A Second Wind

by SilentAuthor

Rating: teen
Tags: Adventure, Slice of Life
Length: 3603

Death usually suggests a second chance, but what happens when that second chance isnt what you want?

My name is unimportant, I once was a game designer living with a wonderful girl and spent my days having fun, working, and drinking.
Then war struck, and I took a grenade to the chest…
Now I'm a vagrant with my friends in a world that isn't as rainbow splashed as we thought and all we want is to go home. But what if we can't?
In this world where they cling to the old ways that humans themselves had to fight to overcome can us three guys come through and teach ponies a lesson?
Can just three guys that made a destined jump between worlds really make a difference?

IMPORTANT: This is written in first person perspective and is not, I repeat not a self insert.

Note: This story is actually focused on teaching others to accept each other for what they are. There is some M/M F/F elements in this story but its all in good taste and actually progresses the point. If you are closed minded or dont like reading about possible same sex ships then I suggest you read this anyway, it is rated teen for a reason and does not contain any graphic material besides some innuendos and foul language.

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2012-04-04 02:14:01 UTC

Chapter one: Second Life

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.

Chapter Two: Rainy Mood

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.

Chapter Three: Not as Rainbow as you think

Zecora led the way as we filed into her tree home, the strangely African themed home putting me at ease. I was a sucker for exotic art, and amongst the masks, the herbal tonics and powder satchels I felt at home amongst the RPG world. The zebra mare led us into the main living room where a large pot of iridescent blue liquid slowly bubbled and spouted. Occasionally landing on her dirt floor.

“Thank you Zecora, for taking us in. We cannot even begin to repay your kindness.” I stated as we all took a seat on the couch which also bore a African charm.

She looked at us and took a seat on a long carpet, striking a stretch as she eyed each of us. Her eyes were inexplicably drawn to my darker hued friend Drew, and immediately I could sense something was amiss.

“I’m interested in your names way faring strangers, for surely you were not in the forest without knowing the dangers.”

Sketchy looked at her and tipped his fedora.

“I’m Sketchy, artist extraordinaire.”

Wow, way to go Sketchy.

“I’m DJ Waveform, I spin discs and mix up tricks.” Drew added with a flourish.

She looked at me with those deep turquoise eyes. Pony to pony her features were truly striking, and with as close as we were I could tell she had a small glint to her eye as she listened to each of us.

“And I’m Silver, Singer, dancer, and writer.”

She nodded her head and pondered for a moment, probably trying to see if she recalled any of us before. She stood and circled around to the pot and handed each of us a cup of hot water, dropping a small pouch in each as she grabbed herself a cup. She sighed and took a sip, smiling as we all took our turns as well.

“This is great!” Drew exclaimed as he eagerly drank the comedic small cup in his huge hoof.

It was then I realized just how big Drew was in his new body.

He was at least as big as Big Mac from what I could tell, and at least twice as muscular. I had to admit, Drew made a BIG stallion. Zecora couldn’t seem to stop staring at him but Drew just shrugged it off.

“Waveform I will be blunt and say I’m taking a sheen to one who’s like I have never seen.” She added with a wink.

I motioned for Drew to just play along but I should have known you couldn’t tell a guy like him to lie about himself.

“Um yeah... I'm kind of not into... mares sorry..”

Zecora’s mind must have snapped because her eyes just went blank as she dropped her glass on the floor. She stared dumbly at Drew until Sketchy raised a hoof as he drank his tea.

“I second that.”

I face hoofed twice and looked at Zecora hoping she wasn’t about to pass out, who knew if they even had homosexuality in Equestria?

“I  must digress I never expected such outright truth with little such stress.” Zecora stuttered as she picked up her glass and looked at me.

“I’m happily straight thank you.”

It was then that Zecora explained that such a thing was not uncommon in Equestria, but many "colt cuddlers," and "Filly foolers," remained quiet and didn't even go as far as to kiss their mate in public.  I slowly began to realize that Equestria definitely was not the place the fandom made it out to be. I looked to Drew and Sketchy with a saddened expression before having an insane idea.

"Zecora, are there any jobs in Ponyville? We kind of ran low on bits."

Zecora paused for a moment and informed us that Ponyville was always hiring at the local restaurants and pubs for musical talent, and that we should go there first when the rain stopped.

"The stallion you must seek goes by the name of Rock, and I'm sorry to hear about your interests Waveform, I'm sure you have a sizable-"

"OKAY! So this tea is amazing am I right?" I interjected just Drew started to laugh.

Yeah this was going to be interesting.

"So Zecora, do you know of any ponies in Ponyville that are for same-sex relationships?" I asked hoping to perhaps find some ponies for us to build a basis for.

She stopped and tapped her chin thoughtfully before leaning in and whispering into my ear.

"No...Bucking...Way."

~+~+~+~+~+~

Drew and Sketchy looked at me with a mix between horror and disbelief as I told them my plan.

"You want to what!?" Sketchy exclaimed as he shook his head.

"I want to spread the whole love and tolerance thing to ponies. They clearly aren't yet comfortable with just being who you truly are and I'll need your guys help to accomplish that." I stated with emphasis on my waving hooves.

I'm Italian what of it?

Drew pondered for a second while Sketchy planted his hoof on his forehead. Soon enough however I say the one name that will ensure their help.

"Soarin."

Drew and sketchy immediately snap their heads up with wide grins and look to each other.

"We're in."

Mission accomplished.

Sketchy however was beginning to use his massive intelligence and put together another problem.

"So where are we going to live? How are we going to pay for a apartment if they even have such things?"

I had to admit that was a problem. We had our special talents and we all knew what we were capable of as a group but we we weren't exactly sure how to accomplish getting a job. Our first real concern however was finding out if we could go home. In order to do that we would need to speak to one that was both feared and loved.

"So how are we going to see the Princess, any ideas?" I asked hoping for an expedient answer.

Drew was surprisingly the first to offer an idea.

"Maybe we should ask Twilight if she will send a letter to the princess."

Twilight Sparkle. Man I remember my girlfriend going on and on about Twilight. Twilight was best pony only next to Rarity who if Zecora was right could be the key to helping us get broadcast to the masses of Equestria. We needed to focus on getting home first. Even though we were exuberant to be in a place we only dreamed of we all missed our families.

"All right so everybody... Everypony get some good night sleep, we'll head for Ponyville in the morning and see what we can get."

"Night." Drew stated.

"Yep try not to think of parasprites." Sketchy added with a snicker.

God damnit Sketchy.

As I started to drift off into an uneasy slumber I heard the faint sounds of slapping. Please let it be slapping...

"Who's clopping?" I asked blatantly.

"Not me." Sketchy sighed.

"Nope." Drew added with a hint of hurt for being accused.

We all remained silent and heard it again, setting a crimson flare to my cheeks.

"Well that's going to give me nightmares." Sketchy whispered.

I couldn't help but agree...