A Second Wind

Rain.

I heard the sound of rain, and occasionally felt a cold drop or two hit my face. Wait, there was rarely rain in Afghanistan at all, so what the hell could it be?

I struggled to open my eyes and felt a stinging pain in my neck as I struggled to move at all. I focused on the basics, try and wiggle your fingers. I soon realized however there was no response from my hand.

Great they cut off my fingers. Well I better survey the rest of the damage.

I opened my groggy eyes and looked straight up at a tree. Wait a tree?I started putting together the pieces, and realized I wasn't in Kansas anymore. I craned my head to the left and tried to look at any wounds I may have had, I had just survived a close encounter with a grenade for Gods sake! But as my eyes adjusted to the low light my mouth hung open.

Oh shit.

First off I was wearing one of my favorite old brown hoodie I left with Amanda. Shorter than I remembered it, but probably because my torso had grown quite a bit… thicker. I raised a hand to see about touching my new hoodie and stopped as quickly as a turtle that was just spooked.

“Aaaaaaaaaahhhhhh!”

I had hooves! What in Gods name was happening! The world was flat, colorful, and the grass… That grass looked good. What was I saying? I stood on my feet, hooves, and looked around the area, noticing the trees, the moon shining through the leaves, and two more bodies a few feet away from me.

Oh no.

I raced over with a small bit of pride in how fast I was adapting to walking on all fours, and found two other stallions laying on the ground. The first one was at least a full head bigger than me, his long black mane swept to one side as his glasses hung to the side of his face. His black jacket was covered in dirt as was the red shirt beneath. The second was blue, and slightly skinnier than myself I noted. His black fedora was laying next to his head as they both remained motionless. With a tentative shove I pushed the big one and he upright yawned before rubbing his eyes.

“Last time I drink something I can’t even pronounce.” He sighed as he finally looked at me before doing the same thing I did.

He screamed, very, very loud.

“What in the fuck are you? Jesus where’s my gun kill it kill it kill it!”

I quickly applied a hoof to his mouth and poked myself in the chest for emphasis.

“Hey its me, Scratch!” I added with a nod of my head.

The stallions pupils shrunk before he looked down to the blue one and back to me.

“Scratch? Wait, Silver?”

It had been a while since anyone used my nickname.

“Drew?”

With an uproarious yell Drew had his hooves on me, hugging me tightly as he jumped up and down.

“Oh thank god we’re not dead! That grenade rolled in and I thought we were goners.”

The blue stallion stirred and stood up casually, putting his fedora on and straightening his glasses as he looked to Drew and I.

“Huh… I always imagined you two would be Pegasus if we somehow ended up as ponies.”

He then gave me a smirk as he looked up.

"Nice horn, good sized."

Yep, definitely Sketchy.

“Okay so lets run an assessment, limbs? Anyone… anypony hurt?”

Drew shook his head and looked over himself with a snide grin.

“I’m hot.”

Sketchy looked to him and laughed.

“Yeah I am too, your not bad though.”

I face hoofed and glared at both of them.

“Am I the only one that freaked out? We took a grenade at point blank range and we wake up as ponies!? Does that not shock either of you?”

Sketchy looked at me and shrugged, too busy looking at himself and exploring his new body.

“What do you know? Ponies do have genitals.” Sketchy added triumphantly as he smiled widely.

Again, I face hoofed.

I looked to Drew and him before truly looking at myself, noting my peach colored coat, black tail, and of course my CM. Two music notes hung in the air, and as I looked at it longer I knew what in the hell was going on.

“Guys! Show me your flanks!” I yelled before realizing that was a big mistake.

“Whoa Silver! I didn’t know you swung our way!” Sketchy laughed as he shook his flank at me.

Drew got what I meant and looked at his CM as well. A red simple vinyl disk while Sketchy had a pocket protector with assorted art supplies.

“Sketchy I’m about to try out my bucking skills and crack your head open.”

Drew sat on the grass and looked straight up, as did the rest of us as a glowing ribbon of blues and greens covered the night sky.

“Where do you think we are?” He asked solemnly.

“I don’t know Drew… But my guess would be Equestria.”

We all stared to the stars, silent as we all tried to piece together what was happening. How did we get here? Why were we here? Could we get back home? Did we...die?

“What is this I spy with wandering eye? Is it pure chance I stumbled on by? .” Came an alluring femme fatale voice we immediately recognized.

Zecora?

Sure enough a zebra came from the brush, her hair matted back with perspiration. She looked to all of us before smiling, walking right up to me as she took an incredibly close look. Her breath was felt through my coat as she looked all of us over, but with particular attention to me.

The rain. That's why she had a wet mane. Somehow it was a better look on her, I wasn't a fan of Mohawks.

“The likes of you I’ve never seen, Where in Equestria have you three been?”

Drew was about to say something incredibly stupid before Sketchy covered his mouth with his hoof, at least Sketchy knew I had written more than enough books and programmed enough RPG elements to talk my way out of this.

“We just got back from Las Pegasus, you know crazy night, grabbed some pegasi and had a wild time, I doubt my friends even remember those poor mares names.” I laughed, giving the others a knowing wink.

God I hope Las Pegasus existed…

“That’s quite a flight you three have had, but you should get inside for the weather is bad.”

I smiled at her and looked to Sketchy.

“We actually live in Canterlot, so would it be too much to ask if we could perhaps stay with you until the storm passes? I have heard the zebra healer from Ponyville is quite generous.”

Zecora gave Drew a surprisingly seductive wink as she looked back to me.

“Follow me my stallion friends, to my home where my kindness never ends.”

And so began our first night as new ponies, and hopefully our visit would be short.