The Family Equestria

“Come on, Avram, let’s go!”

“Nnnnnnope,” Avram said mockingly “I came to get a plush doll and that’s what I’m gonna do.”

Jonathan sighed and turned away from the pink shopping aisle. The two brothers had been in the girls section for 10 minutes waiting for Avram to pick what he wanted to buy. Jonathan hated that aisle but their parents insisted the two brothers go together to the store so that Avram could buy himself a plush doll. Another plush doll, actually. Avram was a Brony, a male fan of the TV show My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic. It happened quite by accident, two years previously, when he and Ezriel were fighting over the remote.

*

“Gimmie the remote, Ez!” Avram shouted at his younger brother. “It’s Pokemon time!”

“No way, Avster!” Ezriel screamed at him. “It’s time to play the Weakest Link!”

“No!” Avram roared, grabbing the remote and flipping to his channel. “Inuyasha. Ha, beat that!”

Ezriel snatched the remote from his older sibling and changed channel again. “Wipeout. Let’s start.”

Avram pounded him with the large 2-foot cushion he was sitting on and reached for the controller once more. “Ben 10 is in the house!”

Ezriel pulled his yellow karate belt from under the couch and wrapped it around his brother’s chest and arms. He picked up the remote and tauntingly flipped through to another channel. “Oh yeah. Splatalot!”

“That’s it,” Avram said once he freed himself from the judo accessory’s embrace. “No more Mr. Nice Guy.” He jumped on his smaller sibling and the two brothers began rolling on the floor, unceremoniously slamming each other onto the remote control, which caused the TV to move from channel to channel. After a few minutes of brotherly wrestling, which resulted in several bruises and friendly scrapes, the two boys heard a song coming from the TV set. They stopped fighting, rolled off of one another and stared at the screen, neither of them believing what they saw.

“Oh, no!” Ezriel groaned. “Not My Little Pony!”

“What is that?” Avram asked slowly.

“What is that?!” Ezriel shouted in disbelief at his older brother. “I’ll tell you what that is: My Little Pony, the biggest most girliest show in existence.”

“Oh my G-d,” Avram said. He was silent for a moment and then said. “Hey Ez, could you let me watch this?”

Ezriel’s mouth fell opened in surprise, having not expected to here that from his older sibling. “Eh, what? What did you say?

“Could you let me watch it?” he asked again in a gentle tone.

“Why in the world would you want to watch this?” Ezriel asked in a not-so gentle tone, more of a worried one. When Avram didn’t respond, he sighed and got up from the floor. “Fine,” he said as he left the TV room. “But I warned you. Don’t come crying to me once the girliness finally gets to you.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Avram asked with a smile.

“My Little Pony is the ultimate TV show for 5-year-old girls, fact. They’ve been doing it for years and disappeared for a while. I can’t think of the reasons they had for trying to air it again.”

“Huh,” Avram muttered at his brother’s very-detailed analysis. Still, he was rather intrigued to find out what this show was exactly and he knew the only way that would happen is if he watched it. So he said to Ezriel “Thanks, but I’m gonna watch the show now.”

Ezriel sighed once more. “Okay, but I’m not sticking around.” And he left the room.

Twenty minutes later, the average time for an episode of any TV show, the whole house heard a very loud shout coming from the TV room. Everybody stopped what they were doing and prepared for what was to come next. Avram came sprinting into the living room, where most of the family was assembled.

“OH YEAH!” he screamed with joy. He started running around the house with no sign of slowing down or tiring, singing like a CD player on repeat.

“What happened down there?” asked Hannah, the older sister.

“He was watching TV, duh” answered the youngest boy, Shachar, obnoxiously.

“I know he was watching,” Hannah snapped at him, “But what was he watching?”

“My Little Pony,” Ezriel admitted to them.

Awkward faces were made at this confession. Then Jonathan asked him “Are you sure he was watching My Little Pony? Maybe he switched channel as soon as you left.”

Ezriel made a duck face at him. “You don’t believe me? Maybe you should listen to him singing a bit more.” And that’s when Avram started crashing down the stairs, singing with such exhilaration as the family didn’t see very often

My Little Pony, My Little Pony

Ah, ah, ah, ah

My Little Pony

I used to wonder what friendship could be

My Little Pony

until you all shared it’s magic with me

Big adventure, tons of fun

A beautiful heart, faithful and strong

Sharing, kindness, it’s an easy feat

And magic makes it all complete!

My Little Pony

Do you know you’re all my very best

Frieeeeends!

A look of disbelief ran across his siblings faces as he came to a stop in front of them. He took one look at all the crazy faces and a smile exploded on his own.

“’Hi guys," he said, waving at them crazily. “Having a great day? I sure am.”

A moment of silence followed, until Hannah spoke up and asked him “Avi, what’s been going on down there?”

“What’s been going on?” he repeated with a leap in dynamics. “I’ll tell you what’s been going on! I've come across the most awesome thing I ever!” He looked at his siblings' confused faces, realizing that he hadn't explained clearly. Probably on purpose. “You're right. I gotta find out more.” He bounded off to the computer.

Nixie, the youngest child,  shook her head intelligently at her older brother’s antics and said “Avi needs to go to bed early tonight.”

Shachar and Ezriel walked over to the computer, where Avram was typing furiously with his tongue between his teeth. The two younger boys looked over his shoulders and tried to make sense of what he was doing. After deciding he wasn’t getting anywhere, Shachar asked his older brother “Whatcha doin’, Av?”

“Research,” he answered proudly as his fingers combed the keyboard at a crazy speed. All at once he stopped and stared at the screen, his face frozen and his mouth hanging ajar. Ezriel took one look at his brother’s expression and then glanced at the computer.

“Eh, what’s this thing here, ‘bronies’?” he said aloud. “What’s that, a play on words or something?”

“’Bronies’” Avram said slowly. He clicked on the link in the search results and a website opened up. As the two brothers scanned the page their shock and surprise grew.

“No. Freaking. Way” Ezriel muttered in dismay.

“Oh. My. God in heaven,” Avram whispered.

Shachar looked at his older brothers in confusion and then at the screen. “I don’t get it. What is this?”

Avram’s fingers zipped across the keyboard, opening new windows and tabs at an alarming speed. Images and clips popped up in a data-based mess and a mixture of sound poured out of the loudspeakers. Videos with people speaking, singing and arguing flooded the desktop. And Avram’s heart was beating like the wings of a drunk hummingbird.

He opened Wikipedia and searched ‘bronies’. He read the page that opened up faster than his brothers who were trying to read the page too. Before they finished reading, however, Avram reached the end and turned off the screen. An ominous silence filled the house as his other siblings walked over to the computer, trying to find out what the humongous noise was.

Jonathan tapped Avram on the shoulder and asked “What did you find, Avi?”

The teenager was silent for a moment before he found the answer. “Bronies: The Extremely Unexpected Adult Fans of My Little Pony”

*

“And that’s how it all happened,” finished Avram with a smile.

“I know that’s what happened,” Jonathan remarked. “I was there. But I still don’t see why you keep buying these dolls.”

Avram patted his older brother’s shoulder sympathetically. “Jonathan, you’ve been living in our family since I knew My Little Pony and way before that. You know exactly why I buy these things.”

“Not really,” he admitted. “I’m a computer dude. Role-playing games and online interaction and whatnot.”

“Each to his own,” Avram said shaking his head. Then he whispered “Too much phony, not enough pony.”

“I heard that,” Jonathan called from the other end of the aisle. The toys and collectibles were starting to get on his nerves. “Can we go already? How long does it take to pick a pony doll?”

“I’m thinking, I’m thinking,” the younger teen called back to him. “It’s just so hard to choose between a different maker of one I already have and one I don’t have at all.” Indeed, he had been buying and collecting My Little Pony toys and items for months, but now it seemed he was suffering from indecision. He couldn’t decide whether to buy another Rainbow Dash or keep an eye open for a Luna doll. He walked back and forth along the aisles until something caught his eye. There, on the top shelf, was a plush doll of a purple unicorn pony twenty inches tall, with a purple coat and a cutie make of a large pink 6-pointed star with five smaller stars around it. Avram recognized it instantly, along with its dark purple mane and tail with a pink and light purple streak.

“Twilight Sparkle,” he whispered as he reached out for the plushie.

“You mean that egghead-bookworm?” Jonathan said with a smirk. “She freaks out about everything. She’s a total neat freak.”

“Just like me,” Avram sighed as he held the large doll in his hands. He suddenly noticed something. “How do you know she’s an egghead?” he asked with a grin.

Jonathan answered immediately with certainty. “It’s because your broniness is rubbing off on me and everybody else.”

“What’s wrong with that?” asked Avram innocently. Not waiting for an answer, he went to the counter and bought the plushie. Jonathan groaned and walked over to his younger brother and the two siblings left the store and began the walk home.

*

The two brothers left the toy store and began walking home. They passed by the bakery, which Avram dubbed 'Sugercube Corner', on their way on a shortcut through the park.

The boy's family has lived in this town for years and were well known for all their different talents. Their father, Elijah, was a great lawyer and their mother, Grace, was a famous music teacher. All the kids in the family were good at something or other and were very popular with the rest of the people in town. But ever since Avram had discovered My Little Pony the whole town has been changing. Kids, teens and adults were watching the show without a single care towards their gender role. Parties and themed celebrations were held and games and competitions were organized.  Each street and shop had its own name but if you asked a younger brony for directions he'd probably give you the place's ponified nickname. All this has earned the town its worldwide nickname, Bronyville.

Avram was the cause of it all. The first thing he did in the act of going public was post the existence of the show on the town’s Facebook page. The first comments were from people who already knew about the show and suggested that their friends watch it. Like a laugh, the ‘pony sense’ jumped from person to person, house to house, neighborhood to neighborhood, until nearly the entire town consisted of bronies and pegasisters. In fact, once at school, Avram asked the principal, who was also a brony, for permission to mess with the recess bell. When recess was over the whole school was targeted by the sound of the MLP opening theme, encouraging the already existing bronies to sing along with no shame. During the following week the classes were abuzz with their new feelings towards My Little Pony and brought even more people into the herd.

As Jonathan and Avram began to cross the park, a mixed group of people moved in their direction, chatting animatedly. They stopped in front of the two brothers and one teenager separated himself from the crowd and approached them.

“Oh, hi Arch System,” Avram called cheerfully, recognizing the brony. Arch System was a carefree guy that Avram met in school during a talent show. Arch, whose real name is Darius, was an amazing architect who not only designed buildings but even built scale models from the actual materials required to make a full-size building. He was also the town’s leading brony architect and had even helped renovate the convention center where the bronies held their various activities.

“Hey guys,” Arch said to the two brothers. “Where are you off to?”

“We’re on our way home from a very successful shopping trip,” Avram answered, pulling out his new plushie with a flourish. The crowd of bronies exclaimed in awe and amazement at the workmanship on the doll. Some walked closer for a better look and Avram didn’t pull away, he even let them hold it and feel it.

“So freaking awesome,” muttered Arch with a grin. He then continued “So, you coming to the dance party next week? All our favorite songs are on request.”

Next week. It wouldn’t happen. Jonathan glanced at his younger brother and watched his face fall. What Arch didn’t know was that their family was moving away. Their parents needed to find a bigger house as well as a home that was closer to their work areas. The thought of leaving Bronyville on all his friends saddened Avram to a dangerous level. He would spend long periods of time in his room, his eyes closed and his mind clouded with confusion and despair. He couldn’t even bring himself to tell all the bronies that he was leaving Bronyville.

“Are you going to tell or should I?” Jonathan asked his younger brother. Avram shook his head and stepped towards the group.

“I have some sad news, everypony,” he began. “Me and my family are leaving Bronyville.” He waited until the bronies stopped their stream of sad murmurs and cries of depression before continuing, “Now listen. I know we’ve been through a lot together and I’m sure you’ll be able to continue without me.”

“It won’t be the same without you,” a pegasisters called out from the crowd.

Avram sighed and said “I know, I feel the same way. But we have to look at the bright side of everything. Thanks to me you’re all bronies and thanks to you I have lots of great friends. We shouldn’t stop just because we’ll be far from each other. We’ll keep calm and brony on.”

“Keep calm and brony on!” the group of bronies repeated after him.

Avram felt a hand on his shoulder. “Come on,” Jonathan said. “We have to get home and finish packing.”

“Right,” Avram replied gloomily. He waved towards his friends and walked out of the park, Jonathan trying to stay in line with him.

The minute they left, the bronies began conversing amongst themselves. “We can’t just say goodbye like this,” Arch System announced. “It’s not how we should send him off.”

The pegasister librarian, Checkout, spoke up. “I wish we didn’t have to say goodbye at all.

Arch nodded and continued, “Be as it may, he’s leaving and it won’t be the same without him.”

“The Dance Party sure won’t be the same,” muttered Rap Seed, the town’s D.J.

Suddenly, Arch had an idea. “I’ve got it! The perfect solution for this whole situation. But we’re going to have to work really hard and I’m going to need everypony’s help to get it done.”

“We’re all ears, Arch,” Checkout said enthusiastically.

Rap Seed chuckled “Yeah, pony ears.” Everypony laughed and Arch went on to explain his plan.