Flying With New Wings

Today was just like any other day. It wasn’t bright outside, the air was a bit chilly with enough moisture to be easily felt by the hair on one’s arms. Especially since it was raining, which made it all the more obvious. Not that I cared, this was normal for this city. I mean, it was so normal for it to be raining here, that I wasn’t even wearing that big of a coat. More accurately, I wasn’t wearing a coat at all. A short-sleeve shirt, to be exact.

“Hey, Thomas.”

“Hey, Clayton. So who else is going?”

“The usual guys.”

I followed him into his apartment, having walked the short distance between mine and his. Since we had been born and raised in southwest Washington state, he didn’t question my red short-sleeve shirt with beige pants and tennis shoes, despite the rain.

“So you got everything? We’re taking your car, right?”

“Yup. Need any help?”

“Yeah, can you grab the box over there?”

“Sure, I got it.”

I snatched up the small, heavy box. A few years ago, I might have huffed a bit at the weight, but lately I’d been really working hard at staying in shape and eating healthy. A lot of us had been, and it had all started because of a little challenge we’d made a couple years ago.

“Alright, is that everything?” I asked as I shut the car doors.

“That’s all of it, let’s head out.”

We hopped into the car, and I started up the engine after buckling up. It took me a moment to set the music on my phone, plugged in through an auxiliary cord to play through the car speakers, before I finally shifted into reverse and pulled out. Clayton groaned at what he heard.

“Ugghh... brony music? You’re still into that?”

I grinned. “Yup!”

“Dude, that show’s been off the air for years!”

“Bleach has been off for just as long, and you still listen to that music.”

“...Touché.” We both laughed at that. “But seriously, why are you so devoted to it? I mean, I know you love Pokémon just as much, but I haven’t seen you talk about that much lately.”

I shrugged as I merged onto the freeway. “I dunno, I still really like that series, but for some reason, I’ve been getting more and more into the brony stuff lately. I’m not sure why.”

Clayton gave me a look. “What, did you suddenly revert back to college years?”

I gave another shrug. He did the same and turned his attention back to the road, pulling out his iPod and headphones in order to listen to his own music for a while. We had a couple of hours before we reached the beach, where we would be spending the week with a few friends of ours. It was exactly the kind of birthday celebration that I wanted -- some time with my closest friends.

“What’s the date?” He asked suddenly. Glancing over, I spotted the calendar open on his music player. “I had to reset my iPod because I had to update and it was jailbroken.”

“Ah. It’s...” I had to pause to think backwards. It's how I kept track. “May first.”

“Thanks.”

I nodded, and we lapsed back into silence, letting our music fill it for a while. As had been planned, we swapped seats halfway to the destination, since it was still a bit early today. Like we’d agreed, the driver got to select the music. A few minutes in, a song came on that was rather loud, and it made me groan in frustration. I was trying to take a nap here!

“Could you turn it down a bit?” I asked tiredly.

Clayton looked at me, as we reached the point of being only half an hour away. “Did you not sleep well last night?”

“No, I had this weird nightmare that woke me up halfway through. I wasn't able to get back to sleep.”

“Sorry.”

“It’s fine, you didn’t know.”

Thankfully, he turned it down enough for me to easily get somewhat comfortable and fall asleep in the car again. Unfortunately, I did not get as long of a nap as I wanted, as I jolted awake.

“Augh!”

Clayton’s attention snapped to me. “Dude, you alright?”

I took a few deep breaths and licked my lips a bit. Glancing at the clock, it looked like I’d been asleep for only ten minutes, and we were about five from our destination. Taking a sip of the soda I’d gotten at the gas station, I finally formulated an answer. “Sorry... sorry, didn’t mean to freak you out. It was just...”

“WHAT DID YOU DO?!”

Strong gusts of wind.

“YOU SON OF A --”

Pure, raw, unadulterated speed.

For five score, divided by four --

“Thomas? Hey! Thomas!”

I blinked at the calling of my name. Frowning slightly, I looked at my friend. Why was my door open? Were we there? Taking another glance around, my brow furrowed further. How’d we get here so quickly? Last I’d checked, we’d been a few minutes away. A couple of our friends, Andrew and Audrey specifically, were there as well and giving me equally worried looks.

Audrey was the first to speak, “Are you alright?”

For a moment, I could have sworn that I saw a row of Wonderbolts fly overhead, trademark smoke contrails included. “Yeah... yeah, I’m fine. Just spaced for minute is all.”

What else was I supposed to say? ‘No, I just had a flashback to something that never happened and I just had a hallucination about the Wonderbolts flying over us’? Yeah, no, that’s just an invitation to be sent to the rubber room, wrap-around jacket and all. I stepped out of the car right away, just to put on the show that I really was perfectly alright. Glancing inside the vehicle, I noticed it had yet to be unloaded, and moved quickly to start that. It would help assure them that I was speaking the truth. With all of us working together, it only took a few minutes. We were glad we didn’t have to pay for our stay, since an old friend of mine owned this house and had been willing to lend it to us for the week. Once we’d gotten that all done, we convened in the living room/kitchen area.

“So what’s next on the agenda?” Audrey asked. “Since we’re all here now.”

“Better question: who’s sleeping where?” Andrew inquired. “I noticed that there’s only three beds upstairs.”

I shrugged, “We’ll just take turns sleeping on the couch. There’s enough extra blankets and pillows for it. I’ll use it tonight.”

“Okay.”

“Alright, now what’re we going to do?”

Clayton spoke up first, “I say we get our swimsuits on and head over to the beach! We can get some swim time in before night fall!”

“Sounds like a plan to me!” Andrew agreed, heading upstairs to change.

I went upstairs as well, going into the other room to change. I had my stuff stored in the room with only one mattress, while my friend went into the one with two. Scratching my thigh a bit as I grabbed my swim trunks, I started to change into them. Noticing that my hand was still scratching that area, I looked to see just what had gotten my attention -- and froze at what I saw.

“What the...” I twisted to get a better view of this new hallucination. As I did, it bent along with my skin. “Ooookay...”

Looking at my other side, I saw that it was there as well. Calling for Clayton, I waited for him to get upstairs, holding my pants up as I did.

“What?” He asked, then raised an eyebrow at how I seemed ready to strip. “Seriously?”

I rolled my eyes. “Did you do something while I was out earlier?”

“Uhh... what am I supposed to have done?”

I lowered the pants slightly, only enough to let the strange tattoo show. It was a yellow lightning bolt with wings attached on both sides. Turning, I showed that it was on both sides. It made me think of a cutie mark, actually.

“No way, I was still driving. I didn’t touch you until we got here.”

Looking at him, I could tell he was being honest. I sighed. “Alright... but that’s weird as hell.”

“What, you got it, didn’t you?”

“Hell no. I got better things to spend my money on, you know that.”

He snorted, “Yeah, Magic cards.”

I grinned. “Yup!”

Andrew peeked through the doorway. “Sorry, heard you from the other room. You got a tattoo?”

“Something like that... now get out, I gotta change.”

They shrugged and headed back downstairs. I stared at the cutie mark-like tattoos and sighed again. I’m not sure how or why these stupid things appeared, or why they were exactly like Soarin’s, but they were there now. More than that, they were absolutely perfect. Having seen many tattoos -- both temporary and permanent ones -- before, those don’t have such clean, sharp edges. Even the colors were usually slightly washed out, even when freshly made. But this... this was absolutely perfect. The edges were sharp, pristine. The colors were bright and vibrant. And like I’d found earlier, the flesh around it was completely smooth, which was probably the weirdest part. For any tattoo, the skin would bulge slightly where the ink had been placed, or if it was fake, the ink would be easily distinguishable from the skin around it. In my case, it was like the mark was flesh, and not tattoo ink. Once I’d gotten my swim trunks on, I headed downstairs to find my friends ready to go.

“So you got a magic tattoo?” Audrey asked, looking amused.

I rolled my eyes again. “Apparently... c’mon, let’s go. I’ll figure out this stupid thing later.”

The three of them accepted that, and we headed out to walk to the beach. It wasn’t far, and we weren’t gonna stay too long. It was close to dinner time, so we were gonna stop by someplace afterwards and just buy something. Once we’d had our fun in the cold Pacific Ocean water, we stopped at a small restaurant. Looking over the menu, I thought about getting the burger or hot dog like my friends, but they didn’t appeal to me the same way they did a day ago, and I’m not sure why. I ended up ordering one of their healthier, smaller sandwiches.

“I thought you’d have gone for the hot dog or something,” Andrew commented.

“Eh, just not interested in it, really,” I said. Then the little desert menu caught my eye. “Besides, I’m saving space for one of their slices of pie.”

We got a laugh out of that, and decided to move on from that and talk about how things were going for all of us. We talked in our usual former drama club member fashion. Meaning in a very animated and cheerful way, without bothering other customers, of course. Once I got my slice of apple pie -- which was absolutely delicious, by the way -- and the others had their ice cream, we headed back to the beach house.

We spent a few minutes sharing presents between each other. I was the only birthday boy today, but I got a couple things for everyone else anyway. They’d questioned me at first, and I’d simply told them that the opening presents part should be something we all do... besides, all I really got for them were White Elephant gifts. I mean, Andrew got a rubber-band, Audrey got some string, and Clayton got an empty box. What? They laughed. As for me, I’d simply asked that they just do whatever -- but Audrey’s gift was awesome.

“Whoa...” I grinned at her as I opened it. “A Soarin’ plush? These are so expensive! How’d you get one?!”

She smirked smugly, “I didn’t buy it.”

“But then how did -- no way. You made it?!”

“Yup!” Her grin was infectious.

“Dude, can I see that?” Clayton asked, and I nodded, handing it over. The thing was small, small enough to just barely be bigger than my hand -- but the detail was incredible. “This is amazing, Audrey!”

“Well, I’ve been making plushies for a while now, so I decided to make one for you.”

“Thank you. Seriously, this is just... holy shit, this is amazing.”

“I just had no idea you’d get his bloody cutie mark,” Audrey commented.

I shrugged. “Neither did I, but whatever. Good timing, I suppose, because now these two actually know what Soarin’ looks like.”

Andrew chuckled, “Yeah, the two most sane people in the house, the non-bronies.”

We all laughed at that. After a bit, we cleaned up and put on the newest Nintendo console. We played a game or five of some good, ol’ fashioned Super Smash Bros. 64, we finally got ready for bed. Pulling the blankets up to my chin as I lay on the couch, I couldn’t help but wonder about my new mark... and about what I’d heard and seen when I’d “spaced out” earlier.

What was happening? And why was it happening to me?