Chapters Twilight and the Screaming Eagles
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.
Twilight and the Screaming Eagles
Owen's eyes began to open once again, and much to his surprise, the sun was already starting to come up. He could actually see the daylight starting to shine through the woods. He then took a quick look at the watch on his wrist, thankfully, it had survived the jump and was still working. Unfortunately, it was already 0500 (5 AM) and the landings at the Normandy beaches were about to begin at any moment. Realizing how much time he's lost, Owen tried to quickly pull himself up to get ready to go, but then felt a massive shooting pain from his lower back. He tried to get up, but then found himself just falling back down to the ground.
"Damn it," he said to himself rubbing the lower portion of his back. He began to feel for anything broken or any penetration wounds, but there was nothing there. He breathed a slight sigh of relief and started to pick himself off of the ground. Using a nearby tree to help him up, Owen picked himself off despite the bad back and was now on his feet once again. As he was looking down on the ground, he noticed the combat knife he dropped still in the place where it last was. That's when he began to recollect the events of what happened before, and now he had questions. What hit him on the back to free him from his parachute? As he stared at the still dangling parachute 20 feet up in the air, Owen heard the last thing he was expecting to hear, a woman's voice.
"Oh, good! You're finally awake," said the voice. Owen's heart froze up for a second. The voice sounds exactly like his sister. But, how could she be here? She's supposed to be back home, getting ready for high school. Owen didn't dare turn around to confront the voice. A few tense seconds passed, then the voice spoke once again.
"Are, you okay?" she asked. Taking a deep breathe, as if he was accepting his fate, Owen turned around to confront the voice. But, to his surprise, when he looked to where the voice was, he couldn't see anything. Now, things were getting strange. He then began to look in every possible direction around him, wondering where the source of the voice came from.
"What the hell..." he muttered to himself, still scanning his surroundings for a person that might be hiding, but there was nothing he could see. That was until the voice spoke again.
"Down here," said the voice. Owen looked down to see the source of the voice. In an utter shock of disbelief, Owen fell backwards, tripping on a nearby log and landing in a pile of leaves on the other side. At the base of his feet was some sort of purple creature that had the voice of his sister. As he tried to quickly collect himself, the creature at the base of his feet jumped up on the log to see what happened.
"Oh my gosh, sir, are you okay?" asked the creature.
Owen, not knowing what the creature was or why it could talk, quickly pulled out his 1911* handgun, racks the slide to chamber a round, and points it at mysterious creature.
"Stay back! Stay the fuck back or I shoot!" he said, the handgun aimed directly at the creature's forehead.
"Oh, I'm sorry sir. I didn't mean to scare you," said the creature, "I just wanted to introduce myself."
It was at this moment when Owen finally got a good look at the creature. Up on the log was a bright purple pony with a unicorn horn on her head and wings on her body. She had a purple mane with a pink stripe going down it, big purple eyes that were about the size of the handgun in Owen's hands, and a bright, welcoming smile on her face. Owen finally began to lower the handgun in utter disbelief at the sight in front of his eyes. Unable to comprehend what exactly he was seeing, Owen just simply started stammering, not knowing what next to say to the purple pony on the log that was somehow able to talk to him. The purple pony giggled a little bit, jumped off the log, and began to walk towards Owen.
"Here, let me help you up," she said politely, extending her hoof out to help him up. Owen, at first not knowing if he should even touch the pony, decided to take up her offer and extended his hand outwards too. The purple pony helped pull up the bruised, but still alive paratrooper off of the ground.
"Uh...thanks," he said, putting the handgun back in it's holster as he stood up.
"No problem, now let me introduce myself," said the purple pony. "My name is Twilight Sparkle, I come from the land of Equestria and the Princess of Friendship."
"Huh. Well...I'm Private Marsh, Easy Company, 506th"* he said.
"Oohhh, you're a soldier."
"Yeah, a paratrooper specifically."
"This is so fascinating. Give me a second to write all of this down." She picked up the notepad and quill from her bag using her magic, which took Owen by surprise.
"Woah, how the hell are you doing that?"
"With my unicorn magic, of course. I don't mean to brag, but I've been studying magic for almost all my life and-" before Twilight could finish, her scroll and quill fell down to the ground. The magical glow around her horn had suddenly cut out. She tried to pick it up again, but the same thing happened. For some reason, her unicorn magic wasn't working as well as it normally did. She started to blush and awkwardly laughed in front of the still puzzled paratrooper. As she kept trying to lift up the quill and notepad, Owen's mind began to think about other things, specifically, the invasion. He took a quick look at his watch again, time was 0505 (5:05 AM), infantry was to land ashore at 0630 (6:30 AM), he needed to get moving.
"Hey, uh...Twilight is it?" he asked. Twilight stopped what she was doing and put her attention to Owen.
"Oh, yes! That's my name."
"Listen, it's been good trying to get to know you, but I got to get going-"
"Oh, I'm so sorry. Silly me, I'll figure out what's wrong with magic later.' Twilight picked up the scroll and quill with her mouth and put them both back in her bag. "Obviously, a soldier like you has an important job to do. But, Mr. Marsh, if you can do me one more favor and point me to the direction of Canterlot High School, that would be greatly appreciated."
"Umm...is Canterlot some sort of small French village that doesn't appear on a map? Because I never heard of it." This caught Twilight off guard.
"What do you mean? Am I not in Canterlot? And what is this 'French' village you speak of?"
"Uh. French is an adjective describing something from the nation of France. You know what France is, right?"
"I've never heard of that nation...Oh no...I'VE NEVER HEARD OF THIS NATION!" Owen then put his mouth over the purple pony's mouth.
"SSShhhh...you need to stay quiet. You're in a fucking warzone."
"I'M IN A WARZONE?!" screamed the muffled Twilight.
"Yeah, you're in Nazi-occupied France. And let me tell you something, these Nazis...they aren't the good guys. So, if you want to stay alive, you will listen to me right now. Okay?"
Twilight was unresponsive. She kept on hyper ventilating, to the point where she was about to pass out.
"Hey! Hey, hey, hey! Calm down. Calm down. Look at me. Look at me. Deep breathe...deep breathe..." The paratrooper and the pony began to do deep-breathing exercises together. He looked deep into the panicked eyes of Twilight, her pupils significantly smaller than when she was calm. After a few seconds of deep breathing, Twilight started to calm down.
"Good. Now, listen to me. The Allies are coming. You shouldn't have to worry about the Nazis for long. However, I don't think there's a lot I can help you out with, and I have a job to do, so I can't stay. You need to find a place to hide and figure out how to get out of this world, okay?" said the paratrooper. However, Twilight was unsatisfied with his plan. In her mind, the more logical thing to do would to go directly to these "allies" and then focus on a way of getting out of the world.
"Um...wouldn't it be safer if I were come to with you to see these 'allies' you speak of?" This question surprised Owen a bit. The road ahead was not an easy path, and the job he was required to do was not an easy one. The main objective's for his company were to land around the Sainte-Marie du Mont region, with the 2nd battalion to seize one of the crucial exits for armor to get off of Utah Beach and move in land. From there, the next objective would be the town of Carentan, which would link the Utah and Omaha Beach sectors together to help push further into France and trap German forces still defending the coastal region. This was not going to be an easy battle up ahead, and watching over a talking purple unicorn was going to make that job significantly harder.
"What? No! Out of the question. It's too unsafe and you're more likely to die than stay alive if you come with me." Twilight was not convinced. The fight she had with Lord Tirek was still fresh in her mind, not to mention all of the other times her and her friends got into life and death scrapes; from the dragon that was tamed by Fluttershy to her being turned into stone by a cockatrice, Twilight had faced elimination more times than once. In her mind, she knew she could handle herself when faced with dangerous circumstances.
"Um. I'm not sure if you know this, but I've been able to handle myself in some pretty scary situations and besides, going with you will get me quicker to your allies and thus, quicker to safety." In her mind, it made sense. But, to Owen, it was still too risky. There was still no certainty that the invasion would even succeed; it was still very possible for the Germans to push the Allies off the beaches and overrun the Airborne landing zones and completely ruin this operation.
"I'm sorry, Twilight. But, you can't come with me. It's just...too dangerous." said Owen.
"Please, I promise to stay out of the way and do everything that you say."
"No!"
"Please, I-"
"The answer is no, Twilight. I'm sorry, but the answer is no." At this point, Twilight began to slowly cry. The rejection from this paratrooper she was nothing but kind to hurt her very much. Silently crying to herself, she began to walk away from Owen, who was starting to feel a little bit bad himself. He didn't mean to hurt her, he was only looking out for both of their safety. As the two began to part ways, something in Owen's heart told him to watch over this purple pony. He couldn't put his finger on it, but something was telling him to help her try and navigate this world. However, the training drilled into him by the military was telling him that bringing her along is going to cause more harm than good. Even if they did survive, what would Owen's platoon commander say? Hell, something like this would send the entire Army into a frenzy and possibly even cause an unwanted spectacle that could lead Twilight down more dangerous paths. But, even with these possibilities realized in his head, Owen went with his heart and decided to bring Twilight along with him. He turned around to see Twilight still skulking away.
He took a deep breathe and said "Fine, you can tag along." Twilight stop in her tracks and immediately beamed with a bright smile.
"Really?" she asked. Owen simply nodded. Twilight ran right up next to Owen and gave him a hug.
"Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you..." Twilight kept saying, squeezing the paratrooper harder every second.
"No problem...now please...let me go...so I can breathe..." he struggled to get out. Twilight immediately let up on the hug, apologizing quickly afterwards. After catching his breathe for a few seconds, Owen was back on his feet, ready to move.
"Now, if you're gonna come with me, you need to listen and do everything exactly as I say. No questions, okay?"
"Got it." Twilight had a confident look on her face, ready to go.
"Good, now, our drop was scattered all to hell, so I have no idea where we are. On top of that, I lost the majority of my gear in the drop. All I have is my pistol and my knife. But, I do know the coastline is North East from our position, so that's the direction we'll head in. Maybe we'll find some more guys on the way there. However, we might encounter some Germans along the way. In that case, stay hidden and quiet. It's probably best to avoid them since we don't have strength in numbers, yet. Our goal is to link up with other men and figure out where the hell to head to next. You ready?' The confident look on Twilight's face had faded away, and was now replaced with a worried one. "You good?" asked Owen. Twilight snapped out of her catatonic panicked state and addressed him.
"Me? Oh yeah. Totally fine...not panicking in the slightest bit," she said sarcastically.
"Well, bottle it up right now. If this invasion is going to be successful, we gotta get moving. Let's go." Owen got up and began walking towards the North East, hoping to find some sort of link up area and possibly, even his unit.
Author's Note
*The 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment. Organization of Army from smallest to largest units (Individuals, squads, platoons, company, battalion, regiment, division, Army corps).
*M1911(A1) handgun was the standard US military handgun from 1911-1985. Named after the year of introduction.
Twilight and the Screaming Eagles
The cloudy sky hid the rising sun from sight. It looked as if a rainstorm was underway. However, this wouldn't prevent the invasion from getting under way. As Owen and Twilight made their way through the forest, they could hear a low rumbling sound in the distance. At the edge of the forest, Owen looked up in the sky to see a massive wave of B-17 "Flying Fortress" heavy bombers dropping their payloads, the rumbling being the explosions of 1,000 pound bombs hitting the ground and hopefully on German positions.
"Looks like the Air Force is busy at work," he said. "Let's stick to the edge of the forest, moving through the open is gonna make us stick out more." Twilight looked up at the massive wave of bombers 20,000 feet up in the sky. Never in her life has she seen so much military gear flying up in the sky. Sure, Equestria had balloons and zeppelins, but something like a B-17 hadn't existed before, and the invention peaked Twilight's curiosity.
"What...what are those things?" she asked in awe.
"Flying Fortresses. B-17 heavy bombers. Don't know too much about them, since I'm not an aircraft technician; but, I do know the thing is packing upwards to thirteen .50 caliber machine guns pointed in every direction. Thing certainly isn't lacking firepower that's for sure." Twilight kept on walking along with Owen, but the sight of the bombers kept her eyes glued to the sky, until the formation was no longer in sight. The two kept walking along the edge of the forest, until they reached a roadway that split the rest of forest in half.
"Okay, hold here. Wait until I give you the signal to cross the street," he told her. Twilight nodded and stayed put. Owen took one more look up ahead, no movement whatsoever and there didn't appear to be any good places for any German snipers to be hiding, so, after taking a deep breathe, he crossed the street. Jumping into the other embankment, he then turned around to see if anyone had noticed him. After a couple seconds of waiting, it looked as if nobody was there. He waved his hand over to Twilight, who promptly ran across the street and slid down the small embankment like he did. Owen still held in place, waiting for the Germans to respond, but the response never came. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. With that in mind, Owen waved his hand back and forth, got up, and began moving down the road. Twilight, confused about what was happening, just followed the paratrooper and didn't ask questions.
As the two made their way further down the forest, they ran across an unpleasant site. Dangling from the trees was the body of a paratrooper who still had yet to free himself from his harness. The two walked up to the body. The paratrooper's helmet was missing and there were massive holes in his parachute. The body was covered with several scratches and cuts as if he fell down from the trees as he was landing, his uniform torn to shreds. The patch read "82nd Airborne"*, so it wasn't somebody from Owen's unit that had fallen, but it still was an unfortunate sight. A massive wound in the back of his head gave away a clear indication that the paratrooper was dead. However, the good news was that this particular paratrooper still had a lot of his gear on him. Not only did the paratrooper still had his canteen and rations on him, but he also had ammunition and his M1 Garand* rifle still on him. Owen, not wasting the opportunity to upgrade his firepower, walked over to the body to loot it of the gear. Twilight, on the other hand, simply looked in horror at what she was witnessing. In her mind, this paratrooper was looting the corpse of another fallen soldier, and that didn't sit well with her.
"Is that necessary?" she asked as Owen detached the canteen from the paratrooper's web belt.
"I know this isn't pretty, but I got nothing on me and he's certainly ain't going to be using any of this stuff," he said, now pulling the Garand out of it's harness. He then detached the web belt of ammunition and loaded in an 8 round en bloc clip of ammunition into the rifle. Slinging it on his shoulder, Owen then searched through the pack of dead paratrooper, looking for rations, a map, and anything else that could help him out. Rummaging through pack, he was able to find a couple chocolate bars this paratrooper stored on him and even a map of the area. Owen was content with what he had was ready to leave. He turned around to see Twilight, still examining the body in a frozen state. A faint stream of tears was flowing down her face as she softly cried at the sight in front of her eyes. Owen walked over to her and patted her on the head.
"Yeah, it ain't a pretty sight, but there's nothing we can do him now," he simply said. Twilight looked up to see the emotionless look on the paratrooper's face. As the tears slowly came down her face, she softly wept for the dead paratrooper. Whoever this man was, he'll no longer be able to do the things he once loved to do and his family and friends are left with a hole in all of their lives. She turned her head and cried into the paratrooper's chest, silently weeping at the thought of how this man's family would react to the news of his passing, far away from home and from any of his loved ones.
"Can...can we at least take the time to bury him?" she softly asked Owen.
Owen, looking down at her, simply shook his head. "Don't worry about him. If the invasion goes well, somebody'll scoop him up and give him a proper burial. Besides, we gotta get moving right now." Owen began to walk away from the body, wanting to get the image of the dead man out of his mind as quick as possible. Twilight, understanding that they had no time to bury the dead paratrooper, took one more look at the body before trotting away and catching up with Owen.
As the two made their way down the roadway, Owen saw something moving in the distance. It looked like another group of two soldiers walking in the opposite direction.
"Shit, get down," he said, quickly running off the road and into the edge of the forest. Twilight followed Owen and the two laid down behind a set of trees, waiting for the soldiers to pass. Owen silently listened for the voices of the men, were they speaking in German or English? It wasn't long before Owen could hear the men conversing in some language he couldn't understand. Taking a peak out of cover, he noticed the grey uniforms and distinctive helmets of the German Wehrmacht. He looked over to Twilight, simply put a finger to his lips and made a shushing sound. Even though it was a small group, getting into a potential firefight with them wasn't the smart option, so Owen decided to let them pass. It looked like they were off doing some sort of errand run, as the two of them don't look particularly concerned about the presence of paratroopers in the area. The voices grew louder and louder every passing second. Twilight also peaked around the corner to get a look at the German soldiers, hoping to get a close look at these creatures. However, much to her surprise, the German soldiers looked almost identical to the American ones, except the uniforms and different gear. This confused Twilight a little bit, and she was now wondering why these two sides were fighting each other when they are basically the same species. She started to poke her head out more to get a better look at the soldiers, until she accidentally stepped on a loose branch with one of her hooves, which made a loud snapping sound. Aside from the chatter of the German soldiers, nothing else was making a sound. Owen looked over at her and gave her a dirty look. Twilight, remaining frozen in place, didn't even dare move a muscle out of fear, her hoof still on the snapped stick. She blushed embarrassingly, took her hoof off of the twig and slouched back down into cover.
However, this was enough for the Germans to stop what they were doing and they began to investigate the area. The two of them stopped what they were doing, drew up their guns, and started walking towards the sound of the snapping stick. Owen, holding the M1 rifle in his hands, now knew they were going to have to take them out. He pulled the bolt back slightly to check to see if the round was chambered and then hit it back forward to make sure the rifle was in battery, ready to fire. Waiting a few more seconds, Owen then took a deep breathe and then rolled out from the protection of the tree he was behind and put the sights of the rifle on his first target. He squeezed the trigger, the Garand rifle firing a single projectile out of the barrel and it landing into the upper torso of the first German soldier. The force from the powerful .30-06* round knocked him down on his back. Due to the semi automatic nature of rifle, Owen was ready to fire within milliseconds of the first shot. He placed his sights on the second German, who had only just realized the person next to him had been shot, and fired again. The second round hit the German soldier in the neck and he collapsed to the ground as well. As the ringing from the two gunshots lowered, all that was replaced by the moans and screams of pain from the two soldiers. Twilight was shocked at what she saw, she had no idea that the weapons in these soldiers hands had such a devastating affect on the body, but she had little time to process what happened. Owen had ran over to her and picked her up on her hooves.
"C'mon, we gotta go," he said very rapidly. He pulled Twilight off the ground and he began to run into the woods.
"Where are we heading?" asked the confused Twilight, running alongside the paratrooper.
"Anywhere, but here. Just follow me." The two started sprinting deeper and deeper into the woods, but it wasn't long before the shouting of other German soldiers could be heard from behind them. All of a sudden, a hail of incoming fire came pouring in from the same direction. Owen could tell immediately what it was, one of the German soldiers had a machine pistol* and was emptying the magazine into the woods. The chatter of the weapon could be heard easily from where Twilight and Owen were. The two didn't bother to look back and kept on sprinting forwards. The rounds from the 9mm submachine gun were zipping past the two of them and impacting the trees and ground all around them.
"C'mon, Twilight, we gotta keep movin," he said, jumping over a fallen tree. The sharp rifle cracks from Mauser 98k rifles also joined in and were firing in the same direction. Twilight could hear the loud snaps and cracks of the rifles firing and she started to panic. In all of the life threatening moments she had gotten herself into, this one was just about the worst one. Going with what she knew best, Twilight tried to teleport away from the danger, but her magic still wasn't working. She let out a frustrated grunt, still sprinting alongside Owen, who was now looking for a place the two can hide and evade the incoming squad of Germans. Then, all of a sudden, Owen found it. Up ahead in the distance what looked like a barn. It wasn't much, and there was no guarantee that they could hide in there, but it was worth the risk.
"Head for that barn," he told Twilight and two sprinted in that direction. The sudden incoming fire had subsided for now, but that didn't mean the Germans weren't looking for them anymore. Owen ran up to the barn door and tried to open it, but it wouldn't budge. He tried to get a running start and break his way inside, but even that didn't work.
"Here, let me try," said Twilight. She trotted up to the door and in one attempt, bucked the locked door open off of its' hinges and the two immediately ran inside. The barn was a fairly spacious place, filled with assorted tools and a large stack of hay on the floor. Towards the back of the barn was a set of empty stables that hid themselves really well in the dark due to the shadows. If they were to hide from the Germans, this was going to be the best possible position. Owen grabbed Twilight and the two hid behind one of the empty stables. Owen crouched down behind the stable wall, looking at the entrance of the barn, while Twilight collapsed to the ground and was panting very heavily. It wasn't the running that got her exhausted and hyper-ventilating, it was the fear of being shot by one of those weapons that really got her heart beating and she started to panic once again.
"Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh...what was all of that? I...I could've-" she started to say before Owen put his hand over her mouth to quiet her down.
"Ssshhh, shut up. We're not out of the woods yet," he said. "They're still looking for us and they'll probably check this barn. So you need to stay quiet and don't move a muscle." Just as he said that, the chatter of German soldiers could be heard in the background. Owen ducked down behind the stable wall and waited for inevitable. The German soldiers then made their way to the barn entrance and two of them entered inside. They started to walk slowly to the darken portion of the barn, weapon drawn at the ready. Owen could see the two of them through a crack in the wood, the men slowly were observing the barn and everything around them. One of the German soldiers had a bayonet on the end of his rifle and stuck it inside the pile of hay, only to hear no screams of pain and no signs of blood on his bayonet. The other German soldier started walking closer and closer to the stables, to the point where Owen could clearly make out the facial features of the German soldier looking for him. But, as he was about to open the stable door to look inside, there came a loud whirring noise, followed by a loud explosion out in the distance. The ground violently shook as all the German soldiers inside started to clamor about what was happening. Owen looked down at his watch, time was 0630 (6:30 AM), the beach landings were under way and the Navy had start to bombard the coastline. Owen could see the German squad leader waving his arm for his men to follow him to the beach head to meet the upcoming attack. Soon, the two men inside the barn went to follow their squad leader and the barn was empty. Owen and Twilight waited a few more minutes before emerging out of the stable.
"Stay here, I'll be right back," he said. He picked up the M1 rifle and went outside to check the surroundings. He slowly walked around the perimeter of the barn. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, until he heard a random voice say something familiar to him.
"Flash," whispered the voice. At this point, Owen's training kicked in and as if on command turned to the voice and said the proper response call.
"Thunder," he said, loud enough for the voice to hear him. He faced the direction the voice was coming from, his M1 held at the hip, ready to fire. But, it wouldn't be necessary as the men coming out of the bushes were two other paratroopers. The patches on their shoulders indicated they were from the 101st Airborne as well.
"Marsh, is that you?" said the voice. Owen immediately recognized the voice from the paratrooper coming out of the bushes. Much to his surprise, both of the paratroopers were from Owen's platoon: Cpl. Joe Schwartz and Pvt. Dave Alley.
"Fuckin' aye, Alley, you're a sight for sore eyes," said Owen, lowering his M1 rifle to greet his buddies. The three paratroopers greeted each other warmly, before they went inside the barn to talk strategy.
"So, anybody have an idea on where we are?" asked Owen.
"Yeah," said Alley, "Normandy."
"Not what I meant."
"I saw a sign back there that said Sainte Marie du Mont was 3 klicks* East. The collection point is by the Western portion of that, so we need to keep heading East for about 2 klicks before we hit that area," said Schwartz.
"You guys run into any Krauts yet?"
"Couple patrols here and there, nothing too serious. What about you?"
Owen then looked over to the back corner where Twilight was, he knew he was going to have to tell them about her sooner or later, and it might as well be now. "Eh, yeah. Had a little run-in with some Germans earlier, but just as they were about to find me out, the Navy started the bombardment," he explained.
"Damn, you got lucky," said Alley.
"Yeah, but uh-there's something else I ran into that may catch you guys off guard."
"What-what'd you find?" asked Schwartz.
"Okay, before I get her, promise me you guys aren't going to freak out," he said.
"What-why would we freak out?"
"Just, promise me you guys aren't gonna do anything irrational or stupid."
"What the fuck is going on Marsh? asked Alley, "You pick up a broad on the way or something?"
"Eh, not exactly. Just, wait here." Owen ran to the back portion of the stable to find Twilight still there. Owen motioned his head out to the right, indicating it was okay to come out. "Come on, it's okay. They ain't gonna hurt you," he said to her. Twilight slowly trotted out from the darkness to reveal herself to Schwartz and Alley, the two of them simply dumbfounded at the sight they were seeing. For several seconds, no one spoke a word, until Alley broke the silence.
"Well, I wasn't expecting this..." he simply said.
Author's Note
*The 82nd Airborne was the sister division to the 101st that also took part in the D-day landings.
*M1 Garand was the standard US infantry rifle of WWII and Korea, often pronounced (guh-rand)
*pronounced thirty-aught-six
*MP-40 submachine gun. MP stands for Maschinenpistole, or Machine Pistol.
*Klick=kilometer
Twilight and the Screaming Eagles
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