Eye of the Storm

Private Burchard Esser

3rd Squadron

2nd Platoon

24th Fallschirmjäger Brigade

German Luftwaffe

1800 Hours

Somewhere near Brno, Czechoslovakia

Operation Gegenschlag

October 6th, 1985

The cold evening air blew past, reminding me that the search for the rest of the squad would be hopeless in the thick of night, with the sun setting fast. And it was all because of that damned AA.

I was the first in line to jump. My pack was barely set up before the guns opened fire and struck our plane in the wing and cabin, killing the co-pilot in the process. I was rushed out of the plane, and in the panic, I flew out of control, and landed in a tree (Which I fell out of momentarily afterwards). I ended up going way off mark, too, by how things were looking.

Long story short, I screwed up big time. And now I had to pay the price by being lost in hostile territory. Sighing, I took out my rifle and squinted into the shady forest, using the setting sun to help me as much as possible. If I was going to find the others, it would have to be soon.

With four choices of directions, each just as promising, I decided to head further East. Checking my compass, I readied my gun, and crept into the darkening woodland.

Twilight had absolutely no idea where she was. Instead of in front of that same old high school, she was in the middle of a forest. What's stranger, she hadn't transformed into a human. Her head reeling, she looked around, to find her two friends nearby. Rarity was trying to calm Fluttershy by the looks of things.

"H-h-have I changed yet?" the shy pegasus asked, shaking with fear.

"Surprisingly enough, no." Twilight said, rubbing her chin with her hoof. Fluttershy opened her eyes in a confused manner, before shakily standing up and inspecting both herself and her friends.

"But why not?" Rarity and Fluttershy asked in unison. The young princess shook her head.

"That's what I don't understand." she sighed. "Odder still, the statue isn't here." And she was right. In fact, the only thing of interest was the smoke pluming into the sky in the distance.

"How are we supposed to get home?" Rarity asked, an edge to her tone. "Sweetiebelle will surely be worried before long." Twilight walked up to her friend, and patted her on the back.

"I'm sure she'll be fine." the alicorn said, doing her best to calm her friend. Suddenly, Twilight's ears perked up at a sound in the distance. A muffled explosion of sorts. "What was that?" she asked.

"Whatever it was, it can't be good." Rarity said grimly. The air had a strong smell of smoke, and a peculiar crackling noise could be heard in the distance. This wasn't anything like Twilight remembered.