The rain was pouring down heavy in Canterlot. Cloudsdale reported a heavy thunder and lightning storm to pass through late at night. Yet that wasn't about to stop Twilight Sparkle from conducting her research. She had finally come up with a spell that would ultimately allow her to travel through to other alternate dimensions via the crystal mirror. The mirror wouldn't require the power of the moons to be usable, and thus it will remain operational as long as the spell lasts. Eager to test out her new experiment, she invited all of her friends to Canterlot castle. Inside the crystal mirror room, everypony was helping Twilight prepare for the test; She trotted around the room, reading and re-reading the spell she created based on Starswirl the Bearded's time travel spell, along with a little extra magic of her own.

"Okay, so, how is this supposed to work again?" asked Rainbow Dash, looking at the confused paper of scribbles and formulas. Twilight still looking down at the paper, began to point out what everything meant of the paper.

"Well, Dash," Twilight began, "I need to create an magic ball of energy that will simultaneously give off light waves of that replicating the moon and have the power to transport me through the portal while at the same time..."

"Uh, nevermind. You're hurting my brain." Twilight gave her an irritated look, while Dash comically rubbed her head.

"Now, c'mon Dash," said Applejack from behind, "let Twi explain what she's gonna do."

"Thank you, Applejack. Now, as I was saying...the magic ball of energy I need has to be powerful enough to transport me through the alternate universes. So, by combining the light of the moon with the time travel spell Starswirl the Bearded came up with, I think I might have the answer to explore these alternate dimensions," she concluded.

"OH MY GOSH! THAT...SOUNDS...INCREDIBLE!!!" shouted Pinkie Pie.

"I wonder if there's a universe where every dress is made of gems? Oh my, can you imagine?" asked Rarity to Fluttershy.

"That sounds wonderful. I wonder if there's a universe all filled with cute, soft, little bunnies," said Fluttershy.

"Well, I think with this spell, I may be able to answer those questions for you," replied Twilight delightfully.

"A'ight suga'cube, let's see what you can do," said AJ. Twilight stood firmly upright, closed her eyes, and began to conjure up enough magic for the spell. Pink sparkles flew out of her horn as more and more magical energy built up. The light from her horn grew brighter and brighter, all of the ponies backing away from the light. Suddenly, the ball of energy grew to the size of a basketball and shot up into the air, abruptly stopping in the middle of the room. The ball of magical energy hovered calmly in the air, shining a bright beam of pink light into the mirror. Every single pony gasped in amazement at the wonder in front of their eyes, the glass of the mirror had a bright pink glow that looked as if the waves of time were in front of their eyes. Wiping the sweat from her forehead, Twilight confidently trotted to the entrance of the mirror.

"Are you sure you'll be safe Twilight?" asked Fluttershy nervously.

"Don't worry, I'm going to be fine. I'll be back soon, everypony, I promise," said Twilight. All of them nodded their head and gathered around her for a group hug. They all held each other tightly together, as if it would be the last time they would see her, because even though they have confidence in their best friend, the success of Twilight's experiment remains uncertain. As they all backed away from her. Twilight turned around and faced proudly at the mirror. After a deep breathe, she trotted towards the mirror and into the portal. In a sudden moment, a lightning bolt struck the magic ball hovering in the air; The concussive wave of the electrical explosion sent everything flying across the room and crashing against the walls. The five mares flew backwards and smashed against the wall, their bodies leaving holes in the walls from where they landed. As the wave of energy passed quickly away, everything came crashing down to the ground, everypony covered in papers, books, and other sorts of objects inside the room.

"Is ev'ypony al'ight?" asked Applejack, adjusting her cowgirl hat.

"Yeah...ow...," said Dash, rubbing her head again, "what happened?"

"I don't know, but I don't think that's good..." said Pinkie, pointing towards the ceiling. Everypony looked up and gasped; they all stared nervously at the ball of magic. The pink sphere was now a black ball of electricity, violent lightning bolts sparked all around the sphere. The glowing white light in the room was now a bright red color. The crystal mirror's once pink glow was replaced with an glowing portal swirling with bright red and orange colors, as if they were looking into the gates of Tartarus itself.

"Oh no, what if something had to Twilight in there?" gasped Fluttershy. The rest of them gasped in shock as all of them had completely forgot about Twilight's adventure.

"Hang on, Twilight! I'll get you out of there!" exclaimed Rainbow Dash, flying her way to the entrance of the portal. As she was about to fly in, Applejack grabbed onto her tail and yanked her back down to the ground.

"Y'all lost yer mind? Y'all don't know what's even on the other side of that thing," she said firmly.

"Applejack is right. Twilight is the only one of us that's even been through that thing. If we all go, there's no guarantee we'd all be in the same place," said Rarity. Everyone looked down to the floor as they knew she was right. All they could do was hope that Twilight will be okay and that she ends up where she intended to go.

Across the universe and through the waves of time, a different kind of storm was underway, one that would decide the course of history. Hiding in the clouds above the French countryside was a massive wave of C-47 carrier planes flying inland, within each one was about 28 paratroopers of the American 101st Airborne division, also known as "The Screaming Eagles." It was in these early hours of June 6th, 1944, that these young men would jump-start the largest operation of World War II at the time, Operation Overlord. Every man inside waited patiently for their time to jump, some silently reciting prayers they learned, some calmly smoked a cigarette in their mouth, and some just looked out the window, watching the spinning rotors of the plane. Sitting towards the end of the plane was Private Owen Marsh, reading a letter his sister sent him while he was still in England.

Dear Owen,

Thing's have changed quite a bit since you left. A lot of stores and restaurants are being closed because of the draft and all. Dad is trying out this new haircut his barber gave him, and it looks absolutely ridiculous. Mom says it looks like a wet towel was dropped on top of his head. It doesn't look like it'll grow back correctly anytime soon, but it'll probably fix itself by the time you get back. It's probably better that you didn't see such a ghastly thing. Mom's been keeping up with the casualties as always, she's just worried. We all are. Susie's boyfriend was killed over in Italy. It's been hard going through life without my big brother, but, I know him better than any other person in the world, and I just know God will help him make it out alive. Stay safe and come back home soon,

Love,

Betty

As he finished the letter, he could hear the small explosions going off in the distance. He quickly folded the note and put it back in his front jacket pocket, behind a small notepad he kept as a journal. After he closed the pouch, he looked up forward to the front of the plane, looking down at his platoon leader, Lt. Thomas Hanks, calmly sitting near the door of the plane. Suddenly, a bright red light shined inside the aircraft; It's almost go time. At the front of the plane, Lt. Hanks stood up to begin the jumping process.

"Everyone, stand up!" he shouted, lifting his arms upwards to the sky. All of the men stood up in a single file line, awaiting the moment to jump out of the plane. "Hook up," continued the Lt. with everyone placing the hook that released their parachute onto the static line. "Equipment check!" he continued, briefly pausing as every man patted down their buddies, making sure they had everything they needed to fight. Finally, after a few seconds had past, the Lieutenant resumed the jump process. "Sound off for equipment check," he shouted down the isle of the plane. Down the line, the men patted their buddy on their shoulder and sounded off with their respective number.

"Ten okay...nine okay...eight okay...seven okay..." Marsh felt the beefy hand of the machine gunner behind him smash his shoulder. "Three okay..." he said, patting the shoulder of the soldier in front of him. After every soldier sounded off, there was another pause of silence in the plane, only this time, the explosions were growing louder and louder. The C-47 emerged from the clouds, revealing the massive firepower being brought upon them. The plane was rocking back and forth from the force of each explosion going off, knocking all of the men off of their feet. The sound of anti-aircraft guns firing could be heard in the distance as the bright yellow tracer rounds littered the night sky. Outside, several planes were getting hit by the rounds, some even breaking apart for taking a direct hit from an airburst shell. Almost all of the men were growing inpatient inside, some cussing at the pilot to give the go ahead to jump.

"Get us off of this fucking thing!" one paratrooper shouted in the way back.

"We're all dead if we stay in here," said another.

"Damn it, private, does that light look green to you?" said 1st Sgt Ed Willard, responding to the chaos of the men behind him. Inside the cockpit, the pilot and co-pilot were frantically chatting on what to do.

"We're taking too much fire, we gotta get 'em outta here," said the co-pilot.

"We can't! We drop them now, they'll be scattered all over the damn place," responded the pilot. An airburst round exploding directly to the left of the cockpit, the concussion wave rocking the front of the plane violently. Both pilots were knocked every which way, simultaneously fighting for control of the plane.

"They're all gonna die if we don't drop 'em right now!"

"For fuck's sake, don't give the green light yet!" In a sudden moment, another airburst shell exploded directly in front of the pilot, the shrapnel essentially digging a giant hole into his face, killing him instantly. The glass of the C-47 was shattered and sparks were beginning to fly out of the damaged control panels. The co-pilot shielding himself from the blast, looked at the devastation left behind. Blood was splattered all over the pilot's side of the cockpit, his lifeless corpse drooping over the controls.

"Jesus...fuck!" said the co-pilot, grabbing the sticks of the plane. As he frantically fought for control of the now damaged C-47, he flicked on a switch overhead, turning on a green light that shined all inside the aircraft. It was time to jump.

"Let's go!" shouted Lt. Winters, before being the first trooper to jump out of the plane, followed by SSgt. Boyle. Owen quickly stepped forward to the doorway of the plane. He closed his eyes and jumped into the air. For a brief moment, everything went silent and slowed down. Would his parachute deploy or not? Will the aircraft continue to hold as he jumped out? Would he be immediately hit by a flying piece of shrapnel from a flak round exploding and not even have a chance to fight? So many questions and possibilities of what could happened raced through his mind, until he felt a sudden jolt in the air, like something had grabbed his shirt collar and dragged him to the ground. He opened his eyes to see his parachute had successfully deployed. He let out a soft exhale, thanking his older self for properly packing the parachute bag the night before. However, he wasn't away from the danger yet. The once calm night sky was now a lit with the exploding balls of flak fire and machine gun tracers. His eyes glanced upwards as he saw a C-47 with one of it's engines on fire. The plane was clearly struggling to stay in the air. As the plane roared passed the falling Owen, he watched in horror as the damaged plane crashed into a different C-47 dropping it's troops. Both planes then went down in a ball of fire. Looking away to get his mind off of what he just saw, Owen simply looked down to focus on his landing. By his estimates, the plane was at least 800 feet up in the air when he jumped and he was now around 300 feet.

However, to Owen's surprise, he didn't find himself dropping down towards the designated drop-zone that he was supposed to land in. Instead, he found himself falling down into a densely packed forested area that he didn't recognize. As he began to prepare himself for the landing, Owen suddenly stopped falling down to Earth. Looking up at the tree tops, he saw something that he really didn't want to see or deal with at the moment: his parachute caught on one of the tree branches. Quickly reacting to the situation, Owen wrestled for the combat knife he had in his boots. But, as he began to pull it out of it's sheath, the knife slipped from his sweaty hands and fell down to the ground.

"Shit," Owen said to himself silently as he dangled from the tree branches at least twenty feet up in the air. He then began to shake his entire body to try to break off the branch he's caught on. The trees began to shimmer and shake as the leaves fell down on his head. Suddenly, as he was starting to frantically swing back and forth in the air, Owen felt something really heavy fall down onto him. The object was heavy enough for him to be broken free from his parachute restraints and he now freely fell down to the ground. And before he knew it, everything for Owen cut to black. He was out cold.

Author's Note

This is a story I started almost a decade ago and just now started to finish. Also, added context regarding certain objects, military jargon, etc, will be placed down here for better understandings.