Journal Entry
Capt. Twilight Sparkle
June 10th, 1944
The Airfield
It was still dark when I aroused the squad, and the sound of distant gunfire echoed throughout the night when we left Neuville. Captain Toity gave us a refreshment of ammo and food before we parted, and as we left the Neuville boundaries, we heard Braeburn speak.
"Well, folks, I guess this is it," he said sadly, "This is as far as I can go without desertin' Toity."
"Braeburn," Apple Jack said, walking up to him, "Isn't there some way you can come with us?"
"I'm 'fraid not, cos," Braeburn sighed, "I have my orders, and I intend to follow 'em. I'll see ya 'round, fellas."
Apple Jack put her hoofs around Braeburn and wrapped him in a big hug, which he returned.
"Don't you go dyin' on me," he said to her, "Ya hear?"
Apple Jack nodded and walked miserably back into formation, trying her best not to show any tears.
"It's been nice working with you, Sarge," I said, "I hope we meet again before this horrible war meets its end."
"Likewise," Braeburn said, "Adios,"
And with that, he turned around and trotted the other way, back inside Neuville. I could hear Apple Jack sniffling.
We walked on into the night, the sound of distant gunfire growing smaller in our ears.
Several hours of walking later, the sun was rising above the trees in the east. We were walking through a forest leading to Vierville, when we saw a huge helicopter had crashed in a clearing. It must've been the helicopter described by the wounded pony at Neuville. On the other side of the helicopter, we saw that a tent had been pitched up, and a few dozen moaning ponies were lying under it with all kinds of injuries.
"Medic!" I heard some pony call, "My buddy's bleeding! She needs a tourniquet!"
"Rarity, see what you can do," I said, and she rushed to the pony with her first aid out.
"Hold on, girls," I said to the wounded ponies as we walked through the crowd, "It won't be much longer."
"How are we doing here?" I heard Rarity ask, and the pony coughed and pointed to her hip, which was bleeding slowly, "Yeah, you're all right, don't worry about it. Doc's here to fix you up."
"Captain!" I heard a pony call, and I turned to see a Pegasus pony lying on his back next to a pony with a head injury, "Hey, captain!"
"Soldier, you wanna fill me in?" I asked, walking over to him as he stood up.
"Yeah," he grunted, "Lieutenant Soarin, ma'am. 99th Troop Carrier Squadron carrying in 327th Glider Infantry. This one was mine, ma'am," he added, indicating to the helicopter, "I was the pilot. Twenty-two ponies dead. I ended up over here without a scratch, but it took my copilot's head right off."
"Well, where's the unit?" I asked, "Who are these ponies?"
"Well, the ponies we came in with, ma'am, they headed off first night. I haven't seen them since. In the meantime, other ponies keep showing up. One, two, half-dozen at a time. Then some officer'll come along and patch together a mixed unit, and head off to make trouble, ma'am."
"We're looking for a Private Apple Bloom. She was in Baker Company 5-0-6 of the 101st."
"You got me, ma'am. A lot of ponies come in and out of here."
Right then, as if on cue, a large squad of Equestrian ponies came marching into the airfield.
"Fluttershy, check out that squad. See if Bloom's in it," I ordered, and Fluttershy reluctantly dashed off to talk to the closest pony in the squad.
"Spike," Rarity said, and Spike, who was lighting a cigarette for a pony, turned around to face her, "Smell that leg right there, find out if it's south of cheese," she indicated to the wrapped leg of an injured pony, whose blood was staining the tourniquet. Spike looked at her oddly, and bent down to the leg. He took a whiff, and immediately pulled his head away, his nose wrinkling. He faced Rarity, his eyes watering, and nodded.
Apple Jack was standing by the main road. Another squad had shown up, bringing in Germane prisoners.
"Juden," she said to the Germanes, pulling out her Star of David, "I am Juden, ya know? Ju-den."
"Yeah, I couldn't pry him out of there," Soarin was saying as we walked to the helicopter, "hard as I tried. I'd need a winch."
I looked into the cockpit of the helicopter and saw the flesh rotting off an Equestrian Pegasus pilot's carrion.
"Stars," Whooves said, pointing to the Pegasus's uniform.
"Yep," replied Soarin, "Brigadier General Crust, deputy commander, 101st. Some bucking genius had the great idea of welding a couple of steel plates onto our deck to keep the general safe from ground fire. Unfortunately, they forgot to tell me about it until we were just getting airborne. Well, that's like trying to fly a freight train. OK? Gross overload. Trim characteristics all shot to hay. I nearly broke both my hoofs trying to keep her level. And when we released, you know, I cut as hard as I could, tried to gain some altitude and still keep her from stalling. We came down like a bucking meteor. And this is how we ended up. And the others, they stopped easy enough OK, though, you know? We were just-- we were just to darn heavy. The grass was wet, downward slope and all. Twenty-two ponies dead."
"All that for a general?" I asked, first making sure he was done talking.
"One pony," Soarin said seriously.
"There's a lot of that going around," Spike said.
"FUBAR," Soarin said to him.
"FUBAR," we chorused.
"I looked up 'FUBAR' in the Germane dictionary," Fluttershy said, flipping through the pages of a dictionary, "There's no 'FUBAR' in there."
"Fluttershy?" I said, "There's more paratroops out there. Find out if one of them's Bloom."
"Yes, ma'am," she replied, and dashed away back to the airfield.
"You might want to check these out, ma'am," Soarin said, pulling a bag out from his suit, "Dog tags. More than I really wanna count. I've covered a lot of bodies."
I took the bag from him and jingled it around a little, than threw it to Rainbow, who caught it unexpectedly.
"Dash," I said, "start going through those."
"Yes, ma'am," she said, and followed Fluttershy. Spike sat there, thinking for a moment, and then said, "I'll help." and he followed Rainbow.
Back at the airfield, I heard Spike say, "What do you think, Rainbow? Do you think that little insect is in there?"
"Well, if she is," Rainbow answered, "I'm gonna find her."
"I bet she is," Spike said, setting the bag down on a table and sitting down.
"I've got big money saying that she's alive," Rainbow said, picking up the bag and emptying the contents out onto the table,
"Ten bits says I nail 'er first," Apple Jack said, plopping down on a seat next to Spike.
"Let's see who we got in here."
"You fellas don't stand a chance!"
"All right," Spike said, "Do you think this little jacka-" he stopped at the look Apple Jack gave him, "-this little rascal is in here or what?"
"Just keep looking," Apple Jack spat at him, and they started mowing through the dog tags as if they were overgrown weeds.
"Fancy Pants."
"Pipsqueak."
"Fleur de Lis."
"I swear, all the guineas are buying it, eh?"
"Not the right name, not the right name..."
"Wee Willie Winky, that's a buddy of yours."
I reached out and grabbed a few myself and started checking names... "Sapphire Shores"... "Gilda"...
"Don't mix them up, Rainbow, all right? Keep them in your own pile. How am I supposed to know who we got?"
"Why don't you shut up, Spike, and get back to looking?"
"Every pony be friends."
"I think I got a winner."
Everyone stopped and looked at Rainbow. Her eyes were screwed on the dog tag she was holding, and then she said, "Bloom."
"Let me see that," Apple Jack said, looking worried and snatching the dog tag out of Rainbow's hoofs so fast Rainbow blinked twice before realizing it was gone. Apple Jack looked really closely at it, and said, with a sigh of relief, "Wow, you're a real genius, ya know that? B-L-U-M-M. that's Blumm, and that's Foalch, all right? You know what that means?"
"It means nothing," Rainbow said, disappointed and rummaging through the dog tags again.
"What beats three of a kind?"
"Do you need a hand with that?"
"Ah, I got a full house."
"Got you beat. Straight Flush."
"You were looking at my tags! You're cheating, ya know?"
"Bloom..."
"Unreal, this pony."
"Ouch, this pony's dog tag is shot!"
"Need help reading that?"
"Sweet Celestia, look at this poor mare."
"Guess they're not bullet proof, eh?"
"I guess not."
"You mares, the whole blasted airborne's watching!"
It was Rarity who said this. She had come over from the medic's tent with bloody hoofs and scooped up a pile of tags and shoved them back into the bag. We looked up, and indeed, the new troops arriving were staring at us as they passed, looking like they had just seen a drunken pony dancing.
"They- are- not- poker chips!" Rarity was saying between stuffings.
"All right, all right," Apple Jack said, and she got up from her seat and started pacing back and forth.
I looked up at the troops and felt foolish, and I felt my cheeks burning as I shuffled through the last dog tags I had. Admitting defeat, I tossed them back onto the table, and they were immediately thrown back into the bag by Rarity.
"She's not here," I said.
I walked toward the troops, thinking aloud, "Maybe we should split up into different groups and wander the woods like Hansel and Gretel, calling her name. She's bound to hear us sometime. Bloom!" I shouted into the passing company. No response.
"That might be a little hard to do, Captain," Whooves said, walking up next to me as the airborne stared at us.
"Maybe the locals have seen her," I said, and I spotted a group of Foalch ponies walking with the troops. I trotted up to them and said, "Hey, do you-- uh, excusez-moi, parlez-vous Bloom? Apple Bloom? Merci, merci beaucoup. Bloom!" I screamed back to the airborne as the Foalchs walked away, "Any pony know Bloom, 101st airborne? Bloom? Any pony know Bloom? Private Apple Bloom, from Sweet Apple Acres? Any pony? Apple Bloom?"
A pony walking in my direction turned around and shouted, "Hey, Cherilee, doesn't Snails pal around with a Bloom from "C" Company? Well bring him up here, would you?"
My spirits rose as Whooves and I glanced at each other with hopeful looks. Rainbow was standing up from the table, trying to get a better view. Two fillies returned to us, one with a bleeding ear.
"You know Apple Bloom?" I asked him.
"You're gonna-" his friend (Snips, by his dog tag) started, but Snails cut him off, shouting, "YOU'RE GONNA HAVE TO SPEAK UP, MA'AM! MY HEARING ISN'T SO GOOD! IT COMES AND GOES. A GERMANE GRENADE WENT OFF RIGHT BY MY HEAD!"
"Got it!" I said louder, "Do you know Private Bloom?"
"WHO!?"
"Private Bloom!? Apple Bloom?"
"AVOCADO BLOOM!?"
"No! Apple Bloom!"
"NO, NO, NO, IT'S 'APPLE' BLOOM, EH!"
"All right, get me a pencil," I said to Whooves, but Fluttershy came up to me, holding the tiny pencil I gave her when we first met.
"Thanks, Fluttershy," I said, taking the pencil. I ripped out a piece of my journal and wrote 'Do you know Apple Bloom?' I held up the message to Snails, who stared at it for a second, and then yelled, "YEAH, OF COURSE I KNOW HER, MA'AM!"
I wrote down 'Do you know where she is?' and help it up to him. Again, he looked at it, and shouted, "YEAH, YEAH! WE MISSED OUR DROP ZONE BY ABOUT TWENTY MILES, ENDED UP WAY OVER BY BUMVILLE OR SOME DANGED PLACE. HER, ME, AND A COUPLE OF OTHER PONIES WERE COMING HERE TO THE RALLY POINT, RAN INTO A COLONEL WHO WAS GATHERING UP PONIES TO GO TO, UH... RAMELLE!"
"Ramelle," I repeated.
"TO BABY-SIT A BRIDGE! THAT'S THE LAST I'VE SEEN OF HER, MA'AM!"
"Great! Thank you!" I said loudly, and turned to leave.
"YOU'RE WELCOME!" Snails called back, and I stopped in my tracks. I turned to see him waving and smiling at me. I shrugged and walked back to the squad with Fluttershy and Whooves.
We sat down on the table we were at earlier. I unfolded a map and spread it across the table.
"Ramelle," I said, scanning the map, "...is here. And we're here. Ramelle is on the Merderet River right here, just to the southwest of us."
"Do you know anything about this bridge he was talking about?" Spike asked.
"Yes," I said, pulling out a compass, "The target has always been Cherbourg. We can't push onto Paris until we take a deep water port, and Rommel knows that. So he's gonna try to get his armor across the Merderet River anywhere he can that way he can hit our invasion forces in the flank when we make the big right turn to Cherbourg. That makes any village on that river with an intact bridge solid gold real estate."
But every pony was staring at the hoof that was holding the compass. My hoof. It had started twitching again, and it was causing the compass to shake. I looked around at every pony, and Whooves gave me an awkward smile. I shut the compass hastily and stood up.
"Let's go."