• Published 28th Aug 2014
  • 2,620 Views, 81 Comments

Under Fire - bosoxboy521



Cpl. James Matthews is a sniper attached to the 101st Airborne during the later years of World War II. After getting lost in France, he meets up with an unlikely companion in the war torn cities of Europe.

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Chapter IV

James suddenly sprung up to life, breathing heavily from the dream he had. After realizing it was all fake, he sighed and slumped down on the tree trunk.

"Oh good, you're awake!" said a female voice. James frantically looked around, not knowing where the voice came from. Thinking he was just hearing things, James turned around once more, only to be greeted by the face of a purple pony.

"What the fuck?" said James to himself, not knowing what to think of right now. Was he hallucinating? Did whatever exploded give him a concussion? He rubbed his eyes to see if this was all real, and it turned out to be true. There was a purple horse standing right in front of James. He just stared at it, remained silent, not knowing what to think of.

"Oh, I'm sorry, where's my manners? My name is Twili-" said the creature.

"What the christ? A-am I seeing things? Was i fucking drugged?" asked James in pure fear and shock.

"Oh no silly. You just were blown back from the magical surge from when I arrived here. I'm sorry about that by the way, are you hurt?" said the horse, slowly moving to James.

"Back off, I-i-i don't know what's going on. Where's my rifle? Am I still even in France?"

"France? What's that?"

"It's a country, the one I think we're in now. Where's my rifle? Why am I talking to a purple horse?"

"Um, excuse me, but, I'm not a horse, I'm a pony, specifically a unicorn."

"Unicorns don't fucking exist, especially talking ones. What's going on? Where's my rifle?"

"What's a rifle? Do you mean this thing?" James looked up in astonishment to see his Springfield levitating in mid air, a pink aurora surrounding it.

"I-Uh-dah-wha-uh..." James tried to find the correct words to say, but he couldn't. He never saw anything like this before.

"Um, is this what you call a...rifle?" asked the unicorn.

"Uh...yeah," said James, grabbing his Springfield from Twilight, "Wha-what is this?"

"Magic."

"There's no such thing as magic."

"Um, not true. If there was no magic, could I do this?" The unicorn used her horn to lift up one of the tallest trees in the forest, it levitated in mid air, until she put it back down into the ground. James stared in pure amazement, not knowing what to say.

"So, you said you have a name?"

"Oh yes," said the unicorn, clearing her throat, "My name is Twilight Sparkle, I'm a student of Princess Celestia, and currently studying the magic of friendship."

"The magic of friendship? Princess? Twilight Sparke? What the fuck? Am I even on earth right now?" Twilight giggled a little.

"Of course, I teleported here from Equestria."

"Wha-I never heard of this place? Is it like inhabited by more talking hor-ponies?"

"Of course, there's pegasi, earth ponies, unicorns like myself, and even alicorns. There's many other creatures too, like phoenixes, hydras, timberwolves, you name it. It's a magical world, where love and friendship is spread all around." James stared at Twilight in a very concerning way. He had a hard time processing what was going on.

"Okay, so, let me get this straight, you're a magical talking unicorn, who is from a place with other mythical creatures in an alternate universe?" he asked.

"That is correct," said Twilight proudly.

"What the fuck am I on?" James sat down with his rifle, not knowing what to do now.

"Um, sir, this is all real life, but, can you help me? I'm studying friendship in alternate worlds, so, what's friendship like here?"

"You're kidding me right?" Twilight shook her head and still smiled. James took a deep sigh and began to get up.

"Listen, I know you're trying to do your assignment, but I'm not the answer. I need to find my way to the LZ, I don't like being here alone," he said.

"But, you're not. I'm with you too. I mean, I don't want to push anything since we just met, but, can i come along?" asked Twilight. James looked down at Twilight, who had a pleading look on her face, but James wasn't moved.

"I think I'm seeing things. I gotta find that LZ, see the doc," he said to himself.

"What's an LZ?" asked Twilight.

"A landing zone, wait, do you know anything military wise?" asked James.

"Well, not much. Equestria hasn't fought many wars in centuries, so, there really isn't a need for a huge army."

"A peaceful land, god, I wish I was there."

"Why? This place looks peaceful enough, it's beautiful here."

"Do you have any idea on what's going on right now?"

"No, what's going on here?" James exhaled and began to walk away, remaining silent, trying to focus on getting out of the forest.

"Um. Excuse me sir, but, I asked you a question," said Twilight. James didn't even look back at her.

"Just ignore it James, if you ignore it, it'll go away, and you'll wake up from this dream," he thought to himself. But, that was clearly not the case. Twilight all of a sudden popped in front of James' path.

"Don't just ignore me, I just asked you a question," she said. James fell back a little, but caught himself before he could fall.

"H-how did you do that?" he asked.

"Um, magic, duh? I can use my horn to teleport anywhere I think of in a close proximity." James stared at Twilight once more. Again, he struggled to find the right words, when all of a sudden, he heard some foot steps in the back. James fell to the ground and laid low.

"Um, what are you-" began Twilight.

"Sh," said James, cutting her off. He peaked up the hill a little bit, to see if there was anything coming. But he saw nothing. He kept his eyes glued in the forest, waiting for some sort of sound, anything that shown some presence of life.

"What are you staring at? whispered Twilight.

"Nothing, wait, why am I still talking to you? I have to stay focused," he replied.

"Focus on what? I don't see anything?"

"That's because they're hiding from me too. I just need to see if there's anybody else out there."

"Oh I can help." Twilight proudly used her magic to clear an area of the forest. The trees shrunk into miniature figurines, like they were plastic models. Behind the trees was a small squad of German soldiers.

"Das Amerikaner!" shouted one of the nazis and pulled the trigger of his MP40. The bullets smacked and ricocheted off the ground and trees. James and Twilight ducked down, as the hail of bullets flew over their heads.

"What's going on?" asked Twilight to James.

"War!" he shouted and pulled out his rifle. As if it were instinct, he aimed down the sight of his A4 Springfield and fired. The bolt action sniper spat out a .30 caliber bullet and it pierced the nazi skull, a small explosion of blood shot out from the bullets impact. James cycled the bolt of the rifle, and fired again. This time it hit another nazi in the chest, no way he was getting up either. He cycled the bolt once more and repeated the process, until another squad of German soldiers came running in.

"Jesus christ, another squad," said James, now beginning to load his rifle with bullets. He fumbled one of the rounds and it fell to the ground. He began to panic and searched frantically around the ground to find it. As he looked up, he could see a German soldier running towards his position, with a bayonet attached to his Mauser 98k rifle. James' life flashed before his eyes, and as certain he would die right now.

As he closed his eyes, he heard an all too familiar sound, the sound of a Thompson submachine gun firing in the air. The nazi fell to the ground, body covered in bullets. The remaining nazis turned around to the hail of machine gun fire from the right side, but they were all gunned down. James peaked his head up and saw his commanding officer.

"I thought it was your job to keep my head on, not the other way around," he held out his hand to help James up. James felt a sense of relief as he brushed himself off. Twilight still looking at him in pure astonishment. The purple pony caught the captain's eye, certainly catching him off guard.

"Woah, what's that corporal?" he asked James. He began to panic once more, not knowing how his CO would reply. Finally, he just decided to tell the truth and let out a deep exhale.

"Uh, I don't know any better way to say this sir, but, that's a magical talking unicorn from an alternate world."