the ground themselves. The killing died out soon after, many of the greys pulling back to positions across a stone bridge in the distance. Fluttershy spotted the glint of her element as the creature that held it marched alongside it's comrades, urging them on.
"C'mon men, push them back! To the bridge!" It shouted.
Fluttershy flitted over the surge of blues and tried to keep the one with her necklace in sight, but this proved difficult considering the amount of smoke that had accumulated over time. It got no better once the bulk of the blues reached the stone crossing. The other side of the bridge immediately lit up in a fiery inferno, smoke coming from thousands of poles fired by the greys. Many blues fell, but Fluttershy could still faintly see her element glisten through the fire.
"Cross that bridge! Cross that-"
The creature speaking dropped to the ground, a fresh hole in his head leaking brain matter.
Fluttershy had lost sight of the thing with her element, and began to frantically scan the bloodbath, looking for it. Seconds later, a sharp pain ripped through her left wing, causing her to drop from the sky into the maelstrom below. Fluttershy landed on a mound of bodies, their clothing softening the impact. Grunting in agony as she looked at her wound, Fluttershy could clearly see a dark hole punched straight through the frail skin on her wing.
"Oh . . . it-it hurts . ." She cried to herself.
She began to cry as many blues fell to her left and right. One of them, a younger looking one with smoother facial features dropped to the ground, his lower leg blown clean off. It screamed an unnaturally guttural scream but was drowned out in the sea of death around it. Fluttershy was about to give in to the immense pain until she saw something that made her heart jump.
Her element, laying on the limp body of the blue that had taken it.
Gathering all her strength, Fluttershy began crawling towards it as the world exploded around her. Her wings scraped along the ground as she inched forward toward her salvation. A blue had fallen in front of her, prompting the yellow mare to climb over it instead of going around, only one goal in mind.
"Almost . . there . . ." She muttered as she reached the fallen blue.
The monster was dead, obviously, it's intestines splattered across it's once-elegant uniform. The necklace, now covered in gore, sat tangled in the thing's guts. Fluttershy would have to yank it out in order to get home.
So she did.
With a squeamish cringe, Fluttershy lifted a cord-like tube and flopped it down to the side of the dead thing and grabbed her element, holding it close.
Fluttershy was immediately engulfed in a flash of light, and was gone just as quickly.
Author's Note
The battle of Antietam holds it's place in the books as the bloodiest day in American history. In the midst of the American Civil War, the army of the Potomac under the command of General George McClellan marched on Robert E. Lee's forces near Sharpsburg, Maryland. The ensuing battle cost the lives of a whopping 23,110 men in a single day. The morning assault consisted of a series of confrontations within the West Woods and Miller's cornfield. The fighting was so terrible that by the end of the day, not a single stalk of corn was left standing. After Fluttershy's debacle in the cornfield, she followed the Union army into the battle for the sunken road, a Union attempt at seizing confederate cannons. Troops were dying so fast that by the end of the battle, bodies were piled six feet high in the sunken road. This led on into the battle for Burnsides bridge, named after one of the Union generals who attacked it. This is where Fluttershy received her wound to her left wing. The rebels fired volley after volley into the Union troops trying to cross the bridge, felling many before they finally ran out of ammo and had to retreat. After the sun had gone down and the deaths were tallied, the battle resulted in a draw for both sides.
(Murder of Crows- Plural for crows)
View Online
October 25th, 1415-The battle of Agincourt-The Hundred Years War
“There are enough to kill, enough to capture and enough to run away.”
-A Welsh man-at-arms, David Gambe, on being questioned by King Henry as to the size of the French army.
In a flash of light, Rarity appeared three feet off the ground and landed in mud-drenched soil.
"Oh, ew! Not my fur, I just got it cleaned this morning!" She whined.
She shot up from the filth on the ground and shook herself off. Though not entirely pleased, most of the mud had been removed, at least the clumps that were the most noticeable. Checking her surroundings, Rarity could see that she was in the middle of a forest. The sky was grey; it had obviously been raining earlier.
"Now then, the princess said it shouldn't be too far from here. Perhaps if I-"
The nearby shouts coupled with the crunching of plants and metal plating hushed the white pony, making her duck low and inch toward the tree line to take a peek at what may have been happening. As she rustled through the grass, she heard the whinny of horses and the cries of many other voices speaking a complex language. It was the whinnying that caught Rarity's attention, prompting her to look over the tall grass she was hiding in.
Gasping, Rarity went bug-eyed when she stared upon the muddy field ahead of her.
On both sides sat two large assemblies of metallic figures, some of them riding equines larger than the princesses. She had never seen bipedal creatures like those before, if you could even call them animals in the first place. They were covered in sheets of metal, like some type of odd contraption. Large standards bearing various coat-of-arms protruded from the mass of moving, clinking things.
"I'd better not get involved in whatever that is." She spoke quietly to herself.
Retreating back into the foliage, Rarity scraped her hooves on a tree next to her in an attempt to remove the incessant mud that continued to form onto her hooves but to no avail, the moist earth clinging to her whenever she took a step.
"Oh well, I suppose I could take a bath when I get back." She complained, lowering her hooves in defeat.
She trotted around the general area, passing shrubs and wading through dense forest, all the while listening to the growing crescendo of noise in the distance. She would have to ask one of her fellow equines about her whereabouts later, for now she had an element to find. They certainly looked intimidating, the other horses in the distance. Even though she had emphasized this to herself earlier, she couldn't get it out of her mind how unusually tall these horses were.
"Se déplacer en silence! L'pourraient nous entendre! "
The voice was sudden and hushed, but it was loud enough to make Rarity hit the ground regardless of how messy it was. She crouched low in the tall grass as she watched a heavy tin appendage drop to the ground in front of her concealed position. Another foot dropped to her side and, looking up, noticed that a large number of the tin machines were moving discreetly within the tree line she was using to observe the lines of creatures formed up in the field.
"Restez calme! Préparez-vous à passer le signal du roi! "
They boasted large planks of wood and iron that were adorned with colorful symbols like the flags in the plain ahead of her. Each of the metal creatures carried a long metal sword like the ones set on display in Canterlot. Something told Rarity that these weren't for show. The thought of that made Rarity shiver as she backed away from the thing in front of her. As she left the shrub she was taking cover in, her backside bumped into something solid and icy, causing her to jump in the air as she shrieked a high-pitched yelp from the sudden cold.
"Qu'est-ce que l'enfer? "
Rarity shot a look at the metallic beasts above her and realized that she had bumped into it's leg of iron. If it had a face, it was probably encased in the sheet of steel that encompassed it's head. By now, most of the creatures accompanying the thing she had just run into were staring, not sure what to do at a time like this. They were obviously trying to uphold some kind of secrecy as they too were crouched low in the grass.
"Quel nom de dieu que c'est? "
"Je ne sais pas, saisissez-la! Il peut y avoir des plans français sur elle! "
A few of the metal monsters shot from there positions and lunged at Rarity, grabbing at her in their clumsy suits of armor. Despite their encumbrance, they were surprisingly light on their feet. One of them grabbed Rarity's tail but lost it's footing in the slippery mud. In the distance, Rarity could hear a loud blaring, as if numerous horns of different caliber were being blown. She could hear the ominous sound of thousands of feet taking steps as they marched across the field.
"Le roi donnera le signal bientôt! Préparez-vous! "
At this, most of the metal beings stiffened and prepared themselves for something, as if waiting for a signal of some sort. Two of the armored assailants were still chasing Rarity, intent on capturing her for whatever the reason. One of them drew their large sword and grasped it with both of their claw-like appendages and swung low in an attempt to gut the white pony in front of him. Rarity gasped and dodged to her left as she broke for the edge of the forest fence.
"Il va de donner votre position! Mettons fin au racisme! "
Rarity had noticed that the loud marching sound had died out, the heavy footfalls of a thousand feet ceasing to make any further noise. As she broke for the open field to escape the assailants, she found that she was headed straight for the main line of knight-like creatures. They had deployed large wooden stakes in the ground and were lining up, many of the individual animals grasping extremely large bows with arrows that boasted shiny metal tips that glistened in the light.
"Uh oh. What do I do? If I go back, they'll surely catch me." Rarity contemplated.
She was about to turn back and face her foes when she saw something that caught her eye.
One of the creatures, a distinguished fellow with beautifully decorated armor and a golden crown topping it's head, rode in on the back of an equine wearing a shiny, jewel encrusted necklace. It seemed to be issuing orders to the other beasts, not even bothering to pay any notice to the white mare in the middle of the field. To her right, the other ensemble marched forward, leaving behind their horses as they began a slow walk towards the other line. Yells emanated from the line with the stakes deployed as they nocked their arrows and aimed high.
Then all hell broke loose.
The sky was darkened as Rarity looked up at the looming shadow above her. The arrows sailed overhead, some of them landing frightfully close to her, and hit their targets on her far right. She had seen many of the royal guard unicorns practicing with such a weapon, fumbling clumsily with it despite their magic ability. These creatures however had obviously honed their accuracy over time with a bow as hundreds upon hundreds of the shiny monsters in blue slumped to the ground, some of their bodies turned into living pin cushions.
"What in the name of Celestia-"
Rarity was awe-struck. It took her a moment to realize that all those poor things had just been killed.
Killed.
The only time she had ever seen a dead body was at the open casket funeral of her great aunt Belle, and just seeing the solemn look on her face back then was enough to almost scar her for life. These creatures were being killed so abruptly. Some of them weren't even dead yet. The screams of those punctured by the deadly arrows yet still drew breath echoed in her mind as Rarity watched row after row of knights advance towards the other line, taking hailstorms of the killer arrows. It finally dawned on the white pony that this was no game, and she was in the middle of a war.
"I . . I've got to get out of here!" She spoke frantically to herself.
Rarity wheeled on her hooves, tears ready to flood out of her eyes when she remembered that she had not yet accomplished her task. She may have been no element of loyalty, but that didn't mean she lacked the capability of being loyal. She had a job to do, and she wasn't about to let her friends down. Reluctantly, she started towards the archers as they continued to pour their deadly arrows on the enemies across from them.
"Perdre vos flèches! "
A voice came from the tree line Rarity had just escaped from as a storm of arrows erupted from the forest. Even more of the knights fell, relinquishing cries of anguish and despair as they were cut down. The advancing knights broke into a full charge as Rarity began to gallop toward the creature with her element in an attempt to beat them before the fighting started.
"Almost . . there!" She exclaimed as she neared the line of wooden stakes.
The knights in blue followed up close behind, shouting a plethora of dialogue in their own vernacular tongue. Many of the archers seethed through their steel helmets as they drew swords, knives, and clubs. Knights in red lined up alongside the archers, including the one wearing the crown.
And my necklace. She thought to herself.
The line of blue knights converged on the red ones, and a distinct white pony was galloping directly in the middle of the two forces. Rarity was close to the stakes now, but was hindered by their angle and position that they were facing.
As if they were placed to skewer anything coming near the archers.
To the surprise of the archers, Rarity leaped a stake that was pointed lower and landed on the backside of one of the things that had ducked. It yelped, and Rarity jumped off, galloping straight into the heart of the army just as the blue knights crashed headlong into the ranks of the red knights. Apparently not quick enough, Rarity was knocked onto the ground as one of the creatures in red surged back from the blue knight's charge.
Caught in the middle of one of the largest struggles she had ever witnessed, Rarity lay on the ground in fetal position as a bloody war raged around her.
She heard a loud shriek, and one of the suits of armor crashed in front of her unmoving, a lance embedded in it's chest. The clang of metal on metal rang throughout the field as the two opposing armies faced off in a terrible slaughter-fest. Ahead of her, Rarity watched two suits of armor struggling in fierce combat. The blue knight blocked as the red one swung a terrible blow. The blue suit of armor parried and caught the red one off-guard, and with a swift kick, knocked the red knight onto the ground.
"Oh my . . ." Rarity uttered for lack of a better phrase.
With one foot the blue knight pinned the red suit of armor in place and with the other, it kicked the helmet off of the knights head. It was then that Rarity saw that they weren't just heartless suits of armor. Instead of a black pit encased in a metal visor, Rarity saw that it was a living animal hiding under it's helmet's visage. A living, breathing animal that looked scared to death.
"Non! Stay est votre lame! " It pleaded.
Ignoring the cry, the blue knight swung his great sword down, beheading the poor creature. The head rolled to a stop right in front of Rarity. To her horror, the eyes blinked and the lower lip quivered for a few seconds before it's eyes glazed over and the skin on it's face turned pale-white. Blood oozed out of the major veins that had been severed as Rarity shot up from her position, determined to find her element and leave this infernal battleground.
"Les repousser! Votre Seigneur le commande!
Rarity looked up and noticed the crowned monster tower above the swirl of chaos shouting commands and orders, wearing her necklace like some kind of war trophy. It swung it's sword gracefully, lopping a head off here, severing a limb there, all the while screaming defiantly into the hell before it. Rarity jumped back when two knights locked swords in front of her, grunting and swearing as they struggled fiercely. She backed away and whimpered terribly, traumatized by the horrors ensuing around her. One of the archers backed into her, tripping on the terrified white unicorn. It yelped in surprise as the blue knight before it brought the pointed edge of it's sword down on it's stomach, spraying blood in all directions.
Including the white mare that shivered beside it.
Rarity sputtered violently, the crimson bodily fluids seeping through her closed lips. Her tears of disgust mixed with the blood as she writhed on the ground, trying desperately to wipe the sanguine liquid from her fur. She stood up on shaky legs, now a blood-red quadruped sitting in the middle of an all out battle. She weaved in and out of the violence and sheer chaos, getting closer and closer to the distinguished individual.
"Die-vous bâtards français! "
The thief swung it's sword low, beheading the poor creature below it. A second knight in blue rammed into the crowned leader, knocking it off of the mound of bodies it stood on. Rarity charged through the murderous crowd, trying to ignore the thunderous cries of the dying. The thing with her necklace parried the sword of the blue knight and countered, impaling it with his own tool of death. A gap in the line opened up, prompting a distinct white pony to leap through despite her current condition and rush the creature with the crown.
"Quel nom de dieu que c'est? " It gasped in surprise.
Rarity roared loudly as she jumped onto the thing's chest and grabbed the necklace with her teeth. The thing resisted, but was too alarmed at the blood-red pony gnawing at it's newest piece of jewelry to react appropriately.
With a hard tug, the clip of her element snapped in two as it left the thing's neck, and Rarity was gone in a bright flash of colorful light.
Author's Note
The battle of Agincourt was one of the bloodiest battles of the Hundred Years War, and marked a very surprising victory for the invading armies of England. King Henry V's army, after it's recent victory at the siege of Harfleur, was downsized terribly after having to leave the bulk of it's forces as a defending garrison for the newly captured port. Ambitious as ever, King Henry V marched onward into France, attempting a foolish trip by land to the city of Calais. Instead of crossing by sea, Henry took the land route and now faced imminent destruction from the French forces that now surrounded him commanded by the Constable of France, Charles d’Albret. Seeing no other choice, Henry prepared his troops for battle. Henry chose an open field for battle surrounded by two forests as his battleground. The forests would hinder French troop deployment, and funnel them into the small field. Henry's forces amounted to a little under 5,000 troops while the French army is said to have numbered from 30,000 to 100,000 strong. Henry had his archers deploy sharpened wooden stakes to prevent any cavalry charges on his line and placed his English longbow men behind them, a weapon he and his fathers had used to decimate French cavalry attacks. He had dismounted nobles and men-at-arms positioned in the forest to attack the French on their flanks when he gave the order. Rarity landed in one of these dense forests as the attack commenced. The French she heard from the English knights was not uncommon at the time. Many men and women of the nobility spoke a type of French brought over by the Norman, William I when he invaded England. When in arrow range, Henry's archers began hailing swarm after swarm of arrows, felling hundreds of dismounted knights and regulars. The night before it had rained, creating a muddy slush that made marching across the field a challenge for the advancing French troops. When the exhausted French troops finally met the well organized English line, they were slaughtered easily, marking a decisive victory for the king of England. King Henry happened upon Rarity's element, and wore it alongside many of his war trophies taken during the siege of Harfleur.
Fun fact: Centuries later, at the battle of Mons during the First World War, British soldiers holding the line claimed that they saw phantom archers fire volleys of arrows at the advancing Germans. Checking the dead bodies after the attack, the British troops said that they saw no visible wounds on their fallen enemies. These phantom archers that returned to assist their living brothers-in-arms were claimed to be the English longbow men that fought near there in 1415. They were presumably dubbed, "The Angels of Mons."
View Online
October 2nd, 1942-The battle for the 'Red October' Factory canteen, Siege of Stalingrad-The Second World War
"My hands are done for, and have been ever since the beginning of December. The little finger of my left hand is missing and - what's even worse - the three middle fingers of my right one are frozen. I can only hold my mug with my thumb and little finger. I'm pretty helpless; only when a man has lost any fingers does he see how much he needs them for the smallest jobs. The best thing I can do with the little finger is to shoot with it. My hands are finished." -Anonymous German soldier during the battle of Stalingrad
Cold.
An icy coldness was the first thing that Applejack felt as her fur hit the cold, hard ground.
The shock of the frigid cobblestone beneath the cowpony prompted her to yelp loudly, jumping up to separate herself as far as she could from the spiteful ground. Shivering from the stinging wind nipping at her body, Applejack surveyed her surroundings. She was standing in the center of a mangled street, craters dotting it's entirety.
"Where in tarnation am I?" She asked herself worriedly.
A frown formed at Applejack's face when she examined the destroyed shops and apartment buildings lining the street and the intersection beyond it. Debris from various structures lay all around as she stared at the burnt and battered homes. Aside from a crow picking at a dark lump some thirty feet away, there was little movement within the rubble.
Everything was just so utterly annihilated.
"I don't like this . . . I don't like this one bit. I'd best find mah' element and high-tail it outta here before something gets outta hoof." She said to herself in an unsure tone.
Aside from the demolished buildings plaguing her sight, the weather had begun to take it's toll on her body, the feeling in the tips of Applejack's hooves quickly beginning to numb. It was definitely Winter, but apparently not cold enough to be snowing. Her eyes had begun to tear from the driving wind, the wetness on her cheeks stinging her as the freezing temperatures hit the tears themselves.
"Shelter . . . g-gotta find shelter . . " Applejack stuttered to herself as the cold overwhelmed her senses.
The orange cowpony trotted down the destroyed avenue, stepping over building chunks, charred metal, and dropped luggage. The denizens that lived here were obviously trying to get out of here fast, but to no avail. A poster glided in the air as the cold wind blew it, landing roughly on the ground a few feet away from Applejack. The piece of paper snagged on a piece of glass and lay taut for a moment, displaying it's picture to the mare shivering in front of it. It was a portrait of some kind, depicting a creature with an unruly amount of facial hair below what appeared to be it's nose. The lettering was bright red, worded in what appeared to be some kind of foreign language chock full of odd scribbles and backwards R's.
"That's an odd lookin' fella right there." She mumbled to herself through the howl of the wind.
Applejack continued trotting down the road, trying to ignore the sheer obliteration around her. She stepped over a broken window pane and around a funny looking carriage. The crow was still hopping about the darkened lump; another distraction she wished to tune out of her head. Her hoof made contact with something plush, prompting Applejack to look down at the culprit. A small gasp escaped the orange mare's mouth as she gazed upon a ragged, torn teddy bear lying on the unforgiving cobblestone. It looked just like the one Applebloom kept on her dresser. The ears had nearly rotted off and a large slit in it's stomach could be easily identified, whatever remaining of the stuffing spilled out on the ground.
"Poor little thing. Ah bet whoever owned ya is probably lookin' fer you." Applejack spoke somberly.
She bent down to examine it further when an odd rumbling shook the ground lightly around her. The pebbles and glass near the stuffed animal vibrated as a low whir sounded down the street from whence she came. Applejack whirled around on the tips of her hooves and stared down the deserted boulevard. The rumbling grew louder and louder until an odd shape protruded from around the corner of a building. First came a long tube, then the platform it was mounted on. It rolled toward her on giant caterpillars, looking more machine than organic as they tumbled over everything in it's metallic path.
"What in the name o' Celestia . . ."
It was then that Applejack realized that the huge metal beast wasn't going to stop. The black crow flew away as the rumbling beast crushed the darkened lump that had kept the bird's attention for so long. It followed a steady path down the road as Applejack turned and galloped into the cover of some badly destroyed ruins, it's wooden supports singed black. The mechanical monster stalked by, rolling directly over the remains of the teddy bear.
"Better get outta here and find mah element unless ah wanna get that thing's attention."
She was about to flee into the cover of another destroyed building when she caught sight of something that piqued her interest. Movement from a dark alleyway near the beast startled the orange pony, but intrigued her at the same time. Something was fumbling around in the shadowy corner, it's mind set on something complicated. Then, in a flash, two figures burst from the alley and rushed the monster.
"Just what the hay are they doin'?" Applejack questioned in a hushed voice.
They walked on two feet, just like a diamond dog, and used their forward appendages just as Spike did. They wore ragged cloths that were dirty and stained. One of them wore a green helmet while the other donned a torn cap. They climbed the hard layers of the beast and reached the top where a small cap sat. One of the creatures readied some kind of object in it's hand while the other tinkered with the piece of metal, as if it was trying to pry it open. Applejack watched intensely as the animal pulled open some sort of hatch in the machine and backed up, making room for it's counterpart. The thing held up the object in it's hand, a dirty bottle filled with a golden liquid plugged up by a cloth, and threw it inside the porthole.
The cloth was on fire.
"За Родину! " It yelled in a hoarse voice.
The two beings leaped from the top of the machine as a distinct crashing noise emanated from the bowels of the beast followed by bumps, bangs, and . . . shouts? Applejack could hear panicked screaming as she watched a black smoke column billow from the top of the monster. Then a very peculiar thing happened. From the top of the burning thing shot out an appendage that was shockingly familiar.
A claw-like body part.
Only it wasn't a claw at all. It looked a lot like what the other creature's had on their forelimbs, except this one was burnt a sickening red and black. A guttural shrieking came from the owner of this body part as the rest of the figure emerged from the top of the now unmoving beast. Applejack flinched in shock as she watched the charred thing scream bloody murder, flailing about as it's clothing caught aflame.
"What . . the . . ." Was all Applejack could utter.
It was trying to squeeze itself out, but was obviously losing strength as the constant flame burned away at it's flesh. Tears flooded from the orange mare's eyes as she watched this creature suffer terribly. Then, with one final twitch, the animal slumped over, apparently dead. Applejack looked on in horror at the deceased figure, hearing the fat pop on it's boiled skin as the flame continued to eat away at the corpse. She was now numb to the cold, the only feeling within her being a deep sorrow and pity for the murdered creature.
Then came the fear.
"This . . . this is horrible! Ah've gotta get outta here!" She spoke in a frantic voice as moist tears streamed down her cheeks, the relentless wind still freezing them as they left her tear ducts.
Applejack tripped and stumbled her way through the back lot of the destroyed building, the tears creating a thin trail in the air behind her as they fell. The image of the grilled creature flashed through her mind as she fell into a cold ditch, patches of frozen water surrounding her. Applejack laid there for a long time, contemplating what she should do next. The horrific events that had unfolded recently clouded her mind, not to mention the frigid air freezing her body. She hardly had the strength to move let alone move around and search for her element.
"Дмитрий! Закрепите это здание. "
The sudden voice startled the orange pony, but of course, she couldn't do anything about it. Applejack could hear rustling and steps being taken inches from her position, but obviously whatever was moving around couldn't see her or hear her pathetic, shallow breaths.
"Да, товарищ командир. "
The shambling got closer and closer until the voice was right on top of her. It breathed quick, sharp breaths as it scanned it's surroundings. Applejack peeked her eyes up and noticed that it looked a lot like one of the creatures back there did. It certainly was dressed for the season. The creature was bundled in rags and cloths of varying density but a cold fog could still be seen from it's mouth as it drew breath. As she examined the animal in front of her, Applejack's concentration was interrupted by a tingling in her throat. Due to all the phlegm she had swallowed from her constant sniffling earlier, her throat found it necessary to clear itself.
Cough!
The cough was loud and hoarse, noticeable enough to attract the attention of the thing above her.
"Что это, черт возьми?
The creature looked awfully surprised as it recoiled from the sight of the orange mare lying prone on the ground in front of it. Applejack stared intently at the animal, and at the short mane that spurted out from underneath it's cap. Her vision blurred as she became weaker and weaker from the cold overwhelming her body.
Suddenly she became extremely lightheaded, and darkness stole her from the world.
"Вы знаете, вы действительно должны избавиться от этой вещи.
Applejack could hear voices in the back of her mind as she slowly came to.
"Почему? Он выглядел так же, как страшно, как мы. Зачем это отрицать право на жизнь? "
She could feel a thick leather blanket around her, just like the one that Granny Smith used to cover her with when she fell asleep on the couch in her younger days. She could no longer feel the fierce wind blowing on her fur so she assumed that she was inside some kind of shelter. She opened her eyelids slowly, allowing the muscles in her eyes time to contort and adjust to the lack of light in the small room she was in.
"Посмотрите, это приходит в себя. "
"Ugh . . say what now?" Applejack grumbled, still in a groggy state.
The blurred creatures shot up from their relaxed positions, recoiling from the orange pony's sudden outburst. They began chattering amongst themselves, speaking in high-pitched, nervous voices.
"Разве что вещи просто поговорить? "
"Это плохая примета! "
Applejack glanced at each of the blurry groups of creatures, trying to make out how many there were and what they might look like. Her eyesight cleared, and she could now clearly make out several shady figures wrapped in cloths and ragged fabric. The one in the center was wearing a cap, just like the one at the . . .
Applejack's memory came back to her, and she began to cry.
Her sniffles and whimpering was obviously heard over the chattering creatures as they had drawn their attention down to the orange mare sobbing in front of them. One of them, an older thing with creases running down it's aged and withered cheeks approached Applejack.
"Володя, нет! Не слишком близко! "
The elderly creature looked back and spoke in a nonchalant tone.
"Что он собирается делать, да? Меня укусить? "
Applejack shivered in fright as the animal drew closer and closer, until it was inches away from her frail body. It's claw like appendages reached for her, and she cringed as they made contact. But it was odd. This wasn't the touch of something trying to hurt somepony, more so the feeling of something trying to soothe and comfort. The creature brought Applejack close and warmed her with it's body heat as it gently stroked her mane. It spoke with a calm voice, almost fatherly.
"Там, там маленький, нет необходимости плакать. "
Although she couldn't understand it, Applejack felt safer than ever in this world of destruction and killing. Looking up, she could see all the other creatures calm down as they eyed their comrade with astonished looks. Then, something odd happened that Applejack couldn't quite process in her head.
The creature holding her started to sing.
It was a hoarse tone of voice, but as melodic and tranquil as any singer could ever aspire to be. The others in the room relaxed back down as they listened to the thing's beautiful tune. Despite the current conditions, Applejack felt right at home, lounging by the fireplace as her father sung her a lullaby.
BOOM!
A deafening crash sounded off outside the small room, and the other creatures shot to their feet. They picked up wooden sticks with metal that capped the ends. A round bolt could be seen at the side near the rear as Applejack watched them all pull it forward, load in some kind of cylinder, and pull back the mechanism. The elderly creature followed suit, as he gently put Applejack down and picked up his own stick. He motioned for her to stay put as he and his friends bolted out the door, shouting frantically all the way through.
"Немецкие солдаты! "
"Не тратьте ни одной пули! "
"Мы должны остановить их от входа в завод! "
Applejack wrapped the cloth around her body as she peeked out the doorway. She gasped as she gazed upon the floor below her. She was in some kind of industrial workplace, the likes of which she had never seen. There were chains and riggings everywhere, probably used to hoist large pieces of metal onto the assembly lines that lined the entire factory. The unusual creatures had each picked various positions by a window as they stuck the barrel of each stick through the smashed panes. The elderly one and one of it's acquaintances fumbled with a longer stick, one that had two smaller stems bracing the pole up against a shelf. It had a circular metallic piece attached to the top.
"Загрузите его! Загрузите его прямо сейчас! " One of them shouted.
Applejack couldn't understand why, but all the bipedal animals had become tense, gazing eagerly at different places surrounding their building. She chanced a glance outside and gasped. Sitting in a muddy crater was a glinting piece of metal. One which was embedded with gems so shiny, not even the dirt and debris could block out it's shine.
Her element.
"There it is! If ah can just-"
Distant pops could be heard, effectively cutting Applejack off as several holes pocked the walls in front of her, small gusts of air tearing her Stetson from her head. She hit the ground and looked forward at the source of the interruption and saw one of the creatures she was in company with earlier writhing on the ground, grasping it's neck as a crimson fluid flowed from the rupture in it's skin. Seconds later, it's jaw went slack as blood flowed freely from it's mouth and open neck wound.
"N-no . . no . . ." Applejack stuttered as she watched an innocent creature die painfully in front of her.
Simultaneous popping erupted from the long pole that the elderly animal used, a plethora of smaller canisters falling from the side of the stick as they were clumsily ejected. She could here indistinct shouting in the distance, frantic and full of panic. Gathering her senses, Applejack leaned back and reached for her Stetson. She picked it up and examined it closely. Three steaming holes had been punched clean through the thick felt.
"Right, better stay low." She mumbled to herself as she positioned her hat back onto her head.
Applejack crawled low through the building, ducking and diving her way into cover every time she heard that familiar popping sound. One of the creatures standing on a catwalk above her activated the mechanism on it's stick as fire erupted from the opposite end. She could hear a resounding cry not far off. Seconds later, the wall in front of the animal erupted in holes as the creature was riddled with some kind of invisible jackhammer. It slumped over as blood flowed from the new punctures in it's chest and head.
The sanguine fluids running through the holes in the catwalk and directly onto the orange mare below.
Applejack winced as the gallon of liquid doused her mane and fur, darkening her a thick red. The erratic popping continued from the elderly creature's pole. It's comrade, a younger being with smoother features, screamed in shock as it pitched backwards. A small hole had torn it's way through the creature's arm, the writhing animal clutching it like a robin's egg. Another creature, one dressed in a darker outfit donning a distinguished cap, yelled in fear.
"Они имеют броню! Ложись! "
An explosion ripped an enormous hole in the wall in front of Applejack as the orange pony ducked low, the debris showering her with shards of glass and metal. She stared off in the distance and noticed that the culprit had been one of the armored beasts she had the displeasure of seeing earlier, it's smoking barrel aimed directly at the building housing her and the others. She could also see numerous figures advancing on their position, shouting and swearing in their own language. The barrel on the rolling monster lit up as a dark object flew out of the cannon at lightening speeds, the orange mare tracing it's path as it slammed headlong into the factory.
Directly into the elderly creatures window.
Applejack gasped as the kindly animal's position went up in smoke, all that remained in it's place being some bloody ragged pieces of cloth. A single tear ran down her cheek as she stared on in shock. The only bit of warmth she knew in this cold world was gone now, but she still had a job to do. One of the figures stepped over her, not seeming to notice the orange pony, and headed toward a window. Right in that instant, the wooden door in front of them broke off of it's hinges and another figure rushed in. This one was wearing a dark robe and a mask so intimidating that it rivaled Nightmare Moon's visage on Nightmare Night.
"умру, ты фашистская сволочь! "
The two rushed each other and began swinging their sticks clumsily, both seeming to hate one another with a deep passion as they fought. The darker creature's gun was knocked out of it's hand, who proceeded to strafe it's still-armed counterpart. The darker one rushed the other, and ducked low as it's opponent swung it's weapon high. They rammed into each other and wrestled around on the ground until they found each other struggling in place, the darker one's claw-like appendages wrapped around the other's neck.
"Warum wird nicht einfach schon sterben? "
Applejack slipped by the two out the broken down door, only one goal on her mind.
She crawled through the debris and the bodies that lay outside the building, the popping and shouting still swirling around her in a shrieking mass of noise. She stopped her crawl only for a moment to retch after she came upon the mangled body of one of the creature's who had reached an untimely demise. It's lower abdomen had been slit open, revealing most of it's innards and vital organs. Applejack found herself crawling around the dead body and into a ditch, yards away from the crater that held her beloved element.
"Almost there . . . just a little further." She strained.
Two dark-clothed beings dropped into the crater and began emitting flames from there weapons until they saw Applejack, which was when they had stopped firing to gaze at the queer sight displayed in front of them. Applejack could only stare back. This went on for another thirty seconds until all three heard a peculiar 'clinking' noise. Applejack looked down and noticed something in the crater that hadn't been there a moment before. A small, metal stick.
It looked kind of like some kind of iron baby rattle.
Applejack knew something was wrong when she noticed that the two creatures had gone bug-eyed at the sight of this small, seemingly harmless object.
"Granate! " One of them yelled as they rolled out of the crater.
Applejack reacted accordingly as fast as she could, but she was too late. A resounding explosion blew the small pony out of the crater, bringing her inches away from her prize.
"Agh! Mah Leg!" Applejack winced.
She cringed when she felt her leg with a hoof, a sharp pain reverberating through her lower limbs. They were bleeding profusely, but Applejack no longer paid any notice. She was too concentrated on the rolling beast about to crush her element and damn her to a futile existence in such an inhospitable world. The mechanical monster was rumbling over the landscape, getting ever closer to the factory. A lone crater stood in it's path, but the machine would have no problem passing over it. The only problem was that Applejack's one chance of getting back to her friends sat in that dismal hole in the ground, and she had to get to it before the metallic beast's caterpillars did.
"Oh Celestia no . ." She spoke as she dragged herself across the frigid ground.
The monstrosity got closer and the pain grew stronger yet Applejack persevered as she and the beast raced each other in some demented contest for a prize that could only benefit one contender. She was now inches away from the necklace, and the treads from the monster were staring her down menacingly just a few feet away.
"Just . . gotta . . . touch it." She stammered as she rolled herself into the crater.
Her body bounced down into the rocky hole as she came to a stop right before the piece of jewelry. She slapped a hoof over it and brought it close, holding the necklace like a mother would a child. The whirring of the treads became louder and louder as Applejack's body was engulfed in a flash of bright lights.
The mare was gone just as the treads hit the bottom of the crater.
Author's Note
After breaking the pact of peace that Germany had signed between Russia in the early 1940's, Hitler invaded Russia's borders during operation Barbarossa, catching the Soviets completely off-guard. Like the Blitzkrieg (Lightening War) in the west, Hitler reenacted a fine example on the eastern front, defeating Russian defenses and capturing many strategic cities and landforms. Then, in 1941, when the Germans reached the borders of Moscow, Joseph Stalin managed to rally the Soviets in a fierce counterattack. These attacks beat the Germans back across the Volga river and many other areas that they had previously taken from Russia. It was at the city of Stalingrad that the German 6th army would battle the Russians for control of the vital industrial position. For the Soviets, it was a matter of national pride and honor, holding the city named for their great comrade Stalin. For the Germans it was a matter of cutting off Soviet supply routes and ending the war on the eastern front quickly and decisively. The ensuing evacuation of the city was hastened and sloppy, resulting in many civilian casualties. Then there was the matter of getting the soldiers to the city to defend it. Being on the German side of the river, the Soviets had to move their troops across in boatloads, easy targets for German dive-bombers like the Junkers-Ju 87 or 'Stuka'. Once there, the distribution of the supplies mirrored many of the procedures taken for the battle; Sloppy and half-assed. As Call of Duty: Finest Hour so accurately puts it:
"The first man in line gets a rifle; the second, ammunition. When the first is killed, the second takes the rifle and shoots!"
This was a common phrase yelled by Russian commissars to their troops upon landing, another characteristic of the brutal fighting that took place in Stalingrad. To add to all that, there was Stalin's "Not one step back!" Policy. On many occurrences, more notably the charges at Red Square, Soviet commanders would order any retreating men shot. Once inside the city, soldiers on both sides would face shootouts between enemy squads, armor, and the infamous sniper. Deadly games of cat and mouse would be played between two rival snipers, one lying in wait while coaxing the other to reveal his/her position. The fighting was extremely close range. Both sides would occupy the same building and not even know the other was there until they stumbled upon each other, resulting in ferocious hand-to-hand combat. Some of the most notable battles however, took place near the tank and tractor factories. One of these factories, the 'Red October' factory canteen, saw some of the worst fighting during the battle. Applejack landed in a residential district not far from here, where she collapsed and was taken in by a Russian squad. They took her to the factory, where they awaited the next German counterattack. Sometimes, during the fighting, the tank crews and the factory workers would be tinkering and fixing tanks even as the battle raged around them. The average German tank used during the battle of Stalingrad was the Panzerkampfwagen IV, or simply, the Panzer IV. This tank harassed Applejack and the Russians defending the factory until it was destroyed, probably by a Teller mine (mine designed to be set off when a certain amount of pressure was applied meaning they could only destroy vehicles) or a PTRS-41 (Russian Anti-tank rifle)
By the end of the battle, the German 6th army was surrounded, and without supplies, was forced to surrender to the Russians. All in all, the battle amounted to 1.7-2 million Axis and Soviet casualties.
Fun Fact: Soviet Sniper Vasili Zaitzev was made famous for killing 400 German soldiers during the battle of Stalingrad, including 11 enemy snipers. (The movie based on his actions is called 'Enemy at the Gates'.)
(For an amazing account of the battle, copy/paste the link I've provided below)http://ww2today.com/8th-october-1942-the-battle-for-the-red-october-factory-canteen
