Schwartz didn't bother to say anything, instead, he simply went over to Twilight and touched her head. He touched her purple mane and her unicorn horn, which was gave her kind of an uncomfortable vibe.

"Um, can I help you sir?" she asked. Schwartz immediately fell to the ground, the M3 submachine gun* he had slung over his shoulder now presented itself and was pointed at Twilight.

"What the fuck? It talks?!" he exclaimed. Owen, immediately seeing the danger, jumped between Schwartz and Twilight.

"Joey, Joey. Calm down. It's fine. It's okay," Owen said. Alley looked at the situation and simply chuckled at what was happening.

"What's wrong, Joey? Never seen talkin' horse before?" he asked.

"Um, I'm actually a pony, not a horse," said Twilight. Alley looked over at her, gave her a smirk, and nodded his head.

"My apologies, ma'am," he simply said, "what's the matter Joey? Never seen a talkin' PONY before?"

"Pony or horse, I don't care. HORSES DON'T TALK!" he said.

"Joey. Calm down. Put the gun down, she isn't gonna hurt you," said Owen. Schwartz sat on the ground, still breathing heavily, but ultimately deciding to hear Owen out. He slowly lowered the Grease Gun out of the way of both Owen and Twilight and closed the dust cover, which activated as the weapon's safety.

"Okay, now that we're all calm. Joey, Dave, this is Twilight Sparkle. Twilight-this is Cpl. Joe Schwartz and Pvt. Dave Alley. They are members of my platoon." Twilight took a few steps forward and in the middle of the barn, held her hoof out for the men to shake. Schwartz was a tall, lanky fellow wearing square black framed glasses and Alley was a shorter, somewhat wider man with a more tan skin color.

"Nice to meet you two," she said. Schwartz and Alley looked down at her hoof, for some reason hesitant to shake it. It wasn't until Alley walked forward, held his hand out, and two shook hands.

"Nice to meet you too, Twilight," he said. "Also, don't mind Joey over there. He's just a bit...overwhelmed by the situation right now." Twilight looked over to see Schwartz dumbfounded at the sight of Alley and Twilight talking to each other.

"It's alright, I understand," she said. Twilight then began to trot over to Schwartz, but stopped as soon as Schwartz started to back away from her.

"Quit your worrying, Joey. She ain't gonna hurt you," said Alley. Schwartz then started taking a few steps forward to meet Twilight face to face. Once he was within arms reach, he held out his right hand to offer a handshake. Twilight took the opportunity and shook the man's hand. At this moment, the panicked look on Schwartz's face went away and he began to calm down.

"Heh, sorry about all of that," he said awkwardly.

"Oh, don't worry about it," said Twilight, "I have a friend back home that doesn't like meeting new ponies that much either. I get it." Schwartz just smiled, but in his head, this whole situation was really weird and it made him uncomfortable.

"Yeah, so anyways, care to explain exactly what's going on and how you got here?"

"Well, I'm sure you can probably tell that I don't belong in this world. I come from the land of Equestria, where I'm the princess of friendship."

"So, I'm assuming this 'Equestria' is filled with a bunch of talking, rainbow colored ponies as well, right?" asked Alley.

"Well, it's actually home to many different creatures. For example, there things like centaurs, changelings, and griffons that populate the land, alongside different races of ponies, like unicorns and pegasi," replied Twilight.

"And I'm assuming everyone there also has the ability to talk?" asked Schwartz.

"That's right. Anyways, I went through the crystal mirror, I thought I was going to end up in Canterlot high school, but that clearly wasn't the case and I've ended up here."

"So, what you're telling me is that you're a princess from some land of mythical, rainbow-colored, talking creatures that have mastered inter-dimensional travel?"

"Um...that's certainly one way of putting it."

"Well, guess my next question is how do you plan on going back?" asked Alley.

"That, I don't know. But, I've been travelling with Owen in hopes of getting to a 'friendly' location where I can-" Twilight was interrupted by Schwartz, who turned his attention to Owen.

"What? Marsh! You've been bringing her along with you?"

"What else was I supposed to do, Joey?" asked Owen. "She needed my help."

"Gee, I don't know. Maybe not bring in her with you into an active fuckin' warzone!"

"I tried that! And she still wanted to come along. Besides, what if the Krauts catch her? They'd probably ship her off to some lab somewhere and run a bunch of experiments on her." Schwartz took in what Owen said and knew that that would be a likely scenario. Schwartz had experience dealing with the Nazis having lived in Europe, but he was still uneasy about bringing Twilight along with them.

"Okay, let's just say that everything goes according to plan and we make it back to the assembly area alive, what the fuck are you going to tell the Captain and everyone else that sees you walking in with a talking, purple unicorn that's from an alternate dimension?" he asked. Owen hadn't thought that far ahead, he'd been so focused on survival that he'd completely forgot about how he was going to explain to his commanding officer that he found a purple pony in his travels and brought her along with him.

"Honestly, I hadn't thought that far ahead. But, who knows? Maybe he'll be fine with it," he said. Hearing this, Alley started to laugh.

"Jesus Christ, Marsh. That's your plan?" he asked, snickering to himself at the idea of Owen going up to the company commander and explaining all of this to him.

"What, you got a better idea, jack ass?"

"No, no. Great idea, Marsh! Meehan will totally understand and I can foresee no problems with just walking up to the company C.O.* and just telling him you found and brought in a talking, purple pony for us to take care of. That'll go well with him for sure." Owen rolled his eyes at the heavy sarcasm Alley was laying down on him.

"Yeah, I get it. It's not the best plan, but I don't see any other option and leaving her here will likely mean the Krauts capture her. So, anybody else have any ideas?" he asked. Schwartz and Alley both looked at each other, but neither one of them had a solution to this problem.

"Didn't think so," said Owen, "now, I know this is gonna make our job a bit harder, but, I don't see any other way we can do this." The two other paratroopers took in Owen's argument, and after thinking it over a little bit, the two finally came to a consensus.

"Alright, Marsh. I understand why we need to bring her along, but I have one more question. How the fuck is she gonna blend in with us?" asked Schwartz.

"What do you mean?" asked Owen.

"Well, if someone from the outside sees her, this is probably gonna draw a lot of unnecessary attention our way. Word's gonna spread throughout the entire god damn Army that we have some inter-dimensional creature on our hands and we don't need that kind of attention right now."

"Joey's right, Marsh," said Alley, "people talk. Anybody outside our unit sees her, they are gonna spread it around until all of Allied command is aware of it." Owen took in the new information and began to think. Both of them were right, there was no way Twilight walking directly could be kept a secret from other units in the military. He looked around the barn, looking for anything that could provide Twilight with some sort of disguise. Eventually, his eyes caught the attention of a horse jacket hanging up on the barn wall.

"There," he said snapping his fingers and pointing to the jacket on the wall. He walked over to pick it up and he threw it over to Twilight. "Put this on," he told her. Twilight looked down at the jacket in her hooves, it was almost double her size and it looked nothing like any of the clothing she had previously worn. The jacket just covered her back and there wasn't even any sleeves for her hooves. She put it on her back and Owen helped tie it onto her. The jacket touched the ground, so it covered most of her purple coat and hooves.

"Well, that solves about 80% of the problem, but, the hell are we going to do about that?" asked Schwartz, pointing at her unicorn horn.

"Don't suppose you can retract that thing into your body and make it hidden?" asked Alley to Twilight, who was both shocked and confused at Alley's joke of a question. Even Schwartz and Owen gave him a questionable look. Alley just shrugged it off and waited for a response.

"No, it doesn't work like that," she said chuckling a bit. With no one able to come up with something, Alley simply took off his helmet and placed on Twilight's head. Miraculously, the helmet was able to fit Twilight's head and cover up her unicorn horn very well.

"There, that should do it," he said. The three paratroopers looked over Twilight's new getup, and the three were satisfied. But, Twilight had one more problem on her mind.

"Wait, what about my face, shouldn't that be kept hidden as well?" she asked. However, the three paratroopers already had that part figured out.

"Oh, don't worry about that part. We know how to solve that," said Alley.

"Yeah, we'll just cover your face in mud. That'll hide that bright purple coat of yours," said Owen. Twilight didn't like the sound of that. The only mud-masks she would wear was when she was at the Ponyville spa, but this was different. The three paratroopers took out their canteens and dumped it onto the dirt roadway to create a mud puddle. Then, after taking some time to mix it, all three started lathering Twilight's face with it, almost to the point where her entire face was covered with it. When they were finished, they took a step back to admire their handy-work.

"So, think it'll work?" asked Owen.

"I think so," said Alley, "definitely looks like a normal horse now."

"Really?" asked Schwartz, "Because all I see is a miniature horse with a mud-covered face that's wearing too big of a jacket and, for some reason, a G.I. helmet."

"Hey, it's better than walking in with a bright purple unicorn from an alternate dimension," said Owen.

"Guess that's true," said Schwartz, "Come on, let's get to that assembly area now." The group of four then set off to the assembly point near Sainte Marie du Mont.

Author's Note

*Often nicknamed the "Grease Gun" due to it's resemblance to the car mechanic tool with the same name.

*Commanding Officer