Chapters The Night Of Days
Prologue: The Jump
It was the very early morning of June 5th, 1944. An American Sergeant Major, 6’ 2”, brown hair, wearing his uniform, was walking down to the mess hall when he heard someone call out for him. “Cap’n! Hey Cap’n.” The Sergeant turned around to face the person who was calling his name out.
“Danny, you know I’m not a Captain, I’m a Sergeant Major.” The Sergeant called out to the man only three years younger than him, a man about 5’ 11”, black hair, wearing his green uniform.
“Sorry sir.” The private known as Danny apologized as he came running up to the Sergeant Major. “But it’s just easy to call ya Cap’n cause of your name and all.”
“You mean you want to call me Captain Capps?” The Sergeant named Capps said while smirking.
“Well, it’s easier to remember than Sergeant Major.” Capps began to chuckle.
“You boys sure do love to mess with me, don’t ya?” Capps gave the private a smirk.
“Well, we’re brothers aren’t we?”
“We haven’t gone into battle yet Danny.” Capps responded to the young man.
“But we will tonight, right?”
“Don’t get too enthusiastic about jumping Danny. War is hell, remember that. As for if we’re jumping tonight, we’ll have to see if the higher-ups think it’s okay. For now, just go over your equipment, as well as the plan, it’s never bad to be too prepared.”
“Alright Cap’n will do.” Capps could only laugh at the boy’s enthusiasm.
“Come on, let’s go get breakfast while it’s still hot.” Capps wrapped his arm around Danny and the two began to walk to the mess hall together.
On the other side of the English Channel, two soldiers of another country were having a similar discussion, eating their breakfast while they sat at their post. “Think they’ll do it today Josef?” A man in a grey uniform asked his companion.
“I don’t know Hans, but if they do, we’ll be ready for them.”
In another world, in a country known as Equestria, a certain purple unicorn mare was waking up to the smell of breakfast as well. She knew nothing of the war going on on a different world, nor did she even know what war was. In the kingdom she lived in, there was never need for a war, as all races lived in harmony together. Yes, there may have been a few incidents where countries in her world have had heated debates, but they never fought over something so silly.
As she went down the stairs from her bedroom of her house, she saw a familiar purple baby dragon with green spikes coming out of his back. “Morning Spike.” She called out to her assistant. He looked up at her and smiled.
“Hey Twilight, nice hairdo.” He started to laugh as the unicorn slowly started to realize that she had forgotten to comb her mane as she woke up. She quickly went back upstairs to comb herself, then, after grooming herself and checking that everything was in order, came back down.
“Do I look better now Spike?”
Spike had stopped laughing and smiled at her. “Much better. Anyways, breakfast is ready.”
“I could tell. It smells delicious Spike.”
“Thanks, Owlowiscious helped me with some of it, didn’t you?” Spike turned to look at an owl with a red jewel-encrusted bowtie on, who was perched up on one of the bookcases, and hooted to the dragon. “You of course.” It hooted again. “You!” It hooted a third time. “You birdbrain!”
Twilight only giggled. “I think he’s saying ‘Yes Spike, I did help you’, not ‘Who’.”
“Oh…”
“So what is for breakfast?”
“It’s pancakes!” Spike said with a smile.
“Well they smell delicious, I can’t wait to try some.” Right as Twilight was sitting down, Spike had burped out some green flames, and with it, a letter. “A letter from Princess Celestia? Now?”
Spike grabbed the letter, unfolded it, and began to read it.
“Dear Twilight Sparkle, my most faithful student. It has come to my attention that something strange is occurring around and in Everfree Forest. You’re friend Zecora the Zebra came by earlier, saying she was running from an evil mist. She did not explain why this mist was evil, but after looking at the forest, it has been entirely engulfed by it.
I sent some of my guards out to see what they could find, and they came back empty-hoofed. I do not know what is going on, but I trust your friend. If something is evil about that mist, and that tonight as Zecora explained, death and snow would rain from the skies over the forest. I wish for you to keep a close eye on it from Ponyville, as I and my team will also keep a watch on it from Canterlot. I have enough faith in you and your friends my pupil.
Signed, Her Royal Highness, Princess Celestia. ”
“An evil mist? Well that sounds illogical. Mists aren’t sentient beings. And snow? It’s the beginning of June, there’s no way that it would ever snow, even over the Everfree Forest.”
“What about Pinkie Pie though? You said her Pinkie Sense didn’t make sense, and look what happened with that.”
“But that’s Pinkie Pie, anything can happen with her. Mists are totally different.”
“Alright Twilight, whatever you say…”
“I know what I’m doing Spike. After we eat breakfast, let’s go get the girls and tell them the situation.”
Sergeant Major Capps of the 101st Airborne and his men stood in formation as they waited for the news, late in the evening. One of the Generals in charge of the operation, Operation Neptune, stepped on top of some boxes and addressed the men. “Boys! You jump tonight!” The men began to cheer as the moment they were waiting for was finally coming. “Don’t get too cocky, just do what you need to do, and I’m sure I’ll see you all back here before Christmas.” The General smiled at the men as they cheered in an effort to boost morale amongst themselves. “For anyone who hasn’t signed a will yet, I suggest you go do that right now.” He pointed to some officers that had desks set up for the soldiers if they wanted to leave anything behind for their loved ones. “I know you boys won’t need it, but just in case, it would be nice to have something for your loved ones to remember you by.”
A few hours later, Capps and his men were in a C-47 plane, one of many, flying across the English Channel to their mission… A mission that would remembered by the world forever…Alright, Poodicus here to talk about this. Second try at a MLP:FiM/WW2 crossover fanfiction thingy. First try, I gave up on the first one for understandable reasons. This one will not have any dead ponies in it, I can promise you that much… That is unless the entire fanhood suddenly wants to see one, but I doubt that. Remember, this is only a prologue, I’ll keep it up for a while to see how well it’s received. If people like it, I’ll try to write more in-between writing my other two fics, if not, well then can’t say I tried. Until next time.
Chapter 1: The Night Of Days
Chapter 1: The Night Of Days
Capps and his men were sitting in the plane they were assigned to, getting ready for their mission. An hour or two had passed since they took off, making the men more and more nervous of the jump. They knew they couldn’t screw this up, thousands and thousands of men were counting on them to do it right. The roar of the engines was all Capps could hear from inside the plane, but he didn’t mind it. His men knew what to do and he knew he could count on them.
Another hour passed when the pilots of the plane noticed something strange. “Hey, are those mountains up ahead?” The co-pilot asked. “The hell are mountains doing here? Did we accidently take a wrong turn and go into Spain?”
“If we did, we sure as hell got there extremely fast. But it isn’t just us, look.” The pilot pointed out of the window as the other C-47’s were around them. “If we did screw up, then we aren’t the only ones to blame for it. I don’t know about you, but I think it’s too late to turn back. We’re at half on gas with this, we would barely get back if we’re lucky.”
Suddenly, a man’s voice came through the radio. “We are meeting heavy German resistance. We have AA all around us. I repeat-“ The pilots looked at each other, then decided it was time to turn on the light.
Back by the door of the plane, a red light appeared, signaling the men that they were getting close to their destination. Capps stood up and spoke to his men, as well as using sign language to get them to understand. “Get ready! Stand up!” He spoke out, and his men stood up, getting in one line. “Hook up!” They all attached a hook to a railing inside the plane, so when they jumped out, their parachutes would deploy right away. “Equipment check!” He yelled out as he tapped his shoulders. “Sound off for equipment check!” His men sounded off.
“10 okay!”
“9 okay!”
“8 okay!”
“7 okay!”
“6 okay!”
“5 okay!”
“4 okay!”
“3 okay!”
“2 okay!”
Finally it was Capps turn. “1 okay!”
As they finally sounded off, they’re plane began to meet heavy resistance. German Anti-Air and Flak began to explode all around them, causing them to lose their balance and some of them falling over.
Outside, other planes were being hit by the AA as they would start to go down. Capps was able to look outside for a second to see a C-47 get blown in half by a flak shell, causing the tail to drop off while the nose began to dive into the forest below. On the other side of them, another C-47 had gotten one of its engines hit by a 20mm, causing it to explode, burning everybody inside of it to death. As the plane was going down, you would be able to see soldiers trying to escape the flames by jumping out of the door, completely on fire themselves, falling to their deaths, just so they wouldn’t die in the fiery wreckage that had become of the plane seconds later.
“Jesus Christ, let’s go! Let’s go!” One of the soldiers inside the plane yelled out, the soldier named Henderson.
“Does that light look green to you!?” Another one yelled back, a soldier named Taylor.
“Fuck the light! I don’t want to die up here!” Henderson yelled back.
“Where the hell is the DZ?!” Danny called out.
Planes were continuing to get hit all around them as they were going down into the forest below. Finally, they had reached far enough that the pilots turned on the green light. “Alright! Let’s go!” Capps called out to his men. One by one they began to jump out of the door of the plane, their parachutes deploying right after they jumped out. Right below them was a town that they thought was just one of the towns of France. “Fuck.”
Minutes earlier, Twilight had gathered all the Elements of Harmony together on top of a hill so that they could watch the forest that night. The Elements, as they were called, were actually six mares, each representing a different Element of Harmony. There was Rarity, a white unicorn with purple mane and tail with three diamonds for her Cutie Mark, representing the Element of Generosity.
Next was Applejack, an orange earth pony with a blonde mane and tail, a Stetson hat on top of her head, and three red apples for her Cutie Mark. She represented the Element of Honesty.
Then there’s Pinkie Pie. A pink earth pony with cotton candy looking mane and tail, with three balloons as her Cutie Mark, two blue and one blue. She represented the Element of Laughter.
Rainbow Dash, she’s a cyan colored pegasus with a rainbow colored mane and tail, with a white cloud and a red, blue, and yellow lightning bolt coming out of that cloud for her Cutie Mark. She represents the Element of Loyalty.
Next is Fluttershy. With her yellow coat and pink mane and tail, she was accompanied with it with her three butterflies on her flank, that was her Cutie Mark. She represented the Element of Kindness.
Then finally came Twilight Sparkle. The purple mare with an even deeper colored purple mane and tail with a pink stripe in the middle of the mane and tail. On her flank was a pink six-jagged shaped star with five other white stars around it. She is the Element of Magic.
Together, the six make up the Elements of Harmony, a magic that can defeat any evil that wishes to threaten Equestria… Or so they thought…
As they were watching the forest, the one named Applejack started to yawn. “Ah’m sorry ya’ll, but Ah can’t stay up any later. I got ta get up early tomorrah to clear the southern acres with Big Macintosh.”
“Alright, we understand Applejack.” Twilight spoke. “Thanks for coming, I really appreciate it.”
“No problem sugarcube. Ah’m just glad that no evil is showin’ itself like Zecora predicted.”
“Same here, I’m starting to think that she was mis-“ But Twilight stopped as Rainbow interrupted her.
“Wait a minute Twilight, you hear that faint humming noise?”
The ponies stopped for a minute to listen, and sure enough, they could hear a faint humming noise coming from the forest. “What in Equestria is that awful noise?” Rarity asked.
“I don’t know Rarity, but whatever it is, it’s coming from Everfree Forest.” Twilight answered her friend.
“Y-You d-don’t think it’s p-parasprites again, d-do you?” Fluttershy asked in fear.
“Nah, it’s too big ta be somethin’ like a parasprite.” Applejack answered.
“I agree with AJ. Whatever it is, it’s huge. And it’s not just that, there’s tons of them.” Rainbow added.
Suddenly, the one named Pinkie looked at the forest and began to see explosions in the sky and yellowish whitish lines going up into the air, along with searchlights lighting up the sky. “Hooray! Somepony’s having a party! But why would they hold it in Everfree Forest? Wouldn’t it be dangerous there at night? Or ever?”
“I don’t think that’s a party Pinkie.” Twilight answered.
As they watched the explosions and lines of yellowish white go into the air, they began to see other things. They saw what looked like giant mechanical birds flying through the air, some of them on fire. “What in the hay are those things?” Rainbow asked.
“I don’t know Rainbow, I really don’t.” Twilight answered.
As the mechanical birds began to get closer, they could see what looked like white dome-shaped things coming out of them, falling into the forest. But it wasn’t just that, as more of whatever were making the explosions and lines seemed to get closer as well. Finally, the birds got so close that the entire town was now awake, and started to come outside to see what the commotion was.
As the ponies of Ponyville started to come out, one of the birds got hit by one of the lines being thrown upwards into the night sky, and exploded into a giant ball of fire. The bird started to rotate and come down at the same time, right towards the fields near the town. It finally hit the ground as it became an even larger explosion and destroyed part of the field it landed in.
The citizens of Ponyville began to panic as they started to run around, not knowing what to do. Some tried to put out the fire in the field from the bird that just landed, while others were running around just panicking. “Girls!” Twilight addressed the Elements. They all stood at attention of her. “We need to calm everypony down and make sure that everypony is safe, got that?”
“Right Twilight!” They all called out, and then began to scour around, trying to calm the civilians down.
As the girls began to run away, Twilight looked up at the sky once more, to see more birds right above of her, maybe a thousand feet in the sky. As they flew over, Twilight saw the same white domes that had been dropping into the forest, were now dropping into Ponyville. “Death and snow will rain down from the sky tonight…” Twilight repeated to herself, remembering the words from the letter she had gotten earlier that day.
“Fuck, not good, not good!” Capps repeated to himself as he was falling into the town. He had finally touched ground and with quick movement, started to take the parachute off and make sure all of his equipment was there. Luckily, nobody was around to see him, so he ended up getting his equipment and started to move right away, right into the shadows. As he ran into an alleyway, he looked up to see more soldiers falling into the town. “Damnit, why the hell did they drop us here!? Our DZ is miles away.” He began to look around to see if he could see any noticeable sightings. ‘This doesn’t look like Sainte-Marie-du-Mont at all. Where the hell are we?’ Suddenly, Capps began to hear voices.
“We need more help over here! Whatever is coming down, there were more this way!” Capps heard someone call out in English.
‘English? What the hell?’ As he heard footsteps get closer, he hit the ground and stayed in the darkness, waiting for the people to go by. He expected Germans, or French civilians, but what he saw surprised him. What had run by him were not humans, but horses, and not just regular horses, but horses who were multicolored and seemed to have markings on their flanks. ‘What the hell?’ But what happened next really shocked him.
“Come on! Over this way! I saw something drop over here!” The horse spoke! The horse really spoke! And it spoke English! Was Capps dead? Did they die in the air, and now he’s in some weird hell where they’re forcing him to do the mission in some weird horse universe?
Just then, as the horses ran by him, he heard a crack behind him. “Flash!” He called out in a whisper.
“Thunder.” A voice spoke back. A soldier of the 101st came running up into the alleyway, up next to Capps.
“What’s your name soldier?” Capps asked the man.
“Private Fred Sanders, C company.”
“Sergeant Major Michael Capps, D company. You have any idea where we are Fred?”
“No clue, I was hoping you had an idea.”
“Well, if it makes you feel any better, I don’t think we’re in France.” Capps whispered back to Fred.
“What makes you say that?”
“Because either this is hell, or we’re in a world with multicolored speaking horses running around.” Fred looked at Capps like he was crazy. “Watch out the alleyway, wait for one to come by.” Not a moment later, another horse came by and started yelling out to some others about finding some more parachutes, but not finding what came with it.
“What the hell?”
“Same reaction I had. Now come on, we need to get out of here before they find us.” Capps got up and began to quickly move through the alleyway and through the backyards of the houses, while keeping in the shadows, with Fred right behind him.
Twilight began to run through town trying to calm the ponies down. The last of the birds had flown over and were heading south, hopefully to never come back. One more of the birds had crashed in the middle of the town, destroying some of the buildings, but luckily nopony was hurt as they all ran out of the buildings long before it crashed, but started a fire in the middle of town nevertheless.
As she was running through town, she could see ponies trying to put out the fire, using clouds and buckets full of water, trying to stop the fire from spreading. As she was running around, giving orders out to the various ponies, she had stopped one to ask him something. “Hey! Caramel!” She called out to the brownish colored pony.
The pony began to run up to Twilight and answered. “Yeah Twilight? What is it?”
“Have you seen what those things that have been coming down are?”
“No. Nopony has! Each time we go over to try to figure it out, there’s nothing there. From what we can gather, it’s some sort of cloth to help whatever was coming down to come down slowly.”
“Alright, thanks Caramel. If anypony finds out what’s dropping, come tell me right away. Also, check all the alleyways and any place that would be dark, in case the things dropping are hiding there. But don’t do it alone, take somepony along with you for backup.”
“Alright, will do Twilight!” Caramel then began to run off to tell the other ponies on what to do.
Meanwhile, while Twilight was running to tell other ponies to do the same as well, she stopped running for a second, catching something out the corner of her eye. As she turned to look, she saw what looked like a shadow of a mutated pony of sorts on its hind legs, bent over, running through the shadows. She knew she had to follow it, but as she looked around to see if anypony else was around, but nopony was. She ran after it.
As she ran after it through the alleyway, she saw the creature trying to keep in the shadows, obviously trying to hide itself. ‘What is that thing? ’ Twilight thought to herself. ‘Is it harmful? Why is it here? How did it get here? ’ There were so many questions running through Twilight’s head that she almost lost sight of the creature. ‘Horseapples! ’ She began to run after it again, and as she was running, she accidently stepped on a branch from a fallen tree nearby, alerting the creature. She saw the creature quickly hit the ground and stayed quiet, as did she as she tried to stay as still as possible. Suddenly, she heard a click.
*click*
Was the creature trying to speak? Did it see Twilight and was trying to communicate with her? She hesitated to speak, but began to open her mouth, but was interrupted by the same clicking noise.
*click*
What was she suppose to do? Should she try imitating the same clicking noise? Again, she began to open her mouth, but was interrupted again by not one, but two clicks, farther away from the creature.
*click click*
As the clicking stopped, something happened that had surprised Twilight. “Private Quincy Henderson, D company.”
‘The creature speaks Equestrian!? How is that possible!? What in- ‘ But Twilight’s thought was interrupted as she had seen two more of the same type of creatures run up to the one on the ground. As they ran up, they had passed a small bit of light, showing their faces. ‘What the hay? What are those things? They’re not ponies at all! Is that green bowl a part of their bodies as well? ’
“Henderson, good to see ya again.” Capps spoke out as he got next to his private.
“Cap’n? That really you?” Henderson asked back.
“Sure is soldier.” Capps replied, then pointed to Fred. “Private Fred Sanders, C company.”
“Good to meet ya Fred.” Henderson said quietly.
“Same.”
“Alright, what’s the situation Henderson?”
“I don’t know, I was sort of hoping for you to know Cap’n. All I know is that right before you replied, something behind me snapped a branch, so I hit the deck.”
“Is it still here?”
“I don’t know, I didn’t see anything move in front of me, and with me running around, I haven’t gotten a chance to see if it was a Kraut or not. At this point I’m guessing it’s not.”
“I can guarantee you what it is.” Capps replied to his soldier, who looked up at him.
“What Cap’n?”
“I’ll tell you later. First, we need to find the rest of our boys before they get captured. Come on.” Capps got Henderson off the ground and turned around, beginning to run in the same direction Henderson was earlier going.
“What about the thing behind us?”
“Let it follow, won’t do anything to us. If it tries attacking, we’ll kill it.” Capps replied to Henderson. Henderson only nodded and began to follow his CO along with the other private.
As the three began to run away, Twilight stayed back and thought to herself. ‘Kill me!? But I would never dream of attacking something… Should I follow anyways? It’s too late to get any of the girls… ’ Finally, Twilight had decided that it would be best to follow the creatures and learn what they were up to, thinking she would be able to defend herself.
An hour earlier, two Germans were drinking some coffee to keep themselves awake through the night, not all noticing the changes in scenery around them. “Ugh, your coffee always tastes like shit Josef.”
“I’m so glad you think so Hans, it’s the shit that makes it so delightful to drink.” Josef replied to his comrade with sarcasm.
“Enough of that, where is Dietrich and Jürgen? CP said it’s a possibility that the Allies will attack tonight.”
“They’re still out on patrol… Do you honestly think the Allies would be so stupid to attack at night? They’ve never done it before, why do it now?”
“To take us by surprise of course.”
“Yes, but even then, they would never do it after a storm.”
“Again, to take us by surprise.”
Suddenly, Dietrich and Jürgen had come running up to Hans and Josef from the forest, in a panic. “What’s the matter with you two?” Josef asked.
“T-The forest, it’s different.” Dietrich explained.
“Different? Different how?” Hans asked.
“W-We don’t know, our fortifications are all in the same places, but the entire forest is different. It’s not just that either.” Jürgen had answered.
“What do you mean Jürgen?” Hans asked again.
“Nobody is able to get a hold of CP, we went around from post to post, trying to see if anybody could contact them, but nobody could.” Dietrich answered this time, still tired of running back to the post he was stationed at.
“That’s preposterous, here, let me show you.” Josef picked up the mobile radio they had and began trying to get a hold of their Command Post, but to no avail. “What the hell?”
“I told you! Nobody is able to get a hold of CP!” Jürgen said again.
“Here, let me get a hold of the post nearest to Sainte-Marie-du-Mont and see if anybody can run there.” Josef explained. He began to get in contact with the post there and got through. “Hello? Hello? Is anyone there?”
“Hello?” A voice came back through the radio.
“Post #107, are you able to get in touch with CP at all?”
“Sorry, Post #249, you’re not the first to ask that. We haven’t been able to get in touch with CP for hours. We’re still trying to figure out what’s going, we’re wondering if it’s sabotage.”
“Alright Post #107, thanks for the update.” Josef hung the radio up and addressed the other three again. “They’re unable to get in touch with CP as well. They’re trying to figure out if it’s sabotage or not.”
“See, I told you.” Dietrich told Josef. “And it’s what Jürgen said. This place is completely different, as though we were on a different planet.”
“A different planet? Really?” Hans said with sarcasm in his voice. “You know how absurd that sounds?”
“Then what would you call it Hans? Nothing is the same as this morning, not ever since that fog rolled in.” Jürgen replied.
“I don’t know what I’d call it, but I don’t think-“ Hans was saying, but he was stopped as the noise of planes began to get closer. They all looked up to see in the distance, hundreds of planes headed their way. “Allied planes!” Hans yelled out, then ran over to the searchlights and turned them on. With the help of Dietrich, they were able to shine them upward into the air.
Meanwhile, Jürgen and Josef had gotten on the Flakvierling 38 and started to point it upwards, waiting for the Allied planes to get up above before firing.
Before the planes had gotten above them, a creature from the forest had lunged itself out at them. It was a large lion looking animal, with bat wings and a scorpion tail. “What the fuck is that thing!?” Hans yelled out as he got out his MP40 and began to fire at it. The animal dropped dead mere seconds after revealing itself to the humans, thinking it was an easy meal.
“What the fuck is that thing, a lion that had an orgy with scorpions?” Dietrich commented as he got closer to it.
“I don’t know what it is, but we can’t focus on it right now! Keep that searchlight on the Allies!” Josef called out as he began to use Flak 38 on the Allies above. With a loud constant banging noise, the Flak 38 began to fire at the planes above them, hitting one as it began to go down.
“Nice shot you two!”
“Shut up and let us keep firing!”
After an hour of the planes flying above them, The Germans had finally taken a break as they rested, but kept alert for any of the Allied soldiers who had fallen into the forest. Hans began to walk over to the animal to examine it closer and kicked it, making sure it was absolutely dead. “What do you think it is?” He asked as he examined it.
“I don’t know, but whatever it is, it’s vulnerable to bullets.” Jürgen commented as he began to light a cigarette. Josef knocked the cigarette out of his mouth. “What the fuck was that for Josef!?”
“Keep your voice down idiot!” Josef whispered to him in an angered tone. “Not only is it possible for more of whatever the fuck that thing is to be out there still-“ He said while pointing to the creature. “But don’t forget that there are also Allied soldiers who just dropped into the forest. So keep your mouth and shut and your eyes peeled.”
For the rest of the night, the German soldiers stayed at their post, not getting any more planes to shoot at, but heard the fighting of Germans and Allied soldiers in the air, throughout the forest.Alright, decided to keep on continuing this story because people asked me to, glad I could convince you all. I’m sorry if there are some errors I’m getting about the history, but please don’t be angry, as this is meant for entertainment value, not historical value, though I will try to be as correct as possible. Just saying, don’t be surprised if I get something wrong, that’s all. Also, before any of you ask, yes, the beginning of this chapter is based on the opening of the second episode of ‘Band of Brothers’, the only show I can remember to almost put me in tears, so don’t ask. That is all, goodnight/good morning/good day.
Chapter 2: The First Night
Before I forget, I’d like to add that I had screwed something up in the last chapter. The callout ‘signal’s if you will, ‘Thunder’ and ‘Crash’ as I said, is actually incorrect. It went ‘Flash’, then another soldier would call back ‘Thunder’. That is all.
Chapter 2: The First Night
Capps, along with Privates Henderson and Sanders, began to quietly walk around the edge of town, doing their best not to be spotted by more ponies, when all three suddenly heard a shout in English that got their attention. “Hey! We got one of them over here!” A pony yelled out, warning the other ponies.
“Shit, seems one of us has already gotten captured.” Henderson said quietly. “What should we do Cap’n?”
Capps sighed before answering his Private. “You two wait here, I’m going to see if I can get closer to see what’s happening.”
The two Privates nodded, staying behind in the tall grass while Capps began to walk in the shadows as he got up next to a barrel that was nearby and hid behind it. He then peeked over to see what was happening. He saw that indeed, one of his comrades had been captured, but he wasn’t able to make out who, all he could tell is that so far the ponies weren’t acting violent towards the soldier as he gave up his arms, not wanting to be hostile towards these strange creatures. It was then that Capps noticed that not too far in the distance, he could see what he could only guess was the town hall, and saw that it wasn’t just the soldier that was captured, but others as well who were sitting on the steps of the building, under the watchful eye of their pony captors.
After he saw enough, Capps slumped back down, getting behind the barrel again, and began to quickly walk away, back to where the other two were. “So what’s up Cap’n?” Henderson asked as Capps approached them.
“It seems that he wasn’t only one captured. Saw a bunch of us over by some large building. Luckily, none of us have been acting violent, so the captors haven’t either. Guessing there’s no point in wasting ammo on these creatures if they can’t defend themselves, so might as well play along for now.”
“Should we give ourselves up?” Sanders asked.
Capps shook his head. “No. Just because they’re not acting hostile yet, doesn’t mean they can’t be hostile if need be. For all we know, they could be acting with the Krauts.” Capps then began to look around if there was a way for him to watch the captured soldiers without being caught in the open. It was then that he saw a house nearby with two floors that hadn’t been destroyed from the chaos going on, a door slightly lower than a human door in the back facing them. He pointed in its direction and spoke. “There. We can get inside, go upstairs, and watch our brothers from the second floor.”
“What if there are more of those things inside?” Henderson asked.
Capps sighed once more before answering. “Then we barge in and hold them captive upstairs.”
“Are you sure sir?” Sanders asked.
“Look, from what I can tell, we’re in a strange world right now where multicolored horses are speaking English. For all I know, they could end up attacking at any moment, so it’s best to keep an eye on them from a safe distance in case they decide to do something. But until then, until we absolutely know that it’s safe, we might have to act like the bad guys.”
The Privates nodded, which made Capps nod back. The three then began to walk over to the house and get up against the wall before barging in. Capps slowly grabbed hold of the door handle (He had no idea why horses would need handles, but he needed to concentrate on other things at that moment), and began to slowly turn it. As the door slowly opened, all Capps could see was darkness, but he still kept his guard up as he continued to open the door with one hand, and in the other, his Thompson sub-machine gun raised, pointing inside the house.
When the door finally opened completely, all was silent inside the house. Capps began to slowly step inside, careful of his surroundings, when he spotted the stairs. He motioned for the other two to come inside before heading for the stairs. The creaking of the floorboards underneath them made them more aware, when the same sound could suddenly be heard above them. The next thing they knew, the heard someone call out for them from the second floor. “Flash.”
A smile grew on the soldiers face, happy to find friendly’s inside the house. Capps replied without hesitation. “Thunder.” He answered as he poked his head into the staircase, seeing a friendly face.
The face smiled back as he too poked his head from the staircase. “It just you?”
Capps shook his head. “Got two more with me.” Capps replied as he began to climb the stairs. “By the way, Sergeant Major Michael Capps of D Company. Got Private Sanders of C Company and Private Henderson of D Company with me.”
“Private Halls of A Company sir.”
“Just you?” Capps asked.
Halls shook his head. “Got Lieutenant Winters of E Company upstairs as well sir.”
Capps nodded his head. “Alright, got it.”
When the four soldiers reached the room where the Lieutenant was, they saw that he was holding a M1 Garand, pointed at the ground, but in the direction of a couple of foals who were being quiet. “Good to see you boys alive.” The Lieutenant said as the four entered the room.
“Sergeant M-“
“No need Sergeant, heard your names in the hallway.” The Lieutenant cut off Capps. He then handed the M1 Garand over to Halls. “Here’s your gun back soldier.”
“Thank you sir.” Halls answered as he sat down next to the window that was facing the town hall.
As the other three got comfortable, Capps noticed the children, and noticed how scared they were. He tried to put the best non-threatening smile he could and spoke. “We won’t harm you, we just want to watch how our friends are doing, that’s all.”
One of the foals nodded, indicating they understood, but didn’t speak. “Seems the parents are outside putting out the fires.” Winters said as he looked over at Capps.
“Permission to speak sir?” Henderson said to Winters.
“Permission granted soldier.”
“Where’s your equipment sir?”
Winters sighed and answered. “Lost it in the jump.” He then pointed to Halls. “Luckily I found Halls nearby. Took us maybe ten minutes to walk here without being caught by Germans, unfortunately we didn’t find any of our comrades along the way.”
“Do you think they’re still lost in the forest?” Capps asked.
“No idea, but it’s likely. Just hope they don’t get spotted.”
The five soldiers and the two foals continued to be silent for several minutes, listening to the sound of ponies running around the town, rounding up any soldiers they could find, and even hearing the faint sound of gunfire that was coming from the forest. Finally, Capps broke the silence. “What do you think will happen if the Krauts are really in league with these… horses?”
“U-Um, w-we’re p-p-ponies.” One of the foals finally spoke, getting Capps attention.
Capps smiled at the foal and replied. “Sorry, ponies.”
Winters answered Capps question. “I really don’t know Sergeant, I really don’t. To tell you the truth though, I don’t think the Germans could have pulled something as weird as this off, so most likely they’re in the same boat as us.”
“Speaking of which sir-“ Henderson started. “What do you think will happen to the boys on the beaches?”
Again, Winters shook his head. “Best case scenario, I think, is that they’re able to complete their objectives without too many casualties.”
“Worst case is that they don’t even get passed the first line of barbed wire then?” Capps asked, and Winters nodded. “So the scenario is exactly the same from before then.”
“Minus the fact that we can’t knock out the roads or tracks for reinforcements.” Henderson added.
“Not to mention any artillery the Krauts might have.” Sanders also added.
Winters chuckled some and smirked before speaking some more. “Amazing how much of a difference we could have made had this not happened.”
“Perhaps this isn’t real. Perhaps this is all just a dream one of us is having.” Capps said.
The others began to quietly chuckle to themselves, trying their best to relieve themselves of any stress they were accumulating from not being able to complete their objectives, knowing that even the smallest of differences could have the biggest of outcomes.
As the soldiers became quiet once more, Halls kept an eye on the outside while the others sat on the ground, when Halls saw something outside. “Seems some of our boys are coming out of the forest and are being rounded up.”
“Anything else Halls?” Winters asked.
“Well, seems there’s a few Krauts with them, quite possibly got overrun by our boys.”
Henderson smirked a bit. “A bit of good news I guess.” The rest nodded in agreement.
A few minutes had passed as nothing happened, when one of the two foals spoke. “U-Um….”
Winters turned his head to the foal and spoke. “Yes?”
“W-Why… W-Why a-a-are y-you h-h-here?” The foal asked, completely terrified at the same time.
Winters sighed and answered. “To tell you the truth, we have no idea.”
“One minute we’re on our way to France, crossing the English Channel in our planes, the next, we end up jumping into a completely strange new world.” Capps added.
Once again, the room became quiet, when the soldiers and foals heard a noise from the floor below. It was the same creaking noise from the floorboards that Capps and the others had made when they walked inside the house. “Someone’s downstairs.” Capps said quietly.
As Capps was about to get up to check it out, Winters spoke. “Don’t.”
“Sir?”
“For all we know, it could be a burglar, might even be the parents coming back. The last thing we need is though is to draw attention to ourselves by going downstairs.”
“But what if it’s one of us?” Sanders asked.
Winters sighed once more, when he looked at Halls. “Sergeant.”
“Yes sir?”
“Do you still have your Cricket (clicker)?”
Capps nodded. “Yes Lieutenant.” He answered as he understood what Winters wanted him to do. He slowly opened the door, trying his best not to make any noise as the footsteps continued to linger downstairs. He then reached his arm outside after he had searched his uniform for his clicker and used it, hoping for a response.
*Click*
They all waited for a response, but none came. Capps tried again.
*Click*
Again, no response. Right as Capps was going to try it a third time, he heard that whatever was downstairs, had begun to climb upstairs, as he heard the creaking of the floorboards change. He looked over at Winters, who motioned him to close the door, and did so. Whatever was climbing the stairs, was doing it slowly, as it took a full minute for it to reach the top of the steps. The soldiers heard it slowly creeping to the door, in response, they readied their weapons for whatever was coming.
Twilight had lost sight of the new beings as she tried to follow them. She sighed and began to walk back out onto the main roads, where ponies were still running around trying to put out the fires. The pegasi were flying in the sky with rain clouds, kicking the water out and pouring it onto the fires, while the unicorns and earth ponies ran with buckets of well water either in their mouths or hovering above them with their magic.
Soon after she had walked out into the open though, Twilight immediately noticed two things. Whatever those mechanical birds were, the last of them had finally flown over Ponyville and were continuing to fly in the direction of Manehatten. The other thing Twilight noticed though, was that even though she had lost the creatures she was following, more of them were being rounded-up by some of the townsfolk whose job it was to find them.
Just then, the lightly-brown pony who Twilight had spoken to earlier, Caramel, had come up running to her. “Twilight! We were able to find some of the creatures that were falling from the sky!”
“I can see that Caramel.” Twilight responded. “Did they say anything though?”
Caramel nodded his head. “It’s amazing! They’re able to speak Equestrian!”
“I know, did they say anything useful though?”
“Oh, um, all they said was that they surrender, then they put their hooves behind what we guess is their head.”
Twilight became confused. “They surrendered? Just like that?”
“Um, yes?”
“Don’t you think that’s a little odd though?”
“… No?”
Twilight sighed. “Of course you wouldn’t Caramel…. Alright, you mind taking me to them? I’m sure the Princess will want to hear about these new beings and what their plan is right away.”
Caramel nodded and began to show Twilight the way. Even though she really didn’t need to be shown, it was still nice to have an escort in case one of the beings that was hiding decided to attack them. Minutes later, the two ponies had reached the Ponyville town hall, where there were at least 20 beings and more coming, sitting on the stairs while being watched by the townsponies. Right as they got there, Twilight had seen her friend Rarity waiting there, either keeping guard, which was unlikely, or seeing what ways she could convince the new beings to get out of something so ‘hideous ’.
“Rarity.” Twilight called out.
The white unicorn turned and smiled once she saw her friend. “Twilight! I’m so glad you’re safe.”
“I am too, but what are you doing?”
“Me? Oh, it’s simply awful darling! These… creatures, are in such horrible clothing that I tried convincing them to change, but instead they only blew me off!”
Twilight rolled her eyes. “Perhaps you should leave the talking to me Rarity.” She then began to walk up to the beings, noticing that the ones in green were the only ones speaking, while the ones in grey seemed to sit nearby, but were completely silent, and spoke in her best authoritative voice, but it really didn’t seem to do much. “Ahem, who is your leader?”
They all seemed to ignore her, talking to one another while some of them blew smoke out from the little sticks they seemed to put in their mouths.
Twilight tried again. “Who is your leader?”
Finally, she seemed to have gotten the attention of one of the beings as he turned to his friends. “Hey! The purple one is asking who our leader is! Anybody got their CO here?” He got various answers.
“Our CO’s plane got shot down!”
“We lost ours in the forest!”
“Ours got shot by a Kraut in the forest!”
Finally the being that initially asked the question turned to another one of his friends. “Hey Johnson! You see what happened to Briggs?”
Whoever ‘Johnson’ was, answered. “He was still in the plane when it went down. Wouldn’t that make you the CO now Franklin?”
“You sure? I thought West was next?”
Another being answered ‘Franklin’. “West got hit in the ass by Krauts. He’s inside behind me.”
“We didn’t do anything! I saw what happened to your precious CO and saw he landed on a stick!” One of the beings in grey protested, but got retaliation almost immediately.
“Shut up you stupid Kraut!”
The one in grey stood up. “I’m German you filthy American!”
The one who seemed to ‘insult ’ the one in grey also stood up, while at the same time seemed to pull out a L-shaped metal device. “What did you say Kraut?!” He yelled when one of his own also stood up and began to try to calm him down.
“Hey John! Calm down damnit! Now’s not the time!”
“Get out my way George! Let me kill this bastard!”
“Sit down Young.” ‘Franklin’ said calmly. “You’re only making the situation worse with your stupidity.”
“Same goes for you Lutz.” Another one in grey said, seeming to speak to the one standing up.
Both of the beings glared at each other harshly before being forced to sit down by their comrades. ‘Franklin’ turned to Twilight and apologized. “Sorry about that, I guess the role of CO comes down to me then.”
“CO?” Twilight asked.
‘Franklin’ smirked a bit before answering. “It stands for Commanding Officer, means I’m the one in charge.”
“Oh…. Um, then perhaps you can tell me what you… things are?”
“Only if you tell us why some of you have horns, while others have wings, and why all of you are different colors.”
“Well, I have a horn because I’m a unicorn of course.” Twilight answered.
“I’m guessing that makes your friends with wings Pegasuses?”
“Actually, it’s Pegasi, but yes.”
“Alright then, then perhaps you can answer as to why you guys are able to speak English, or why we’re suddenly able to understand the Germans?” ‘Franklin’ asked as he pointed his ‘hoof’ towards the ones in grey.
“Um, I don’t know what ‘English’, or ‘German’ are, but what I do know is that you’re speaking Equestrian, as for how or why, I don’t know.”
“Equestrian huh…. Well then perhaps you can tell us why we’re here?”
Twilight shook her head. “I was hoping you knew. All I know is that usually if I found a new intelligent species, that I would either be excited or scared, yet you all seem…”
“Calm?” ‘Franklin’ guessed, and Twilight nodded. “Well that’s because we’ve been trained to keep calm in even the most extreme situations. Finding a new intelligent life form would probably fall under that, don’t you think?”
“Well, I suppose that would-“ Twilight started, but was cut off as a new pony came flying up to her, calling out her name.
“Twilight! Twilight!”
“Rainbow? What’s the matter?”
Indeed, it was Twilight’s pegasus friend, Rainbow Dash. “We got a problem Twilight.”
“What? What is it?”
“We think we’ve gotten all of these guys, but some of us have seen some-“ She pointed to the new beings. “Going into SugarCube Corner to hide, but nopony has any idea if the Cake’s kids are still inside or not!”
“What about Carrot and Cup Cake? Where are they?”
“Right now they’re at Sweet Apple Acres helping, but like I said, nopony knows about their foals!”
“Alright, I’ll-“ Twilight began, when multiple loud popping noises coming from the second floor window of SugarCube Corner, something making it burst and break open. Twilight turned to see what it was. “What was that?” She asked when she suddenly heard somepony screaming for help.
“Medic!”
Winters was on the ground holding his neck as blood seeped out of it, and Halls on the ground next to him, dropped dead from being shot in the chest. “Medic!” Henderson called out again as he helped Winters put pressure on the bullet wound. “We need a fucking medic here!”
Capps had already begun to go downstairs, running and leaping over the dead German body that laid on the second floor right outside the door of the foal’s room, his MP40 freshly discharged of bullets that were no lodged in either the walls, or in the bodies of the American soldiers who were on the ground.
“Medic!” Henderson called out again as Sanders tried calming the foals down, who were crying in fear. Henderson looked down at the Lieutenant and began to see that he was choking on his own blood. “Fuck! Don’t you dare die on me Lieutenant! Don’t you dare fucking die!” He looked up out of the window. “We need a god damn medic!”
Capps was already halfway to the town hall when the other soldiers who were there had heard their allies plea and had gotten a medic who met him in the street. “What happened?” The medic asked as he met Capps.
Capps tried his best to speak, despite the fact of seeing his fellow men just being shot. “U-Uh, um, t-two of us got shot, one dead, t-the other in the neck, still alive.”
“Alright, come on, he won’t have much time.” The medic responded as he began to run towards the building that Capps had come out of. The medic and Capps ran upstairs and into the room that the others were in. The medic moved Henderson out of the way and began to get to work on Winters, while Henderson and the others were only able to watch.
Minutes later though, after everything the medic could do, Winters had stopped moving. The medic sighed and looked at the others. “He’s gone. The bullet hit a major artery. There was nothing I could do to save him.”
The soldiers who had just met the two felt despair. They knew almost nothing about them, but to them it was still gut-wrenching to see some of their fellow brothers fall in battle. Despite all of this though, they still had a job they needed to do. Capps had ordered Henderson to help him move the bodies outside, while Sanders would calm the children down.
After the bodies had moved out of the building, the medic had told Capps of the situation at the town hall, and he, along with Henderson and Sanders, agreed to comply with the orders. With the help of some of the local ponies, they were able to move the bodies to the town hall, where they were to be identified and tagged in case the humans had found a way back to Earth.
The sun was rising, indicating that the night was finally coming to an end. It had been several hours since Capps and his men had given up, and the soldiers were allowed to walk around with the help of Franklin explaining the situation to the mayor of Ponyville. Some men were ordered to go out on patrols and try to scavenge anything from any empty German positions they had come across.
Capps sat down on the steps of the town hall and sighed, when he heard his name get called out. “Hey Cap’n, sorry to hear what just happened.”
Capps turned to look who called him out and saw that it was his friend Franklin, who was a Sergeant just below him. “Hey Franklin.”
“Nobody in my company is really able to command, since West seems to be out of service right now.” Franklin said as he sat down next to Capps.
“Hmm, is that right.”
“Seems you’re the only ranking officer in your company who’s here as well.”
“Is that right.”
Franklin sighed. “Yeah, it is. We should also be setting up a perimeter around the town.”
“They okay with that?” Capps asked, talking about the ponies.
“Okay or not, it’s only a matter of time that the Krauts begin coming out of the forest.”
“I suppose that’s right.” Capps replied. “… How many MG’s we got?”
“Ehh, I think from all of the positions that our boys took out, we ended up taking I think five Kraut MG’s? I think they were only able to bring in probably one or two belts for each. I think one of our boys was also able to find a Kraut mortar in one of the positions near the edge of the forest.”
“Hmm…. We should probably get to work then, huh?”
“I suppose we should. Get the Krauts working on trenches while our men set up MG positions in the windows of the buildings facing the forest?”
Capps nodded. “Sounds good…. One question though.”
“Shoot.”
“There any way we can get our remaining boys out of the forest? The only reason why the ones who are here now got out of the forest is because they were close to the edge of the forest and walked out. Same goes for the Kraut who killed Halls and Lieutenant Winters.”
Franklin breathed through his nose and sighed. “If there is a way, we might be tipping off the Krauts as well.”
“Suppose it’ll have to do then….” Capps said as he got up. “Alright, get Jerry to working, we don’t know when the rest of them are going to come out, so it’s best to get set up as soon as possible.”
Franklin nodded. “Alright, I’ll go tell them right now then.”
After Franklin had left, Capps spoke softly to himself. “God help us all.”Alright, after two months of no chapters, here’s chapter 2 finally. Just a quick note, all characters in this story are fictional (for the most part), the only non-fictional characters in this chapter are Private Halls and Lieutenant Winters, who, by the end of the war, was a Major. Halls died in battle on June 6 th , 1944, at the battle of Brecourt Manor. Major Winters died last year, on January 2 nd , 2011. That is all.
Chapter 3: The Germans Move
Chapter 3: The Germans Move
The sound of digging could be heard from where Capps was sitting, as he watched over the Germans who were being forced to dig graves for the men who had lost their lives during the night that had just passed them, on a tiny hill not too far from the town. “Dig faster Kraut.” One of the men near Capps yelled at the Germans.
Capps continued to watch and saw that a certain purple unicorn was also watching the men dig, with the most quizzical look on her face. He got up from where he was sitting and walked over to her, only to sit down next to her. “What’s wrong?” He asked as he sat down.
Twilight was so out of focus with what was going around her watching the men, that she hadn’t noticed Capps walking up to her, making her jump in fright. “Oh! Forgive me Mr…. Um….”
“Capps, just call me Capps. Or Cap’n if it makes you feel better.” Capps said with a smirk.
“Mr. Capps…. I’m sorry for nearly jumping out of my skin right there, I was just startled at your voice.”
Capps shook his head. “It’s alright. Anyways, something on your mind?” He asked.
Twilight nodded. “Why is it that the ones in grey are the only ones who are digging? Why aren’t you helping at all?” Capps turned his head back to the men digging and chuckled a bit. “What? What’s so funny?”
“Sorry, sorry, forgive me.” Capps said as he covered his mouth and waved his hand while calming himself down. “The reason I guess I was laughing is because, well, they’re digging because we told them to.”
“Yes, but why?”
“Why? Well, because their prisoners.”
“Prisoners? What did they do?”
Capps took in a deep breath and let it out slowly before answering. “They fought for the enemy and surrendered to us, making them prisoners of war.”
“War?” Twilight asked, and Capps nodded. “What’s that?”
Before he could answer though, Capps was called by one of the privates. “Hey Cap’n! They need ya at CP!”
“Alright! Be right there!” Capps yelled back as he waved his hand. He then turned to Twilight and apologized. “Sorry, guess I’m going have to answer your question another time.”
Twilight frowned a bit, sad that she couldn’t learn something new right away, but decided to let him go. “Alright then, I hope to hear about it soon.” Capps smiled and nodded, then got up and began to run towards Town Hall, where the Americans had set up temporarily a command post.
“… Dietrich.”
“Yes Jürgen?”
“Go out there and check to see if there are any Americans around.” Jürgen said as he pointed in the direction in front of him, as he hid behind some sandbags at his post, holding the MG42 that was given to them and looking down its sights.
“No way, you do it!”
“Would you two please shut up?” A third voice spoke, making the two Germans look behind them. It was their comrade Hans, sitting behind some sand bags on the opposite side of them, reading his favorite book. “With the amount of noise you two are making we won’t need to go out looking for the Americans.”
“How can you be so relaxed Hans? We have no idea where we are, our comrades are being killed right now as we speak either by the Americans or by the weird animals in this damn forest! I mean, look at poor Josef over there!” Dietrich exclaimed as he pointed to a statue made out of stone that looked just like their friend.
“Poor bastard never saw it coming.” Jürgen commented.
“None of us did, who knew a snake with a chicken’s head could do something like that?”
“He’s better off dead, both for me and him. He doesn’t have to put up with this bullshit anymore and I no longer have to drink his shitty coffee.” Hans said, before setting down his book and getting up with his Gewehr 43 semi-automatic rifle. “I’m going to go take a piss. You two keep your eyes peeled for anything moving down that clearing.”
As Hans walked a little ways away from the post, he unzipped his pants and began to relieve himself of his stress. After doing so, he zipped his pants back up and began to walk back to the post, when he heard a voice call to him. ‘Come to the ruins. ’ It said.
Hans quickly brought his gun to his hands as he began to scan the area for anything that might have been suspicious. “Hello?” He said out loud, seeing if anyone would respond, but he didn’t get one. “Huh, must have been my imagination.” He said to himself as he strapped his gun back around his shoulder, only to bring it back into hands seconds later.
‘Come to the ruins. ’ The same voice repeated.
Again, Hans brought his gun to his hands. “Alright, who’s out there?!” He demanded as he continually scanned the area, but again, got no response. He began to back away slowly, back to his post, and when he finally got back, he saw that Jürgen and Dietrich were arguing with each other. “What are you two idiots up to?”
“Hans! Dietrich won’t admit that he said something in a creepy voice and it’s calling me a liar!”
“You are a liar! I didn’t say anything!”
“What are you two, five?” Hans asked with a disgusted look on his face. ‘How did I ever get stuck with such idiots? ’ “Stop bickering like a couple of schoolgirls and go back to watching the clearing.”
It was then that the voice came back. ‘Come to the ruins. ’ It repeated once more.
Hans quickly scanned the entire area once more, gun in hands, when Jürgen spoke. “See! You did it again!”
Hans turned to Jürgen and spoke. “What do you mean ‘he did it again’? What did he say?”
“He said ‘Come to the ruins’ in that really creepy voice again!” Jürgen replied.
“Is that right….” Hans said quietly to himself as he looked at the two with suspicion. ‘So it’s not just me, huh? ’
Once again, the voice spoke, but this time, a dark marking on the ground was made, almost as if it was a line that it wanted the Germans to follow, as it went down the open clearing. ‘Come to the ruins. ’
“What’s that?” Jürgen asked as he looked at the dark line.
“Maybe the voice wants us to follow it…. Go follow it Jürgen.” Dietrich told his friend.
“What? No way, you do it!”
“Shut up! Both of you!” Hans said in a hushed but angered tone. “All three of us are going to follow it. Whatever is calling for us obviously wants us to follow the line.”
“What if it’s another animal that wants to kill us? Huh?” Dietrich joked. “Who’s the idiot now?”
“That’s why you two are coming with me.” Hans replied with a grin. “Now get up!” He said as he pulled the two off the ground by the collars of their neck, then reached down and picked up their guns, handing them over to their owners. Hans began to walk down the line with gun in hand, Dietrich and Jürgen quietly but reluctantly following.
As Capps entered the town hall, he heard one of two Lieutenants talking to somebody, but he didn’t know who. “And so during the evacuation, we also need to transport the PoWs, otherwise they might sabotage our efforts of defending this town against the Germans.”
Capps went to door that he heard the voices from and knocked on the door that was wide open. “Sergeant Major Capps reporting.” Capps said as he saluted the soldiers inside the town hall, when he saw a large white horse with both a unicorn’s horn and the wings of a pegasus.
“Glad you could make it Sergeant Major.” One of the two Lieutenants inside the room that were present as well said as he saluted back. He then pointed to the white horse. “Allow me to introduce you. This is the ruler of this land, Princess Celestia.”
The Princess bowed a bit and smiled at Capps. “It’s very nice to meet you.”
Capps saluted the Princess and nodded as well. “Same goes for me Princess.”
The Lieutenant that hadn’t spoken earlier finally spoke up. “Before you got here Sergeant, we were debriefing the Princess here about the current situation. As we stated before-“ He then pointed his finger down on a map in front of them. Capps guessed it was a layout of the town and the area around it. “It’s most likely that the Germans, if they attack at all, will be attacking from the west, coming out of the forest. We only have five MG’s that we’ve captured from the Germans, each with about 250-500 bullets, considering how many belts they came with.” He then pointed to five separate spots on the map. “These are the places that I think would benefit the most from having MG’s.”
“We are also in the process of making sure that the town gets evacuated, as we were also able to capture a German mortar, meaning they could have more and could be able to fire them non-stop into the town. It’s also possible that they might have artillery.” The first Lieutenant said, then turned to Princess Celestia. “Is that alright Princess?”
The Princess nodded. “I shall make sure that the evacuation process to Canterlot begins immediately. I thank you for doing this.”
“It’s no problem Princess, it’s what we do.” The first Lieutenant smiled and nodded back. He then turned to Capps. “Sergeant.”
“Sir.”
“Do you remember the companies we placed under you for this fight?”
“Yes sir.” Capps said as he nodded. “But I don’t understand why you want me to lead.”
“You might have not notice Sergeant, but we’re short on officers at the moment. Believe it or not, you’re the fifth highest-ranking officer in town. Well then, I want you to go and take all of the men who are in those companies and have them set up in these positions.” The first Lieutenant said as he pointed to the map. “The fallback lines shall be here, here, and here.” Again, pointing to the positions, each getting closer to the center of the town.
Capps saluted once more. “Sir.” And then began to walk out of the room, leaving the Lieutenants and the Princess to continue to talk about the evacuation.
After half an hour of assembling the companies under his command, Capps had positioned himself in one of the houses. Despite being told otherwise by the command post, Capps stayed, not because he liked killing or war, but because if his brothers were to die on the frontlines, then he should be there for them.
He sat in one of the two story houses, Henderson and Danny who had come into town early that morning, along with two other soldiers he didn’t know. “Cap’n?” Danny spoke up.
“Yeah Danny?” Capps answered, his back leaning up against a wall as Danny and Henderson were near the window, surveying the area outside.
“Do you really think they would attack? I mean, why wouldn’t they just leave the forest through some other way?”
Capps let out a breath through his nose. “The forest is surrounded by mountains on all three sides; this town is the only thing that isn’t blocking it. They have nowhere else to go besides here.”
“I see…. Cap’n?”
“Hmm?”
“How do we know they’ll attack as a single group? Rather than coming in through like they did last night?”
“We’re going to be using the Kraut mortar to launch a flare up into the air, possibly at night, and we’ll keep doing it until every single Kraut comes out of that forest.” Capps answered.
“Why night? Wouldn’t that make it harder to see them then?” Henderson asked.
“Yes, but we won’t be doing it until much later tonight, maybe a few hours before the sun rises, that way it’ll be a while before they would actually get to town.” Capps explained.
“Oh, alright….” Henderson said, before focusing back on surveying the area outside with Danny.
The Germans had finally reached the end of the line, and saw that they were lead to the ruins of what looked like an old castle to them. “Do you think we should go inside?” Dietrich asked.
“Whatever brought us here obviously does want us to go inside.” Jürgen responded.
“Shut up you two, keep your voices down.” Hans snapped at them, when he began to hear voices coming from the ruins. “Do you idiots hear that?”
Indeed, all three began to hear voices coming from inside the ruins, making them curious and check it out. What they saw inside surprised them, as they saw not just a few soldiers, but perhaps half of the 352nd Infantry Division. “Well… guess I’m glad we’re not the only ones.” Jürgen commented as he saw the men.
The three began to walk inside the large hall that the men were in and began to mingle with the group, thinking they could learn something, when a large voice coming from what Hans guessed was the throne, getting everyone’s attention and silencing them. “Ah, it seems everyone is here.” A large black cloud seemed to say.
At first the men were startled and surprised at the cloud, both for not seeing it even manifest at the throne, and more importantly, for speaking. “Did… Did that cloud just speak?” One of the many men asked out loud.
“Yes, well, I would have preferred a more appropriate form mind you, but due to unseen circumstances on my part, I was weakened by some pesky ponies and their so called “Elements of Harmony”. But enough about that, as I’m sure you all wondering why you are here and why I am able to speak.” The cloud replied. Everyone inside the room was already stunned by the fact that the cloud was talking that nobody could ask what was going on. “Right, well then, who here is the highest ranking among you?” The cloud asked the group, and the men began to look around, both confused as to why it would ask such a thing, when suddenly, one of the men in the group raised his hand.
“I believe that is me.” The man said as he got in front of the group and onto the steps leading up to the throne, standing as proud as he could be. Indeed, he had looked very different from the men in the group, as instead of wearing a helmet, he wore a cap, and instead of wearing multiple weapons, he wore medals decorating his chest for various accomplishments, and even looked older than the others, quite possibly in his 30’s or maybe even 40’s. “Hauptmann Lutz Eisenberg.”
“I see…. Very well then Mr. Eisenberg, I suppose you and your brethren are doing here in this world?” The cloud asked, and Eisenberg nodded.
“If you would be so kind to tell us.”
“Very well, I suppose you deserve that much. You see, the truth is I was the one who had brought you all here, with the most unfortunate fact that your enemies had come along for the ride. You see, your human mind might not be able to comprehend something like this, but the truth of the matter of fact is that I am far older than any of you could hope to achieve. Nearly 1,000 years ago, I was imprisoned by somebody that I wish to be dead. That is where you and your fellow men come in.” The cloud then began to swirl around in a circle near the throne, where by doing so, somehow had projected an image using its magic to show the Germans of what had happen. “You see, the being that has destroyed my efforts of world domination over and over has been her… Princess Celestia.”
The Germans saw a white horse inside the image, covered in jewels, but what stood out the most to them was that it had both a horn and wings. “You see-“ The cloud continued. “I am quite sure you have figured out that this world is not like your own. Here, fairy tales from your world are reality, and some of those said fairy tales, unicorns and pegasi to be precise, rule these lands, with their goddess of a Princess ruling over them.”
“You said you brought us here.” The Hauptmann interrupted. “I suppose it’s because you wish for us to dispose of her because you cannot do it alone?”
If the cloud could smile, it would have. “You catch on very quick Mr. Eisenberg. Yes, indeed, I have brought you here just for that matter because of the fact that nobody in this world is capable of the destruction of your race.” The cloud began to swirl again to show them another image. It was the image of a town nearby. “Your enemies are set up here, and are anticipating your arrival soon. Along with the help of Princess Celestia, they tend to stop you from doing any damage to her kingdom. I intend to stop just that. All I ask is for you to pledge your undying loyalty to me.”
“Interesting….” The Hauptmann said as he pulled out his Luger and began to examine it, seeing if it was working properly. “Tell me Herr…”
“Nightmare.” The cloud answered. “You may call me Nightmare.”
“Herr Nightmare… I wish to know two things. One, which way is said town?”
“The town is to the east of here.” Nightmare answered.
“I see… And tell me, you say you are weak right now. Does that mean that the form you are in right now is, let’s say, your physical form?”
“Well, yes, but I do not understand-“ But the Nightmare was cut off as Hauptmann Eisenberg began to unload the cartridge of bullets from his Luger into the Nightmare, hoping it would work.
Much to both his surprise and delight, it did work, as the Nightmare began to bleed from the holes that the Hauptmann had created. After the cartridge was out of bullets, and the Nightmare heavily wounded, Eisenberg spoke. “Remember this Nightmare, we are Germans, the only ones we give our loyalty to are the Fatherland and to the Führer.”
“Y-You bastard.” The Nightmare exclaimed as it coughed up blood from the mouth it had created. “Y-You’ll p-pay for this!” And with that, the Nightmare flew out of the ruins, hoping to rest up and heal itself for a later date, before it would bleed to death.
Hauptmann Eisenberg turned to the men and spoke. “Men! Today is a glorious day for the Fatherland! Today! We start our voyage of taking these lands in the name of Germany! Heil Hitler!” He saluted to the men, who saluted back. “Heil Hitler!”Alright, sorry about if this chapter seems rushed, as I was sort of having a writer’s block as I couldn’t really think of anything. Yes, there are a few things in here that will make you go “Wait, that doesn’t make any sense.” or “How the hell does that work?” in which I reply with “Piss off, I’m tired and wasn’t able to think of anything.”
Fun Fact about this chapter: While in the middle of writing it, I took a ten minute break so I wouldn’t burn out and began to surf Youtube for anything I could watch. Sure enough, I actually remembered I ended up favoriting a scene from a certain childhood movie that I absolutely love, even to this day, and would constantly rewatch the movie over and over just for that certain scene (Why? Because I was too stupid at that time to realize that you could also rewind a VCR to a certain point, rather than needing to rewind the entire movie and rewatch it xD) Anyways, that movie? Walt Disney’s 1971 Live Action/Animated film, “Bedknobs and Broomsticks”. The scene I enjoy watching the movie over and over for? Near the end where the main character (A witch) brings to life suits of armor in a museum to fight off the evil Nazis who have secretly invaded England and have set up a base there.
Alright, that does it for me. Good Night.
Chapter 4: The Battle Of Ponyville
Chapter 4: The Battle Of Ponyville
“Hey Cap’n.” Henderson called out to Capps, who was on the verge of sleeping, as he hadn’t had any for the past 24 hours. “Perhaps you should get some sleep Cap’n, we’ll keep watch.”
“I can’t do that Henderson, who knows when the Krauts are going to come. I have to be ready for them.” Capps answered as he yawned shortly afterwards. It was about late evening in Ponyville, the last chariot to Canterlot having left hours ago. The only beings in Ponyville now were the men of the 101st Airborne.
“You’ll be ready alright, ready to be killed. You’ll be useless to us if you can’t keep your eyes open. Come on, go to bed, we’ll stay up and keep watch of anything. If the Krauts do decide to come, we’ll come get you.”
Capps sighed and nodded. “Fine, you do that…. Thanks Henderson.”
“No problem Cap’n.”
Capps nodded once more and got up from watching the outside through the window of the two story building he was in. He went outside and began to walk back to a house that wasn’t too far away where some of the men that hadn’t rest before were resting. However, Capps never made it to the house as he noticed something out the corner of his eye.
Ponies.
“What the…?” He questioned as he rubbed his eyes, unsure if he really did see the ponies or not. After he got done rubbing, he looked once more, and indeed, the ponies were there, or at least one, actually getting closer to him. He noticed that it was the one he had talked to earlier, Twilight.
As she and the ponies behind her got closer to him, she smiled at him and waved. “Hello Capps, it’s-“ But was cut off by an angry Capps.
“What the hell are you doing here?” He asked as he crouched down in front of her.
“What? I don’t-“
“Don’t you know you’re in massive danger?” Capps nearly screamed at her.
Twilight put a look of defiance and answered. “Yes, I do, but I’m staying here because I wish to protect the home that I’ve built here and protect the homes of all my friends. Besides, I’ve faced danger before!”
Capps sighed and began to rub his eyes using his thumb and index finger. “Look, I don’t know what type of danger you’ve been in-“
“Oh, just fighting off dragons, a hydra, even a powerful god of chaos named Discord.”
“Discord, huh? What did he do?” Capps asked, slightly impressed, but still tried to stand firm.
“He turned the clouds in cotton candy and made them pour chocolate rain, and other stuff that was similar.”
Capps sighed again. “So you’ve never been in any danger like this…. Listen, you need to leave Ponyville right now. I promise we’ll protect your homes.”
“And I said no.” Twilight answered him. “I can handle myself!”
“No, you can’t. The danger that’s coming here is danger you’ve never faced before. I’ve been lucky to have made it this far already!”
Twilight looked down in defeat. She knew there was no point in arguing with him if he wouldn’t even budge so far. She then looked up at him with her defiant face once more. “Let me stay. If it becomes too much for me, I’ll teleport myself away to Canterlot.”
“No, I-“ But Capps was cut off as the two heard machine gun fire go off. They both looked in the direction that the sound was coming from and Capps whispered. “Fuck, they’re here.” He quickly looked at Twilight and quickly spoke. “Fine, you can stay, but stay close to me and stay low.”
Twilight looked at Capps and smirked while nodding. Capps nodded back and began to run back with Twilight right behind him.
The two had gotten to the upstairs of the building where the others were. Henderson had quickly turned his attention away from the tree line of the forest and turned to the steps, not sure if a German had gotten through, but was relieved to see it was Capps. “Cap’n! Good to-“ But he stopped as he saw Twlight. “What the hell is that doing here?”
“Hey! I’m a mare!”
Capps sighed and got close to the window as he crouched down against the wall. “She defied orders and decided to stay behind.” He answered. He then looked at Twilight and pointed to the wall opposite of him. “Stay over there, and don’t move.” She nodded and did as she was ordered. Capps then turned his attention to Henderson, who was firing his Thompson sub-machine gun out of the window some before taking cover once more. “How many?”
“Hard to tell, but there’s a lot.” Henderson asked before popping his head out of the window again to fire, only to quickly retract it as a bullet flew by his head. “Fuck!”
Capps popped his head into the window, quickly spotted a few targets, and began to fire at them using his own gun, hitting all three, before taking cover again. He used the corner of his eye to see that the Germans were rounding to the right, where there was less fire, and knew he had to do something. “Shit.” Capps quietly said as he began to look around to see if he could somehow cut the Germans off.
Capps got off the ground and began to go into the hallway when Henderson called out to him. “Where are you going?”
“They’re rounding to the right! I’m going to try to cut them off!” Capps answered as he ran down the hallway, seeing a window at the end of it. Outside the window, he could see the Germans that had made it passed the fire, and began to open fire himself at them, shattering the glass that was there. He was able to take down four more before they realized where the gunfire was coming from and opened fire themselves at Capps. He took cover and began to reload, waiting for the Germans to run out of ammo themselves and reload before popping out and firing.
There was so much happening around Twilight, that she had no idea what was happening. For some reason, she had felt like that she was in danger, but she didn’t know why. Several minutes had passed since Capps had left the room and went down to the end of the hallway, while she stayed where she was told to stay. ‘There must be some way I can help. ’ Twilight thought to herself.
Twilight thought of an idea and ran to the window where Henderson was at. “What the hell are you doing?!” He asked as he continued to fire outside.
“I want to help!” Twilight yelled over the sound of gunfire.
“No way! You need to- Fuck!” Henderson yelled out as another bullet flew by his head again, this time closer than before. “You need to stay away! It’s too dangerous!”
“I won’t leave!” Twilight yelled back. She then quickly poked her head outside and saw that there multiple men in grey, some using sticks and some using what looked like upside-down black U’s to fire something at them. She got the idea to use a stun spell on one of them, and fired it at the men in grey. It hit.
The German fell to the ground, completely paralyzed, with the men around him confused. Henderson looked at Twilight with astonishment. “Can you keep doing that?” He asked her as he shot the paralyzed soldier.
“I-I guess so!” Twilight answered, and shot off three more paralyzation spells at the Germans, hitting three more, who then got shot by Henderson, before having to take cover like him.
Back in the forest, Hauptmann Eisenberg was overseeing the battle as he watched his men storm out of the forest, a smile on his face as he thought that they were winning. Just then, a scout had come back to report on the battle, saluting him as he came up. “Herr Hauptmann, the battle in the south is going according to plan.”
Eisenberg smiled and nodded. “And in the north?”
“We don’t know how Hauptmann, but for some reason our men are getting stuck as something is striking them and paralyzing them, causing them to be easy targets.”
“What?!” The Hauptmann yelled out as anger overtook his face. “How?!”
“W-We don’t know sir! All we know is that one of the Americans are using some sort of weapon to paralyze us and taking cover in a house to-“
“Then tear it down! Use everything you can find to destroy that cover and kill that American!”
“Yes sir!” The scout replied as he saluted once more and ran off to tell the soldiers.
“Morons.” Hauptmann Eisenberg said under his breath as he continued to watch the remaining men pour out of the forest.
Back the house, Henderson began to curse. “Shit! I’m running out!” He called out to the others nearby.
“Same!” One of the soldier nearby called out as well.
“Shit! Danny!” Capps called out as he had gotten back in the same room minutes earlier.
Danny replied from the stairs. “Yes sir?!”
“You’re gonna need to make a run for some more ammo! We’ll hold them off for as long as possible!”
“Yes sir!” Danny called out, and went down the stairs, where he started to run off to the town hall, where the ammo was stored.
Capps turned to Twilight and could see she was getting exhausted from using so much magic. “How are you holding up?” He asked her over the sound of gunfire.
“I-I’m doing fine.” Twilight replied. “I’ll be able to con-“
“Panzerfaust!” Henderson yelled out before grabbing Capps and throwing him to the ground, on top of Twilight, before covering his own head. Soon after doing so, the wall that was covering them had exploded, making them completely visible to the Germans after the dust had subsided.
“Move!” Capps yelled out as he picked Twilight up and ran down the stairs of the house, Henderson right behind him, avoiding another shot from the Germans as the wall next to him exploded as well.
The three began to run back to the second line, made out sandbags and a trench. They looked around and had seen that it wasn’t just them that were retreating as others from the houses around them were retreating as well. Even the men who were downstairs in the house were running back, one of them having the MG42 they were using on their back as the other carried the second belt.
As they got into the trench, Twilight yelled. “What was that?!”
“Panzerfaust!” Capps yelled back, while at the same time firing his last Thompson cartridge. “German anti-tank, very destructive and- Fuck! I’m out!” He turned to Henderson. “You got any extra?!”
“Sorry sir! On my last one as well!”
“God damnit!” Capps yelled as he pulled out his M1911 colt and began firing at the Germans, using his shots very wisely. “Where the hell is our mortar support?!”
“No idea Cap’n!” Henderson replied.
Capps looked over and saw one of his men get hit in the head. “Fuck! Don’t we have any god damn support?! Where’s the medics?!”
Meanwhile, Twilight was shaking uncontrollably in the trenches, scared out of her mind. ‘Why did I stay?! ’ She finally asked herself. Despite it though, she knew she had to continue helping them, as she did defy the order to retreat to Canterlot. She used her magic to this time put up a purple force shield in front of them.
The men around her noticed this and looked at her after they saw that the bullets from the Germans were bouncing off the shield. “How long can you hold that up?!” Capps asked.
“A-At l-least ten m-minutes!” Twilight strained to get out, doing her best to focus on the shield.
“That’s good enough for me!” Henderson called out as he used the last of his Thompson before switching to his pistol.
The Germans had noticed and understood what the purple shield was, and began to run around it, while at the same time trying their best to avoid the American fire. “MG team! Kill them! Don’t let them flank us!” Capps ordered.
“We’re doing our best sir!” The MG team replied.
Before Capps could reply though, he heard his name be called out. “Cap’n!”
Capps looked behind him and saw that Danny had come back with as much as ammo as he could possibly carry, making a smile appear on Capps face. “Good job Danny! Right on time!”
The men reloaded their weapons with the freshly brought ammo and began firing once more.
Nearly an hour and half had passed since the battle had begun, and the men of the 101st Airborne had been pushed back to the final line, to the town hall, where they hid behind sandbags on the steps of the building. The ammo for the mortar had long since run out, the MG’s had been used up, everyone was near to out of ammo, and they had none left inside the building.
It seemed to have been a lost cause.
“I only got two clips left!” Capps yelled out as he continued to fire at the Germans.
“Three here!” Danny yelled out as well.
“I’m down to my last one!” Henderson replied.
“Hey Unicorn, you got anymore magic left inside ya?!” Capps asked Twilight.
“My… My name is Twilight, and no… I don’t have any more magic to us. I’ve used up all of it and I’m… I’m going have to rest up.” Twilight answered him as she panted from exhaustion.
Another panzerfaust was shot and exploded near Capps. “Shit! How many more of those things do they have?!” Danny yelled out.
*Click click* Capps gun had run out of ammo. ‘Fuck! ’ He thought as he quickly scrambled to switch cartridges. After he was able to switch, he continued to fire, using his last ammo wisely, as he spoke. “Twilight!”
Twilight looked up at Capps. “Yes?”
“I’m sorry… I’m sorry for having you see this and being here!” Capps yelled out as he continued to gun down Germans.
Twilight shook her head. “Don’t be!” She yelled back. “I chose to stay behind, you don’t have to apologize for anything!”
Just then, Danny was hit in the head by a stray bullet. “Danny!” Capps yelled out as he saw his friend go down. “No!”
It was too late though, as he hit ground, his lifeless body just laid there, doing nothing. “Fuck! Forgive me Danny!” Henderson called out as he reached down and began scavenging Danny’s dead body for any extra ammo. He found the last two clips. “Cap’n! Here!” Henderson yelled out as he threw Capps one of the two clips.
Capps caught the clip and nodded at Henderson, before using the remaining ammo in his current clip on the Germans. All hope seemed to have been lost, when a miracle happened.
Hauptmann Eisenberg had moved out of the forest, moving up into the town and watching his men continually charging to the town center. “Herr Hauptmann!” A scout saluted and spoke as he ran up to Eisenberg. “We’ve nearly taken the town Herr Hauptmann. We’ve been able to push the Americans back to the center of the town.”
“Good, so it should be over soon then?” Eisenberg asked, and the scout nodded.
“Ja, mein Hauptmann.”
Eisenberg nodded in satisfaction and smiled. “Very good Gefretier, I’ll be sure to-“ But the Hauptmann was cut off as a large explosion could be heard in the background, an explosion that shouldn’t have been heard in this world, along with another sound that went along with the explosion.
Tanks.
Capps, Henderson, and the soldiers around them began to cheer loudly as they saw giant machines painted green and white star on their sides rolling into town, a .50 caliber machine gun on top being fired at the Germans. “What the hell are Shermans doing here?!” Capps yelled out.
“Who cares!” Henderson replied. “Go you beautiful babies go!” He yelled as he watched the tanks drive by.
The M4 Shermans began to shred the Germans apart as they retreated, following them through the town towards the forest edge. One of the Shermans rolled up in front of the town hall and stopped, its hatch opening up after it did so to reveal a smiling American. “Heard you boys were having quite a problem here.”
“I don’t care how, but I’m glad you beauties decided to show up for the party!” Henderson replied while smiling.
“What are those things?!” Twilight had to yell over the roar of the Sherman engines.
“Friends!” Capps replied to her as he watched the Shermans continue to drive off and chase after the Germans.
“Where are you going cowards?!” Hauptmann yelled after his men as they retreated, hoping to escape into the forest. “Come back here and fight!” But his orders fell on deaf ears. Soon afterwards, he was captured by the Americans.
The first of the Germans to have retreated had saw the forest line, thinking he was home free, only to be shocked and disappointed as a force shield, very much like the one from earlier, had cut them off from the forest, entrapping them in the town. Unicorns were on the other side, all looking the same with white coats and golden armor, inside the forest, casting their most powerful magic to keep the shield up. The Germans began to panic as they had no way to get out of town, banging on the force shield trying to break it using the butt of their guns, but to no avail.
Soon afterwards, the Shermans and reinforcement infantry had caught up with the retreating Germans and captured them. The Germans complied and put their hands behind their heads after setting their weapons on the ground, and were escorted back to the center of town.
Back in the center of town, Capps had recognized a certain horse come flying down to the men who were still in the town hall. He recognized her as Princess Celestia. “Did you do this?” He asked as she landed, and she nodded.
“Shortly before the attack, I had sensed a presence I thought was gone for good, but it seems I was wrong. Luckily for me though, the being I speak of was heavily wounded, and could barely keep itself awake despite all the blood it had lost. Because I know that type of horrible things that being is capable of, I simply ‘asked ’ it if it knew anything about why you and your enemies are here, and it told me that it brought them here in hopes of using them to conquering the world. It seems things didn’t turn out as planned for that being and was almost killed by your enemies.”
Capps smirked a bit. “Well I guess that explains why we got here in the first place, but what about-“ But Capps stopped as Celestia put her hoof up.
“I was just getting to that my good soldier. I had convinced the being to tell me how they brought you here, and they were kind enough to tell me. I used that same spell to retrieve some of your comrades here and tell them the situation. They gladly accepted and it seems we were able to get here before my dear student could be harmed.” She said as she looked over to Twilight. “By the way Twilight…” Celestia said her name in a harsh tone. “It seems you have defied specific orders that I gave the town.”
Twilight looked down, ashamed. “I’m sorry Princess, but I just-“
“What would have happened if you had gotten hurt? What would I have told your mother and father? What about your brother?”
Before Celestia could continue anymore, Capps stepped in front of Twilight. “I know this isn’t any of my business Princess, but I owe my life to Twilight.”
Celestia raised an eyebrow as she looked at Capps. “Oh? How so?”
“If it wasn’t for her, we wouldn’t have been able to hold on for as long as we did. It was because of her that we were able to retreat with safety as she used her magic to put up her shields to protect us from the gunfire.”
Twilight had stepped around Capps, but still hid behind him a little bit as Celestia continued to look at Capps, before turning her gaze to Twilight. “Is this true Twilight?” Twilight nodded. Celestia sighed and continued. “I suppose if that’s the case… I suppose that there is no harm done then.”
“Says you.” Henderson commented under his breath.
Again, Celestia sighed. “Yes, war is a horrible thing, and there are lives that will be lost in the midst of battle, but remember this. Just because they quite possibly gone now, doesn’t mean you should forget the memories of the times you had with your friends.” She said as she smiled at the troops. “But enough about that, perhaps we should see what we must do first about our ‘friends ’.”Alright, end of Chapter 4. See ya next chapter.
Chapter 5: The End
A few days had passed since the battle for Ponyville had taken place. The Americans and Germans had called a truce as the Americans released the prisoners as a part of the truce. They did so because both sides didn’t want to be at war anymore, and decided since they were in a new world, to stop fighting.
In Ponyville, the ready and able on both sides helped to restore the town to its former glory with the help of their new found pony friends, while the wounded continued to heal up.
During one of his breaks, Capps was smoking a cigarette with Henderson next to him. “Never thought we’d be working with the Germans.” Capps commented as he let out a cloud of smoke.
“Yeah, you can say that again.”
Suddenly, the two heard a voice from behind them. “Don’t get too comfortable men, as we won’t be staying for much longer.”
The two looked to see who it was behind them and saw it was one of their superior officers. “Sir?” Capps asked as he got up to salute.
The officer saluted back. “We just word from the Princess that she’s found a way to return us to Earth. She’s suppose to be coming here later this evening to tell us all about it.”
“What does that mean for the ponies sir?” Henderson asked.
“It means that we won’t be around for much longer to bother them anymore.” The officer replied.
“I see….”
“Now come on you two, we still have work that needs to be done.” The officer told the two men as he saluted them and began to walk towards the town to help out, with the other two right behind him.
That night, both the Americans and Germans had gathered in front of the town hall to hear what the pony princess wanted to tell them. Most of them hadn’t a clue what she was about to tell them, while others just kept their mouths shut.
Finally, after minutes of making them wait, Princess Celestia of Equestria took the stage. She coughed a bit to get the attention of the soldiers. “Ahem. I’d like to thank you all today for coming out this evening. As some of you know already, I have come here to tell you all that I have found a way for you all to go back home.”
As soon as she said that, some of the people inside the crowd began to grown and even boo.
“We don’t want to go back!”
“Piss off!”
“Why we gotta go back?!”
But the cries of protest soon ceased. “That’s enough! All of you!” One of the superior officers yelled as he stepped up on stage. “You all know we don’t belong here! Besides, what about your loved ones back home? What about them?”
The crowd began to settle down after the officer made his point. Celestia simply smiled uncomfortably and thanked him. “Thank you Mr…”
“Johnson.” The officer replied.
“Yes, Mr. Johnson. Thank you, but I think I can handle it from here.” She said as she took his spot at the podium and began to talk to the crowd once more. “Ahem, as I was saying, I have found a way for all of you to go back to your own world, however, there are some problems with it.”
The crowd began to murmur in uncertainty as Princess Celestia spoke. “What do you mean there are problems?” One soldier yelled out.
“Well, to put it simply… I’ll be able to send all of you back to a few hours before the first of you got here. In other words, you’ll all go back in time and go back to the day before the night you came here.” One soldier raised his hand. “Err, yes?”
The soldier stood up and spoke. “If that’s the problem, what’ll happen then? Will we continue that day as if nothing happened?”
Princess Celestia nodded. “As I said, you’ll go back to before you all came here, and while doing so, you’ll end up losing your memories of this world and everything you’ve done here.” The crowd began to become wild again as they began to yell in protest. “B-But! Your superiors have agreed to let you stay here one more day here, as it’ll take a full day to get the spell ready!” Celestia yelled towards the crowd, which got them settled down.
The officer named Johnson took Celestia’s spot at the podium. “You heard her boys. Both Americans and Germans are going to be sent back home on the morning two days from now. Sleep while you can boys, as tomorrow will be your last day in this world.” He then saluted the men. “Dismissed.”
Before they went though, another soldier raised his hand. “Yes?” Celestia asked the soldier.
“What about the ones who’ve died here?” The soldier asked. The crowd began to agree with him. “What’ll happen to them?”
Celestia nodded as she understood the question. “I suppose that would be a very good question. To tell you the truth, the reason why the spell will have to take a day is because our mages are going have to seclude the area of which all of you were in, meaning the Everfree Forest, Ponyville, and the fields to the east where your ‘planes’ landed, and essentially draw a circle in that area. After that is done, that circle that will be drawn will allow me to focus my energy on all foreign objects that don’t belong in this world, both dead and living. So long as there is the smallest part of them here, they will exist back in your world alive and well. Does that answer your question?” She asked the soldier with a smile. The soldier nodded and sat back down. “Good! Now, I hope you all can rest well, as Johnson here has said, tomorrow will be your last day here. I’m sorry you couldn’t stay longer, but it’s best for both our worlds if you all went back as soon as possible.”
The crowd began to groan and mumble as they began to split off and go to the houses they were assigned to sleep in. “One day huh?” Capps said out loud as he looked towards the podium, completely absent-minded.
“Eh, whatever, don’t get why we gotta spend one more day here if we’re just gonna forget about it the day afterwards.” Henderson added as he got up from his chair and began to walk away, patting Capps on the shoulder. “You coming Cap’n?”
“Yeah, be right there Henderson.” Capps said as he continued to sit in the chair, thinking what it’d be like had he never come to Equestria in the first place. An hour later he finally went to bed.
For the day that was to be the humans’ last day in Equestria, Capps spent it mostly walking around town, looking at the various buildings that had gotten rebuilt. While he was walking on one of the dirt roads that went through town, he heard his name be called out. “Capps! Capps!”
Capps turned around to see a certain purple unicorn pony running up to him. “Hey Twilight, what’s up?”
“Capps, I heard what’s going to happen tomorrow! Are you really going to leave?” She asked in a sad tone.
Capps shrugged his shoulders. “Orders are orders Twilight, nothing we can do about it.”
“But do you want to? I mean, after what I saw yesterday…. How could you live like that?”
Capps took in a deep breath through his nose and let it out through his mouth before answering. “If I didn’t do it, then some poor kid who has his entire life ahead of him will have to take my place. Besides, I chose to do this, so it’s my burden to handle.” Capps then placed his hand on Twilight’s head and began to rub it as he patted her. “You’re a good kid Twilight, and I’m sorry about what you saw, but that’s life on my world. It seems that our country tends to get into war after war, but somebody’s gotta fight it, right?”
“But I’ll miss you.” Twilight complained, beginning to tear up.
Capps smirked and began to chuckle. “Well, didn’t know you had those types of feelings towards me.” He then sighed. He could see just how devastating it was for her to see him go. “Tell you what-“ He began, then put his hands behind his neck and took off his dogtags, holding them in his hand in front of Twilight. “I know I really shouldn’t be doing this, but… if you’ll miss me that much, then I’ll give you this to remember me by…. How does that sound?”
Twilight sniffed a bit and wiped away her tears before grabbing a hold of the dogtags and levitating them with her magic, putting them in her satchel that she wore on her back. “T-Thank you.” She said meekly.
Capps smirked once more and nodded. “No problem….”
The next morning had come, and everyone was rounded up in the center of town. Celestia was there as she began to cast the spell to bring the men back to their own world. Slowly, but surely, everything that had involved the Americans or Germans began to slowly disappear from the world.
Nearly an hour later, everything returned to what it once was. All but one set of dogtags that was now in the ownership of a certain purple unicorn.
It was the very early morning of June 5th, 1944. An American Sergeant Major, wearing his uniform, was walking down to the mess hall when he heard someone call out for him.
“Cap’n! Hey Cap’n.” The Sergeant turned around to face the person who was calling his name out.
“Danny, you know I’m not a Captain, I’m a Sergeant Major.” The Sergeant called out to the man only three years younger than him.
“Sorry sir.” The private known as Danny apologized as he came running up to the Sergeant Major. “But it’s just easy to call ya Cap’n cause of your name and all.”
“You mean you want to call me Captain Capps?” The Sergeant named Capps said while smirking.
“Well, it’s easier to remember than Sergeant Major.” Capps began to chuckle.
“You boys sure do love to mess with me, don’t ya?” Capps gave the private a smirk.
“Well, we’re brothers aren’t we?”
“We haven’t gone into battle yet Danny.” Capps responded to the young man.
“But we will tonight, right?”
“Don’t get too enthusiastic about jumping Danny. War is hell, remember that. As for if we’re jumping tonight, we’ll have to see if the higher-ups think it’s okay. For now, just go over your equipment, as well as the plan, it’s never bad to be too prepared.”
“Alright Cap’n will do.” Capps could only laugh at the boy’s enthusiasm.
“Come on, let’s go get breakfast while it’s still hot.” Capps wrapped his arm around Danny and the two began to walk to the mess hall together.
Later that night, Capps and the others had gotten the order that they were to jump. For over five hours they sat in that plane, waiting for the signal to turn green. Finally, it had turned not green yet, but red, signaling the men to get ready. Capps stood up and began to use hand movements to address his man. “Get ready! Stand up!” The men did as they were told and stood up, standing in a single line. “Hook up!” All at the same time, the men hooked their parachutes to the rail above them. “Equipment check!” Capps yelled out as he tapped his shoulders. “Sound off for equipment check!” And his men did so.
“10 okay!”
“9 okay!”
“8 okay!”
“7 okay!”
“6 okay!”
“5 okay!”
“4 okay!”
“3 okay!”
“2 okay!”
Finally it was Capps’ turn. “1 okay!”
As they finally sounded off, the plane began to meet heavy resistance from German Anti-Air. Planes all around them began to go down.
A plane that was to the left of them to see a C-47 get blown in half as a flak shell hit it in the middle, causing the tail to fall off while the nose of the plane began to dive into the forest below.
On the other side of their plane, another C-47 had gotten hit in one of its engines by a 20mm. The plane began to lose altitude as the engine failed to respond; the pilot was going to make a crash landing into the forest, hopefully without any casualties.
“Jesus Christ let’s go! Let’s go!” Henderson yelled out in fear.
“Does that light look green to you?!” Another soldier called out.
“Fuck the light! I don’t want to die up here!” Henderson yelled back.
“Where the hell is the DZ?!” Danny called out.
Planes were continuing to get hit all around them as they were going down into the forest below them. Finally, they had reached far enough that the pilots turned on the green light. “Alright! Let’s go!” Capps called out to his men. One by one they began to jump out of the plane, their parachutes deploying right after they jumped out.
However, most of them had missed their drop zones completely, and instead, unfortunately, landed right into Sainte Mere-Eglise, a town that was held by German troops. They were easy targets as they came down, getting killed before they even hit the ground, as the Germans saw them in the clear, illuminated sky. He didn’t know why, but Capps thought of something he thought he had completely forgot about before being killed by the Germans. ‘Twilight. ’
And there it is, the end of ‘ The Night of Days’. Sorry for the cop-out ending, but compared to the other ending I was going to go with, this one probably makes a lot more sense and is better.
For those wondering, yes, believe it or not, sections of two planeloads of parachutists actually landed in a small town in France called Sainte Mere-Eglise, and most of them were killed before hitting the ground, as the Germans could see them clearly due to a fire that had started in a barn nearby, lighting up the night sky. Probably the most famous part of it is that a soldier by the name of John Steele actually survived the drop by being caught on the spire of the church in town, and played dead before being captured by German forces two hours later. He then later escaped the Germans and rejoined his division when US troops of the 3 rd battalion, 505 Infantry Parachute Regiment attacked the village.
Because of this, every year around June 6 th , the townspeople put up a fake paratrooper on top of the church, celebrating the liberation of Nazi Germany by Allied forces.
Another cool little tidbit of information, the church ended up putting in two stained-glass windows in honor of the paratroops, one representing the Virgin Mary and Baby Jesus (I think, can’t really tell from the pictures) hovering above the town, with two paratroopers next to them landing into town. The other is of Saint Michael dressed as a French warrior in medieval times, surrounded by the various insignias of the paratroopers.
