Art of Reality

"Hey, wake the fuck up and start pulling security," said the tall figure who had his light pointed directly in my face. Even though I didn't want to, I knew who it was and I had to do what he said.

"Roger sergeant major," I said as I slid out of my sleeping bag. I threw on my dusty uniform and followed the routine of grabbing my flak vest, Kevlar, and M16A2 assault rifle. Then I headed over to the edge of the parameter and posted up by our Constantine  wire. The usual scans of the empty desert made me wish I was still asleep.

The suns light was barely breaking the horizon, so I couldn't really see anything anyways. After thirty minutes of sitting in the cold, I was to report in for work call.

I am just a network technician. Running Ethernet lines and making sure we had internet services was my main mission. Not a hard job, but very boring and monotonous. People always break things which helps me to stay busy.

On my way into the shop, I grabbed a maple sausage MRE. Just about the only pre-made meal with breakfast items. Once at my computer, I told our night shift worker to go to bed. After he left the day began.

As predicted, I had to run a few new internet lines for some new soldier who got attached to our unit. I also had the "pleasure" of fixing some non existing issues with a couple of computers. Issues existed in the users. I call them KTC errors, otherwise known as "Keyboard to chair" errors.

When things calmed down I went back to my computer to check my email. My eyes widened. "Again?" I asked myself as I stared at the message sent from an impossible source.

A few years ago, I lost a friend in a car accident. We had become acquainted thanks to the show My Little pony. He was in the air Force, I was in the army. Our bases were thirty minutes apart. We met during a meetup from an online site for Bronies.

As time went on, we became really good friends. Our goal was to strengthen each other in our Art progression. I was better at coloring, but he was better at drawing. If it wasn't for him and the other Bronies encouraging me to do so, I'd have never returned to Art.

One day I got a phone call from Josh, a mutual friend and co-worker of mine. My Air force friend, Joe, was gone. The drawing of our Brony character was all I had left.

I never had a friend die before. He was the one helping me to reach my goals in the art world.. My art rival, mentor, and partner was gone.

At first I stopped drawing. I refused to do it without him. After a few months though, they began to show up. The e-mails.

I started getting e-mails from his address. There were never any words, just pictures. It was of his character in Equestria. He never drew backgrounds though, so I knew it wasn't him.

I dismissed the e-mails at first, not knowing what to do or how to respond to them. Then one day, I decided I wanted to send a picture back and see what happens. I took drawing back up and began working on what I thought would be my best picture ever.

This new e-mail. however, was eery. It was the first picture sent that had both of our characters in it. It was also the first one with words. A single word. "Soon".

I closed the e-mail and shutoff the computer. Something didn't feel right about it. I decided to shove it into the back of my mind. No one would believe or understand what was going on anyways.

When I got relieved from my shift, I went to my cot and pulled out my sketchpad. Tonight I would finally finish the drawing I started. I had been spending most nights working on it when I had time. It was an excellent distraction from the military life.

After thirty minutes or so, I had done it. The best drawing I had ever completed. I sat my pencil off to the side and laid back in the cot.

"It's done Joe, it's finally done," I said looking up at the stars. The wind blew gently and the drawying flapped in the cool breeze.

"I'm glad you like it," I whispered. A tear came to my eyes as I thought about the time spent with one of the few friends I'd had the pleasure calling a "Brother in Arms".

///Koavu DaBrony\\