Journal Entry #56
Date: December 16, 1944
We've camped out here in Bastogne waiting for our company commander to give us new orders. Our company was mostly comprised of Shermans which we only had about 30 or so left of and a handful of Hellcats, ours being one of them. Never have we been so relieved in this war considering haven't been attacked for a couple days now and we don't know what we're going to do next. Me, Patterson, Baker, Johnson, and Williams have been talking amongst each other and have just been having the best time we can for now considering we could be attacked any moment. None of us know when it will end, but we hope it does soon or were going to be overrun by the damn Germans and their Blitzkrieg. The Stukas haven't shown up so far, which is a good thing, but then again who could fly in this weather. It's freezing and the snow just keeps coming down.
As I was writing the sound of an engine or engines I should say could be heard. Our entire company looked around to find the source of the noise.
It was freezing out here and I hoped to God they weren't attacking us, our planes were grounded from the freezing weather and couldn't do anything.
Patterson broke the silence, "What do you think it is Stevens? Tank? Car? Plane?"
I told him my opinion on the matter,"There's no way anyone could fly in this weather. And it's not a car, the engine is noisy."
Baker spoke up," S-so it's a T-tank?"
"Probably..."
Just as we sat there brainstorming ideas on the matter one of the runners came out of the brush and stared yelling "The Germans are here, the German's are here!"
No one questioned them and I ran out of the tank to start the engine. The roar of the engines could be heard from all around now.I ran up to the side and sat in the gunners seat. Patterson, our commander, yelled to Baker to start driving. The tank lurched forward and we were off.Williams loaded a shell into the 76mm cannon and I was looking out of the cabin for any signs of a German tank.
We started to get into a line of tanks all racing to the actual city of Bastogne. We were in the back while the Sherman's kicked there engines into overdrive and started to haul ass. We started to hear artillery shells firing and flames started to arise.
Once we got to the actual city there were German Panther tanks all lined up and ready to fire. We stayed back because of our thin armor while the Sherman's rushed to the front line firing shells. More German Panther tanks came up to the line and started to fire at us.
Johnson was on the radio when he told us to go around them and try to fire at the engines. All of the hellcats in our division started to turn and get around the city. The 4 tanks in our division started to drive in a line to the sides of the city to get into firing position.
As we were driving along an we were bombarded with artillery shells. The tank right behind went up and flames, and so did the tank in front of us. We turned to go around them and as we did an artillery shell hit our tracks and were started to spin until we ran out of track to run on.
Our tank was now facing the artillery that was firing at us. Patterson got on the browning machine gun and started to fill them with bullets. I aimed for the nearest artillery trench and fired a round at it. The machine went up in flames and the soldiers started to run off. Patterson easily fired the browning and shot them all. All the while Patterson started to yell over the machine gun,"Baker get your ass out there and fix our track!"
Baker hurried out of the tank and repaired our track in record time, probably because he didn't want to get shot. He got back in the tank and hurried to the safety of the driver's port and we started to drive off. We hurried to the firing position we were supposed to be at already.
When we got there the other tank from division was already lobbing shells at the panthers. He knocked out about 12 already, but more just kept on coming. We quickly entered the fray to as we both started to fire shells at the tanks. They started to see where the fire was coming from and started to turn there turrets to us. We quickly fired at the ones that were trying to get a shell in us.
As we were firing we didn't see the giant beast that was coming up behind us. Johnson apparently saw what was rolling up behind us and started to scream,"King tiger! King tiger!"
I turned my head and saw the most powerful weapon in Hitler's Panzer division, the dreaded Panzerjager Tiger Ausf. B. The 128mm cannon on the rolling monster was enough to make an tank commander loss all hope.
Patterson saw the ones rolling up behind us and started to yell,"Baker get us the hell out of here!"
"I'm trying!"
The tank to our left exploded and went up in flames. Our tank turned and we started to speed away from the threat. We were rolling along the path back to the safety our artillery when we were slammed with a Panther's shell. The shell hit the side and made shrapnel go flying. I got hit in the leg with a large chunk of metal while my other members weren't so lucky Baker, Williams, and Patterson were all struck dead and johnson and me were the only ones alive.
Johnson, fearing for his life, took off his headset and hopped out the tank running away from it. What I saw next was horrifying he was shot down by the machines that were placed inside the panthers and then he was blasted by a shell of the King Tiger. I have no idea were his body was then placed.
I looked around hoping they thought we were all dead, but apparently they spotted me and turned there turret to fire another shell what happened next was a gift from god himself. I saw the cannon's smoke as the tank fired at me, but the tank wasn't hit again it was teleported.
I saw a bright light and I saw the tank and I were in a royal looking courtyard. I saw something big and white running towards me. I had lost a lot of blood from the shrapnel in my leg and it was starting to take its toll.
I looked at the creature that was now near me and told it,"Help... me..."
I then blacked out.
I couldn't remember anything that had happened the night before all I could possibly thing was that I either died or i'm close to death, one of the two.
I awoke to the sound of a feminine voice talking to another person who was obviously confused. My vision started to dilate into focus and I slowly inched my way up so that I was leaned up to looked around. What I saw was somewhat like a miracle and yet a curse in it self. I saw two rather large unicorns with wings and they were both sporting some kind of tattoos on there rear end. One was a clear white with a mane that seemed to have it's own breeze, and the other a very deep blue color with a mane that seemed to be the same as the other ones.
"W-what the hell!?" I was very confused to why there were two talking horses next to me on what looked like a hospital bed.
The white one spoke with a motherly tone, "well I see your awake."
"Y-yeah... Where the hell am I?"
"Equestria"
"What?"
"I said, Equestria"
"Is some kind of land for talking horses?" My bearings were coming loose as I sat there talking to the two strange creatures.
The white one just laughed and said,"no this is a land of talking ponies."
Well at least I got the talking part right
As I was in my thoughts she spoke again,"would you mind telling me your name?"
"Not unless you tell me yours first."
"Alright then, my name is Princess Celestia." She gestured towards the pony standing next to her. "And this is Princess Luna." She simply smiled at me not saying a word.
"Ok then, well my name is Marc Stevens."
"Marc, that is a strange name."
"Well not from where I come from it isn't."
"Well yes probably not, but as you can see your not on your home planet anymore."
"Yeah about that, how did I get here?"
"I simply teleported you here."
"Why!?"
"Well did you want to die?"
"Well no but..." I couldn't really argue with that. "Ok fair enough, but why did you teleport me here?"
"Well I wanted to study you of course."
"So are you going to, like, cut me open or something?"
"Oh no not at all, I simply wanted to study your nature."
"Ok, study me so I can get back home."
"Well you see..."
"Whats the problem?"
"I can't really get you back."
"What." Her answer hit me like a ton of bricks, knowing I couldn't get back home.
"WHAT?" My tone increasing due my anger and stress.
"WHAT!?"
She saw I was getting unruly so she started to calm me down. "Please, Marc, I assure you it will be alright."
"HOW CAN IT BE ALRIGHT!? I'M STUCK HERE NOT ABLE TO GO HOME."
"MARC"
She was getting stressed at my tone so she equally matched hers. "Well ok then, what do I do now?"
"I'm surprised you're taking this so well."
"I'm in the army i'm supposed to be able to change to my environment quickly."
"You're in the military?"
"Yes I am, i'm in the U.S. 9th armored division on my planet."
I remembered about how I saw the bright light and getting transported here, and also about my buddies getting killed.
"Did you find anyone else in that tank?"
"In the what?"
"The tank, that big metal thing outside!"
"Well yes, but them seemed to all be dead..."
"Where are they?"
"Right now we are keeping locked up in one of the barracks so nopony gets suspicious."
I threw off the blankets that were on me and began to run off the bed to find them. The moment I got off and started to walk run away I felt a pain in my right leg. "OW, SHIT!" I fell on the ground and began to hold my wounded area on my leg.
Oh yeah I forgot to mention that you also got stabbed in your right leg with metal shrapnel
"Damn, brain...."
I looked around and found a convenient wheelchair sitting next to my bed. I quickly crawled into it and wheeled myself out out the hospital room. I heard Celestia vaguely say,"Wait, Marc!" It was no use though I was already out of the hospital wing when I heard her yell for me.
I begin wheeling myself very quickly to try and find the barracks of the castle, I turned to my left and found what looked like to be a guard boasting armor and a spear in hand. My mind couldn't find my mouth so we had an awkward stare off for a couple of seconds before I broke the silence. "Can you tell me where the barracks are!?" He looked shocked to see me considering I was the only creature of my kind here, but he did eventually answer in a shaken tone, "T-to your left and then take the 2nd r-right."
"Thanks," I then wheeled myself in the directions he gave me. I then came to a stairwell that lead to the underground.
This most be the barracks...
I got off the wheelchair and began scooting down the stairs. Once I got to the bottom I heard something coming down the stairs. The wheelchair then fell on me, "Ugh, Damn... Handy, but hurtful..." I got back in the wheelchair and kept on wheeling myself around.
I came to a room that had a small door and a saw 3 bags on a table. I threw open the door to much to my surprise, found 2 ponies with lab coats on examining them. "GET AWAY FROM THEM," I wheeled myself quickly to them shoving the ponies out of the way, they then ran out of the room with frightened looks on their face's. I saw the 3 men lifeless and just laying there with their eye's closed. I couldn't keep the tears away as I began crying, it started as a soft crying, but quickly turned into a sob.
I heard a ponies hooves clack across the ground so I looked and saw Princess Celestia walking up to me with a saddened face. "What do y-you want?"
"They were your friends weren't they?" I gave her a nod as a buried my face into my arms again. "What happened to them?" I thought about just being silent, but I didn't want to leave her in the dark. "They w-were killed by a panther shell..." She gave me a sad, yet confused look. "A tank shell," I said bluntly. She came up and hugged me the best she could without falling over. I couldn't resist her hug so I simply hugged her back.
"They were my best friends... I knew I shouldn't have gotten to attached to them knowing they would probably die I just didn't think I would be the only one to survive," She started to speak in a sympathetic tone,"It was wise of you to make them your friends. You couldn't help the fact that you liked them." I gave her a nod as she started to pull back from the hug.
I started to regain my emotions and started to talk to her,"I need you to do me a favor." She gave me a nod of approval. "I need you to make 4 graves somewhere, I don't care were but I want to give them a honorably burial." She looked confused as to what I said,"4? there are only 3 bodies here."
"I know, Johnson, he was gunned down by enemy fire and then blasted to pieces by a tank shell..."
"I s-see."
"Yeah..."
"I'll get right on that." She started to to leave before I caught her, "Wait!" She turned and looked to me,"yes?" I found my tongue and spoke up,"if it isn't to much trouble can I stay here?"
"Certainly."
"One last thing before you go."
"Yes?"
"Thank you, thank you for everything so far."
"You are most certainly welcome." I gave her a weak smile as walked out of the room.
So this is my life now huh? Going from a tank gunner to a one-of-a-kind creature on an unknown planet. Well better make the most of it
