Chapter 1: Night of Blues
"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\\
"Enemy fire, enemy fire! Grab your gear and defend the base!" Someone ran out shoting. I grabbed everything needed for combat and started to run for cover. I paused briefly to think about the sketchpad with the drawing I was so happy about.
"No time," I told myself with disappointment.
The sound of gun fire filled the air. I could smell the gunpowder as the people covering me returned fire. I found a wooden crate next to a field tent and ducked behind it.
No time to be running... I threw on my equipment as quick as I could and took out a magazine. The click as I turned off the safety to my rifle made me realize something. This is what I had been trained for. Knowing it was best to stay out of sight, I kept to the shadows as much as I could.
I turned the corner and saw the only friend I had in my unit.
"Josh, get over here." I called to him. Friends come first I told myself. He snuck over to me, also remember to stay low. "Good, he knows." I said with relief.
"There you are," he said. "I was looking for you."
"Look man, you need to get to the bunker. It'll be safer there." I told him.
"What do you mean you? You mean we." he said.
"Knowing I won't get him to go without me, I quickly corrected myself "Yeah, I meant we".
Together we started off towards the bunker. When we got to it, we saw nothing but a bunch of flames.
"No..." I gasped. "Josh, we have to go. We need to find a vehicle."
"We can't leave everyone," he scolded.
"We're not, you are." I said
"But..." he started to argue.
"Now is not the time for this!" I shouted.
He nodded, knowing why I was doing it. I always put others before myself.
We got lucky. We found a jeep with more than enough fuel to make it to the next base. I practically threw him in the jeep.
"Look, you have to get to the next base. I doubt anyone saw this attack coming. Tell them the forward base has been lost. I'll meet up with you soon."
He wanted to argue, but couldn't. I wasn't talking to him as a friend as this point. I was talking to him as a soldier. I outranked him and that's all that mattered. The look in his face made me cringe on the inside. It was for his own good, or at least that's what I made myself think.
"If you can't find it, use the GPS." I told him. I gave him a pat on the back. "Don't worry about me."
"Roger." he said.
I turned and ran off, back to the shadows. I had a new mission, find and secure any survivors. Computers were always a secondary job anyways.
""Help!" I heard someone scream briefly before a gunshot. I picked up my pace, remembering to stay well out of view. Continuing in my current direction, I came to the middle of our base. An open area with a flag posted up in the middle. At the base of the flag, a bunch of chairs had been set up with prisoners tied to them. I knew some of them.
I counted no more than a dozen soldiers sitting there. Some with their head limp against their chest. Blood stained the ground beneath some. Other held their head high, ready for the fate. Defiance in their eyes.
I played out multiple scenarios in my head. It did not look good. There were three gunmen and one of me. I had the element of suprise, but I figure I might get two of them before bullets came back at me. I couldn't let this go on though.
I took aim, ready to pull the trigger at the right moment. Two shots fired off and hit the gunman who was closest to the soldiers. I had never pulled the trigger.
No! I thought to myself, but it was true. I saw him. No two building away, on the roof, sat Josh. "You damned idiot!" I said under my breathe.
No time to rehearse scenarios anymore, my reflexes kicked into overdrive and I struggled to stay focused as my adrenaline started to overcome me. I kept low behind the barrel I was using for cover. The gunmen were running in my direction in an effort to find the person who had shot one of their own.
Bullets began flying and Josh was doing his best to get off the roof. Sure enough, as I expected, the gunmen ran right past my barrel. I didn't even have to aim with how close they were. I started pulling the trigger. They were both on the ground in seconds.
I shot someone... I was thinking. I had never been put in a position like this and had never taken someone elses life.
It didn't matter though. It was done. Reliefe flooded me as Jos emerged from the nearby alleyway. It was wuickly replaced with fear as he fell to the ground not ten feet away from me.
I ran to him and began checking for injuries. It was not good. He had two holes in his lungs and at least three fractured ribs. Blood was seeping into the dirt around him.
"We...saved them..." he coughed. Red bubbles accompanied his words.
"Josh, I told you to go. Why did you stay?" I shouted at him. "Why didn't you listen?"
"Because you think...you have to....do everything...by yourself..." he pasued to gasp for air "Bur friends....don't leave...friends behind..."
"This is different damn it!" I exclaimed as I punched him directly in the jaw.
He tried to laugh, but all that came was more blood. "We'll always be...friends...Joe never...left...neither will...I...I prom..." his words cut short as he expended his final breath.
I wondered what he meant about Joe never leaving. Was he getting the same e-mails? Did he really believe Joe was still with us somehow? I didn't have time to solve it.
I ran to towards the prisoners, fighting the tears to stay where they belonged. If I had been able to see their eyes, I'd have known there was now fear there instead of defiance. My vision was blurred by the tears I was fighting so hard. If they hadn't been gagged, they'd have been able to tell me what they feared.
It was too late. Five feet away from them I felt a small tug at my ankle, then I was surrounded in white light and an intense heat.
That was the final memory of my past life...
///Koavu DaBrony\\
I haven't really been the most happy since joining the Air Force, I've had a lot of problems recently and didn't have much for friends. At least not until some of my friends back home convinced me to watch My Little Pony. I know it sounds like a kiddy show but I was honestly surprised in how good it really was. After that I learned about being a Brony, so I decided to test my luck and maybe get some new friends by going to some meet ups using an online forum for my city.
I ended up meeting so many people but one of my friends that really stood out was an Army guy named Thomas. He felt like me until getting into My Little Pony, miserable and depressed. We ended up talking a lot more and seem to become friends pretty quickly.
After hearing his stories of how he had became a Brony, and the reasons why he started up with art again, it really gave me hope for my future. I even got back into art again as well. We had started developing plan to make sure we would both improve in our work. I even created my own alter ego pony. He made to me who I am, and also who I wanted to be as a person.
A few week after talking to Thomas on skype, I had decided I wanted to visit the base to hang out. I had never been over there before but I wanted to hang out with him before he had to leave for a few months.
I was driving to his place which was about 30 minutes from my base. It was a fairly busy at this time but I had no one in front of me to slow me down. I looked down for a minute to change the station on my radio. When I looked up, a car from the other lane had moved to my lane right in front of me. Even if I tried to stop, there was no way I would not of been hit.So I swerved to the side of the road, hoping to dodge the vehicle. The grass was wet from the storm that happened earlier had made the car lose control. I tried to stop but it was too late. I remember a sharp pain in my head, then a white light...
///Kiwi Mist\\