Spike peered over the edge of the book as Twilight held it aloft.

"Twilight, are you sure this is a good idea? I mean, have you ever tried this spell before?"

"Well, no," she admitted, "but it's not a particularly hard spell. I'm sure I won't have any trouble."

Spike looked at her nervously, "Well, alright..."

Standing calmly in the center of her library, Twilight began to concentrate on the spell she had chosen from the large tome. The original version was just to give one insight in an animal's point of view, but that wasn't specific enough for her tastes, so she modified it slightly so that it would focus on one particular issue.

"Here we go," Focusing on one of the names from the list of names on the memorial, her horn began to glow.

A cacophony erupted all around Twilight as various explosions and other noises filled the air. She spun herself around, trying to take in her surroundings and understand what was happening. She was  standing on wet sand behind a barricade shaped like a one of the jacks she played with as a filly. There were soldiers in brown uniforms and dome shaped helmets everywhere, running up the beach towards some cliffs, but they kept falling, cut down by the gun emplacements.

She looked around, terrified.

Twilight began running around helplessly, trying to get away from the myriad of explosions and gunfire.

Suddenly an arm reached up and yanked her down to the ground behind another one of those jacks just as sand began flying up nearby.

"Best keep low!" shouted a decidedly country voice over the rattling of gunfire. The young soldier lay prone against the sand, keeping himself as well hidden as he could behind the minimal cover. He extended his hand to her, "Pleasure ta meet ya Miss Sparkle! Private James Ross, United States First Army!"

"Where am I? How do you know who I am? What's going on?!"

"World War Two! June 6th, 1944, Omaha Beach, Normandy! You're here because you wanted to know why I fought in the war, why I did what I did, and why I died doing it!" He looked around briefly and took a quick drink of water from his canteen, "Look, I've gotta reconnect with the rest of my unit so we're gonna have ta skidaddle!"

The terror on her face instantly magnified as she put her forearms over her head. She didn't want to leave the protective shield of the barrier.

"I can't!" She shouted back to him.

"Don't worry, the bullets won't hurt you and I'm the only one who can see you, but you need to stay close. I don't want you gettin lost." He got up into a crouch, "Ready?"

Twilight rose to her hooves, looked around nervously, then nodded, fear still filling her eyes.

James took a deep breath and lifted his rifle, "Go!"

As they ran up the beach, Twilight could feel the heavy fire from the emplacements whizzing past her ears. In almost every direction she looked, the scene was becoming more and more horrifying. Soldiers were being shot down in droves; some died with a massive splatter of blood, some with a fine pink mist, and some just slumping over with a brand new hole in their helmets. She saw one man huddling his own severed arm against his chest as he ran, only to be thrown by another explosion.

It was all too much. Tears began to stream from her eyes as she ran, trying to follow James through the maze of dead bodies that littered the beach.

"How can people do this to each other?!" She shrieked.

James didn't turn to her, but kept running as he answered, "Because they're told to, because they're told that the other guy's gonna do the same to them otherwise... can't say I really know."

They finally reached a short dirt barrier throwing distance away the concrete walls of the bunkers. The quickly laid themselves perpendicular to it, next to more than a dozen other soldiers.

"Why are you doing this? You can stop!"

"No, I can't. We depend on each other. I watch out for them and they watch out for me."

A hand grabbed James on the shoulder from behind and began turning him, "Sergeant Michael Addison, Alpha company, Who are you?"

"Private James Ross, Fox Company, Sir!"

"Well, Now we've got a little of everyone!" the soldier replied sardonically.

"Are you in command, sir?" Ross asked.

"For the time being," he scanned James, "Where are your grenades and sidearm?"

"We had to go over the sides. I hit the bottom pretty hard so I guess the channel ate em."

Sgt. Addisson looked around, then faced straight up, "Alright everyone listen up!" he hollered, "We need weapons, ammo, and anything else you can grab!"

Twilight shrieked, "He's sending you back out?!"

Ross turned to Twilight, "We need what we need." James then got up and started running back down the beach, ignoring obvious guns and ammunition, as Twilight cased after him.

"Where are you going?!"

"I saw a few Bangalores when we were running up; I'm gonna try and get em!"

"Bangalores?"

"Torpedoes in a pipe! Powerful stuff!"

"Torpedoes?!"

"Big Boom!"

Ross spotted the dark green pipes and ran towards them. He pulled the body off of them and picked up the three five-foot sections, running back up the beach.

The pipes were heavy. He was slower.

Too slow.

As they neared the barrier, no more than ten feet away, several shots hit James in the stomach and side. Twilight watched as he stumbled and fell forward, dropping the valuable weapon in the sand ahead.

She fell to her knees and flipped him over.

James clutched his stomach and cringed; He was still alive. Four men swarmed him, one grabbing the Bangalore and running back to the barrier while the other three stayed behind.

Twilight watched as the three soldiers opened his vest and his shirt, noticing the red crosses on their helmets. They worked silently as the gunfire rattled past them.

"It hurts! Dammit it hurts!" James screamed.

"Don't talk, don't move! We need to stop the bleeding! That's the best we can do for now," said one of the medics.

"This one is being stubborn! Clamps!"

"Hurry up!" called the soldiers from the barrier.

"I've got it! I've stopped the bleeding! Let’s-"

There was a dull "ping" as a hole appeared in the top of James' helmet.

The medic began swearing and yelling like a madman as the other two gathered up their supplies, grabbed James' gun, and ran back to the line.

Twilight fell on top of James and began crying, "It isn't fair! He was so close! He would have made it! It isn't fair!"

Suddenly, James stood next to her, looking over his own body.

"Hey now, don't cry."

Twilight screamed and pushed herself backwards in the sand, "But- But you died!"

"Yeah, I did. But it's okay," he pointed back to the barrier, "Look over there."

Twilight watched as soldiers assembled the Bangalore that James was carrying. They lit the fuse and, before long, a massive explosion rang out, throwing sand and dirt into the air, giving the rest of the troops hiding behind the barrier the opportunity to climb over and move further up the beach now that the troops atop the bunker had fled.

"See?" he asked, the sounds of the fighting now dull and distant,

"But you still died!"

"But I'm just one person. Just a small part of that big team."

"But you still died!" she screamed, pleading at him, as if trying to make him understand, "You threw your life away!"

"Twilight, I didn't throw my life away. I just died. And, even though I died, all of those men can now move forward and keep fighting." He kneeled down to her, "Before you can ever understand why we fought, you need to understand that death is a part of war. No one who goes into a war comes out unaffected by death. It is as much a part of war as life."

At that point, there was no more talking to her. She just cried.

"...I've never seen anything like this before- Oh, she waking up! Twilight! Are you okay? Can you hear me, dear?"

"Huh?" she said, slowly sitting up. After a few seconds, the white mare earth pony slowly focused into view, "Nurse Redheart?"

Regaining her bearings, she looked around at all of her friends surrounding her, "What's going on?"

"You fainted!" Spike shouted, "When I couldn't wake you up, I sent Owlowiscious with a note telling Nurse Redheart to come over quickly! Then he went and got everyone else."

"You've been unconscious for nearly an hour but your horn was lit up the entire time!" said the nurse, "Whatever you were doing, it taxed your body terribly."

As the rest of her friends began talking, asking her questions, Twilight began tuning out, remembering seeing the bullets hit James and the medics trying to stop the blood and that last bullet...

She fell to the floor and began sobbing, "It's not fair! It's not fair! It's not fair..."