Second Wind

You awake after a night of amazing sleep. Lazily, and with a stupid grin on your face, you push up off of your mattress, only to let yourself fall back down into the warm embrace of your bed. You look up at your alarm clock, out of curiosity. It's 1 PM. On a Monday. You were supposed to be at work at 11 AM.

"Shiiiiiit..." You mutter. You leap out of bed, and completely break yourself from what little influence laziness had left on you. You stumble in the dark confines of your room, throwing on a pair of black slacks you wore last night, and yank a white dress shirt from your closet so hard, the hanger falls off. You throw open your bedroom door and walk briskly into your living room, hunting for your shoes.

"Hey bro!" Your roommate called to you. It looks as if he and his girlfriend awoke before you. They sit on the couch, holding each other and watching some afternoon talk show on the television. You pay them absolutely no mind as you find one shoe under the recliner, and the other in the mouth of your dog. As you quickly tie and knot your shoes, you can feel your roommate still staring at you.

"Bro, don't tell me they're making you work today. It's your birthday. Happy birthday, by the way." You continue to pay them absolutely no mind as you snag the tie you wore last night off of the couch where you had left it, and hastily tie it around your neck. You grab your car keys, and do that three pat check. Keys? Check. Wallet? Check. Phone? Check. You grab the door handle, adjusting your tie as your roommate calls to you one more time.

"You work way too much, man. Way too much." You laugh and attempt to feign an angry look.

"Someones got to pay the bills." you laugh again after that, to get the point across that you were joking. You remember the last time he took things too seriously. You swing the door shut, and dash down the staircase from your apartment. The light blinds you at first, but you quickly recover. Your sight recovering only revealed more troubles.

Your car was boxed in on the street.

No amount of parallel parking skill could save you now.

You get inside the backseat of your car, yank out your backpack filled with snacks, your briefcase for work, and quickly slam the door shut. With your backpack secured to your back, and your suitcase in hand, you begin a mad sprint. Normally, you'd be more embarrassed about sprinting through a city like a mad man, but work was only 4 blocks away, and you knew you were in trouble. Your boss was going to eat your ass when you got to work.

You add a smirk to the sprint, completing your insane look. You probably could have worded that thought better.

As you run, your stomach begins to rumble. You have some candy and other assorted junk foods in your backpack, but that wont be enough to hold you over. The bank is nearby, and you're already late, so you decide to swing on in, withdraw some money. maybe get some fast food for lunch today.

You quickly ascend the steps to the finest bank in New York City, and breathe a sigh of relief. You can see an open clerk through the window. You briskly walk inside, and up to the clerk.

"What can I do for you today?" She asks. You take a deep breath to collect yourself.

"Hiya, uh, I would like to withdraw, say...$40 bucks?" 40 dollars should be more than enough to get yourself some lunch and have some spare change, too.

"Absolutely! Do you know your account number?" You were never able to memorize that 22-digit long number.

Then again, you ask yourself.

Does anyone?

You pull out your social security card from your wallet, and hand it to her.

"I have my social security card, I hope that's enough." she takes the card from your hands, and types in your information. After a few seconds, she looks away from the computer and back to you.

"Alright, i found you! All I need to do now is ask for your pin!" This clerk seemed really sincere. You liked that quality in a person.

"Sure, it's 667-" An incredibly loud bang roared inside the bank. Then another. You knew what was going on before you even turned around.

"ALRIGHT, EVERYONE, GET ON THE FUCKING GROUND!" 5 masked men frantically run around the lobby of the bank. They had killed the two security guards. You drop to your knees, and put your hands behind your head. You feel panic begin to run through your body. Your life hasn't been that great, and you were probably going to get your ass eaten at work, but you weren't anywhere near ready to die. Not yet. The masked man you assumed to be their leader screamed at everyone again.

"MY ASSOCIATE HERE IS GOING TO COME AROUND. WHEN HE DOES, EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU TAKE OUT YOUR WALLETS, OPEN YOUR PURSES, OR HAND OVER ANY FUCKING MONEY YOU HAVE ON YOU!" Your blood runs cold at that sound.

You remember why you came to the bank in the first place.

Your wallet is empty.

When the 'associate' comes over to to you, you pull your wallet out, and turn it upside down. No money comes out. The 'associate' lets out an obviously fake laugh.

"HEY, BOSS, LOOKS LIKE WE HAVE A FUCKING JOKESTER OVER HERE!" Your heart begins to beat incredibly fast.

"MAKE AN EXAMPLE OF HIM! PAY ATTENTION EVERYONE, BECAUSE WHATS ABOUT TO HAPPEN, WILL HAPPEN TO YOU, IF YOU HOLD OUT ON US!" He grabs you by your throat, and holds his handgun to your forehead. He smiles.

"End of the line, kid." You close your eyes extremely tight.

Bang.

....

....

Is that it?

Is it over?

You open your eyes.

You are now standing in a white room.

You aren't sure how, or what on, but you were standing.

Is this Heaven?

Oh shit, is this Hell?!

You can hear your thoughts out loud, as they echo off of the 'walls'. Suddenly, you begin to feel sick. You begin to feel like you're falling. You drop your briefcase, and fall to your knees, placing your head in your hands. Just as quickly as this feeling came, it leaves. You slowly open your eyes once more.

"Ah, shit." you grumble. Your head hurts, and you hear a faint ringing. You look down at your feet. A briefcase is there. You decide to check your surroundings. You're in a field,  and it seems to be the middle of the night. In front of you lies a forest, a rather ominous one, at that. As you slowly approach this forest, you are overjoyed to see a sign hammered to the tree nearest you. You can't read it.

"It looks like Muhammad Ali wrote this." you chuckle to yourself. It made you feel better to laugh, and SOMETHING intelligent had to have put that sign there. A light of hope begins to flicker inside of you. Not seeing any other true path to follow other than the one through the forest, you decide to take it. You check what you have on you before you head out, just to be prepared. A briefcase with a combination lock you can't remember, a wallet, a smartphone, also locked with a number combination you cannot recall, and a backpack filled with snacks.

Why did you have a backpack filled with snacks?

Armed with your backpack, briefcase, and smart phone, along with your only memories of before appearing in the field being that of a 70-year old man with parkinson's, you take the first step of your journey.

"Gonna be a looooong night..." you mutter.

_________________________________________________________________________________

Another lonely night, i suppose.

You climb into your bed, and tuck yourself in. You had just put Sweetie Belle to bed, and were now preparing yourself for sleep. You wish you could spend just one night with someone. You may be a lady, but you imagine it would be nice to have some company in your bed every once in awhile. This loneliness was beginning to get insufferable. You let your head hit your pillow with a sigh. You look over out of the balcony, and watch as the velvet violet drapes flutter calmly in the refreshing night air. Star light flooded the room. It truly was beautiful, but it was made all the more melancholy without anyone to share it with.

You let out a slow whimper. Of course, you could never tell your friends about your loneliness. You have appearances to keep up. So, you'll continue to live this hermit lifestyle of yours, hoping someone comes to you, eventually. You lie your head down, and hope for sleep to come. But it doesn't. Too many thoughts come to your head to allow you such peace.

Do i have enough fabric for tomorrow?

Have i allowed myself enough time for my special orders?

What do i tell Twilight about missing the girls night out?

As you ponder these thoughts, you run your hoof slowly through your mane. You hear screaming in the distance. Probably a mare that's a little luckier than you tonight. You continue to fret inside your mind, before whimpering once more. It would be so incredibly nice to have someone to vent all these thoughts to, someone to hold you at night and to wake up next to in the morning.

There's that screaming again. And that's no mare. That's a stallion. And it sounds like it's getting closer. You decide to get up and investigate, your curiosity getting the better of you.

They had better not wake Sweetie Belle...

You slowly descend the staircase onto the main floor, and walk through your shop. Light from the stars and moon almost completely illuminated your sales floor. Your ponnequins radiated in this light, glowing an eerie white. You walk over to peek into the guest room, and check on Sweetie Belle. Luckily, she's still fast asleep, not even stirring from any of the commotion outside. You begin to walk towards your front door, deciding to walk outside, see what exactly someone was screaming about. It was probably another stallion having trouble finding his way home after a night of drinking. You approach your door, and place a hoof on knob. Just as soon as you are about to open it, you look out the window near the door. You immediately let go, and back away from the door, your eyes widening.

Something you've never seen before was running this way. Fast.

And a Manticore followed not far behind.

_________________________________________________________________________________

"HELP!" You scream. You had no idea what the fuck this thing was, it just jumped out at you in the forest, and next thing you know, you're running through a town that was at the end of said forest.

"FUCKING HELP!" Surely someone can hear your cries.

Your legs move as fast as humanly possible, every pore on your body has released sweat, and you are shaking violently from the amount of adrenaline racing through your veins.

You notice an old fence up ahead. You sprint for it as fast as you can, the creature following behind you, roaring in excitement.

If no one is going to help me, i'll help myself!

You rip a post out of the ground, and continue running. You turn swiftly to your left, hoping to throw the creature off with erratic movements. You notice an odd building. It looks like a carousel. In fact, you're pretty damn sure it's a carousel. Completely oblivious to your environment besides the carousel, and horrified to the core, you run towards it. You make it to the door, and wildly jiggle the handle. It's locked.

"SHIT!" You cry out. You turn around, and face the beast. It's now slowly prowling towards you, smiling the darkest smile you've ever seen. It's teeth glow white under the light from the night sky. It continues it's prowl, getting closer to you. You grip the fence post in your hand as hard as you possibly can, your knuckles turning white from the pressure.

This is where you decide to make your last stand.

You take a deep breath.

I'm actually about to do this.

You run towards the beast, holding the fence post behind your head. It swings it's paw, and knocks you violently to the ground. You scramble back to your feet, and dodge the next swipe. You swing the fence post, and gash the beast across its face, causing it to growl in pain. It swipes blindly, knocking you back to the ground. You were no fighter. You had zero training. Hell, you were surprised you were even still alive at this point. But you'd be damned if you died.

While the beast is dazed, you take advantage of the moment to look around this new arena you've created. Several trees, a carousel-building-thing with a pair of two bright eyes staring out, and-

Wait.

You look back into the carousel. Something was looking back out at you. You look back into the eyes of whatever was staring out at you, hoping to express your need for help. You at least knew something was here in this town. Something was watching. Something with beautiful eyes was watching this. Hopefully, that something would help. The beautiful eyes widen in terror, and seemingly look past you. Before you can even turn around, you feel something in your stomach.

You feel an odd sensation, like a sudden pressure on your abdomen. It begins to get hard to breathe, and you feel a wetness around your stomach. You look down, and see what had happened.

The beast had a very long, scorpion like tail. A tail which had just penetrated you, ripping through your back and emerging out of your stomach. You gaze down at the tail in complete disbelief. The beast rips it's tail out, and wraps it around your feet, slamming you to the ground. You attempt to weakly crawl away, your insides on fire, but it's grip around your feet is too strong. It flips you over violently, and releases it's grip on yo,. only to send it tearing back through you, this time through your shoulder. It lifts you off of the ground, and brings you over to it's face. It opens its mouth wide, revealing just how many teeth the creature has.

"No..." you force out. You have no idea where you are, who you are, or how you got here, and yet, here you are, about to become a midnight snack. As the beast begins to slowly push you towards it's mouth, you notice you still have the fence post in your hand.

Now or never.

Do or die.

You muster all of the strength you have left in your body, and ignore the pain moving you arm causes you.

You wait for the creature to smile at you again. It's your only shot.

Sure enough, in a taunting fashion, he smiles, his teeth completely exposed. You pull back the fence post, and let loose. The post connects with the teeth inside of the gaping mouth, causing a good amount to leave their place in its jaw, and a better amount to be shattered.

You feel the tail slide out of you, and you fall like a wet cloth to the ground, letting out a grotesque splattering noise as you do, the fence post clanking beside you. The beast stumbles around aimlessly, whimpering and holding its mouth. It looks at you one last time, then retreats back through the town. You let your head fall back into the dirt, no energy left in your body. You still have no idea what that thing was. Or where you were.

You watch as blood drains from the two gaping holes in your body. Your vision begins to grow blurry. Finally, you begin to hear voices call out.

"By the Goddess, someone get help!"

"What is that? How did it make a Manticore THAT angry?"

"Is it still alive?!"

You couldn't see the people that were shouting, your vision was far too blurry to make them out anymore. But it comforted you to know that help had finally arrived. You feel your body move. They must be picking you up, hopefully, to take you to a hospital.

You begin to feel yourself slipping from reality. Your vision was starting to completely fail, and the voices around you started to become quiet. Before you lost consciousness, you were able to make out one last thing. Those same azure eyes that looked out of the carousel building. God, they were amazing.

You begin to feel as if you're falling. A feeling that seems vaguely familiar. Your muscles seemingly completely relax, and you feel your lungs stop. The voices around you grow more frantic, but become more and more quiet until they were completely silent. You blink, and when you opened your eyes, you were standing in a white room. You weren't sure how, or what on, but you were standing. You hear a voice echo through the white room, a voice that feels as vaguely familiar as the feeling of falling.

"End of the line, kid."