Jason awoke on a hard stone floor.

Groaning, he slowly pulled himself into a sitting position.

"So I guess I finally bought the farm on that last one. Must be where you go to find out if you're going up or down." He thought as he glanced around what appeared to be a massive library in an equally large rotunda.

Slowly standing up, he looked around for a path towards the center. Following the aisles of shelves, he glanced at a few of the titles.

"Okay, what the hell kind of language is this?" He wondered as he tried to read the flowing script on the spines.

An avid reader in his down time, Jason was practically salivating at the amount of material that surrounded him, unknown language or no.

“All I would need to do is find something to get a frame of reference to start a translation." He thought as he continued towards the center of the massive structure.

Pausing to glance at a few of the thicker tomes, Jason heard what sounded like footsteps on the stone floor of the library. After looking around and listening for a few moments, he shrugged and continued on.

Finally reaching the center of the rotunda, Jason found a raised dais with a positively gargantuan tome sitting atop.

"Okay, now I feel like Indiana Jones. Massive library with an equally massive book in the center and is that thing glowing?" He wondered as the massive book did indeed begin to glow.

"Started doing that when you nearly got our flank killed." A female voice said from behind him.

Startled from his musing, Jason whirled around to see who it was that snuck up on him.

"Oh, you have got to be kidding me. You're the one who is determining where I spend the afterlife?" He said incredulously.

The female raised an eyebrow. "Now why would I want to do a thing like that? Especially since I would be stuck tagging along to that afterlife." She said, her wings rustling in agitation.

"Okay, if you aren't here to send me on, then where are we?" Jason asked.

She sighed. "This is your, rather OUR, head. Welcome to our collective mindscape. You're probably the first human in a few generations that has been able to access their mind like this. To bad it took nearly dying to do it."

"Wait, this is my mind. Then are you a delusion or something? Did my mind create you to help me deal with the trauma of nearly dying?" Jason asked as he noticed that, letter by letter, the words on the pages of the massive tome in front of him began to make sense to him.

The female chuckled. "If I was a delusion, why would I appear like this?" She asked as she waved a hand in front of her. "Shouldn't I be a quadruped like in that silly, yet highly entertaining cartoon that you watch and hope that no one in your unit finds out simply because of the fact they would have material for months of taking the mickey out of you?"

Jason sighed as he rubbed his face. "You have a point. But if you aren't a delusion brought on by post traumatic stress, then how do you explain your presence in my head your highness?" He replied.

The woman winced a bit. "You should know that I hate being called that. As to my presence, well it is a rather interesting story that starts a little while before we were conceived. I was minding my own business in the library of my castle when suddenly Discord decides to pop in. Turns out he had been playing us all like cheap fiddles when it came to being reformed. About a year so after we had to put the Elements back into the Tree of Harmony, he decided that the time was right for some global chaos. This being due to that fact that it will be several years, if not decades, before the elements are able to be removed from the tree again."

"So what does that have to do with the fact that I share headspace with Twilight Sparkle?" Jason asked.

"If you'd let me finish I will tell you." Twilight replied. Jason responded maturely by sticking his tongue out and blowing a raspberry at her. "Cute. Anyway, moving on. Discord decided that he wanted to cause as much chaos as possible with the least amount of effort. Apparently, all those centuries as a statue made him lazy as Tartarus. So he planned to start a war. His opening salvo as it were was to take me out of the picture." She said before Jason interrupted her again.

"Because without you, there was nothing to catalyze the power of the Elements and you are probably just below Celestia and Luna if not even with them in terms of raw magical output. Sound about right?" He asked thoughtfully.

Twilight blinked a few times at the sheer speed at which Jason put things together. "That is the best conclusion that I can come to with just his actions and the events of the past few years to go by. I'm thinking though when I shot him with a couple of enchanted rounds from a pair of equally enchanted flintlocks I may have caused the spell he was charging to get altered a bit." She replied as she tapped her index fingers together sheepishly.

Jason raised an eyebrow. ""Flintlocks? As in flintlock pistols, one of the earliest forms of handguns?" He asked. Getting a nod in response, he hummed thoughtfully. "Not too surprising really, since you are anthropomorphic. What happened after that?"

Twilight sighed. "Immediately after his spell hit? I'm not really sure. I just had a few hazy glimpses of things, a feeling of another presence next to me. At least until you were about four years old. That was when I realized what had happened. Somehow or another my consciousness had been transferred into your body. I did my best to keep from over writing yours, but some bleed through occurred with some of your habits and such. Things like learning, organization, a love of reading and puzzles, and apparently your skill with a rifle." She explained.

Jason gaped at that. "How is that a bleed over... oh I see. Pegasus magic?" He asked.

"Pegasus magic." Twilight replied. "Other than that I have been keeping things around here pretty organized." She said as she motioned towards the towering shelves around them. "I was fully expecting to never get a chance to meet you until you died of old age, but I guess life had other ideas about that."

"I can see that. Do you know where we are now? The last thing I remember was getting tossed into the medivac helo." Jason asked.

"Not a clue. It is rather annoying though. I can't even figure out how bad the damage is. I know that our left side took the brunt of the shrapnel, but other than the fact that we are alive, I can't tell a damn thing." Twilight responded with a growl of frustration.

Jason nodded as he took in all the details.

"Twilight?" He asked after a few moments.

"Yes?"

"Would it be possible for me to learn how to channel our magic in my human body?"

"I...I'm not sure. It could be possible with some training and practice to see if you can tap into our mana pool. Why?" Twilight responded.

"Well, more than likely after the injuries we sustained, it will be a miracle if we avoided any kind of permanent disability. Meaning that our military career is over. If we aren't to bad off in the injury department, I was thinking that we could try to get back to your home." He explained his slowly developing plan.

Twilight paused and began to think over what Jason was proposing. Both of his parents had been only children and they had passed away two years ago in an auto accident while on vacation. His grandparents had all passed on by the time he was a teenager. Outside of a small circle of friends from his school days, Jason really had no one to hold him back from going anywhere on the planet if he was discharged from the military, much less going to another world entirely.

"You know that it is a heck a long shot for us to find the exact world we need to go to, even with magic. Plus, what about if we are stuck in a human form? Be kind of hard to convince them that we are who we say we are. Man, that is confusing." Twilight responded after a few moments thought.

Jason chuckled. "Yeah it is. But I have the distinct feeling that, if you had wanted to, you could have tried something like this years ago. Either just your consciousness going or taking the whole body with you. You probably figured that the risk to me was too great. So you stayed behind. I've always felt like I had a presence watching over me, keeping me safe. For that I owe you my life, and if that is what it takes to get you home, then so be it. I see you just like my friends back home and my brothers in the SOG. I would give my life to protect them, just like I would for you." Jason said firmly, as brown eyes met lavender.

Twilight was stunned. After riding around in his head for thirty-two years, she thought that she had his measure. Then he goes and says something like that.

“So Discord said that he wanted to start a war? Who would the most likely aggressors be?” Jason asked, bringing Twilight out of her stupor.

“Hmmm, I’m not really sure. Equestria has had good relations with most of the world for a very long time. The few nations that we are on shaky terms with, have a healthy fear of what could happen if they crossed Celestia, and now with Luna back they had pretty well stopped their sabre rattling. She was more the warrior of the two anyways. Probably what caused a lot of the problems for her before her banishment now that I think about it.” She responded as she began to pace around the dais.

“Okay, who would be most likely to take a shot at invading then, even with the possibility of invoking the wrath of a demigoddess or two?” Jason inquired.

“The one nation that could probably pull off something like that would probably be the Ligerländreien. They as far as societal development about the equivalent of a post-World War I Germany. Depending upon if there is a Liger that is any way like Hitler, that could very well have changed. Of course we have no way of knowing how much time has passed back on Terra.” Twilight replied after a few moments of consideration.

Jason considered the options that were laid out before them. “Alright, for the time being we just need to focus on getting as close to one hundred percent as we can be. Once we get there, we can focus on getting the necessary supplies to go back to Terra, which I am assuming is your homeworld. While we are doing that, we can see just how much magic we have access to, and if there is a way to open a portal or something to get us there. Sound like a plan?” He stated.

“For the moment, yes. Hopefully we can communicate when you are conscious, that will make things a lot smoother. What kind of supplies are you thinking of?” Twilight inquired.

“Primarily the designs and specifications of as many small arms that I can get my hands on without drawing too much attention, as well as getting some weapons and ammunition for use to use. Plus we would need to figure out a way to carry all of the equipment in one shot. Knowing what kind of magic we can pull off without setting of the NEST sensors will help there. Though if we do inadvertently set off one of the sensors, hopefully we can pull of a shift to looking like you do, and hopefully they won’t throw us in some deep hole in the middle of the desert.” Jason explained.

“Sounds solid enough for now. I say we run with it and adjust as necessary.” Twilight said with a nod.

“Alright then, so now we just need to wake up. Any ideas on how to do that?” Jason asked.

Suddenly, the mindscape began to fade away.

“Looks like we won’t have to worry about that. I’ll see you later Jason. Good luck.”

“You too Twilight.” Jason replied with a nod as he finished awakening.

Groaning against the sensation of light piercing his retinas.

“Welcome back to the land of the living Sergeant. You had us worried that you wouldn’t wake up.” A female voice said from somewhere to his right.

Moving his tongue around, he smacked his lips trying to get some kind of moisture in his mouth. “Water.” He rasped out, before he started coughing.

“Here you are, small sips.” The woman said helping him sit up and putting a straw in his mouth.

Taking a few small drinks, Jason felt his throat begin to loosen up a bit.

“Thanks. How long have I been out?” He asked as he lay back on the pillows.

“Almost two months. You were pretty badly injured. Fortunately, the flak vest that you were wearing was able to stop most of the shrapnel from entering your torso. A few pieces got in, but it was only minor cuts, no actual penetration. Your legs had quite a few pieces of shrapnel in them, but the surgeons were able to get all of them out. Keep in mind that there might have been a few slivers that they missed. The most severe injury was to you left arm.” The doctor explained.

Gulping slightly, Jason looked at his left arm with trepidation.

Rather, he looked where his left arm was supposed to be.

Poking out of the sleeve was bandaged stump, that was just above where the elbow joint should have been.

“Well, fuck.” Jason said as he lifted the remaining bit of his arm.

“We tried everything that we could to save your arm, but either a large amount or one very large piece of shrapnel hit right on the joint and turned quite a bit of it into powder. I’m sorry.” The doctor said.

Jason flopped back onto his bed. “It’s alright ma’am. As far as I’m concerned, I’m just lucky to be alive. A missing limb I can deal with. Probably take a little while, but I’ll adapt.” He said with a wry smile.

The doctor returned the smile before patting him on the shoulder and making sure that the call button was in reach of his good hand. “The nurse should be in here in about half an hour. They can help you to see if you can handle going to the latrine on your own or not yet.” She said as she exited the room.

“Well that was painful and embarrassing.” Jason thought to himself after the nurse left.

When she had arrived, the first thing that she did was remove the catheter.

This understandably was quite painful and elicited more than a few pained squeaks, what he would later claim to be manly grunts, and a few bits of liquid pride to run down his face.

“Yes it was. Thankfully we were out when they put it in. Glad that they are letting us walk across the room.” Came Twilight’s reply.

“I thought I heard you when she yanked it out. I can honestly say that I have never had a woman be that damn rough with my junk before.” He replied.

“So what are we going to do about our arm? I know we were expecting some bad injuries, but I wasn’t quite prepared for this. What are we going to do?” Twilight said, her voice starting to take on a panicked tone.

“Twilight calm down! This isn’t the end of the world.” Jason mentally shouted. Sensing that she had calmed down a bit, he smiled. “It just means that we need to find out how much magic we have access to.”

“Why? What good is that going to do us?” Twilight asked.

“Well, it depends upon how good your enchanting skills are.” Jason replied.

“They are pretty good, I mean I wasn’t a master enchanter or anything but I can do some pretty decent work.” Twilight replied.

“That’s good. Now, do you remember that anime Fullmetal Alchemist?” Jason asked.

He sensed Twilight pause for a moment before she replied.

“Jason, I like the way you think.” Twilight replied in a tone that made Jason laugh as he imagined the smile that was probably on her face.

“Alright, lets start planning this out. Hopefully we can take our doctor into our confidence about this. Would certainly make things easier as far as getting the materials.” Jason thought as the pair began to discuss their project.

Author's Note

And now Twilight is back. Sorry for the delay, but between school and work, I haven't had much time for writing. Hopefully this will tide you over until I can get into the swing of things. Also, keep in mind that things are not always as straight forward as they may seem with my stories. As always, I look forward to hearing from all of you, good or bad. Just, please keep the flames to a minimum.