A Second Wind

I guess it’s a little to much to ask for a second chance huh? Once upon a time I had been a simple man like you, I worked at a small pub in Northern Washington and spent my Saturdays with my girlfriend Amanda watching Saturday morning cartoons and occasionally engaging in romantic spooning after breakfast.

Every Monday morning I woke up and walked to work where I would sit in a chair and design weapons for a massive online game, spending countless nights nerfing old weapons and raising the stats of new ones so the balance remained in check. At night I would go the local club where my girlfriend worked and I would rap. I went by the name MC Scratchatic and I was pretty good, I usually got enough tips to buy Amanda something nice. The last night I bought her a custom decal for her car depicting her favorite cartoon character, a white unicorn named Rarity.

I remembered my last birthday, my twenty-fifth. I had called my brother back from Idaho who had just gotten back from a tour in Afghanistan. In his tour over there he had encountered some of the kindest and most talented souls you could dare to hope to meet. During his stay he had told a local artist that I had an interest in a certain show…

Three weeks later I received a painting of me as said character. So over my couch where me and my girl spooned ever Saturday morning after watching cartoons now hung an intricate painting of yours truly as a pony, and beneath in scrawling Israeli was written,

“To attain peace is ones true journey.”

And beneath that was my rapper name, Scratchatic.

Now by dodging the inevitable question I’m sure your all wondering what show I’m speaking of. Well it’s the only reason I’m dating a fiery brunet mechanic with a chest out to…

Well anyways, the show I’m talking about is My Little Pony, moreover MLP, Friendship is Magic. Don’t like it? Too bad. I first became a fan of the show when I had gotten off of work during a heavy rainstorm and moseyed on over to a local coffee house where I met the love of my life. Amanda was watching a pretty, flowery, rainbow-puking shitfest on her laptop but it was the episode with the notorious Flim-Flam brothers. Being a music man at heart I asked to sit next to her un till the rain stopped, twenty minutes later I was hooked.

But that’s not what my story is about. Sure I could go on for days about the great job, good money, a studio apartment, awesome sex, Saturday morning shows. But you don’t want to hear that and quite frankly, neither do I.

All I can tell you is that it was messy.

It was a week away from Amanda and my third anniversary. We had planned an elaborate trip to southern L.A. where we would be living it up at the wildest parties imaginable. We would be drinking Bacardi’s, Twilight Sparklers, and even going deep into some other naughty matters…

That never happened.

I was called to the military. Drafted to be more specific. You see the war had spiraled out of control and America had declared world war three, the supposed final war. So within three days before our trip I had to say goodbye to Amanda for the last time. We flew out of fort Bliss where she met me at the airport with a small package wrapped in golden string. I opened it with shaking hands and found two things, one was a golden wedding band with a single diamond at the top, the other was a silver necklace with a rarity toy attached from one of the grab bags.

“When you come back I’ll marry you, consider this my proposal.” She had said through tears.

I still miss those sapphire eyes.

I remember leaning over and kissing her so passionately I’m sure the elderly couple next to us promptly went to the stalls to shag, then again I didn’t get that last chance. Because a week later I was knee-deep in mines, sand, and enemy gunfire.

I was placed in a platoon of three fellow bronies much to my relief. Drew, a tall and very muscular Native America, Sketchy, an artist from the east coast, and Jiffy, who I didn't get to know much about.

My battle buddy, Drew, had found a way for us both to be pinned behind an enemy vehicle where we were encountering a literal wall of bullets. His well cropped hair was only made comedic by his soul patch.  He looked to me with a saddened grimace as he pulled open his ammo pouch, revealing an empty space where extra bullets were stored. Two others, one I learned was the artist for my character, calling himself Sketchy, and another more jittery fellow by the name of Spiffy revealed they too were without ammo. Sketchy with his trademark optimist wink smiled widely as he pulled his arms around Drew and Spiff.

“At least I get to die with you fine looking gentleman.”

He looked to me with a roll of his eyes and offered me his fist to bump.

“You too man.”

We all looked to each other and somehow knew, just knew we weren’t going home. Drew was a brony and a musician just like me, and we were going to die with the rhythm of bullets and the chorus of screams and explosions. He shed a tear as he pulled out a Fluttershy pin and showed it to me, signing his thoughts as we couldn’t hear one another.

“My dad gave me this before I left, said if I was bold yet cautious I would be fine.”

I looked to him and pulled out my Rarity necklace and kissed her head, remembering Amanda as the bullets began to tear away at the car.

“My fiancé gave me this, said when we had a kid we could call her Sweetiebelle.”

Spiffy lit a final cigarette and handed it to each of us in turn, probably being the last he would smoke.

“I didn’t even get the chance to bang the sergeant.” Sketchy added with a wink as we could all see his truly saddened grin.

Drew smiled as he looked to me and we shared an embrace before hearing the clicking of metal against metal. We simultaneously looked to the ground and saw a grenade, poised, charged, and ready to blow.

Amanda…

“I love you.”

What happened next isn’t shown in the movies. It isn’t written, no pictures exist of it and any preacher, pastor, monk, or religious nut could never tell you in their wildest acid trips.

I saw feathers. Feathers and white light unlike anything you could imagine, I saw fire and light and water and the world and even the smallest atoms.

I saw me, and I saw you.

And then I felt like my head had just met a three ton pickup trucks mad wife. Searing pain flooded my vision and soon my entire brain pulled a blue screen.

And then… Silence.

Then singing.