//------------------------------//
// Chapter 5 
// Story: Textbook Soldier 
// by Backslasherton 
//------------------------------//

“‘Their Darkest Hour: The 36th Infantry Division,’” James said, “It’s a novel about a war. Do you know where it would be?”

“I’m sorry, I don’t know off the top of my head,” the bookstore employee said. “If I had to guess, I’d say it’d be in the adult fiction area. I can look it up if you’d like?”

“I would appreciate it.”

The employee nodded and ducked behind a nearby counter. James turned around and sighed, leaning against a nearby column.

“How do you people do it?” James asked. 

Rarity tilted her head. “What do you mean?”

“How do you do all… this?” He gestured at the dozens of shelves. “It’s so much! Hundreds and hundreds of completely different things, all left for you to just sift through on your own. How does it not just make your head spin?”

“Well, I suppose it can be a bit overwhelming at times, especially in new stores,” Rarity nodded. “But everything is organized well enough that you could find it on your own without too much fuss.”

The soldier shook his head. “Not like I know the organization system, though. Is it just trial and error?”

“I suppose it depends. A lot of modern establishments have signs hanging from the ceiling. I, personally, can find my way around well enough with just those.”

James shrugged. “I just like talking to the person selling me things.”

“There are quite a few stores still like that, certainly. Though those tend to be much smaller.”

“Hm,” James hummed. At that moment, the employee from before came back.

“It’s going to be on aisle 12, case 7 in the fiction section.”

James nodded. “Thank you.”

The employee smiled politely and headed off into the rest of the store as the soldier started walking.

“Alright, where’s the fiction section?” James said aloud. Rarity grinned to herself as she watched James wander off on his own. She debated letting him figure it out, but she didn’t want to make Sunset wait too long, if she could help it.

“Over here, darling,” she called.

James turned around. Rarity pointed to large sign that read “Fiction” over a section of bookshelves, which was in the opposite direction of where he was going.

“Right.” He nodded. “Follow the signs.”

Rarity started off towards the fiction section with James tailing right behind her. The pair weaved through the maze of shelves before ducking down a gap in between labeled “12”.

“Who’s the author of these books anyway?” James asked. “I assume my ‘creator’ has a name.”

“I believe our teacher mentioned something about how it’s a collaboration between many different writers. Though I’m sorry to say, I don’t know who wrote your book specifically.”

“So, how do we find them if they’re organized by author?”

Rarity paused.

“I hadn’t thought of that.” She shook her head. “We’ll manage, I’m sure. He did say seven, correct?”

“Yeah, bookcase seven.”

The fashionista’s eyes followed the numbers posted on the top of the bookcases.

“Here we are, darling. Seven.” She pointed at a nearby shelf.

The pair walked over and looked the bookcase up and down. It was tall and flanked on both sides with even more books with similar titles and designs. The shelves weren’t labeled alphabetically by author. Instead, they were all grouped together as one huge series.

“They have their own organization system,” James commented, “I can see why.”

“...There are quite a few books.”

“I’m betting well over a hundred. Maybe even over two.”

“I think you might be right.”

“Welp,” James clapped his hands, “Look for the one with the Fightin’ 36th on it. It’ll be the best one. I’ll start from the bottom”

The two sifted through the numerous books in front of them. It didn’t take long for Rarity to figure out the organization system.

It’s by their numbers! She thought to herself.

She started back up from the top.

1st Infantry Division, 2nd Infantry Division, 3rd, 4th… Oh good heavens, there’s a lot of them.

“Got it!”

Rarity looked down to see James proudly holding the book in question as he lay on the ground, T-Patch emblazoned across the cover. The fashionista grinned.

“Fantastic, darling.” She paused. “Why are you lying on the ground?”

“I was looking on the bottom.”

“...Of course. How silly of me.”

The purple-haired girl looked over the myriad of books in front of her as James jumped back to his feet.

“‘Big Red One’, ‘Indianhead’, ‘The Rock of Marne’, ‘Ivy’, my goodness there’s a lot of these.” She frowned. “Your home has quite a large army.”

James nodded.

“There’s even units up in the hundreds, like the 101st Airborne or the 108th Infantry Division.” He furrowed his brow and looked down. “I think I saw their books down here somewhere.”

“And how big is one of these ‘Divisions’?”

“Fifteen thousand or so.”

“My goodness,” Rarity gasped, “That’s… quite a lot of soldiers.”

“Well… yeah. There’s a reason why it’s called a ‘World War’.”

The fashionista looked over the shelves of books again, mentally doing the math. “Yes…” She muttered soberly, “I suppose there is…”

The soldier looked over the book cover and shrugged. “Right. I guess we’d better get back.”

Rarity nodded slowly, pulling herself away from the wall of books. Suddenly, she didn’t think the books were as fun as she once had.

The pair once again weaved their way through the shelves and found themselves at the registers.

“Hi. Did you find everything you were looking for?”

“Yes, thank you,” James said as he handed the book to the young cashier.

The cashier scanned the barcode on the book and paused as she glanced at the man’s outfit. “Oh, are you cosplaying the book?” she asked. Rarity glanced at James as he put on another forced smile. She felt a pang of sadness as she watched him struggle through the conversation.

“Yes,” he nodded with unease,  “I’m a huge fan.”

“Oh, that’s great! I gotta say, you did a great job on it. It looks almost exactly like what I pictured in my head when I read it.”

James nodded again, stiffly. “Thank you.” His voice was strained, but the cashier didn’t seem to notice.

“You’re very welcome,” the cashier laughed. “Anyway, your total is ten eighty-three.”

“Here you are.” Rarity smiled as she handed the cashier her debit card.

The cashier tapped a few buttons on the screen of the register and then swiped the card through the machine. After a beat, a printer spat out a piece of paper which the cashier tore off.

“Alright, here’s your card and your receipt,”

“Thank you, darling,” Rarity said, stuffing the two back into her purse.

“Thank you,” the cashier repeated. “Have a great day.”

The fashionista walked forward and ran into James.

“Oh!” She exclaimed, smoothing her skirt, “James, darling, what are you doing?”

“Wait… what?” James looked between the cashier and Rarity. “We’re done?”

“Yes, darling.”

“But you…” James gestured roughly at the cash register, trying to find the words. “You didn’t…” 

He waved his hands, but he came up with nothing. With a sigh of defeat, he shook his head and walked out the front door.

“This place is gonna kill me.”







The afternoon sun warmed the faces of the pedestrians chilled by the autumn breeze as the odd pair left the bookstore and stepped out into the parking lot. James was the first come out, holding the door open for Rarity as she stepped past.

“Darling, what’s got you worked up all of a sudden?”

He sighed. “Everything is confusing.”

“I’m sorry?”

“Don’t worry about it.” James shook his head. “What are we doing now?”

“I thought we could stop and get Sunset a few groceries. Now that she has another person living in that small apartment, I thought I might help out a little.”

“That’s pretty generous of you.” James nodded as he sat in the passenger seat of Rarity’s car. “I take it there’s some huge grocer nearby with thousands of different things in it, but don’t worry!” James pointed theatrically at Rarity, “They’ve got signs.”

“You learn quickly, darling,” Rarity giggled as she sat next to him. “But yes, that is precisely what we’re doing.”

James smiled and shook his head. The air between them fell silent, both content with the lack of dialogue. The soldier took this time to inspect the car. His eyes traced every line in the interior, and eventually came to rest on the steering wheel. Rarity noticed his staring and grinned.

“I take it cars from your home look rather different?”

“Much,” James chuckled, “They’re not nearly as comfortable as this.”

“Did you drive?”

“Pft,” James scoffed, “Of course I did. I started driving when I was tall enough to reach the pedals. We were better off than some other people during the depression, so we were actually able to have a truck and run it. Helped out a lot with me and dad’s work.”

“What kind of work did you do?”

“We were caretakers for the local cemetery.”

Rarity raised her eyebrows in shock. “Goodness me, darling. That sounds rather… grim. What did this job entail?”

“Oh, y’know, we trimmed the grass, cleaned up the headstones. Actually, with headstones, we’d occasionally have to raise them back up, ‘cause some of them have been there so long that they started to sink into the ground as it shifted over time.” The young man sighed, thinking. “Other than that, uh… I dunno. We’d rake leaves, repave gravel paths occasionally when the gravel got too washed away, repainted some of the buildings on site, and dig the graves for funeral ceremonies.”

“You dug graves?” The young woman exclaimed.

“Yeah. It was one of the more difficult things, too. You gotta dig a lot of dirt.”

“I can’t imagine having to do that,” Rarity shuddered. “It must be awful digging a grave for someone.”

“Not really, in all honesty. It’s just a hole in the ground when we dig it. After that, we’re just putting dirt on top of a wooden box.” James shrugged. “I used to be uncomfortable with it, but it’s really just how you think about it. Instead of thinking, ‘Oh, I’m digging a grave’, I just think ‘I’m digging a hole.’”

Rarity frowned, obviously uncomfortable with the discussion. As they pulled up to a stop light, she turned to James as she remembered something.

“From what I have read of your story, I believe it said you were seventeen when you joined your military, yes?”

“I was.”

“Was this an after-school job?”

“No. I stopped going to school in sixth grade.”

“You- I’m sorry, you left school in the sixth grade?” Rarity repeated.

“Yeah.”

“Why did your parents let you do that?”

“Rarity,” James deadpanned, “‘The Great Depression.’”

Realization dawned on her as she remembered. She felt silly now. How could she have forgotten something like that?”

“Was… was it really that awful?”

“We were relatively well-off compared to some of the other people in our town, so I’d say it was worse than that.” He shook his head. “I don’t wanna go into the details, but yeah, it was bad.”

Rarity turned her eyes back to the road as the light in front of them turned green.

“I’m sorry, darling. I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable.”

“It’s not that it’s uncomfortable, I’ve just been talking about a lot of sad things recently and I’d like to keep things a little more cheerier.”

“I’m inclined to agree with you.” The fashionista nodded. “Well, were there any other professions you held before your enlistment?”

“Eh, I did a paper route in the mornings before heading to the cemetery and took some odd jobs here and there.” James shrugged. “What about you? Have you ever had a job?”

“I did, yes, and do. I work at a boutique near the shopping mall we met at earlier. During the summer our little friend group all found jobs at the mall together. It was quite fortunate, in my opinion, that we all were able to work so close to each other. I’m the furthest away, but only because it’s not in the actual mall itself. Sometimes during my lunch break, I’ll meet a few of our friends in the food court. Rainbow Dash often works similar times to me, so we see each other often.”

“...Rainbow Dash?”

“Oh yes, sorry, darling, that’s one of our other friends. She’s very much interested in athletics, sports, and that sort of thing, so she works at a sporting goods store.”

“Her name is actually Rainbow Dash?”

“Yes…?” Rarity trailed off, confused at first. After a moment of thinking, she realized what was going on. “Oh, right. Well, I’m sure it must be odd by your standards, but here it is a completely normal name.”

“Just gonna have to trust you on that one,” James nodded.

They turned into the parking lot of the grocery store, and she could already see the man eyeing the store wearily. Part of her felt sorry for him, but she reminded herself he was only here temporarily.

Soon he’ll be back home. Although it would be a home in the middle of a war… she frowned. Would he want to go back home? She wasn’t sure if she would, were she in his position. She pushed the thoughts aside for now. It wasn’t her place to decide for him.

At last, the purple-haired girl pulled the car into a space and shut off the engine. James unclipped his seatbelt and started to climb out. Rarity pulled the sunvisor down and checked herself in the mirror.

“You uh… gonna get out of the car?”

She turned to see James leaning down into the door of the car. She smiled. “In just a moment, darling.”

She gave herself one last look over. Satisfied, she nodded to herself and stepped out of the car. She found James standing at the back of the car, eyeing the parking lot. Upon noticing her, he grinned.

“Ready?” Rarity asked.

“Lead the way.” He gestured.







Sunset stared at the open book in front of her. Wearily, she turned the pages of the book on the right to an eerily familiar scene.

Is Twilight coming for a surprise visit or something? She thought to herself. 

Her question was soon answered as a human form fell out of the portal. Unlike her purple friend, however, there were a lot more browns, greens, and khaki. She gasped as the form hit the ground. A green, steel helmet rolled off its head and towards her feet.

Eyeing the rest of the page, she knew it continued on much the same way. She didn’t dare read any further. Who knows what she might find? She didn’t want to find out.

“I just don’t get it. Why is it rewriting itself?” Sunset wondered aloud.

“Maybe when it connected to the portal, the magic embedded itself in the paper?” Twilight suggested.

“Maybe. I just can’t figure out why the magic would do that in the first place.”

“Magic does seem to act differently here. Maybe it wants to find something to reside in, instead of permeating the air like in Equestria.”

Sunset shrugged, and nodded. “That… actually sounds like a solid theory. Electricity always want to find ground, so maybe magic is operating the same way.”

“It would make sense. This world has never really had magic, so perhaps it adopted the characteristics of another force.”

Before Sunset could respond, her phone buzzed from across the room. She stood and walked over to where her phone was charging on her desk. Sure enough, there was a text from Rarity.

Rarity - Today at 3:43 PM
We’re on our way back! How do we get into your building without the code?

Sunset quickly typed out a response.

Me - Today at 3:49 PM
Just text me when you get here and I’ll come down and meet you.

Sunset set her phone down and sat in her nearby office chair. She looked at her computer screen. There were about twenty different Clickapedia articles open in her browser window, all having to do with the World of War book series James was from. The articles ranged from the World War 2 collection, all the way back to the fictionalization of their own history of the Neighpoleonic Wars, though they spelt it “Napoleonic”. Sunset frowned at that. She hadn’t heard of those before, and she didn’t know there was anything beyond the Second World War series. She pulled her attention away from the screen as her phone buzzed again.

Rarity - Today at 3:50 PM
Thuis james s. Rarity driving. well text soon

Sunset laughed to herself and she typed out a response.

Me - Today at 3:51 PM
Congratulations, James. You’ve sent your very first text.

She turned back to the screen, and clicked on the tab labeled “1940’s Earth.” From what she could tell, it followed the same pattern from the rest of the series: closely resembling their own world, but not quite the same. Once again, her phone buzzed, catching her attention.

Rarity - Today at 3:52 PM
Lookat me moom I didath ing

Sunset broke out laughing again, much to Twilight’s confusion.

“What’s so funny?”

“James just sent his first text messages and it’s exactly like when Granny Smith texted us when Applejack was sick.”

“What?”

The redhead handed her the phone and Twilight giggled at the man’s attempts at typing.

“I can’t be too hard on him. I was just like that when I first came here.” Sunset shook her head, taking the phone back. “I just wish I could’ve seen him do it. It had to be great.”







Rarity’s phone buzzed from its spot in the cupholder.

“Could you check that, darling? I don’t want to be on my phone while driving.”

“Uh, sure.”

Gingerly, the man picked up the phone.

“Hey, uh… how does this work?”

“Press the power button on the side, then just swipe the screen to unlock it.”

Holding the phone in his left hand, James pressed the power button with his right. The screen faded on, lighting his face. Using his right index finger, he swiped it across the screen with more force than was needed.

“James, darling, you don’t need to press the screen that hard,” Rarity said, glancing at him. She could hear his finger hitting the screen.  “Just lightly tap it.”

He nodded, swiping again. Rarity heard a click from the phone as it unlocked.

“What did it just do?” James asked.

“You just unlocked the phone, James.”

“Ah.” James nodded, pretending to understand. “How do I get to messages?”

“Swipe the top down and tap Sunset’s message.”

Rarity glanced at the soldier and saw him staring at the screen, completely lost. He was repeating the instructions to himself as he tapped a few times on the screen. Eventually, the screen went white before loading a very simplistic looking interface that had several speech bubbles. Rarity smiled as he grinned proudly to himself as he read Sunset’s message aloud.

“It says, ‘Just text me when you get here and I’ll come down and meet you.’”

“Text her that we’re on our way.”

James stared at the keyboard in front of him. 

There are no buttons. He thought before he mentally slapped himself. You idiot, you haven’t used any buttons so far. Just tap the glass thing or whatever.

He looked over the tiny keyboard, frowning at the seemingly random placement of the keys. With a shrug, he tapped out a response.

“This keyboard is too damn small,” he muttered to himself. “I’ve retyped this like six times,” Rarity could see his tapping group more and more erratic as he grew frustrated. “Oh forget it.” He held the phone at arm’s length and shrugged. “It’s coherent enough.”

“What did you send?”

“Well, I meant to send, ‘This is James. Rarity is driving, but we’ll text you soon.’”

“What did you actually send?”

“‘Thoo-ees James-ss. Rarity driving. Well text soon.’” he said, “The capitalization is all kinds of messed up, but I think the message got through. How do you even make the letters big?”

“Let me see.” Rarity took the phone after they stopped at a light. “My goodness, James, you text like my grandfather.”

Rarity could almost feel the deadpan stare.

“Right.” Rarity cleared her throat. “I apologize, James.” She handed her phone back to him as the light turned green. “Yes, it’s still legible. Thank you.”

Rarity could her him mumbled something about field stripping an M1 Garand in ten seconds but otherwise held his tongue. The phone buzzed in his hands.

“She responded.” He fiddled with the phone, turning it on again. “Oh, you-” He stopped himself. “Thanks, Sunset.”

“What did she say?”

“‘Congratulations, James. You’ve sent your very first text.’”

Rarity’s eyes lit up.

“I hadn’t even thought of that.”

“Don’t congratulate me.”

“But it’s a big moment!”

“I almost feel more offended that you’re completely serious right now.”

“Oh come now, James, I think you’re just overreacting.”

“Well hold your horses, I’m sending a second one.”

“What are you sending?”

“‘Look at me, Ma, I did a thing.’”

“...Why?”

He shrugged.  “It was just something I said back home to be funny.”

Rarity shook her head, focusing on the road instead of responding. She heard the man muttering in frustration as he struggled to type what should have been a short message.

“Close enough! Send!” He tapped the screen aggressively. “I hate ‘texting.’ Why can’t we just call her? You’ve got these fancy new wireless phones, why not use them as phones?”

“We just needed to send a short message. It’s much simpler to just text her.”

“And yet it took me twice as long as it would’ve been for me to just say the words into the phone.”

“It’s just easier this way, James. That’s how everyone does it.”

He shook his head.

“I don’t understand you people.”







Meanwhile, back at the apartment, Sunset and Twilight were taking notes of everything they knew so far about the portal.

“Okay.” Sunset punched a few more keys on the keyboard before turning to the girl sitting next to her. “What notes do you have?”

“Well, we know that his portal is a mirror, just like the one from Equestria. He said it was wooden, right?”

“I think so, yeah.”

“Right, so we know it’s physically different, so maybe it operates differently, too. We’ve seen that nothing on him transformed when he came over, so maybe it doesn’t have the power to transform people. Either that, or since he’s similar enough to this world’s humans, it didn’t have to.”

“We kinda talked about that, actually.” Sunset paused in her typing. “Not about his portal, but about whether or not he’d turn into a pony when he went to Equestria.”

Twilight tapped a pen against her chin, thinking.

“He probably would, right? That’s just what it does. You turn into your human/pony counterpart when you go through.”

“Yeah, but he doesn’t have a pony counterpart.” Sunset pointed out. “So it either has to make up what he looks like, or leave him as he is now.”

“We could test that, if he wants to.”

“Maybe another time. I think he’s gone through enough for today. Besides, I’m not sure if he really wants to find out.”

Twilight nodded.

“Good point.” She flipped through her notes, clearing her throat. “Moving on. We know that he didn’t do anything to activate it on his side. That means there had to be something on this side. Is there anything you saw or did that could’ve activated it? I know you said your books were glowing, and they stopped when you took them off, but we don’t know why.”

Sunset thought back to the day in question.

“I was talking to Rarity at the portal, then when she left, I went and played soccer with Rainbow, Applejack, and Pinkie. Then I went back to the portal, and it was going crazy. That’s when James came out. Then the portal started getting more active and I realized my books were glowing.”

“James’s book?”

Sunset nodded. “When I went to go play soccer with the girls, I threw my journal and the book on top of the portal. When I came back, they were glowing and the portal was being weird, but they both stopped when I took them off.”

Twilight was struggling to keep up with her while writing legibly, but didn’t stop asking questions.

“Was your journal glowing, too?”

Sunset shook her head. “I can’t remember. The light was too bright to tell.”

Twilight nodded and finished writing with an extra flair for her punctuation. She winced and flexed her hand, the foreign muscles started cramping from her improper grasp on the pen.

“That’s quite a bit more to work with.” The Equestrian looked over her notes. “So the book making contact with the portal caused the connection, possibly with help from your journal.”

“It’s not a whole lot to go on, but it’s still quite a bit more than what we’ve had so far.” Sunset shrugged. “ I’m glad you’re here, Twilight. I’ve been going over everything in my head since things settled down last night, but I don’t think I could’ve done this on my own.”

“Sometimes you just need a second opinion.” Twilight smiled.

Sunset grinned back.

“I guess you do. Thanks, Twilight.”

“Of course, Sunset.”

Sunset’s phone buzzed, grabbing her attention. She picked her phone up and frowned.

“Rarity’s calling.”

“Is that bad?”

“No, she just usually texts.” She tapped a few buttons. “Hey, Rarity?”

“Sunset?” A male voice responded back, sounding vaguely far away.

“James?”

“Hey, Sunset.” 

Another voice chimed in.

“James, darling, the microphone is down there, you have to hold it up to your mouth.”

The redhead smiled and shook her head as she heard the man mumbling curse words through the rustling as James shifted the microphone.

“Is this satisfactory, your highness?”

“I’m just trying to tell you how to hold the phone, there’s no need to be so rude.”

“Sunset?” James ignored Rarity.

“Yeah, I’m still here,” Sunset said, “How are things with you and Rarity?”

“Everything’s fine, I just need to know how to get into your place.”

“Where are you?”

“We’re outside in one of those parking spaces on the side of the road.”

“Alright, I’m coming down.”

“Alright, we’ll wait here.”

“Bye Sunset!”

“She’s just coming down the stairs.”

“I know, but it’s just poli-” The sound cut off abruptly and Sunset assumed James figured out how to hang up the phone. She shook her head, laughing.

“Alright, Rarity and James are outside. I have to open the door for them.” The redhead slid on her boots and walked over to the door. “I’ll be right back.”

“Sunset?” Twilight called apprehensively.

“Yeah?”

“Do we want to tell James our theories? He’s probably still dealing with his problems from this morning. I don’t want to overload him, but it is his life. He has a right to know.”

Sunset nodded reluctantly.

“Yeah, I think you’re right. Let’s just wait until we’ve got something more solid for him. I don’t want to lead him on if it doesn’t work out.”

Twilight frowned, obviously uncomfortable with the idea. Sunset sighed.

“I hate it just as much as you, but like you said, he only just learned where he’s from this morning, and if we start dropping things like this in front of him… I don’t know how he’ll react.”

“You’re right. It’s probably what’s best for him.” Twilight shook her head. “I just want to help him.”

“I know. Trust me, I know. But he’s already gone through a lot.”

Twilight nodded silently. Sunset shook her head.

“I’m gonna go open the door now. I’ll be right back.”

Twilight nodded and went back to her notes, waving to Sunset over her shoulder. The redhead in question stepped into the hallway, shutting the door behind her. The past twenty four hours had taken a toll on her, and she was starting to feel its effects. She shook her head. James needed her. And now that they had a second book, they’d finally be able to get some more answers. She only wished she’d read more in class.

Sunset pushed the apartment building’s front door open, stepping out into the chilly autumn evening. In front, on the side of the road, was Rarity’s white sedan idling with its two passengers. Sunset peered through the windows as she walked up, and James got out to meet her.

“Hey, Sunset. How are you doing?”

“I’m fine.” She smiled. “You two were gone for a long time. What happened?”

“I took the liberty of buying you some groceries, Sunset,” Rarity said as she opened the car’s trunk. “With James here, I thought it’d be nice to have some help.”

“Oh jeez, Rarity, you really didn’t have to do that.”

“Oh hush now, I wanted to. Besides, I’m sure you still eat all those ramen packages you always buy in Little Neighpon.”

“...They’re good though.”

“That doesn’t mean you should eat them for every meal.” Rarity shook her head. “Anyway, I’ve bought you just a bit to help out. And don’t worry, it’s all vegetarian.”

Sunset walked over to the trunk, peering inside. There were eight bags packed full of various foodstuffs and toiletries.

“Rarity…”

“No, Sunset. I wanted to.”

Sunset shook her head and reached to grab one of the bags.

“I’ve got it,” James said as he stepped past her. He snaked his arms through the various handles and grunted as he lifted all eight bags up at once.

“James! Are you serious?”

The man struggled out a response.

“Just get the door.” 

“He’s been like this all day, Sunset. Just let him do whatever he’s doing.”

“Door please!”

Sunset walked over and unlocked the door for him, holding it open as he stepped through.

With a quick “Thank you!” over his shoulder, the man hurried up the stairs to the second floor, leaving Sunset and Rarity in the lobby. The two just looked at each other, grinned, and laughed.

“He and Rainbow are quite alike, I must say,” Rarity quipped.

“And Applejack, in some ways,” Sunset added.

They shared another laugh as they started up the stairs. They came into Sunset’s apartment where Twilight was helping James unload the bags and put everything away. The Equestrian was frantically opening and closing cabinets, growing more flustered at the random assortment of dishes and other stuff in them.

“Sunset! What is this organization system?” Twilight said as she turned to face Sunset.

The redhead was caught off guard.

“Uh… well, it’s kind of a work in progress?”

“You don’t have one do you?”

“I do! I just don’t cook enough to really… keep up with it.”

“What?!” Twilight threw her arms up in exasperation. “How do you find anything?”

“It’s not that bad, Twilight,” Sunset crossed her arms.

Twilight turned around and looked at the cabinets.

“I don’t understand how this is a ‘work in progress'. You’ve got dishes in that cabinet, that cabinet, and that cabinet and various foodstuff in that cabinet, that cabinet and that-”

“Twilight, do you just want to reorganize my cabinets?”

“Yes! I do!”

James turned around, extremely confused. He looked to Sunset and she just shrugged. He shrugged back and set down the foodstuffs in his hands and left the former alicorn to her own devices.

“Is she alright?” The man asked as he approached Sunset.

“She’s just a bit… particular, about things.”

“I guess that’s one way to word it…” He shrugged. “Are you doing alright?”

“I’m fine.” Sunset nodded. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

James shrugged. “I wouldn’t call any of this ‘standard operating procedures’. I’m sure this is stressful for you.”

“I’m fine,” Sunset grinned. “It’s stressful, yeah, but I’m happy to do it. Trust me, I know when to stop.”

“Glad to hear it. Oh!” James walked over to the pile of bags, carefully staying out of the way of the energized princess. After grabbing something from a bag, he walked back to Sunset and presented it to her. “We got your book.”

The redhead grabbed the item and smiled apprehensively.

“You found it?”

“Yup. Just looked for the ol’ T-Patch. You guys have a lot of divisions written out.”

“How many were there?”

“Well, it was up to at least 101st, but I’m sure there was more.”

“To be fair, this project has been going on for like twenty years.”

“Well, there we go.” James grinned. “Well?” He prompted after a moment.

“‘Well’ what?”

“Are you gonna check the book?”

Sunset dropped her gaze, staring at the book’s cover. The book was identical to hers, with the same T-Patch stamped on the front. James noticed her hesitation.

“Look, this book’s gonna give you answers, one way or another.” James placed his hand on her shoulder and she looked up at him. He smiled reassuringly. “It’s better to know and be upset than wonder and go insane, so just go for it.”

Sunset looked back down at the book, her heart pounding. She sighed, steeling herself, and flipped open the book to where Twilight had told her to read earlier that day.

 James tore his eyes away from the mirror and unslung his rifle as he turned to leave. But then he paused. He took another look in the mirror, and gave the soldier one last grin and raised his hand to wave goodbye.

“See you around,” he muttered to himself.

With a deep breath to steel himself, the man started up the stairs, ready to carry on and fight another day.

The barrage had waved off by this point, and shouting and gunfire resumed in the streets. James peered through a window by the front door. Several friendly soldiers passed by the front of the building. He let out a sigh of relief. Opening the door, he ran out into the street, joining the fray once more.

Sunset stared at the pages, nodding to herself.

“So, that clears up a lot of our worries.” Sunset nodded. “That means that whatever magic brought you here, also messed with the book.” James laughed. She looked up at him. “What?”

“Did you all really think your English teacher would assign a book where one of his students is a main character?”

“I…” Sunset frowned. As much as she hated to admit it, she realized a small part of her had. She felt rather silly now. “No. Of course not,” She turned around, ignoring the skeptical look from the man as she walked towards her kitchenette. “Twilight! We have a second copy.”

The soldier shrugged as Sunset left, and walked over to the fashionista standing by the door.

“You look bored,” James stated. Rarity shrugged.

“I’m not bored. Those two just have a penchant for their research. I don’t understand what they’re talking about, so I just leave them be.”

“Oh Lord, tell me about it,” James laughed, “I listen in on their conversations when they think I can’t hear them and good Lord I think I understood the French better than those two.”

“The Prench?” Rarity smiled. “How exotic.”

“‘Exotic’ is one word, yeah. Anyway, the French speak so quickly in their weird language that I can’t understand anything they say. I tried to learn some basic phrases so I could talk to the people. First Frenchie I met, I tried to say hi to him. He said something back and I had literally no idea what he was saying, so I just smiled and left.”

Rarity giggled slightly, covering her mouth behind her hand. James grinned back.

“You think that’s funny?”

“I’m so sorry, darling,” Rarity said as she suppressed her giggles. “But I just pictured that scenario and…” She started laughing again. The man joined in.

“Oh, it was hilarious.” James laughed out. “My buddies were there and I was gonna show off to them that I could talk to the locals, and they bust out laughing the minute I turned around. Turns out, they paid the dude just to mess with me.” He shook his head. “They knew I’d been trying to learn French and one of them slipped the guy a dollar while I wasn’t looking. We all got a good laugh out of it afterward. Turns out, the guy spoke English perfectly, and so he was able to show us all the good places in town.”

James smiled at Rarity’s laughter, but the fashionista noticed his eyes grow distant. She tried to change the subject to something other than his home.

“I’ve just realized something, James.”

The man looked up, putting on an easy grin.

“It looks like you might be here for a little while. If you’re here until Monday, you’ll have to go to school with us or stay here in Sunset’s apartment.”

James looked down and furrowed his brow.

“I hadn’t even thought of that,” he muttered, “I didn’t even go to high school back home.” He looked up at Rarity again. “Wait, can I even just walk up to the school and start taking classes? I’d think there would be some paperwork involved.”

Rarity frowned.

“Good point. Sunset, darling?” She called.

“Yeah?” The redhead in question turned around.

“If James has to go to school with us, how is that going to work?”

“Oh.” Sunset looked down in thought. “Shoot. I’ll email Principal Celestia tomorrow about it. I’m sure she could help.”

“Uh, are you sure about that?” James asked, obviously uncomfortable with the idea.

“Don’t worry, James. She knows all about me and Twilight’s story.” Sunset grinned reassuringly.

“...Alright, then.” James nodded apprehensively.

“I’m glad I asked.” Rarity smiled.

“Yeah. I hadn’t even thought about that.” Sunset walked over to Rarity. “Speaking of thinking ahead, Rarity, do you wanna stay for dinner?”

“Oh, no, thank you, darling. I think you’ll be plenty occupied with the three of you here. In fact, I should probably be going home soon. I told my parents I would be home by three and it’s already after four.”

“Oh, Rarity, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to take up your whole day.”

“Nonsense, Sunset. I was happy to spend time with you and James. And Twilight, it’s always a pleasure to see you visit.”

“Thank you, Rarity.” Twilight smiled. Sunset turned to the princess.

“Twilight, do you need to get back to Equestria?”

Twilight shook her head.

“I don’t have to be back for awhile. The weekend is my time away from all that princess stuff, and Spike already knows I’m gone.” Twilight shrugged. “If you’ll have me, I’d love to spend the night. I don’t get many opportunities to just hang out with you all anyway.”

“Sure thing,” Sunset said, “I guess that settles that.”

The fashionista nodded.

“Well, I suppose I’ll take my leave now. James, it was wonderful meeting you. Best of luck to all of you. If any of you need anything, just call me. I promise you, I’ll do everything I can to help you.”

“Thank you Rarity.” James stood, holding a hand out. The purple-haired girl smiled and hugged the man instead.

“You’re very welcome.”

Letting go, she shared a few more goodbyes with Twilight and Sunset before leaving, insisting that they didn’t need to walk her out. As her footsteps descended down the stairwell, Sunset shut the door.

“She was nice,” James stated simply.

“That’s Rarity for you,” Sunset said.

“Well, now what?”

“I dunno. Food?”

“Sounds great to me.”

Sunset walked over to the kitchenette, various objects still strewn about. She sighed.

“I think we’re just gonna order food.” She turned around. “Pizza?”

The soldier perked up from the other side of the room.

“Pizza?” He repeated.

“Yeah, we’re gonna order pizza, probably. I don’t really wanna cook tonight. Are you guys alright with that?”

“Yes.” James grinned. “The food is pretty much the only good thing in Italy, and oh man was it good.”

Sunset smiled.

“You’re pretty excited for this, aren’t you?”

“Absolutely.”

“Alright,” Sunset laughed. “Twilight, what about you?”

“Sure! I haven’t had pizza since the whole Siren thing. I’ve kind of missed it back home.”

“What?!” James exclaimed, “Don’t tell me horse world doesn’t have pizza.”

“Ponies.” Sunset corrected, but James didn’t respond.

“Well, it’s not that we don’t have it, it’s just that Ponyville doesn’t have anypony that makes it. It’s pretty much only common in Manehatten.”

“Well, your majesty, you need to correct this heinous crime at once.”

“I can’t just make someone start a business, that’s not how it works.”

“Well, I’m sure there’s someone you can talk to in town. Just gently and royally ask them to add it to the menu.”

“I don’t think that would go over as well as you think.”

Sunset interjected.

“I hate to interrupt this very important conversation, but what do you guys want on your pizza?”

“Pepperoni and cheese,” James said.

“Whatever you want, Sunset, Just no meat for me.”

Sunset nodded and walked over to her computer to place the order.

“I just don’t think it’d be that hard to just ask.”

“It’s not that simple!”







The soft hues of the setting sun had long since faded from the sky, and the stars stood in their place as the unusual trio sat around Sunset’s computer desk.

“And it just lets you pull any video up? Like a TV on demand?” James asked.

“Pretty much, yeah.” Sunset nodded.

The trio had eaten quietly, with everyone having plenty to think about. Once everything was cleaned up, they ended up sitting around, mutual boredom setting in. Eventually, the conversation ended up on something more scholarly, and James was left behind in their discussions. Sunset had decided to try and bring him up to speed, showing him various educational videos on VideoCorral. Time had flown by, and unsurprisingly, so did most of the information to James’s head. He was more fascinated by the website itself. He’d asked Sunset dozens of questions about how it worked and what you could do with it all. After they’d ended up on several videos of a man with an accent in a red t-shirt talk about obscure facts and places, James started to notice a pattern.

“Does it do anything other than animals and learning stuff, cause that seems to be all that’s showing up under that part that says ‘Recommended’.”

“There’s lots of stuff. What do you want to watch?” Sunset asked.

“I don’t really care, I’m just along for the ride.”

James shrugged, stretching his back. Twilight cringed as dozens of his joints popped, the sounding resonating through his body. Sunset stared at the man.

“That was… disturbing,” Twilight muttered to herself. Sunset nodded slowly, disgust written all over her face.

“I’ll say…”

“Hold on…” James contorted his body again, several more cracks resonating. He laughed to himself as the girls cringed again.

“Dear Celestia, even Rainbow Dash can’t do it that loud.”

“Wait, I’ve got more I can pop…”

“No!” The two screamed at him. Their protests fell on deaf ears as neck joints popped.

Sunset reached over and swatted his shoulder. The man narrowly managed to dodge the attack, and rolled off his chair towards his pack, laughing the whole time.

“Doesn’t that hurt?” Twilight asked.

“Not really, no.” James laid his head on his pack, crossing his arms as he shrugged. “Kind of satisfying, actually.”

“It’s so disturbing,” Sunset shuddered. “How do you even do that?”

“I dunno. I started noticing I could do it in Rome. I couldn’t do it before that, so I guess that marching through Italy has something to do with it.” He shook his head. “I’m not a doctor, so that isn’t really my business to say.” He yawned, “‘Course, medics don’t really care what’s wrong with you unless you’re pouring out blood, so I never got an answer.”

Sunset noticed the man’s yawn and glanced at the clock. It was around eight o’clock. Normally she wouldn’t be tired, but given all that she’d gone through that day, she found herself yawning too. When the princess joined in, James laughed.

“Well, I guess we’re done for the night.”

Twilight and Sunset nodded. Sunset looked at the two.

“Before we get too tired, how are we gonna do beds?”

“Oh, right.” James looked at Twilight. “Take the couch.”

“Wait, what?” Twilight asked. “What are you gonna do, James?”

“I’ve got a perfectly fine floor right here.”

“James, you can’t sleep on the floor!”

“Why not?” James shrugged. “Hell of a lot better than what I was sleeping on back home.”

“James, I can’t do that.”

The man ignored her, instead rolling up his jacket and tucking it under his head before he swung his wool blanket over himself.

“Goodnight,” he said.

Twilight looked up at Sunset who just shrugged in response. That was an argument they wouldn’t win, apparently.

“Let me grab you some blankets, Twilight.”

The girl nodded. Sunset walked off, and Twilight crouched near James.

“James?” She spoke softly.

“I’m not moving.”

“No, it’s not that.”

The man looked up at her, confused.

“Alright. What’s up?”

“I… um, researched you a lot online while you were gone.”

The man’s expression sobered, but he let her continue.

“A-And… well, I just want to say… I’m sorry.” She shook her head. “I’m sorry for all that you had to go through.”

He nodded wearily.

“You don’t need to do that, Twilight.” He laid a hand on her shoulder, smiling reassuringly. “It was an honor to fight for my country, and I’d do it again in a heartbeat if it meant people like you can do the amazing things you do.”

The Equestrian smiled. She leaned forward to hug him and he responded in kind. He didn’t see her wipe her eyes behind his back.

“Alright, I’ve got a few blankets and a pillow here, Twilight,” Sunset said, coming down from the loft.

The soldier let go of Twilight and the princess walked over to the couch with Sunset. Together they spread out the blankets and Twilight changed into a loaned pair of pajamas. Once everyone was ready for bed, Sunset turned out the lights and headed upstairs.

“Goodnight,” Sunset called.

“Goodnight, Sunset. You too, James.”

“Goodnight, Twilight,” he whispered, “Goodnight, Sunset.”