Author's Note: Well, I've had this idea for a while, and even though I decided to change the plot of Marine in Equestria, I couldn't get the idea out of my head! So here's this little side story of MiE! And I named it Divided Path because this is an alternate path that MiE could've gone in.
About a month after we got everyone settled in (Only one or two incidents where I threatened to blow their fucking head off because of their comments about the ponies), it was a normal day. Well, as normal as Ponyville considers. Also, Schmidt got Scoots to open up and she revealed that she was actually an orphan. He took her under his metaphorical wing, and Dash found out, much to Scootaloo's fears.
Dash is starting to work harder with Scoots to get her to fly. She's doing her best to make a pegasus out of a chicken. Metaphorical chicken, but still.
And Gallan found my iPod (and M1911) when he appeared. I gave him fifty bits in return, causing him to faint for a few minutes. When he awoke, I told him that gold was commonplace, causing him to promptly faint again. Dude was a dirt poor farmer before coming, so I understood that.
Anyway, I was chatting with Schmidt (he's getting better in English, thankfully), when Dawn appeared and, without saying anything, teleported us away.
"The fuck?!" I coughed out, a little smoke coming from my mouth as if we were in a cartoon. Schmidt was brushing ash off of him.
"I need your help." Dawn said, standing over us, his gaze settled on my face. "And I would rather ask as a friend than give an order as your CO." He added as I got to my feet.
"Alright, what is it, Dawn?" I asked, cracking my neck. He took a minute to sigh, before answering.
"Celestia's locked herself in her room. The sun is still rising and setting, and food is mysteriously disappearing from the kitchens, so she isn't dead. I fear that she's finally decided to declare war on you." He said, causing me to lean back in surprise.
"This is... God, I was hoping that she wasn't going to do this..." I finally said, putting my face in my hands.
"What's going on?" Schmidt asked, confused.
"Celestia has more than likely began to launch a campaign against you humans." Dawn answered, starting to pace again as I balled my fists up and put them under my chin, staring at my pistol.
'One bullet at the right time, and she goes down.' I thought to myself.
"It won't be that easy, and you know it." Dawn said, probably reading my mind. Hell, I wouldn't really be surprised if he could.
"How do you know she isn't listening in on us, or preparing to execute us as we speak?" I asked, looking at him.
"She knows German, but I cast a few spells that even she can't break when the sun is at its peak. Discord taught me them, and I've only used them when I really needed to." He replied, confusing us a little.
"Who's this Discord bloke?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.
"A really annoying bugger if you get on his bad side. About three thousand years ago, he was being himself when Celestia and Luna used the Elements on him and turned him to stone. Since I've never had to go after his soul, he's still alive, encased in a statue in the garden outside." Dawn explained. After a moment, his eyes went wide and he whirled to face the door.
"(Are you sure this is the room?)" A masculine voice said from behind it, in a language I never wanted to hear again.
"No... NO! GET AWAY FROM THE DOOR!" I shouted, grabbing Dawn and flinging him with a surge of strength I didn't know I had, and hit the deck right as the door blew inwards. Before either of the hostiles could start firing, I squeezed the trigger of my pistol several times and got them in the chests, downing them instantly.
"What the hell?!" Schmidt asked once the dust settled, revealing two men in generic Afghanistan clothing.
"Of fucking course she brought the one group of people America fought that I had to!" I growled, getting to my feet. "And probably the most deadly. Even the Viet Kong didn't fucking use suicide bombers..." I added after a moment, kicking the torso of one of them, before collecting their AK-47s and whatever ammunition they had on them.
"What are you talking about Mark?" Dawn said, peeling himself off of his desk. An explosion happened several floors up, causing some dust to fall from the ceiling and the lights to flicker for a second. Took me a moment to realize he had his office running on electricity.
"Celestia fucking brought in terrorists." I growled, kicking one of them in the head. "We need to go." Right as I said that, there were several gunshots several floors down, along with a bunch of screaming. "NOW!"
With that, Dawn's horn exploded in light and the familiar sense of being teleported washed over us, and when we reappeared, we were standing outside Dawn's house.
What I found made my blood go past boiling.
"YOU FUCKER!" I shouted, tackling the earth pony day guard that had Doc skewered on a spear, surprising the fuck out of the white stallion. Schmidt took care of Doc while I shoved my knee into his throat, before pressing my pistol against his head.
"H-Human s-scum." He growled, causing me to pull the trigger and send his worthless brain all over the road.
"How's he doing, Schmidt?" I called out, kicking the stallion in the head before going over to the three of them.
"Not good!" He replied, causing me to swear and crouch down in front of him.
"H-Hey..." Doc choked out, getting blood all over his shirt. I looked up at Dawn, and saw that he was looking away with a frown.
"I can't fix this, too much of a risk of missing something and having him bleeding out." He explained.
"Doc... I want you to pray to your God." I somberly said, fishing out the cross he wore and bringing one of his hands around it. He gripped it with a death grip, while smiling sadly at me.
"Is that an order?" He weakly grinned, eyes starting to get that thousand yard stare.
"Yea, if you want to take it that way." I replied, looking around. He nodded, closed his eyes, and started mumbling for a few moments.
He passed away right before Fluttershy appeared, crying openly.
"Dawn, stay here with Fluttershy. Comfort her, because I know I'd just make it worse." I said, before hauling Schmidt away towards the Library.
"What are we doing?" Schmidt asked, stumbling along behind me as I dragged him.
"Sending Luna, Williams, and whoever is still alive and loyal to Dawn and/or Luna orders to get the fuck out of Canterlot." I explained while releasing him to jolt something down. I was able to finish right before getting to the library, and I opened the door quickly.
Half a second later, I shoved Schmidt out of the way as I narrowly avoided a laser to the face, kicking the door shut as I fell onto my ass.
"Never mind!" I hissed, getting him and myself to our feet before sprinting away. I didn't want to die by Titty Sprinkles. As we ran, I withdrew my magical beating stick, said a silent prayer, and thought up of a weapon from Halo. To my pleasant surprise, it turned into an energy sword. I tried getting it to turn into a gravity hammer, but it didn't budge.
"We need to send a letter to Luna and Williams, but I can't get to Spike..." I muttered, looking around. "Celestia already brainwashed Twilight against us."
"Then I guess I can't be with her..." Schmidt said, shocking the fuck out of me.
"You loved her?" I quietly asked, getting a nod.
"I was going to tell her tomorrow..." He muttered, sinking to his knees. All of a sudden, I had an idea.
"Stand back!" I said, already backing up myself and thinking hard as fuck.
"What're you doing?" He asked, right before a light blinded him, and I turned into Sand Dune.
"Ahhh..." I moaned as I stretched my filly body, getting reused to having a horn sticking out of my forehead, which could actually make a good flashbang or a smoke grenade, should the situation call for it.
"You turned into a filly?" Schmidt asked when he could see again, staring at me in shock.
"Yep. I'll be back in a second." I said, before slipping into the library and thankfully avoiding any harmful lasers sent by a pissed off mare.
[Schmidt's POV]
I stood outside, glancing around for any royal guards, when Dawn popped up.
"I have good news. Germany has seceded from the United Equestrian Empire, and they need a leader. You interested?" He asked.
"Why're you bringing this to me? Surely Mark would be a better choice in the matter." I replied, honestly confused.
"You're a pureblood German, for starters. Also, you know how your weapons work. Get a few hundred of them in the right hooves, and we'd be almost unstoppable." Dawn explained.
"...Alright. But we'll need to rename it something. I'm not letting my country be tied to anything Equine. No offense." I agreed after thinking it over.
"I would honestly suggest calling it the First Reich. Germany here is an industrial powerhouse, so building MP40s and Kar98s won't be too difficult. I would think you'd be able to get them to make MG42s if you're lucky." Dawn said, starting to pace in front of me. All of a sudden, my uniform appeared, and I started changing.
"What's going on?" Callum asked, walking over cautiously.
"You're looking at the Fuhrer of the First Reich, Callum." Dawn said, nodding at me as I adjusted my greatcoat.
"You're not going to attack us anytime soon, are you?" He cautiously asked as I stopped fidgeting.
"No. I'll stop the fighting when Celestia's killed." I replied.
"Then I'll need to take you to Germany, and get you ready." Dawn said, and we went to the Fatherland.
[Callum's POV, half an hour later]
"Ditzy..." I slowly said, knocking on Dinky's doorway. She looked over from the sleeping filly, and carefully fluttered out.
"What is it, muffin?" She sweetly asked, as I sat down on the couch.
"I'm going to go away for a while... And I might not come back." I sighed, looking over at her. She gasped and started tearing up.
"Are you leaving me?" She quietly choked out, doing her best to keep from sobbing openly.
"That would be the last thing I would do to you, and you know it." I said, holding my arms out to embrace her. As she settled into the hug, she looked at me.
"Then what's making you keep from possibly coming back?" She asked, and I bet she knew the answer already.
"Celestia's starting to preform genocide against my race, Ditzy." I softly said, running my hand through her mane. I knew that Ditzy was an intellectual pony, so she understood what I meant, even though I doubt they have that word.
"Why would she do that?" She asked, looking at me dead in the eyes.
"I wish I knew. My best guess is because of an extreme prejudice that Dawn accidentally gave her." I answered, looking down.
"Mommy?" Dinky suddenly said, startling both of us. Ditzy looked at me.
"I'll put her to bed. It may be the last time I get to do so." I whispered, getting up and picking Dinky up, causing her to giggle.
[Back to Mark]
Walking back out of the library, I turned human again in time to get a Dash to the face.
"Son of a b-" I almost swore, but realized she simply knocked me to my ass without breaking anything.
"What's going on?!" Dash half yelled, as I saw a few pegasi flying as fast as they could towards our location. Lacking the AK-47s (which I passed off to Schmidt), I activated my energy sword and snarled.
"Your Princess decided it would be wise to eliminate my race." I growled, before realizing that they were death guards instead of day guards.
"Sir!" One of them saluted, while the other looked around frantically.
"You almost got killed?" I asked, deactivating the sword and putting it back in my pocket.
"Yes sir." The other, a mare, replied. She looked relatively unscathed, while the stallion had cuts all over his body. He wasn't going to die of blood loss anytime soon, though. Most of them have already closed up.
"How many made it out?" I asked, while Dash was stunned.
"Roughly three dozen night guards, and twenty death guards, not including us. Most were unicorns, but a few pegasi and earth ponies also escaped." The stallion replied.
"Shit..." I groaned, running my hands through my hair. Gotta shave it again.
"What in the fuck is going on?!" Dash finally gave in, glaring at the three of us.
"Go find Duffy. Tell him, 'the Sun has Cracked'. He'll know what I mean." I said, instead of explaining. She growled a little, but flew off anyway.
"What else do you have for us, sir?" The mare asked. Right before I could answer, a unicorn of the night guard popped in, swaying slightly, and had a gash running down his flank. His cutie mark was of a grey shield that held a flame, and the shield was surrounded by five light blue stars.
"Help him, get his name, and tell him he's working with me until further notice." I said, before running off to find Duran.
Author's Note: And here is the first chapter of MiE:DP!
