Author's Note

Ok, before this chapter starts, I want to say something. For some reason I felt compelled to write this right after I published the last chapter, so say a few things about it. So saying "Meanwhile in Equetria" probably isn't the most accurate, because all three timelines are spread by either a few minutes or a few hours, so I may fix that if I can remind myself to.

What happened to us?

Equestria

Reginald woke up slowly, opening his eyes then snapping them shut due to the glare from a bright sun overhead.

Odd, He thought, I thought it was cloudy on Omaha, and more sandy... He snaps his eyes open, then swears when he forgets about the sun, and takes a few moments to let them adjust to the glare, then opens them fully and looks about him.

He sat in a grassy field, stretching out for as long as he could see. Taking in more of his surroundings, he sees a few tanks sitting on the grass, some intact, others covered in sand, and one with a massive dent in its side, leaking water. A few soldiers were dropping their packs off their soldiers, then laying on them, while others stood alert, looking around for any Germans, in case this was some trick.

A light breeze tickled Reginald's face, and he decided that enough people can be tense, so he took off his pack and set it down, feeling the weight leaving his shoulders. Hearing a buzzing noise, he looked up, and sees a few bombers flying overhead, as well as a few fighter planes. Suddenly he remembers Thomas, and looks around for him, but doesn't see him, so Reginald walks back to his pack and hoists it back on, deciding that it would leave no good to leave it there, and begins wandering the ranks of soldiers who were looking around, looking confused, and those trying to bail water out of their tanks.

Seeing Thomas a distance off, Reginald begins walking over to him, but stops when the buzzing noise from the engines of planes gets louder ad louder, until Reginald notices a line of waterproof flares set down along a dirt path dug into the ground by tank treads, tailing off into the distance, then snaps his head up as the bomber touches down on the runway, bouncing for a bit before leveling out, drifting along the runway, and as Reginald watches it go, he sees that a few of the planes had already been landed.

Continuing his walk he reaches Thomas. "How're you doing, Reggy?" Thomas asks Reginald, and He replies, "I guess I was out for a while, and woke up here. Got any idea where we are and why you're next to the runway?"

"Well for one, nobody knows, and for two, i'm here because I like to watch them land."

"Well then, stay careful at least."

And with that, Reginald walks off to where a line of tanks were set up, and soldiers were using the barrels as racks for their packs. Hanging his on one, Reginald again feels the liberty of being free from the weight of his pack, and wanders off into the camp, but always keeping close to the runway in case he needed to grab Thomas and run.

Somewhere definitely nearby...

Twilight notices the shadow cast over her and turns around, and screams as Derpy barrels into her and knocks her to the ground, who then puts a hoof in her mouth to quiet her down.

"SHH! Don't you hear it? the sound that the metal birds make?" Derpy asks her in an anxious voice. Confused, Twilight replies, "No," and listens a little more carefully, just then noticing the faint noise going out through the air. gently pushing Derpy off her, she rises to her hooves and walks out of the trees, listening for the source. Oddly, it seemed to be coming from everywhere in the air, but mostly toward where she had seen the light.

"What metal birds, Derpy? I don't see any-"

"THOSE!" Derpy points off to the distance, and Twilight follows her hoof, and sees light reflecting off of some Thing Flying through the air, many of them, actually. Moving closer, Twilight could see that they were colored differently too, some green, others silver, and one or two blue.

Suddenly the bush next to her sneezes, and she almost jumps out of her nonexistent socks, then peers over at the suspicious shrubbery.

"Hello? Who's in there? Show yourself!" Twilight calls out to the bush, and Derpy gives out a little laugh, finding it kind of funny to talk to a bush.

"Darnit, Scootaloo! Wah do you have to have an allergy to bushes?"

"Because I do, okay?"

"Uhh, girls? I think Twilight's trying to talk to us..."

One after another three familiar faces pop out of the bush, and wander over to sit in front of Twilight, and look up at her, waiting for a scolding, or a reason why little fillies like them shouldn't be out here alone. But Twilight did no such thing.

"um, girls? Why are you out here? Don't you have school, or some cleaning up to do?" After she finishes her sentence, the Crusaders look down and hide their faces. But then Scootaloo looks up and answers, "No, we were on an adventure trying to get our Cutie Marks! We heard a boom and saw those giant birds flying around in the air, and we decided that if there was anything odd enough to get our minds off of recent things that happened that we won't tell you about then it would be those!"

Twilight could easily enough guess what the recent thing that happened was, and didn't touch on the topic further. After a small lecture about keeping clean and not hiding in bushes, Twilight, Derpy, and the three Crusaders walked off towards the big metal birds, not noticing two pairs of eyes watching their movements from a nearby, much larger bush. Then, one of the eyes shuddered, and a sneeze was heard, fortunately not by Twilight or anypony else.

"Damn leaf allergies."

Another Author's note:
I got a really stupid idea to color-code the speaking parts, and i'll try that out next chapter, but only for that one, because it may just be a stupid idea, and no one does that anyway, but why not?