Flames of Blue

  Typical, I was minding my own business and humming a parody of a song that, sadly, I would never listen to again. In a small café, everyone tends to keep their business to themselves. No one would bother my serenity. No one else at least.

There I sat, sipping some coffee and munching a bagel, getting ready for another boring day at work, another day of bitching from a control-freak boss. I feel like cracking a few of his ribs now and again, but that would be unethical, wouldn’t it? I probably could too. I’m a big guy (not meaning obese, obviously), six foot three and weighing out at 172 pounds, so it would be a piece of cake, considering what a wimp ‘Mr. Dorgin’ is. As I sat, I got a little angry. The place I worked was a hellhole. Every day, there was an increasing chance of getting fired, and not being able to collect the already-dwindling paycheck that was due to me and my co-workers every 2 weeks. I was already running on fumes as it was. I physically pinched myself as I thought of what got me into this mess, sucking in air as the pain went up my arm. I keep blaming my parents, but, even though they were never very supportive, they still provided for me. I was the one who, when they passed, leaving me alone,  I just turned into a pathetic bag of self-pity and aggression. If I had actually listened to them, I could have found a way around all this before I was smashed face-first into it.

Bah, whatever. Forget 'em.

I can’t do much about getting out of my current situation anyway. I’m just going to have to roll with the punches, and ride out the consequences. I glanced down at my watch, and was startled out of my brooding. “Crap,” I muttered a string of semi-obscene words as I scrambled to get my things together while finishing my bagel. I seriously don’t need to be late to work.

I practically ran out of the diner, leaving a small pile of cash to pay the bill. I almost always eat breakfast there, and since I’m pretty much a regular, so they cut me some slack when it comes to going to the register.

I began weaving through the alleys, and after a good ten minutes of jogging I stopped for a quick breather. Even though I know the city like the back of my hand, the shortest route to my place of work was a 15 minute jog, so I wasn’t going to get there without at least one break. Catching my breath as I started to walk again, a golden eagle flew overhead, alerting me of its presence by it’s piercing screeching.

“...aren't the only eagles native to this area bald?”

I watched as it... well, did a barrel roll, and then corkscrewed towards the ground, and me.

I stopped. Staring in partial wonder, and partial alarm, at the substantial  yellow-brown missile aimed at my face. Finally, one of the more functional neurons inside my ‘splendid’ brain decided that I should move over a smidge. I did, and the bird missed. Though I still felt my cheek burn as it flew past my face.

“Crap. Ow!”, I yelped, and turned around to see a blindingly bright light before I blanked out. Falling to the ground, my head hit the hard concrete that I had been standing on not moments before.

I woke up, but kept my eyes shut, as both felt as if they had a nail embedded in them. The pain started to dull though, and I became aware, vaguely, of the sound of sandals slapping, what I thought, was pavement next to my head. I slowly opened one eye, blinking in the sunlight. I wasn’t in an alley in the heart of Manhattan anymore. I heard someone muttering above me, in a deep voice, it sounded like they were pacing.

A weak lift of my head proved I was in the middle of nowhere, or more pointedly, in a great field. Wheat, millions upon millions of stalks tinged orange by the rising sun. I was lying on a road, and slowly began to lift my hand to my pounding head.

“SHIT! How did I let this happen!? He’s DEAD, and he was my last chance! FUCK!”

At that, I nearly jumped out of my skin, scrambling to my feet, and staring at the figure behind me once the blood rush left my head. He seemed startled as well, as he jumped away when he noticed me moving after mumbling a few more choice words.

I made a quick summary of the person in front of me. First things first, It was a boy. No girl could swear in that deep a voice. Next, appearance. He is around 6 foot, and probably weighs no more than 130 pounds. Age, I would say around 17. Hair color is sandy blonde; eyes are a strange reddish-yellow, almost orange, color. He’s wearing an old KISS shirt and plain jeans, with plain black sandals. And, he speaks with a definite European accent. Not British, but definitely somewhere south of that.

“Wait, you’re not dead?!?  Oh, thank Gaia! I thought I’d incinerated your brain.”

At that point, I gave him that good old

‘whatthefuckwhoareyouwhereamIareyouinsanehowcouldyouhaveincineratedmybrain’ look. Strangely, he answered almost all of that within a few minutes.

“Okay, I have to make this brief. I, am Apollo. The god of the sun. Get that past your skull, and I’ll go on.” I nodded, skeptically, and he kept talking. “Okay, then, let me be frank. I know you’re a brony.”

I tuned out at that point. Basically, my thoughts were:

‘Okay, what the fuck. This kid says he is a god, and that, therefore, makes him stark raving mad. No getting around it, if someone says they control all aspects of the sun with that serious of a face, they belong, and should never be taken out of, the loony bin. Wait, he said he knows that I’m a brony, right? Well… sure, anyone close to me could have told him that. It also would have been a simple matter of looking in my apartment’s main window. There’s a poster of the mane six on the living room wall. But, what the hell am I doing here? This looks like somewhere in the middle of the USA, nowhere near New York. Was I kidnapped? I looked up at the kid. He was pointing off into the distance, with his back to me, saying something. I took the chance and peeked at my cell phone, but no, it had only been a few minutes since I remember checking my watch. The sun was only just coming up, and it was on the same day. No way I could have been kidnapped and transported halfway across America in that little time... Well, since I have no actual explanation for what the heck is going on, I might as well listen to what the kid is sayi-’

Pain exploded across my face. The kid, rubbing his knuckles, just punched me, right in the jaw. Now I’m mad.

“The FUCK did you do that for!?” I winced.

“I said for you to listen, but you kept tuning me out. Now just shut up and freaking listen,” the kid that called himself ‘Apollo’ spat.

I nodded, still angry, and continued rubbing my cheek.

“Now, since you finally decided to listen up, I’ll just have to quickly repeat what I said. Keep in mind, we have a limited amount of time, as my connection closes at noon today, so you WILL listen this time.” Apollo said with a proudly stern glare that only teenagers, and stuck up CEO’s, posses.

“Yeah, sure, I guess.” I mutter.

“Finally,” He sighed, “now listen up and memorize this, because THIS is important.”

I nodded, and he continued.

“I know you because I, am in fact, a god. I am Apollo, and I control Earth’s sun.” He emphasized with a point towards the fiery globe in question, with both hands. Then, pinching with his thumb and pointer fingers, he began to move his hands slowly apart.

I sat in utter confusion until I glance up at the sun, that is. It was puckered on both ends, visibly so. Like a lemon.

“What?”  My jaw hit the pavement, metaphorically, and he continued his speech.

“Well, NASA is going to have a field day with this one.” He said with a smile as he opened his fingers returning the sun to its circular shape. “Don’t worry, the massive solar flares I just caused and the accompanying radiation won’t come anywhere near earth. Anyway, with that out of the way, how do you like Equestria?”

I paused, “Wait, what?” I was already busy getting out of the state mindfuckery that comes with you seeing your entire reality being twisted in front of your own eyes, so that simple question caught me off guard. “I... I like it. It’s a decent place. Everyone is prosperous. It’s a utopia! And yeah, sometimes I wish I could join in on it. Umm… Why do you ask?”

He didn’t answer my question, but instead continued on, like I’d never answered. “Anyway, most gods aren’t so frontal in their confrontations with their chess pieces, but I wanted to enlighten you a little more than the others, since you’re a latecomer.”

I nodded, wondering what a so called “chess piece” is, and what he meant by his ‘other gods’ comment.

“This is going to take longer than I thought,” he said with a light facepalm as he gave a look to the nearly noon-day sun. “Whatever, I’ll explain it anyway. To start, Equestria is worse off than you think. It needs change, and that’s where the chess game comes in. It is officially taking place in Equestria this millennia. The draconnequuiss and many of the nearby human gods have already searched for worthy champions from this Earth, and some of its alternate versions. I have chosen you.”

“May I ask what my purpose would be as a chess piece?” I was a bit skeptical, but the ‘worthy’ bit certainly didn’t hurt my ego.

“I was just getting to that. The chess pieces’ purpose in the game is to cause the most change in the realm it’s taking place on. Some games your purpose might be to cause great destruction and mayhem, some it might be to make the planet a perfect plane of reality. In this case, it’s an attempt at the latter. You must become the savior in Equestria. Of course, after I start you off in Equis everything will be your choice. You may reach for this goal as you see fit... Or you may become a harbinger of chaos. I honestly don’t care, as long as you make waves. Now, I’ve already given you an unfair advantage, as most of the other chess pieces were simply punted into Equis without an explanation. I can’t grant you anything else, except this one choice.  I had a form in mind for you that would have made your task easy, but it seems as if giving you that form will get you disqualified, and worse, me BANNED from the next two games. Therefore I can only give you a choice between two forms in Equestria should you accept.”

If this kid’s insane, he’s got one hell of an imagination. But then again, he just proved that he’s a god, or at least a wizard. (I knew Rowling couldn’t have come up with all of that stuff on her own) I’ll go along with this, don’t want to piss off the guy who can tweak the sun.

“Okay, I’ll bite. What do you mean ‘two forms’?”

“I mean that you aren’t allowed to stay in your form when you reach Equestria. These are your choices: become an Oni, an ancient Japanese-style ogre, and I have to say, they have amazing strength, or become a phoenix, one of the protectors of flame.”

I thought about it for a few seconds, going back to one of man’s oldest dreams, flight, and by your own power. I scratched my chin and nodded slowly, muttering the four simple words that would allow me to leave this life behind.

“I don’t know, phoenix?”

And then Apollo smiled, his eyes turning a glowing red, his left hand swiftly following as it became engulfed in flame, and he sucker punched me with such a force that I flew. ‘And without wings’ I thought.