Gears of Life and Change

"Matt."

"Mmph... 5 more minutes."

"Matt."

"Go... away."

"MATT!"

The sheer volume he achieved with that single bellow nearly knocks me out of bed. I frantically grip the side of the bedframe to keep myself from hitting the ground. My childhood friend and roomate is standing over me, holding what looks to be a gift-wrapped box, and barely containing his laughter.

"Gotcha something," he says in his snooty, sarcastic voice. He holds the box out to me. I angrily snatch the box away from him, hoping for some kind of sarcastic comment, but he just laughs.

"Who crapped in your cornflakes today, Cloppy?" I sigh. This is why I don't tell people I'm a brony. They strangely all jump to the same conclusion.

"I've already told you I don't do that stuff. And you do realize my birthday isn't until midnight, right?"

"Ya, whatever. Just open the damn box already."

After glaring at him suspiciously for a good ten seconds, I return my attention to the box. It's small, with Christmasy themed wrapping paper and a small nametag that reads 'To Cloppy. From Cody.' Lovely. I rip the paper off and look inside the box. Within it appears to be a smartphone skin. I examine it closer. What I see almost puts me into shock. The skin is one of the 20, rare, discontinued, limited edition, Rainbow Dash smartphone skins that were cancelled after the horror that was Season 5.

"Wha... wha... how did you get this?" I asked incredulously.

"Found it on eBay. Sniped several poor old bronies just for you, Matt."

I'm so happy with my friend I decide to forget the fact that he woke me up before 10 on a non-school day. I hop out of bed gleefully, get dressed in the blink of an eye, and give Cody a big hug. He shoves me back on to the bed.

"Calm down, man. It's just a smartphone skin."

"I know, I know, I know! But it's got Rainbow Dash on it!" At this point all my words are coming out as high-pitched sqeals.

"What the hell is wrong with you people? Get a life." A voice calls from the other room. Oh ya, I forgot about Kyle. I hurry to apologize.

"Sorry! I was just leaving anyways! Come on Cody, let's get some breakfast."

"Breakfast? It's 2 o'clock."

"Really? Well in that case, let's just get the guys and go for lunch."

"Aren't you forgetting something?" he asks innocently. Too innocently, in fact.

I look down. I got pants on. I have all of my clothes on. I think, puzzled. Cody seems to notice my confusion. He smiles.

"Don't tell me you forgot." He says.

"Forget what?" Than it hits me. It's not just my birthday today. "Oh ya! Melissa!" I exclaim.

"There you go, Cloppy." I growl at him. "You almost forgot your own girlfriends- Wait. Did you just growl at me?"

"Maybe." I say innocently.

"Whatever. Let's just go eat."

Grabbing Melissa's present out of my coat, I make my way to the door. Something smells bad. Note to self, clean apartment tomorrow. Or next month. The door is jammed, again. I struggle with it for a few moments, then it opens, making a screeching sound as it does so. The elevator doesnt work, so we take the stairs down to the ground floor. Seems everything in this damned apartment is breaking down. Rent is good though, so I can't complain.

"Where are we going?" Cody asks from behind me. I'm not expecting the question. Cody should know where we're going. After all, we've been eating at the same place for a year and a half now.

"What? We're going to BB's. I would have thought-" He waves his hand to dismiss the sentence.

"No, I mean tonight. Where are we going tonight for the double birthday?"

I shrug. "I don't know. I guess just stay at home, watch a few movies." .

He laughs."Are you sure?"

I look at him sardonically. "No. Now stop asking me stuff."

We're on the ground floor now. I finally get a good look at the weather. Rain. Lovely. I don't own a car, so we drive Cody's beat up old truck down to the campus. Mike is already standing outside the door with an umbrella. I guess Cody must have texted him,

"What took you so long?" he grumbles. I can't help but laugh. He always reminded me of Gimli from Lord of the rings. The voice, the short stature, the beard, the personality most of all.

"Just get in here, Gimli." I say, yanking him into the back of the truck.

"What are you so happy about today?" he asks gruffly. I give him the best angel pose I can, which looks more like a demented gargoyle, if anything.

"Oh, nothing." I'm rewarded with a roll of the eyes. "We're on our way to grab Zach and Melissa, eat at BB's  then who knows what?"

"Sounds great. We should go to a bar and get wasted." He even thinks like a dwarf.

"Maybe. Not a bad idea actually" I say. I then shout into the cabin, "Cody, know any good bars?"

"Hell ya!" he responds.

"So, what My Little Pony present did you get her this year?" Mike asks. My girlfriend is the only Pegasister i've met in the flesh. And for some reason, she absolutely adores MLP jewelry even more than any normal pegasister should. This year I got her an actual sapphire necklace engraved with Rainbow Dash's cutie mark. RD isn't her favorite pony, but the rainbowbolt is certainly a lot cheaper to engrave than the hourglass Doctor Whooves has. I didn't realize we stopped until Zach hops in, rolling across the bed of the truck and slamming into the cabin. He thinks he's a parkour proffessional, but all I ever see him do is faceplants.

"What's up, boys?" He says, still upside down. Mike and I burst out laughing. He may be a little clumsy, but hey, comedy relief is comedy relief. "Where are we off to?"

"Grab Melissa, eat at BB's, screw around for a couple hours, then bar." I tell him. He nods .Then frowns.

"Forgot my party pants." I'm about to reply to this when Cody sticks his head out of the window.

"First off, no latex for you Zach." Zach groans dramatically. "Second, the birthday girl is coming out, so be on your best behavior boys." We all laugh, again. Today was gonna be great. Just a normal day out with the guys. The only difference is the free shots.

Melissa emerges from her apartment's lobby. She's wearing her casual clothes. Just jeans, a white hoodie, and sneakers. Perfect for where we're going. As she draws near the truck, I get a closer look at her. She seems distressed about something. Normally she's smiling and waving when we pick her up. She doesn't even look in my direction. She just hops in the cabin with Cody. That's odd as well. Normally she sits in the back with us. I look at the other guys. They're obviously thinking the same as me.

"What's her problem?" Mike asks. For some reason, Zach giggles like a schoolgirl.

"PMS?" He says, bursting into laughter. I glare at him.

"Dude, she can hear us." He immedietly stops laughing, and finds something interesting to look at in the distance.

Cody shouts to us in the back. "Almost there." He grins as another thought stricks him. "Make sure you have your orders ready. Starting.... NOW." Mike groans. He can never choose what he wants here.

We pull in, and hop out. We're all soaked. Oh ya. Rain. Stretching my legs out, I step over to Melissa's door. I bow down, and open the door. I attempt to surpress my grin as she looks at me and giggles.

"Why thank you, kind sir." She says. I can already hear Zach mocking her . I'll get him back for that later. Well, atleast she's in a better mood now. Holding her hand, I walk into the restuarant. The owner looks up and glares at us, probably because we're dripping wet. It'll dry, I tell myself. I look around. It's not very busy, surprisingly enough. Just an older couple in the corner and a family enjoying their meals. We sit down at out usual spot, by a wall covered with comic strips. The restuarant owner collects old newspapers, and decided to cut out all the comics and glue them to the wall. They provide a decent distractio, atleast. Until we get our meal. The waitress comes and takes our orders. I order my usual, a bacon cheeseburger and fries. I order this every time we come here, regardless of the time of day. We chat about various subjects for a while, me and Mike getting into an argument about the best pony near the end. I take the side of Rainbow Dash, him taking Pinkie Pie. We verbally spar until the food comes, the time when all conversation grounds to a halt. We finish our meals, and Zach insists on paying the bill, because he says he feels guilty about not getting me a present. I normally would have protested, but I blew most of my spending money on Melissa's necklace. Her necklace! Almost forgot I had an act planned. Well, wasn't really planned, more a spur of the moment sort of thing.

I get down on one knee besides Melissa. The other guys stop fighting over the mints to watch.

"Melissa. Today is both of our birthdays. We were born at the exact same time on the exact same day on the exact same year. At midnight we will be a quarter of century old. So I wanted to make this year special." I cough. The words come out in a blur that you'd have to be listening intently to decipher. "But... due to someone stepping in and telling me to take it down a notch, I could only get you this." I open the box and show her the necklace. The reaction is exactly the one I had hoped for. She squealed like a filly. Some of the other diners gave us angry glares, but I ignored them. I didn't want to see the reaction to the necklace. I wanted to see her reaction to me. She wrapped her arms around me so tight I couldn't breathe, and gave me a huge kiss on the cheek. I will never wash this cheek again.

"Thankyouthankyouthankyou... THANK YOU!" she screams. I love my life. If only I could breathe.

* * * Almost 8 Hours Later * * *

Good thing I can handle my booze well. Most of the night was spent talking about things we'd never talk about sober, having drinking contests, and playing good ol' beer pong. Now we were counting down until midnight, where we would all take a shot of some kind of crazy beer mix. Probably tasted disgusting, but when you're drunk, everything tastes good. I looked at the clock. I had to strain my eyes to just barely make out the hands. Man I was drunk. I could almost swear time was slowing down in the seconds before midnight. The sound of my friends counting down snapped me back to attention.

"5"

"4"

"3"

"2"

"Get your shots ready, gentlemen!" someone called. Might have been the bartender. Too drunk to care.

"1"

I'm about to take the drink when my world fades out of existance. My vision becomes even hazier. I'm suddenly in some sort of mechanics workshop. That's odd. I don't remember being hired by a mechanic. A colourful figure fades in and out of my vision. I'm aware of something else just out of the corner of my eye. A strange mutation of flesh suddenly appears in front of me, laughing like a maniac. I rethink that statement. He IS a maniac. He... It... whatever is speaking to me now. I can only make out a few fragments of what he's saying.

"Silly Gearswitch...."

"I could've used your talents..."

"Shame you had to help your other pony friends..."

"Now you must pay for this..."

Just then, the other colourful figure I saw flitting around in my vision steps in front of my vision. It appears to be some sort of horse shape. Colourful horses. I must be REALLY drunk. The mutation is saying something again. This time I understand what the crazy thing is saying.

"Ah Gizmo, come to defend your friend, hmm? How valiant. Pity you failed. Now, why don't you two stand beside eachother." Some sort of spell he casts sends her flying into the wall beside me.

"Now, this will only take a teensy-weensy moment. There we are! Goodbye!"

Silence

...

...

Five Score, divided by Four.

Darkness.

                                                                                          * * *

When I come to, I'm sitting back in the bar, holding my shot in my left hand. Someone, I think it's Cody, is shouting in my ear.

"MATT! Snap out of it!" He screams.

"Wha... What? What happened?" I respond groggily. I rub my eyes. "Must have zoned out for a few seconds."

Cody looks surprised. "A few seconds? Dude, you and Melissa were both out for like 5 minutes as soon as it turned midnight. Are you all right?"

"Ya, must be all this booze. Wait. Melissa blacked out too?" He nods confirmation.

"You guys just sat there, staring at eachother. She called you Switch, by the way. Does that mean anything to you?"

The name sparks a memory of the dream I just had. The thing... called me Switch. I unconsciously scratch my right thigh as I think about the dream. I can only recall bits and pieces of what I just saw. The dream is already beginning to fade. Oh well, that's what dreams do. I see he's waiting for an answer.

"Uh... I don't know. Can I go home now please?" I sound like a 5-year old girl.

"Sure. I can't drive you though." He opens his wallet and produces a couple of 20s. Handing them to me, he tells me I should go get a cab. "I'm gonna have to get my truck home. Seeya there."

Melissa taps on my shoulder. "Hey, can I crash at your place? My dorm doesn't allow drinking, and I don't want to get caught."

"Uh... sure." I say, evidently slurring my words. "I got cash for a cab."

Stepping out unto the sidewalk, the first thing I notice is the freezing air. Of course. It's always freezing. We get into the taxi that Cody had whistled over for us, (what a gentleman) and sit on opposite sides of the cab. On the drive there, I contemplate the dream. It seemed... so... familiar. Almost like deja vu. Then it siddenly hits me. I had dreamt about the My Little Pony season 5 ending. The episode where Discord destroys the mane 6 and banishes them. Well then who were the two ponies in my dream? They certaintly weren't mane 6, so who were they? Backround ponies? I don't remember seeing them. I rack my brain  to gather as much information as I can. All I can come up with is "Switch" and "Gizmo". I open my phone and attempt to access the internet, hoping that I can access the MLP Wiki. Oh wait. No internet in a cab. I glance out the window. Well, this part of the neighbourhood looks familiar. Must mean we're almost there. I look over at Melissa. She's staring out the window, deep and distant in her thoughts. She's scratching her right thigh though. I look down, noticing I was doing the same thing, without even realizing it. I'd have to check that area out when I got home. It's probably a rash.

"We're here. That'll be 38 dollars, please." The cabbie says. Outrage. But what can you do? I hand over the two 20s and get my two dollars in exchange. I open the door and nearly fall out of the car. I stumble up to the door and push the door inside, nearly collapsing as I did so. How was I able to think about the dream without murdering my brain? I'm gonna hate myself in the morning. I look behind me. Melissa is following me, but still distant in her thoughts. Whatever. I'm too drunk and tired to care. We somehow make it up to my room without either injuring ourselves or waking the other residents. I fumble with the keys until I get them in the door and unlock it.

"Well," I say. "Goodnight." And then pass out on the couch.

                                                                                        * * *

I wake up with a pounding headache, like someone is pounding a nail into my brain. I barely manage to get up and get to the bathroom before I'm puking everything I had in the last 24 hours into the toilet. After rinsing my mouth out, I take a couple of Advils and look at myself in the mirror. I'm a mess.

"Need shower." I say to myself. "Need now."

I turn on the shower and wait until it is fully heated before stripping down and stepping in. The hot, steaming water feels amazing on my skin. That's when I remember the itching thighs. I examine them, expecting to find some sort of rash, or a patch of dried skin. What I see, nearly makes me pass out. Again. Tattoed on both of my thighs, is what looks to be a My Little Pony cutie mark. Three cogs interlocking. I rub my eyes and examine both thighs again. The cogs are still there, almost glowing it sticks out so much. My brain begins to piece together what I'm seeing. I have a cutie mark. What. The. Fuck.