The sound of boots clacked as an entourage made their way through the crystal walls of the castle. Mares brandishing sharp swords marched alongside them, resembling the long columns of men, marching with their rifles, as they paraded through the streets. Indeed, despite the technological downgrade, it was comforting to know that they did indeed have guards with them.

The marble walls of the castle glistened with the illuminating light from the sun, as the entourage made their way through the twists and bends of the hallways. Still wearing his green uniform, John marched his way down the hallways, trying his darndest not to look awe-struck at the intricate hallways of the castle. Besides, he had no time to admire the beauty of the walls, for he was a man on a mission. He had to watch the Ponyville guard practice their fighting maneuvers. To be frank, he was grateful that they weren't entirely incompetent. Hell, the guard reminded him of the freshly trained recruits back when they were shipped over to Europe. All prim and proper, but lacking experience in combat.

John smiled as his thoughts drifted back to when he was training. He was incredibly naive back then, believing that the good old U, S, of A, could kick the German's ass back to Berlin in time for Christmas. Oh, how wrong he was back then. Hell, he had even heard his father tell a similar story that he had heard from a British man back in World War 1. History has a sick sense of humor, continuously leading soldiers into a false sense of security before dragging them through mud and blood in the fields of France.

Looking to his side, a familiar face greeted him. Iron Will marched right beside him, with his own uniform clanking with medals and whatnot. A closer look would show that most of those medals were peacetime awards, which just showed how dedicated he was to the army. He did feel a little bit sorry for the guy. After all, it was tough to go from peacetime to war. He was probably one of the few outsiders who truly understood this.

"So! What do you think of the troops?" Iron Will asked.

John let out a small sigh as he said, "They're... adequate."

Confused, Iron Will responded, "Adequate? What do you mean by that?"

"They're trained and they've proven that they can execute maneuvers and tactics correctly, but I did see one major issue.”

Iron Will nodded his head as the group marched toward the throne room, "Are you going to report it to Princess Twilight? We are having dinner with her tonight."

A moment of silence passed between the two of them before he responded, "Yeah... I think I will."

The clanking of dishes filled the dining room, as Princess Twilight, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, John, and Iron Will sat around the crystal table, consuming their privately made dinner. Twilight ate her food regally, carefully calculating how she raised her fork and inserted her scrumptious delicacy into her mouth. She had decided to wear more formal attire; a velvet dress that flowed down her body with her hair combed straight, letting the velvety locks flow gracefully down her neck.

Rainbow Dash had an entirely different strategy compared to her purple friend. She more or less forced the contents down into her mouth as fast as possible, which often left a mess on her portion of the table. Unlike her friend, she had worn more casual attire, which was also her Wonderbolts-issued "kickbacks". It was a bright blue flight jacket, with the Wonderbolts insignia sewn proudly onto the sleeves. Her name was sewn on the right side, just above where her breast was. She had also decided to wear a pair of tight-fitting jeans, which John had silently admitted that it accented her quite well.

Rarity was the most elegant of the three of them. Comparing Twilight with her, Rarity's style completely exposed Twilight's unfamiliarity with high-class society. At the moment, she was holding a wine glass in such a way that it reminded John of the ladies of Paris that he had seen while on leave. It was clear that she had not just followed ladies' etiquette; she was ladies' etiquette. The way she dressed, the way she positioned herself, and the way she talked distinctly called John back to the streets of Paris, where he was able to witness what this so-called high-class society was like. After all, you couldn't see much while growing up in a small town. Tonight, she had decided to wear a brilliant white dress, which just showed her confidence in how she drank her wine. Her hair was neatly combed, allowing her luscious locks to flow gracefully down from her scalp.

Tonight's dinner had gone along swimmingly, which John greatly admired. He was about to compliment them on the dinner when Rarity suddenly complained, "Rainbow Dash! Would you please eat more like a lady and less like an animal?! You're making a mess of the table!"

Pausing halfway between her bites, Rainbow uncaringly countered, "Eh, so what? It's not like I'm doing anypony harm."

John completely expected Rarity to just drop the topic, so he was surprised when he noticed that Rarity seemed to have a plan for this situation. She smirked at the prismatic mare as she responded, "Oh I know darling. I'm just trying to save you from embarrassing yourself."

Rainbow stopped eating as she looked at her friend with confusion, "Embarrassment? Why would I be embarrassing myself?"

Rarity then leaned over the table and gave her friend an evil smile as she said, "Since you're eating like a pig in front of our guest."

Rainbow looked confused for a moment before realization dawned on her face. She looked at John for a brief moment as her face flushed red with embarrassment as she bashfully looked down at her plate before taking slower and more refined bites.

John let out a hearty chuckle of amusement, causing the two girls' hearts to smile at him, either in triumph or embarrassment. Despite being embarrassed by her friend, Rainbow Dash was at least grateful that the two of them had managed to get John to laugh. She hadn't really heard him laugh before, so it was nice to finally hear it. Twilight had observed the entire situation silently, and she had smiled with amusement at her friend's predicament. Deciding now was the time to get into the conversation, Twilight suddenly asked, "So, how was the guard's performance today? I hope that they're up to your standards."

John's smile faltered a bit, as his expression turned to a more serious look. "Ah yes... I was actually going to talk to you about that."

Rainbow quickly barged herself into the conversation as she asked, "What's wrong with them? They looked fine to me when I watched them."

"That's exactly the problem!" John pointed out, garnering Twilight's interest, "They're just ok. They're just like freshly trained soldiers that we got during the war. There's nothing necessarily wrong with them training-wise, but the problem is that they’re inexperienced!"

Twilight looked confused as she said, "But we've been simulating possible battle situations for them, they should have some exper-"

"Experience will always beat out a controlled environment Princess," John quickly pointed out, "Take my word for it. Sometimes, things will happen that training and controlled environments could never account for."

Rainbow quickly asked, "Could you give us an example?"

John thought about it for a moment. Was it a good idea to tell them about what had happened? There were a lot of parts of the war that he would rather not tell anyone. But then again, the memory he was thinking of was rather tame compared to his... other experiences... Besides, perhaps hearing a tale would entertain them a bit. "Well... I suppose I could tell you about one time."

Rarity's ears perked with interest as Rainbow grinned with excitement. It would be quite fascinating to hear about how his world worked and what his war was like. "Go ahead Darling," Rarity beckoned, "You have our attention."

John nodded his head as he began, "Well, this all happened about 6 months ago..."

November 5th, 1944

50 Miles North of Laon, France

"EVERYBODY GET DOWN!"

The massive 'THOOM' of a tank could be heard next as a platoon of men quickly scattered into the ditches off of the road. A cloud of dirt quickly rose from where the shell had landed, as the rumbling of an enemy tank could be heard quickly approaching. Dirt smeared John's eyes as he lay down by the side of the road that he had ducked under. With all of the dust kicked up in the air, he couldn't see if anyone was hurt.

A soldier shouted through the dusty air, "Where the hell did that come from!"

Another voice, which he quickly recognized as Charles, shouted back, "It must have flanked us from behind! These damn hills gave them cover! They just waited until we were in a spot where they could attack and put us into a meat grinder!"

Seemingly right on queue, the rapid fire of a machine gun could be heard, causing the platoon to lay lower to avoid the spray from the tank. The thumps from the bullets could be heard impacting the top of the ditch, causing the soldiers to pray that the bullets would miss them. John looked over at the two other men on this side of the ditch. They looked young, and he could tell that they were shitting themselves at that moment. "Come to think of it, I think these guys were some of the freshies shipped in yesterday. These poor bastards had no idea what war is like..." He knew that he had to do something, anything, to make sure these kids didn't get cold feet every time a German attack came.

“Wait, what even is a tank?” Twilight asked, as her academic mind began to beg for answers.

Smiling, John answered simply, “It’s a type of vehicle that we have. Imagine a chariot but it’s larger, made out of steel, self-automated, and has a large cannon in front of it. It’s not something that you’d want to mess with.”

“The way you speak of this ‘tank’, it sounds like it is a common occurrence,” Rarity spoke, as she was curious about this strange machine.

“Oh, it is,” John answered, “ The key thing to remember is that we often have our tank with us. It’s not that common for a foot soldier to take care of a tank since our tanks normally take care of them. In this case, we had no choice.”

Seizing control, John shouted, "Do we have any Anti-Tank gear?!"

He could hear some mumblings and shouting from the other side of the ditch until he heard a loud, "We thought it was with you!" sound out over the rambling of the tank.

"Shit..." John mumbled to himself. He knew damn well that somebody should have brought that equipment with them and yet here they were; stranded out in the middle of nowhere and being put up against a fucking tank. He knew that if they got out of this alive, and that was a big if, he was certainly going to have to chat with someone if they got out of this. Why did he have to come out on patrol with them today? He thought it was an easy bonding opportunity, but now it was a fight for survival. John let out a frustrated sigh. Some days, he questioned his life choices.

However, as the roar of the tank came closer, a sudden thought popped into his head. He turned to the two Privates by his side and he shouted, "Rule one of warfare; Training doesn't prepare you for shit! If you two want to make it out of here, then you will listen to me and do exactly what I tell you two. Do I make myself clear?!"

The two soldiers nodded their heads profusely, which basically gave him the green light to enact his plan.

He once again shouted over the whizzing bullets above him as he said, "Charles! Have your men over there create a distraction! I've got an idea as to how to take this thing down." He wasn't sure he heard him, but then he heard the loud cracks of rifles and the "PING"s of bullets colliding with metal. The tank's machine gun, now having a direction to shoot towards, began firing at the other group, creating the perfect window of opportunity.

Motioning the two Private to follow him, they crawled against the dirt, ensuring that the tank crew did not see their movements. Once he was sure that the tank could no longer see them, John drew his pistol and urged the others to follow him out of the trench. They dashed towards the back of the tank, and John began his tactic. He climbed onto the roof of the tank and, once helping the other two Privates up, carefully made their way to the hatch of the tank. He positioned the group so that they surrounded the hatch. Looking at the men with him he silently began to count down,

"3,"

"2,"

"1..."

"And then we breached the hatch and we managed to stop the tank," John concluded, bringing an end to this small tale. He breathed a sigh of relief as he looked around at his company. Twilight Sparkle looked entranced by his tale, seemingly trying to comprehend what he had just described to her. It appeared as if she was writing something down in her lap, probably taking notes on what he had just told her. He didn't blame her for it either, after all; he'd probably do the same thing. "Hell, Charles would have probably gone through their entire Library already," John thought to himself as his eyes wandered to his other companions.

Rarity appeared to be astonished by his short little story as well. Hell, knowing the type of people she reminded him of, she was probably going to ooze about the heroism contained within his small story. The same could be said for Rainbow Dash, although she appeared to be focused on taking in each and every word he had said. She certainly looked like she enjoyed that type of action-hero.

However, the last pony didn't reveal his true feelings. Iron Will simply sat there, giving him a strange look, almost as if he was staring into his soul.

Before he could ask what was wrong, Rarity gave him a soft smile as she spoke, "Well darling, that was certainly quite the tail."

"I'll say!" Rainbow Dash interjected. Her face wore an expression like that of a kid on Christmas Eve. "Who would've thought that war sounded so cool!"

'CLANG'

The clattering of silverware echoed in the room as John dropped his utensils on its shiny surface. He wore a long expression, almost as if what she had said struck something deep inside him. He didn't know what it was, but he did know one thing for certain... he did not like what she had said. For a moment, he considered reprimanding her for her thoughts, but, deep down in his heart, he knew that was the wrong thing to do. With his mood laid in ruin, he softly muttered, "Yeah... cool."

Unaware of his change in tone, Twilight Sparkle sat up from her chair, "John, it has been a pleasure speaking to you once again, and thank you for that interesting story. I'll need to talk to you later about a new strategy for training, but that conversation can wait until later."

He smiled as he replied, "You'll know where to find me."

"That I do. Goodnight, John." With that, Twilight sat up, gave him a small nod, and disappeared out of the dining hall, assumingly to retire to her chambers for the night.

When she departed, Rarity also stood up as well. "I suppose that I should take my leave as well, darling." However, instead of moving towards the door, she softly strode towards John, her high-heels clanking against the marble floor. "I would like for you to stop by my shop later this week. I would very much like it if I could make some new clothes for you."

John looked at her and rebutted, "Don't worry about it Ma'm. I could probably-"

"I will hear nothing of the sort! I only want the best for one of my new friends. After all…" she then leaned close to his face, feeling his soft breaths nestle into her cheeks, "I am the Element of Generosity." With a wink of her eyelashes, she quickly turned and strode towards the exit. Before she left the room, she looked back at him and, with a sultry smile and wave, spoke, "Ta-ta darling!" With that, she departed the room for the evening.

The room stood silent for not but a moment when Rainbow Dash, the last of the three girls, finally spoke, "Ugh, I hate it when she does that."

John, understandably confused, asked, "What? You mean she always does that?"

Almost as if she didn't expect a follow-up question, her face scrunched up momentarily, before quickly saying, "W-What I just mean is that she likes to tease stallions. It's... kind of her thing."

John nodded his head, not noticing the sigh of relief coming from his female companion. "I assume that you will also be departing?"

She nodded her head, "Yeah, I've got an early morning flight tomorrow for training. The Wonderbolts can be pretty strict, especially in war-time conditions."

"Fly? You don't have an airplane?" John said, before quickly realizing how stupid of a question that was, "Right, wings. I forgot about that."

A look of concern grew on Rainbow's face as she asked, "Are you ok?" He looked up at her with confusion before she quickly said, "Being away from home and all of that. It must be pretty hard."

He sat there for a moment. Home. He hadn't thought about that place in a very long time. For a moment, his mind drifted back to that place. The great open plains of North Dakota, the cool waters of the Sheyenne River, and his father's store. Home had called for him, but he could not answer. He still had a job to do.

"It is, but I've been handling it pretty well... I guess as well as you can after you are transported to a completely different planet." John finally answered.

Rainbow nodded her head, satisfied with his answer, “Heh, I suppose that you’re still trying to get the hang of all of this.”

“It’s certainly been a new experience, that’s for sure.”

She then slightly looked away, refusing to look into his silver eyes as she suggested, “Well… I could always show you around town… help you get to know the locals and all of that.”

John smiled; while she was acting strange, it would certainly be nice to get to know the locals. “I think I would love that, Rainbow Dash.”

She looked back at him in a look of shock, almost as if she hadn’t expected him to say yes. She gave him a sheepish smile as she said, “When do you want to meet?”

“How about tomorrow morning at 10? We can have a nice breakfast before going off.”

Rainbow, in a more confident manner than what she had been like, nodded her head. “Well, I’ll see you tomorrow then… Captain.” She then turned and, after one last smirk, spread her wings, and flew through the door.

John sighed as he watched the pegasus leave, seeming as if he could finally relax a bit. He went back to his chair and grabbed his Greatcoat that he had left in his bag, but before he could throw it on, he heard a voice call out to him. “You didn’t tell the full story, did you?”

John turned around to look at Iron Will, and he answered him, but this time, in a more somber tone, “Was it that obvious?”

“I don’t think they noticed, but it’s pretty obvious when another soldier isn’t telling the full story.” John refused to look at him as he continued, “What didn’t you tell them?”

“... the ending.”

Will walked to his fellow soldier, a man who he began to see as a friend, as he said, “Do you need to get it off of your chest?”

“...It’s my burden to bear.”

He wanted to say something more, but something told him that he wasn’t going to get anywhere. With a sigh of defeat, Will softly spoke, “Alright… but I’ll be there if you need me.”

He turned to leave, somewhat anxious to return to his cot for the night. However, he heard John speak to him in a serious tone, “When we opened the hatch, I knew that the Germans would be expecting us. So, I pulled the pin off of one of my grenades before the hatch opened.” John spoke in a scarily blunt voice, with no emotion seeping from his words. “I… never did get a look at their faces when we opened the hatch. I’m glad that I didn’t… because those faces would be haunting me to this day.”

Iron Will reapproached his friend, albeit cautiously. He wasn’t sure what his mental state was at this moment, but he didn’t dare test it. “What’s a grenade? Is that one of the things hanging off of your belt?”

“Indeed,” he confirmed, as he took one of the strange devices off of his belt. “It’s funny, you know? That such a small device can cause so much death.” He held out one of the grenades for Iron Will to hold. Grabbing the cold object, he carefully expected it. It had a simple design, with a circular device with a handle at the top, which was firmly held down by some kind of pin. As he looked at it, John continued, “When that pin is pulled, you only have a couple of seconds to get rid of that grenade, otherwise…” He looked away from Iron Will as he silently finished, “You’ll be blown to bits.”

He scrunched up his face as he processed what he was just told before realization dawned on his face. “...Those men…”

“After the hatch opened, I just tossed one of those into it. We closed the hatch, and after a few moments, a loud bang could be heard from inside. Then it was just…quiet.” John then looked directly at Iron Will, his cold eyes piercing right through his soul. “I can still remember their cries of fear after we closed that hatch. The banging on the inside, the crying, and the praying, I remember all of it… and then nothing.” He looked away, refusing to meet Will's shocked expression as he finished, "Sometimes, when it gets quiet... I can still hear that banging."

Silence passed between the two of them, as Iron Will took in what he had just heard. While he still didn’t understand much, he did know one thing.

Whatever war he was in, it was a very different experience from theirs.

Author's Note

So.... it's been awhile.

I've been slowly typing away at this chapter for a while now, but life certainly does have its ways with messing with you.

Anyways, a little bit of info about this chapter.

Before you say anything, John's tactics for taking down the tank wasn't something they really did in WW2. You can actually find some good film on what they would do to take down a tank on Youtube. I'd highly recommend looking at it.

Second of all, the point that John is trying to make is that he had to think on his feet in this situation. Since they had no Anti-Tank weapons on them, John was forced to not use his training, and instead rely on quick thinking and adaptation. But I assume that most of you got that from the story.

Anyways, I'll be working on the next chapter soon, while I also rattle away on my other stories.

So until then, cya.

-InternetStranger