Sunshine in my eyes! Dammit, I have to get up now, and I haven’t even heard my alarm. First glance is at my calendar I keep on my wall, nice Xs mark out the days that had gone by. I notice what day it happens to be. Yes, Finally! I get out of bed and stretch. Today was in fact my birthday. Better yet it was a quarter of a century worth of birthdays! (For those of you who can't count or don't know what a century is I said 25)

I look over to my alarm clock and see the neon numbers display 12:00. Damn, I slept away to whole morning. Well as I always say, better late than never I guess.

My friend Fredrick, Fred as he preferred, was coming over for some 'chill time' as he called it. Since he was born literally 5 minutes after me, though from a different mother, it was his birthday as well, so me and him were practically brothers to each other. I had already stocked my house with all the 'necessities' as Fred called it, of a 'Party'.

Facing the hard truth once more that I could not cook, even if my life depended on it, I ordered pizza. This of course was not a bad alternative though. Making my way to my living room I proceeded to hook up my many electronic devices to the huge antique television.

There were many different televisions that I could have picked but for some reason I like the old antique one that had been given to me by my mom who had gotten it from my grandpa. Don't get me wrong the graphics are much better on the newer televisions but there are 2 things to consider before judging my tastes.

1 This TV was free and therefore is superior to all other televisions in price.

2 It was actually much bigger than most T.Vs out on the market already, making it perfect for split screen game play.

It was also nice to have something to remember my old man by. He was a nice guy who served in WWII and was one of the luckier ones to come back sane. As a younger boy I spent most of my time with him. Learning what it was like to be on the battlefield and how it wasn't like the video games that I played during most of my free time. During high school the guy even got me to join ROTC to see what it was like. This was a life changing event because it was in that same class that I met my good friend Fredrick. He had gotten into it because it looked 'cool'. He wasn't disappointed, just bored most of the time.

With my grandpa's help, I passed the class with flying colours, and with MY help Fredrick also passed the class, though not as well as I did. There was no way in hell that guy could have done it without me. He was, to put it simply, too silly. Though when he needed he could be serious, he obviously didn't consider it necessary to be serious in that class and on more than one occasion got in trouble for it. In time it grew on me and I learned to deal with his antics, some of his 'silliness' even rubbed off on me I think.

A few years ago though, my grandpa passed away. In his will it was stated the formalities of his possessions. The house went to this relative; the land went to that relative and so forth. However, at the very bottom of the page, literally the last few lines it said

“And to my loving grandson, I leave you my army knife, my medals and my old American flag I keep in my room. I know you will treat them with the respect and honor that they deserve. You are shaping up to be a fine young man and I know that you will go on to have a successful career in the military one day. Stay strong kid.”

When the lawyer read those lines I cried. To know that my grandpa thought so much of me was a joy unto my heart that could never be replaced or destroyed. On that day I promised I wouldn't let him down. In fact it was this very fall that I was going to enlist in the military, hopefully the airforce, to receive training.

I started to tear up at the memories that I had enjoyed with that old codger. I shook my head, there were times to reminisce, but I didn't want Fredrick to see me like this so I concentrated on the task at hand.

I turned back to the array of cords coming from seemingly everywhere. Unfortunately last time this happened we plugged in every device into one outlet, breaking the circuit. So I had an extension cord that somehow ran through the floor and came out beside the TV. This worked well until one day I moved the TV. There, mocking my hard work and intelligence was another outlet in the wall. After all the work I had done, that the monstrosity had in fact been hiding a convenient outlet right behind it.

I was stubborn though, not wanting let my hard work go to waste I still used that cord, though it looked weird coming out of my floor. And now I was using it now to plug in vital equipment. Yes, I’m talking about my phone charger.

After dealing with the minor components of the system and electronics, I plugged in the Xbox1. I had actually gotten it online for a cheap price. One thing I learned was a good character in a soldier was patience. So when the stupid thing came out the first time I bided my time, waiting for the price to go down. It had taken 2 years, but it had finally dropped form 500$ for the whole set to about 139$ for the system and 2 controllers. Now of course there were better systems out there, but playing some of the older games helped bring back memories when we were young and foolish.

*DING dong* Man I loved that door bell.

Speaking of young and foolish, my friend had arrived. I opened the door for him and he promptly strode in like he owned the place.

"Hey Shad! How you feel about your birthday! Wow, a quarter of a century gone by." He grabs me around the shoulder. "We should take a moment to reminisce about the good times we had."

“You're a Dork you know...” I'm playfully interrupted by my companion.

"Shhhh this is a time of silent reminder." He scolded.

I facepalm. This was just like him, looking up at the ceiling as actually reminiscing, when in reality he was thinking about how drunk and full of junk he was going to get tonight. I laughed at his antics. “Don’t you think it's about time for us to get down to it? Time doesn’t flow backwards you know.”

“I beg to differ!” he scoffed. “I happen to know this one time I got so drunk that I saw the clock ticking backwards!”

“Hate to burst your bubble, but that was Joe playing a prank on you. I made a bet with him that you would think that time was going backwards with all the beer you had consumed.” I smirked at the memory. “You won me 30$ that night you know that?”

“Oh good!” He had one of his dangerous smiles on. When he started smiling like that it usually meant I was going to get it, one way or another. He was notorious for his pranks, jests, and tom foolery. Nothing big or dangerous. Most of his pranks included the normal joy buzzer, fart recording and other antics done whilst the target is asleep. Some of them though got pretty elaborate. One time he shut down power to my whole house just because. I woke up late that morning, thankfully a Saturday, and found a picture of a trollface taped to my breaker box. From then on out I never underestimated him again.

“That means you owe at least 15 in fees for earning it for you.” he continued, holding out his hand expectantly.

I look down at his hand like it's some kind of alien life form. Hesitantly I pull 15 dollars out of my wallet and put it in his hand. I wasn’t done with the transaction yet though. Pulling his hand back he smiled at the prize he had 'conned' me out of. His smile soon changed though as I reached over and grabbed the 10 from his hands. “That should pay for your half of the pizza I think. So I will be keeping this.”

I did a mock bow. “Pleasure doing business with you.”

He frowned for a second before grinning like an idiot. “Well I will accede to your superior troll powers, but be warned, you're in for it later tonight!” Well my door is going to be locked. I do NOT want him in my room doing things to me in my sleep. Last time... no not going to think about that again.

“You gonna stop shivering like it's cold and come play?” He motioned towards the array of cords in my living room.

We plop onto the couch. I pick up a controller and start up the console. The console is on auto play so the game immediately kicks on. But before we can start however, Fred jumps up and rushes to the kitchen where I assume he is getting 2 beers.

I hear the unmistakable thump of the fridge being closed and the popping of two caps. He returns with, who would've guessed, two beers. I don’t drink much, if at all, but I do it around him to make it less weird. The caps are already popped off and his is half empty. Not to be outdone I swig a good portion of mine before going into the multiplayer screen. “Ready to kick some ass for a couple hours?”

Four hours and 2 pizzas later we were still blowing our brains out on the Xbox, playing Black ops 3. Thankfully Treyarch had gotten it through their thick heads and had made the co-op campaign like in halo. Unfortunately however the campaign storyline wasn't that great, it was a cheap knockoff of the previous two campaigns put together. The other choice though, the halo series, had died out. The new part to the series 'The Transubstantiation War’ just didn't cut it for me. It didn't even stay in my house for a week before being sold online. Being the military guy I am I was always attracted to the more violent games that contained military references. But that game was an insult to my military pride.

We were having fun though, that is what mattered, and hey! My eyes weren’t burning … yet. So that was a good sign.

Not long after that we became bored which is a very dangerous thing when considering two almost 25 year olds. So, eating the rest of the pizza drinking a couple more beers each, we decided to do something separate. It wasn’t unusual and sometimes it was preferred. Though I know that Fred was looking forward to it a bit more than I did.

I left him at his computer though and popped in Forza Motorsport 5. Older game, well 7 years old, so I guess it is kind of old, but still good. I always liked the racing games as well. I found the gameplay and the need for quick reflexes exhilarating. Every turn required you to be able to think at a moment’s notice; it was as close as I could get to a flight simulator. Well until fall.

This goes on for a couple hours before my mind suddenly snaps out of the awesome graphics of the racing game. It's amazing how lost I can become when I'm focused on something important. I glance at the clock and see the digits 23:56. My brain does automated quick calculations in my head from using military time for so long. Well sh**! It's like 2 minutes till my actual birthday!

I bump Fredrick who is still on that fan fiction site for that pony show that came out like 15 years ago. “Dude get off your ponies!” he glares at me before becoming glued to his screen again.

“AGH! You made me lose my place! What is so important?” I hold up the clock for him to see. “Well why didn't you say so? I'll go get two more beers and we'll celebrate this properly!” He gets up to go get the beers, popping the tops and comes running back.

He hands one to me and raises his up, gesturing for me to do the same, which I oblige. “To twenty five good years of life and hopefully many more!” He waits for me to drink, which I do, right as the clock's digits change to 23:58.

I found myself sitting on the couch in the living room of a house that I shared with my friend Fireball. She was a unicorn that served along with me in the royal guard. However she was a solar guard and I was a lunar guard, meaning that our body's sleep schedules were not exactly on the same time frame all the time. She was upstairs, hopefully sleeping away blissfully while I sat watching Luna's beautiful night sky.

It was soothing being able to just relax for a while, chilling back watching the moon and stars traverse their heavenly routes, guided by the two princesses. I saw Canterlot castle on its mountain high above us. Even though we were in the guard we had moved to the outskirts of it to avoid all the upstart ponies of the 'high society'. Fireball was kind of downcast at the decision at the time but quickly found that there were more 'fun' parties to be had in this neck of the neighborhood than in the actual city itself.

A slight flashing caught my eyes and I looked towards the window again. The sun and moon were flipping around their cycles very quickly. What had happened to make Celestia and Luna lose control of them?

I rushed to the door, prepping my wings for takeoff. I was going to find out about this, vacation or not. I opened the door to our home and found myself face to face with the scourge of the land and the most hated of all criminals of Equestria. Discord himself.

“Hello there 'My Little Pony'. Glad to see me? No? Oh well.” He grinned and I backed up slowly, trying to find a tactical advantage to this awkward situation. “Hey guess what! Recently today, oh listen you'll love this, I cursed Celestia and Luna! Sent them right on their way, now Equestria is all mine!

He had to be joking; no way he could do that. I assumed my battle stance the rage building to a peak. He just laughed and pointed an accusing finger at me. “You really think that YOU can defeat me? I just told you I beat your precious princesses Celestia and Luna. What can you do that they couldn't?”

I growled. “I can certainly delay you while the elements are roused to encase your ugly body in stone!”

“I'm hurt that you would ever say such a thing to me.” His face turned sad for what? Half a second before grinning evilly again. “But I have to burst your bubble again. Those silly fillies that wield the elements were the first to go, being that they MIGHT be able to destroy me. Now I'm just going around to all the ponies that might cause 'problems' later on.”

He turned around and started pacing the room, flaunting the fact that he was in control of the situation. “I hate to monologue you as the villain but since I'm hoping you will be my ally in a couple minutes I feel as though I must.” My mouth tried hard to gasp at the absurd statement. “I will NEVER...” A zipper appeared on my mouth and Discord popped in front of me and zipped it closed. “Please, no interruptions.” He paused as if expecting an answer. “Thank you. Now as I was saying. I'm going to build an empire out of Equestria. It will be magnificent, chaos EVERYWHERE!” I rolled my eyes. “But even though I am a god I cannot be everywhere at once. Therefore I'm giving most ponies a choice. Be cursed and have your lives ruined, be my slave in this new empire...” He turned to face me again, paw held out in a helpful gesture. “ or join me in the making of a glorious new regime. Of course only certain ponies get the third choice, most only get the first two. I assume you will chose correctly?”

My mouth magically unzipped itself and my face scrunched in pure repulsion of the idea. I was loyal to my princesses; I had proven it multiple times in fact. Why did this pathetic excuse of a creature think I would turn? "I'll never join you! I would rather suffer this 'curse' you have." My body tensed, expecting to be engaged in combat shortly.

"Dude you need to keep it down, I had way to many drinks last night! Oooo my head." My friend Fireball came trotting down the stairs, holding her head with one hoof.

"Fireball! Get back! Go warn the town!" I jumped at Discord. My collision course was interrupted by licorice coming from the ground, pinning me to the floor. How humiliating.

“Ah ah, nobody is leaving quite yet. So, Fireball is it? Why don't you come here for a second.” Discord motioned for my friend to come sit by my pinned form.

“Run! You have to MMMmhm!” Another bundle of licorice encircled my mouth to act like a muzzle.

“Hmmmm.... I dunno creepy.. HIC!... dude. You don't seem to be HIC! … very nice.” She looked at him about as confused as a drunken unicorn could. Well that is until she tripped, bouncing down the stairs to land at Discord's feet. “Oh never mind, I'm HIC! … here. So uhh what did you want again?”

“I'm just going to cut to the chase.” He picked up Fireball with his clawed hand. “You swear allegiance to me or else I kill your friend.” His evil grin growing wider as I watched his hand become tighter and tighter. I opened my mouth to speak, but I saw Fireball slowly, laboriously trying to shake her head.

Her horn glowed a faint bit, the red candy vines entrapping me disintegrating. Time slowed as I pounced on my target, caught unawares while looking at his victim incredulously. I hit Discord square in the chest with all I could muster, leaving a small dark mark. Discord dropped Fireball on reflex. Barely conscious but very much sober due to recent events she sped out the door and into town to rouse the other ponies. Discord turned to me; I saw a small fire blaze in his eyes for just a moment before it was snuffed out. “As much as I would like to kill you for what you just did,” He snapped and the restraints returned and the dark mark faded a bit. “I'm afraid I have more important affairs to be dealing with. Like chasing your friend for instance so let's get this curse down shall we?”

His voice became deep and sinister.

“For Five Score! Divided by Four!”

“For your choices you must pay,”

“Removed to a land out of my way!”

“Your mind shall be weak, your outlooks bleak!”

“Your Memories Removed! Your Body Confused!”

He paused and a notebook appeared. He scanned it with his finger before apparently finding the correct portion. The notebook disappeared with a flash and he resumed his chant.

“Forgetting everything and living in ignorance,”

“You have lost, you're now no longer a hindrance!”

“Quaint is it not?” His voice sounded like it was farther away. Then my world faded to black. Next Chapter: To the Internet! Estimated time remaining: 3 Hours, 33 Minutes