Twilight Sparkle still had the shaky knees. It had never left her ever since she and the 255 men of the 2nd Ranger Battalion left the transport ships in the wee hours of June 6th 1944. She was soaking wet and shivering, despite how heavy her uniform and equipment was.
She was wearing the same uniform as the men around her. The only difference between her and the soldiers was the Equestrian patch on her M41 field jacket and she didn’t carry an M1 Garand rifle. She remembered explaining that she didn’t earn the blue Ranger diamond patch, even though the company commander offered it to her. Thus, she chose to sew on the Equestrian patch she came with and she openly refused the gun. The patch had been on her saddle bags but she cut it off when she got back to her quarters after the mission briefing.
Twilight glanced at the battle plans and lists the soldiers had brought to the table and listened carefully to the plans of the day, a day the men had been calling, “Operation Overlord”. She liked the name for the mission, but she knew from talking to the regular soldiers on the boat around her that it was called another name: D-Day.
Suddenly, a wave rolled the boat and she tumbled off her hooves. She landed with a thud on the hard metal deck, knocking her M1 helmet askew. She tried to get up, but the M1928 haversack she carried was so heavy that she had a hard time. Suddenly, she felt hands around her waist and was lifted up on her legs.
A soldier she only knew as “Captain” smiled and nodded to her and said, “Quite heavy, isn’t it, Miss?”
She looked up at him and said, “Yes it is, Captain. Thank you for helping me”.
The Captain touched the brim of his helmet and shuffled away. She once again began thinking of why this all had to happen.
She knew from her research that an evil man named Adolf Hitler wanted to rule the world and enslave everybody who he didn’t deem prefect. He had killed many people and wanted to kill more. She knew that Princess Celestia would have no choice but to banish Hitler to the moon or destroy him completely. But the leaders of many countries including the United States, England and France had band together to defeat Hitler and his army of minions. These countries had been fighting Hitler for some time now and today were the first in occupied France.
Another wave hit the boat, but this time she was ready for it. She steadied herself and wiped the water from her face with her sleeve. She looked in the direction of the wave and saw other boats racing towards the cliffs ahead. There were other ponies on those boats that were headed towards the other beaches and others throughout the invasion force. She recalled the names of the other beaches; Gold, Juno, Sword, Utah and most importantly, Omaha. She and the Rangers were headed towards Utah beach.
She waved to the other ponies and men in the boats headed towards Omaha beach, who waved back. She hoped they would be alright, but the thought ran away from her as she began to see plumes of water erupt in front of the boats.
“Alright, you Mugs! Listen up!” the Captain shouted out. Immediately, she wondered at the man’s choice of words, but decided to listen instead of correcting him on his grammar. “We are about 30 seconds to the objective! Make sure your weapons are clean and prepare to climb!” Twilight looked up and saw the cliffs. She knew the Rangers could make the climb; after all, Rangers lead the way. However, she swallowed in nervousness and gave an unsure look as doubt entered her mind; would she be able to make the climb like they could?
Twilight looked around at the men preparing for the coming fight. Some worked on their equipment without emotion or banter, but she noticed that some had tears in their eyes. Try as she might, she couldn’t help but feel tears welling up in her own eyes; everyone was afraid of what was coming, and she was no exception.
Men slapped magazines in their Thompson submachine guns; others racked the bolts on their Garand’s. They tightened straps on their webbing and fished out grenades from their jackets. This was going to be a horrible ordeal, she thought, but this was war and she had to help the men out in any way she could.
An explosion blasted in front of the boat, rocking the men. She yelped at the sound but recovered quickly, she didn’t want to be afraid in front of these brave men.
“Prepare to land!” the Captain yelled rising his hand. The men bunched up, getting ready to run as soon as the ramp drops. Twilight also prepared to run, even though all the weight she was carrying was filling her with doubt.
With a giant slap, the ramp was dropped in the water and the Captain yelled, “RANGERS...!”
The men and Twilight answered, “...LEAD THE WAY!”
All of them ran with all their might to the base of the cliffs ahead. There were cracks and zips from incoming fire at the top of the cliffs; the men they were fighting were shooting down at them. Twilight didn’t think about that, she just kept running.
She looked ahead and saw a few men jerk, twitch and then fall to the ground, shouting out, “MEDIC, HELP!”
Since Twilight had the white circle and Red Cross painted on her helmet, she galloped over to them to heal them. Thankfully she wasn’t the only one as she watched another medic who was closer beginning to help them.
She galloped over to the other medic and yelled over the gunfire and explosions, “DO YOU NEED HELP?!”
“NO, YOU GET OUT OF HERE, MISS! IT’S NOT SAFE HERE!” the medic yelled as he began his work.
Twilight shivered as she saw the blood spurt from the man’s wound. She turned away and began to run again. This time, there were a lot more men on the ground, none of them moving or calling for help. Tears began to stream down her cheeks as she passed the lifeless men. She wanted to help them but deep in her heart she knew it was too late for them.
She continued the run to the base of the cliff. An explosion suddenly knocked her off her hooves and the momentum caused her to tumble head over hoof to the base of the cliff. Her ears rung and she was dizzy from the blast. She shook her head and saw the cliffs above. She righted herself and pressed her back up against the rock.
“You okay, Miss?”
She immediately recognized the voice as she looked and saw the Captain smiling at her. She was glad to see he was okay with his handsome face now smudged and dirty. Sadly, those feelings were short-lived as the images of the dead men on the beach flashed through her mind.
“Yes sir, but what do we do now?” she asked as more men made it to the rock wall beside them.
“Now miss…the Ducks help us climb,” he answered grimly.
Twilight opened her mouth to ask how birds were going to help them in a time like this, but was immediately silenced when she saw that the so-called “Ducks” weren’t birds at all! They were large trucks…that float!
She saw them now, three of them. They were dark green and almost blended in the surf if it weren’t for them moving fast. Twilight wondered how something like that could float like that and still move fast.
“Watch out! Here comes the ropes,” he said.
She crouched down low as loud pop’s cracked across the beach. She watched as grappling hooks were shot out of tubes from the trucks and soared through the air and landed in the cliffs above.
“Captain, aren’t the soldiers up there going to cut them down?” Twilight asked.
“More than likely” the Captain said. “That’s why we have to climb fast”.
With that, he grabbed a rope dangling over his head, pulled on it a few hard times to make sure the hook was secure.
“Let’s go!” he called out to the men waiting around them. They started to climb up the ropes as the enemy began shooting and dropping grenades at them from the top of the cliffs. With one hand the Captain aimed his Thompson submachine gun and pulled the trigger. The gun burst out a long RATATATATATAT.
Twilight was suddenly covered with hot bullet casings, causing her to jump and let out a small yelp. Quickly, she brushed the hot metal off her coat and looked up again. The Captain was still climbing up the cliff, the other men following suit.
How am I going to climb? Twilight thought to herself.
“Look out, Miss!” a soldier called out, snapping her out of her thoughts.
She jumped out of the way as a very long ladder was hoisted up on the cliffs above. A smile flashed across her face as she made her way to it; this was her way up, but she’d have to move fast.
Twilight was just about to start climbing, but a horrible scream froze her in her tracks. She looked up and saw a soldier falling off the cliff. A German had been able to get to the hook that the man was climbing and cut it loose by using bolt cutters.
Twilight jumped off the ladder and ran to catch the man. She made it just in time for the man to land hard on her back, crushing her to the ground.
“Thanks, Miss,” the soldier said helping her up.
“It’s okay! Go! Don’t worry about me!” she yelled.
The man ran away to a waiting ladder. Twilight got back to her ladder and began to climb again. The higher she went, the louder the fighting became. Looking down, she saw that other men had started climbing up the ladder as well.
Focus, Twilight, she thought. No time to stop! Hurry!
She climbed as fast as she could, dodging bullets and grenades as they rained down on her and the Rangers below. With a terrific BABABABABANG, the top of the cliff erupted in dust, an enemy soldier falling down dead to the beach below.
She looked to her left and saw men on a narrow shelf in the rock. She noticed one of the soldiers carried a large machine gun called a BAR, an abbreviation for Browning automatic rifle. The soldier then fired the powerful weapon again at other targets.
“Excuse me, Miss, but can you get moving!” a soldier below her called out.
She hadn’t realized that she had stopped climbing. Shaking her head to clear her thoughts, Twilight continued to climb, doubling her efforts to make up for lost time. After what felt like an eternity, she finally reached the cliff’s edge. Suddenly, she froze as the thought of an enemy soldier waiting for her to pop her head up crossed her mind. Fortunately, she had an idea.
She looked down and called out, “Anypony got a mirror and a knife?”
Two soldiers called out, “yes” and handed her up the items.
“Thank you” she said as she used her magic to fuse the mirror to the flat edge of the knife and used it to peek over the edge of the cliff.
“Do you see any Krauts up there?” another soldier asked.
“‘Krauts’?” she asked, raising an eyebrow at him.
“Germans!” the soldier called back.
“Oh…sorry,” she said, looking at the mirror again.
She pivoted the mirror with her magic, not seeing anybody except the Captain and a handful of Rangers. She also saw a large, flat topped concrete building with a round front and a large slit in the front. The pillbox was set low in the ground and it seemed to be empty.
“Clear!” she called out, putting the knife and mirror in a pouch on her belt.
She began to pull herself up over the cliff but was stopped when hand came down. Immediately, she wrapped her hoof over it as the Captain pulled her up. He stood up and the two of them looked around.
“Are there any wounded men, Captain?” she asked.
“A few but they are alright,” he answered. They looked at the Pillbox fort.
“Are there any enemy in there?”
“No…that’s the strangest part of it,” he said. “There’s no one here. The ones we killed here had an MG42 machine gun. Where’s the coastal battery?”
Twilight remembered the plans now. The plans showed there were a number of large artillery guns here on the cliff. But the guns were missing.
“Where could they be?” Twilight asked.
The Captain just shook his head and turned out to sea.
“Hey Capt’n, you know German?” a soldier called to him.
“A little, why?” he asked turning to a soldier coming from behind the Pillbox.
“I was just wondering what ‘Bitta Bitta’ means?”
The Captain just shook his head again and turned to the unicorn again.
“Did we accomplish the mission parameters?” Twilight asked.
“For the most part, but the day and war are just beginning,” he said.
The two turned to the water and looked out at the vast armada there. There were so many ships out there, all different sizes and shapes. They looked out together as more landing craft approached the beaches in the distance.
“We got a lot to do here, Miss,” the Captain said.
“I know, sir,” Twilight said, understanding that today was only the beginning. The day was certainly the longest, but the war had just begun for them. Twilight took off her helmet and swept her mane back from her face.
“You’re prettier with it on, Miss,” the Captain said not looking at her.
Twilight blushed and put the helmet back on her head. “Thank you Captain,” she said as she let out a small laugh, “…I think you’re handsome with your dirty face.”
He chuckled and sighed. “You know, Miss, if we make it out of this alive I’m going to write a story about today.”
“Really, what will it be called?” she asked “I like stories!”
The Captain pondered at the question.
“I think I’m going to call it, Twilight Sparkle and the Battle of Pointe du Hoc,” he said, spreading his arms wide over the huge expanse of sea in front of them. Then, he let out a small chuckle as he asked, “Has a nice ring to it, eh?”
“It sure does, sir. I’d buy the first copy back in London.”
The Captain laughed and turned away from the sea and picked up is rifle. “C’mon, Miss Sparkle. Let go win us a war!”
Then, Twilight Sparkle galloped to his side and the two marched out to the French countryside and the battles to come.
-The End-