// Story: Tickling Rainbow.

// Chapter: 6; Confessions.

// Author: Alue14

Ponyville, Twilight's tree house, Equestria.

September 10th, 2012 BCR, 20:15 PM.

The moon had graced the country of Equestria again for another visit, and Luna had decided that it would be a full moon this time. The full disk of the moon shined all over the country, and in the little town of Ponyville almost all lights were out. Only a few houses had their lights still on, and one of those houses was the library of Ponyville, where a certain purple unicorn lived.

Normally, the unicorn would be alone on this hour, with only her dragon assistant at her side. But this time there was a certain cyan pegasus that stood alongside her, and was very sad. Twilight Sparkle did her best to comfort Rainbow Dash who had just been tickled and emotionally tortured by her foalhood friend, the griffin Gilda. Twilight had blasted her to death, and to make sure that nopony would resurrect her, had stabbed Gilda through her heart. But the cyan pegasus had been crying since she brought her back from the cellars of the abandoned Great Theater.

"Oh, Rainbow, please stop your crying. It's okay. It's okay!" said Twilight, trying her best to comfort her, but to no avail.

Or so it seemed. After a while, when she regained her emotions, Dash spoke for the first time since this morning to her. "Twilight, you don't understand! Gilda made me relive my past! You don't know what I've been through. Nopony does!" and began to cry again.

Twilight tried to tell her that she could talk about her 'experiences' when she was a foal, but Rainbow Dash spoke up before she could ask.

She sighed. "Twilight, what I am going to say, only one pony knows about this, and that's my old friend Fluttershy. She had been there during my youth and is the only one to verify it."

Twilight sat back, ready to listen what Rainbow had to tell.

Dashie told her that her parents had died right after her birth and when she was brought in a Helvetican orphanage, but Twilight said that she had heard about it already from Fluttershy. "So Fluttershy had told you that I was afraid of flying?" Twilight nodded.

‘I'm going to tell you the reason shortly, but after that it only went downhill. Life in the orphanage wasn't all that great. Ever since I was put there, they always had someone to beat me up, humiliate me and so on! I had to wash the dishes if I did something wrong, and that was always a false accusation.'

‘At school, it wasn't much better. I was being bullied by many fillies. You may say that Fluttershy has had the burden, those guys don't know anything! I was a pariah, an outcast! Even the teachers hated me. I had been beaten in every class, for stupid accusations! I was even being beaten for speaking in a classroom. During a debating class, Twilight!’

Twilight was stunned again, but knew what Rainbow Dash had been through, too. She also had been bullied a lot when she was a foal, but a pariah? Why should anypony regard a filly like Rainbow Dash as a pariah? She just couldn't wrap her head around it.

‘You see, Twilight. Pegasi classes are completely different than unicorn classes, or the classes Cheerilee gives. And especially in the time when I went to school. Pegasi classes, both Elementary and High School only last a couple of hours. Since the school buildings are located in the city itself, they only last a day in Spring and Summer, half a day in the Autumn and nothing in the Winter, so most of the day I had spent either in the orphanage or at work. Yes, Twilight, I worked my whole youth, and not normal work.’

Twilight was stunned again. She worked! A young filly doing work that was fitted to Mares and Stallions? What kind of world has she been in?!

‘Twilight, when I was young, the Helvetican Age was at its decline, and foal labor was still widely accepted. When I was at the age of three, pegasi Age, I worked in the coal mines of Cloudsdale! I pulled carts as big and heavy as a train of 20 fully loaded hay carts every day! From 5AM to 8PM!’

‘Now wait a minute" interrupted Twilight with the scholar instincts she had. "Cloudsdale having mines? I didn't know that.’

‘Not many ponies know that Cloudsdale has mines, Twilight. You see, in the time when Equestria was formed, it became clear that there were parts that were full with gemstones. The unicorns found out of the stones, but they couldn't salvage the goods. The pegasi ponies, it seemed, had a thing for technology and mining engineering, so they came to the aid of the unicorns and dug a mine right beneath the ground under Cloudsdale. After they were finished, it seemed that the unicorns weren't interested in the mine anymore and asked the pegasi to dig a mine right beneath the city of Canterlot after they saw that there were many more gems to be found there. The caves where you were sitting in and found the real Cadence during the wedding, Twilight, were dug by real pegasi labor!’

Twilight was being torn by different emotions. On the one hand, she felt being swelled with pride- walking around in a pegasi mine was something to be proud of, irregardless of what most Canterlot unicorns dared to usher. She liked pegasi technology, those creatures were smarter than they would look on the outside. But on the other hand, she was tormented with sorrow, because she almost killed her old foal sitter in a mine that the species of her friend Rainbow Dash had built.

‘Let's just say that I'm honored, but let’s move to something else.’ said Twilight.

‘After the pegasi of Cloudsdale had built the mine in Canterlot and had seen it with regretful eyes, they found out that this mine had coal depositories. Quickly, they changed the purpose of the mine, and it ushered the beginning of the Helvetican Age. In this mine, I worked by pulling the cart-trains. I worked there from 5 o' clock in the morning until 7, where I left the mine for school. I went to school until 11 o'clock in the morning and went straight back in the mine, and then I worked until it was 8 o'clock in the evening. In the Winter, I worked the whole time in the mine because pegasi kindergarten doesn’t have classes during the winter. I never saw any sunlight that whole time!’

Twilight was shocked. She couldn't say a word.

‘I did that until I was around 6, when the orphanage enrolled me in Summer Flight Camp- where I learned to fly. That's also the reason why I was afraid to fly, Twilight. I had stuck my head under the ground for the most of my life and then I should take to the sky? You can understand why I was afraid to fly!’

Twilight concurred.

‘As time passed on, I passed my flight exam and as I left school, I was still not happy. I wasn't fit to leave the orphanage yet so I was still stuck there. And when I came back from the diploma ceremony, I was greeted by a strange creature who stood in the hallway of the orphanage. It stood on two legs and had strange tubes stretching from his body. It's skin was pink, but not the pink in Pinkie's coat. And it didn't had any hooves, but 'hands' as they call it! Later on I heard that these creatures were called 'humans'.’

Twilight knew what time it was. Rainbow Dash had been conscripted to fight in a war. In the world where Equestria is a part of, it is custom that last years in academies fight in wars so that they learn a thing or two about military life. But this description was strange. Normally you could choose in which army you fought. It wasn't normal that the army came to the soldier, the soldier went to the army.

‘The Man was dressed in a strange uniform. Mostly gray and black. He had a great cap on his head and spoke a strange language...’

***

Cloudsdale, Helvetican Orphanage #17, Equestria.

August 1st, 1780 BCR.

Rainbow Dash had come back to the orphanage from sleeping at the academy after the ceremony. The ceremony had been conducted yesterday, but she was forced to sleep at the academy. Now, she was afraid of how her caretakers would react. When she stepped on the porch of the orphanage, instead of a screeching 'Mother', she heard a strange sound... It sounded like some kind of words, spoken by a person she didn't see...

‘Dear Miss Bolt, we would be very honoured if you brought us to the orphans.’ they said.

Rainbow Dash heard the name Bolt and knew that it was the name of her 'Mother', however she couldn't understand the rest.  Miss. Bolt was the lead caretaker and hated Rainbow Dash with her life. She was supposed to be responsible for the orphans, but was always pissed at Rainbow Dash. She then ran towards the strange noise and saw them.

They turned their heads and saw the young pegasus.

‘Splendid! Here's our soldier!’, the officer said.

Miss Bolt answered on that;

‘Gentlemen, I think you have a great example of a good soldier!’ she said, pointing to Rainbow Dash.

‘Good! She's a paratrooper- then!’

Rainbow Dash tried to reason with the soldiers and Miss. Bolt, but it was to no avail. Next, she was on the train to Lindau, Germany. Before she knew it, she was a part of the Wehrmacht- the German army in World War 2.

***

Ponyville, Twilight's Tree House, Equestria.

September 10th, 2012 BCR, 20:30 PM.

Twilight had listened to the story of how she was conscripted in the army and war itself. She knew which language the humans spoke and said to her; "In case you didn't know, Rainbow Dash, that language was German. You fought in the German army!"

Rainbow Dash wasn't so excited as Twilight. Her experiences in the army weren't that happy to begin with, but luckily she quickly caught the language. But the war came so quickly, and her division - the 17th Fallschirmjäger division - was dispatched to the battlefields of Europe. She first fought in Warsaw, Poland. Instead of a bombardment in Real Life, the German high command had decided that the airborne infantry would take the city. She was later dispatched towards Antwerp. The Belgians had made the same decision as in the previous war. They retreated to Antwerp and then again to the Westhoek, the most western part of Flanders. Again there was trench warfare but on a far smaller scale than in World War 1. Hitler had left the Westhoek for what it was, and decided to go for Russia. Rainbow Dash's division was also sent to Russia..

The winter of 1941 was a cold one and Rainbow Dash's regiment wasn't one that escaped that treatment. When spring came back Hitler had decided to go to Stalingrad, the city that bore  the name of his enemy. Rainbow Dash's regiment, the 28th Fallschirmjäger Regiment came to the city later. As the fight for the grain elevator was done.

***

Stalingrad, South Eastern USSR, 1 Km East of the railway station.

October 5th, 1942, 11:02 AM.

Rainbow Dash was walking on her hind legs through the rubble of the city. Whilst carrying a MP40 she had made sure that she didn’t miss anyone that was a Russian soldier. She stood out of her group, being a pony of only a meter long compared to humans who were far bigger than her. But even with her appearance and her species, she had made friends in her regiment.

One of her best friends was Heinrich, an Berliner from the Seelöwe, a suburb of Berlin. A man who stood at 1.86 meters, strongly built with blond hair and sporting blue eyes, was utterly amazed by the appearance of the small pegasus, especially when it stood on her hind legs. Firing an MP40 or any gun for that matter may seem difficult for anypony with hooves instead of fingers, but this actually differs from pony to pony. Rainbow Dash didn't have any problems with firing human weapons. Actually, she was quite good! Now she was walking with her regiment through the rubble of Stalingrad.

‘Hey Heinz! You see anything?’ Rainbow Dash asked her regiments scout.

‘No! Nothing!’ he said.

Rainbow Dash had earned herself a medal. She had won the Iron Cross Second Class after saving a soldier during a battle by flying towards him. She was wearing it every day.

The Oberleutnant of the regiment, or Lieutenant Ludwig Kanortstein, reported back;

‘Attention! Apartment building up ahead!’ he said.

Everybody made their move. They saw a bombed down apartment building right before them, and everybody stood ready as Ludwig gave his orders towards his regiment.

‘Okay guys, here's the task. Supreme command wants us that we take this building by force. But watch out, reports tell us that the whole building is full with Russians. We take the building by Noon.’ he said.

They all sat down to eat their lunch.

***

Stalingrad, South Eastern USSR, 1 KM East of the railway station.

October 5th, 1942. 12:00 AM

Everybody had eaten their lunch and prepared their guns. Rainbow Dash put some spare ammunition in her pocket and shouldered her MP40. Pieter Solwakaus, a fat guy from the Elzas came towards Rainbow Dash;

‘Haha, Rainbow Crash, you honestly think that we will be needing that?’ said Heinrich, taunting her.

"Shut up, Pieter! We better not underestimate the Russians!" retaliated Rainbow Dash.

With that, Heinrich walked away and placed himself in position.

Ludwig looked on his watch to give the sign to attack. Finally, the sign was given.

‘Attack!!!’ He screamed, and the whole regiment ran towards the building.

Rainbow Dash had swung her MP40 and held it in her hooves. The regiment ran into the building and was already being shot at. Three soldiers fell dead by Russian machine gun fire.

"For Stalin!" the machine gunners screamed.

Rainbow Dash made an end to the rampage of the machine gunners by throwing a good aimed grenade towards them.

A scream from both indicated that they were dead.

***

Stalingrad, South Eastern USSR, 1 KM from the railway station.

October 5th, 1942, 20:30 PM.

What first seemed like an easy task, eventually turned into a long grueling nightmare. The Russian soldiers who were occupying the building seemed that they weren't going to surrender it that easily. The fight was going on for 8.5 hours. The German infantry reinforced the Fallshirmjägers with extra regiments and some well placed artillery strikes, but it wasn't enough to to subdue the Russians. Rainbow Dash was firing on a MG-42, when the previous crew had been blasted away.

The Germans were kept at bay on the first floor  But the Russians just kept on coming. Again a group of soldiers came screaming to the German position.

"Uraa!" they screamed.

Rainbow Dash hated that scream. Every time the Russians screamed like that, made her rethink of the screech of Gilda and haunted her a long time. She fired away and managed to shoot ten Russians but it wasn't enough. A grenade from the Russians knocked her unconscious.

The next thing she knew when she awoke she lay in a hospital bed but still in Stalingrad. Her injuries were minor so she could join the fight again.

***

Ponyville, Twilight's Tree house, Equestria.

September 10th, 2012 BCR, 22:00 PM.

Rainbow Dash was telling her first experiences with war and Twilight had listened with awe. ‘Twilight, that wasn't the only war I've fought in. There were many more. Many, Many, Many more!’

Twilight spoke. ‘This battle, do you know what it was named?’

‘Yes, Twilight. Later on, it was called 'The battle for Pavlov's House.' I went back there once to talk to the people that I fought. The people were friendly enough to let me talk about my experiences back then...’ Next Chapter: 7; The Ending. Estimated time remaining: 12 Minutes