“He’s WHAT?” I stare at the guardspony in disbelief.
He looks around nervously. Seeing a Royal Guard like this, flinching at every movement in the shadows, does nothing to calm me down. “I don’t have much information. Princess Twilight is gone, along with most of the remaining guard. We haven’t heard anything from Captain Shining Armor, either. They told me that Discord turned on us! We’re supposed to evacuate the city!”
Several other ponies have gathered around us by now, drowning the poor stallion with their questions. Deciding to take my leave I make my way through the small crowd. It is pure luck that I happened to be still outside at this hour and saw the guard galloping down the street. If Discord really turned there is no time to loose. Princess Twilight and the Elements of Harmony took care of him once and can do it again, but until then I don’t want to be anywhere near the action.
I stop when I see a pegasus barreling towards us. I immediately recognize the blue flight suit. A Wonderbolt! She skids to a halt in front of us and stares past me at the guard with wide eyes, panting heavily.
“Discord!... He’s in Ponyville!”
The screams and shouts from the ponies behind me give her a moment to catch her breath. Once the guard has calmed them down the pegasus mare continues, “He’s making ponies disappear. They scream and just disappear! I know he got Rainbow Dash, but he seems to be picking them off at random now. I was sent here because I’m fast and got away. I don’t know how many of the other Wonderbolts…” she trails off, sobbing loudly.
I don’t see her break down. I’m already on the way to my apartment. I really don’t want to be here when Discord returns to Canterlot. There’s nothing I can do, anyway. Just leave that to the Elements.
Princess Twilight is gone.
I know he got Rainbow Dash.
The Elements won’t save you this time!
I stop dead in my tracks. I haven’t had that feeling since the day I got my cutie mark. And I know it is right. “What am I supposed to do?” I whisper.
I reach the crowd just in time to hear the guard give the orders to evacuate.
“NO!” I yell over the panicked voices, as loud as I can. Everypony turns around to look at me and I waver a little. “No,” I continue, trying to keep their attention. “Rainbow Dash is gone. Princess Twilight might be, too. Without either of them, the Elements of Harmony won’t be enough to stop Discord.”
“Then who is?” somepony asks. He sounds like he might start crying any moment.
“I don’t know…” I remember the feeling, my special talent. It has a plan. My special is making plans, analysing situations and finding solutions, and even that special talent told me that the plan has a very small chance of success. But if it’s the best it can come up with, maybe it really is the last straw.
“We will be!” I say, a little more confident. “We will wait for Discord and we will confront him!”
I raise my hoof to calm down the cries and whimpers from the crowd. “Calm down please. I know what you think, and maybe you’re right. But I have a plan and I need everypony to help me. If you still think that you have a better chance running away from Discord, I won’t keep you.”
I turn to the Wonderbolt who’s trying to avoid attention. “I need to go to the Academy. Can you try to gather more ponies?”
“I think so…” She nods weakly.
“Thank you. I promise we’re going to do this somehow.” I want to go as soon as possible, but pause. “I don’t think I’ve gotten your name yet.”
I open my eyes. I think I had that dream again. Never remember any details, though. The alarm clock on the nightstand tells me that it’s 4:17 in the morning. If I remember right that means I’m officially twenty-five years old now, four minutes I think.
I feel myself drifting back to sleep. Happy Birthday, me…
9:40 am. I should really get out of bed. That’s what I’ve been telling myself for the last thirty minutes and so far it doesn’t seem to work. It’s Saturday, so I’m not really on a tight schedule. My brain reminds me that it is also the second of May, my birthday, and that I – being the bachelor that I am – will have to kick myself out of bed eventually.
That seems to do the trick, or maybe my phone going off does it. Always the shining example of cleverness, I made it a habit to keep the phone out of reach from my bed. That way I have to get up if someone calls me in the morning, rare as that may be.
“Wingeder,” I state my name to the phone.
“Happy Birthday, Dave!” It’s my friend Jan. He’s a brony, a grown man who enjoys watching and reading about brightly colored cartoon ponies. A lucky coincidence really, because I am a brony, too, and we probably wouldn’t know each other if it weren’t for that shared interest.
“Aww, you remembered my birthday,” I do my best to make my voice sound sappy. “And you remembered to call me Dave.” My real name is David Wingeder. David is a good name, but I prefer to be called ´Dave´ by my friends. My good friends know that, remember it and always and without fail greet me with ´David´. The German version of David, just so you know. ´Dah-vid´. With an exaggerated, drawn out ´ahhhh´.
That’s why they are my good friends. They have the same screwed sense of humor like me. Come to think of it, most of them are bronies, too. I’m pretty sure there’s a connection. Being exposed to Pinkie Pie and her friends for extended periods of time can probably do that to people.
“I assure you, it was but a slip of the tongue,” Jan cruelly crushes any hope I didn’t have. “You’d better not get used to it.” I wonder how long he planned for this conversation. Improvising is important, but it’s always better to have something prepared. We take our nonsense seriously.
“Anyway,” Jan continues. “Karaoke on Monday still stands, right? 6 pm at your place?”
“Yeah,” I reply. “Don’t forget to bring your laptop and your mics. We’ll need everyone to drown out my horrible singing.”
“You have a complex, you know,” Jan states flatly.
“I had a very difficult childhood!” I whine back. I had a very easy childhood. But between learning the text to songs on the radio as a boy and my voice finally settling on a pitch several years later, I was told a few times that I wasn’t exactly a good singer. Tough luck for them, because it sure didn’t keep me from learning more songs and singing to myself whenever I was bored.
The conversation goes on like that for a few minutes, before Jan leaves me to my breakfast. My breakfast almost always consists of the same ingredients: Two slices of toasted bread of some kind, with a bit of cheese and some sort of processed meat between them. Depending on my mood and the time I make myself another sandwich with ´Nutella´, Germany’s answer to PB&J. Seeing as it’s weekend and my birthday, I don’t have to think long before I prepare and devour a sandwich with the sweet chocolate-nougat ooze.
I put the plate and butter knife in the dishwasher (Not on top of it until I feel like sorting everything in. It took me many weeks to suppress that pesky habit). Then I go into the bathroom of my little apartment to make myself presentable for the little get-together me and my family are going to have in the afternoon. Since most of my closer relatives live pretty close to each other, and me, I can’t not have at least a small celebration for my birthday. Thankfully it really is just that: a small barbeque with a dozen relatives that I’ve known for most of my life. I’m a bit of an introvert and have never been completely comfortable on big parties.
I’ve undressed and already turned on the shower when I notice the color on my thigh. Both of my thighs, even. I twist a little to get a better look. It’s a simple, deep blue circle with thin white lines crossing vertically and horizontally to divide it into small squares, like the matrix of a blueprint.
It looks like a tattoo.
The same tattoo on both of my thighs.
Like a Cutie Mark.
Huh…
That wasn’t there yesterday.