Today was like any other day. Except that it was Saturday, and I realized how much I despised when I had to work. Where do I work exactly? Mcdondald’s! It gets super crazy here on weekends, and it doesn’t help that our store is inside a gas station, and that we are practically on a very busy street with a few shopping centers. I guess I should say that this Saturday was one of my special ones. I wasn’t scheduled to go to work today, which made me a happy guy.
I normally start my Saturdays waking up at 7:20 to catch the livestream of the newest episodes of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic on BronyState. To say the least, I am quite satisfied with season 4 so far. After I finished today’s episode I walked out of my room to make myself some breakfast. One problem I have right now is that I hardly have a craving for anything in our fridge or our pantry anymore. It’s just so boring to eat the same food everyday. It gets old and your body grows sick of it. I wouldn’t have any of it, so I just decided I’d eat a granola bar.
I headed back to my room to get dressed. I slipped on a plain black T-Shirt, and a pair of shorts. I then put on my socks and shoes grabbed my house keys, phone, earphones, and the keys to my bike-lock. Before I left, I needed to freshen up a bit. I went to the bathroom and grabbed some cologne and sprayed it around my neck and collar, and then put on some deodorant. I then got my teeth brushed and flossed and then exited the room. Once in front of my parents who happened to be watching Supernatural, they caught me in the corner of their eyes before I opened the door to the garage to get my bike out.
“Where are you headed, Jacob?” My mom asked, her eyes still glued to the television.
As I pressed the button to open the door outside I answered her. “I’m heading to the park for a bit. Don’t you realize this is something that I normally do?”
“Oh, okay. Don’t get mugged.”
I chuckled. “I won’t, Mom.”
I headed through the door and brought my bike out onto the driveway. I went back through the garage and closed the door that led outside. When the door behind me was closed, I immediately headed out the front door. I closed and locked the gate behind me, and walked into the driveway. I walked passed our truck that was parked in our driveway, and over to my bike. I got on, and rode off to the park. Now, this may seem odd, but there were ponies trotting up and down the street as I rode by. Some jumped to the side to avoid being hit by the bike. Yes, ponies existed.
It’s been a while since the ponies themselves came to Earth, and I was excited at first, then I realized that every single brony was going to have a field day. I was right, they did. Ever since bronies freaked out whenever they saw a pony or their favorite pony, our four-legged friends grew very weary of us. I’m going to back up a bit here: most bronies flipped out when they saw the ponies, some of us remained more reserved to avoid making a bad first impression. To no avail, we as bronies would be seen as the bane of their existence.
Now, to clear things up, I kept me being a brony from the ponies. Never told a single one that I was one due to the fact of being avoided like the plague. Call me a wuss if you’d like, but I want to hold a conversation with them, no matter how much the fanboy in me banged against the bars of its cage. I enjoy their company and I like to hang out with them. I just hope that today won’t be the day I slip up.
*****
I arrived at the park after about a five to seven minute bike ride. I pulled up by the swings and leaned the bike up against the bars. I kicked the kickstand down to make sure it would stay still. I then unlocked one of the locks and put it through the frame and front tire of the bike, and around the bar it leant against. I finally closed the lock, and went towards one of the swings. I was about to get on, but some kids no older than maybe six and seven years old wanted to use it. I let them get on and enjoy their fun. I sat on one of the small concrete walls that divided the swing area from the volleyball court.
I sat there for almost an hour before the children finally left. I immediately got up and went on one of the swings. Hey, don’t judge me, I love going on the freaking swings. Especially when I’m listening to music. It helps me unwind and relax when I need it.
Once I sat down on the swing I pulled out my phone and connected my earphones. I then went to my media player to put on some music. Once I did that, I put my phone back in my pocket, and started to kick my legs back and forth as the songs on my phone played. The songs I listened to were from various artists such as Metallica, Skillet, Megadeth, and a few others.
A little while later, I noticed a mare had taken the swing right next to me. Oh, this mare was a familiar mint-colored unicorn with topaz eyes. I’m sure we all know who this is, and if you don’t that’s just a bit sad isn’t it? There was something off about her though, I noticed her expression was that of depression rather than excitement. Well this isn’t the first thing I noticed, more like the second or third. Why in the everlasting pits of hell was she doing in Palmdale? Why here of all places? I wanted to ask her, but I’d have to speak at a louder volume because I had the music in my ear at full blast. I took out the earphones and paused the music and decided to engage in a bit of conversation. I brought myself to a slow back and forth motion so I can speak to her.
“Hello?”
She turned to me to reply. “Oh, hi. I didn’t notice you were here.”
“It’s fine,” I began. “Why do you look sad? It’s a wonderful day today. You should be having fun.” I don’t like seeing Lyra sad like this. I needed to know why so I could at least cheer her up.
“It’s nothing really.”
“It can’t just be nothing.”
“Well, I finally get to meet humans, and well, a lot of them kind of find me annoying.” She stared at the ground after she finished answering.
Awwww. I really wanted to give her a hug so badly, but I had to keep my composure otherwise I would look like a freak in public. That and I don’t want to risk her avoiding me just because I made her feel uncomfortable. “What if I said that I didn’t find you annoying?”
“Yeah right. I tried to approach a brony and they run off like I’m some sort of disease. Some of them even invaded my personal space to ask me questions, and I just gave up on them altogether. I ask regular people, and they just tell me to get out of their way or they tell me bad things and walk away.” Her explanation made me feel even more like crap inside. I didn’t do anything to her, but I wanted to help her. Also, I can’t really blame her for any of this. The city I lived in was not a pleasant place. I mean you meet some nice people, and you meet some bad ones. She was just having really crummy luck.
“I don’t know how I can help there. Some people are rude, some are nice.”
“I doubt that there are any nice people.”
“There are plenty of kind-hearted people, you just need to know where to look. Palmdale isn’t one of those places.” I stated bluntly.
Lyra looked over at me once more. She stared at me for what seemed like forever, and finally it looked like something had clicked in her head. “Wait, why aren’t you telling me to go away or something like that?”
“I’m just an average person who lives their life one day at a time.” I answered.
“So, you won’t find me annoying if I tried to ask you something?”
I shook my head in reply. This happened to brighten her face a little. Seeing her happy made me happy, and that’s all that mattered. I don’t like seeing my favorite pony sad, and she was just too adorable to be sad like that. I was glad that I could help her. This didn’t last too long though because she immediately asked me one question, and it was one I did not want to answer.
“Are you a brony by any chance?”
I stopped dead in my seat. The feeling of my skin turning pale crept through my body, and my eyes went wide. “I-uh….” I was stuttering now. I didn’t want to answer. I was and still am a brony, but I didn’t want her to spite me because of it. I couldn’t lie to her, I hated lying especially to my parents. I only lied if I thought it would get me out of minor situations, but this wasn’t one of those.
She narrowed her eyes at me. “You are a brony aren’t you?”
I couldn’t hide it. I was never asked that question by any of the ponies because well, to be honest, I never really acknowledged them unless it was just a “hi” or something like that. A simple greeting was all we exchanged and that was it. I hung my head down and let out a breath. “Yes, I am a brony.” I felt horrible at this point and I couldn’t really hate her for despising me for something like this.
“And to think I was talking to a normal person.”
“Yeah, well. Go ahead and run off. I wouldn’t blame you if you did. I only kept it a secret because I just wanted to be able to speak with you. I didn’t think that question would come up.”
“Aren’t you going to get in my face and try to give me a hug or something?”
I laughed a bit. “Oh, I want to hug you so badly to be quite honest.”
“What’s stopping you?” She asked flatly.
“Restraint.”
“Oh? You bronies have that?”
“Some of us do, but a lot of bronies don’t. Our image was practically destroyed by the more open bronies in our community. Some of us wanted to keep it subtle, and not make a big thing about you ponies actually being real and all. So, go on right ahead and say what you like about me right now because you may never see my face again after today.”
Okay, either that last statement either struck a nerve with her, or that made her very worried. “What do you mean by that?”
“I might just not appear outdoors anymore unless I need to. You’ll hardly ever see me.”
“You don’t have to do that just because we ponies aren’t fond of people like you.” She quickly replied.
“It’s hard when a lot of the world sees you as a disease already. Now we got ponies hating us. It’s already looking bad for our community already, and our numbers are already waning because of it.”
Lyra seemed perplexed by this. It was as if she didn’t understand our predicament. “It can’t be that bad.”
“How is it not that bad? Some people in our community were driven to the brink of committing suicide because they were completely berated by their favorite ponies, especially in public! How is that not bad?” I flailed my arms in the air for emphasis on my last point.
Her eyes went wide with much disbelief. “How can anyone think of taking away their own life?”
“You see how bad it can get? Some people are emotionally unstable, and a few others had really crap lives before they started watching the show. It was a great escape for most of us. Especially me.”
She seemed a bit ashamed about her questioning how bad it can be. “I-I had no idea that our actions could drive people to such depression.”
“Some of us can take it better than others.” I replied.
Okay, now I was feeling like an ass here. She was starting to look depressed again. Damn it I hate that! “Please don’t start getting all sad like that in front of me. That right there is something I cannot handle.”
Lyra looked up at me and put her head back down, eyes facing the ground. “I guess I should say I’m sorry?”
I shook my head. “No. You don’t. There are just some things that need to be worked on.” I answered.
“Like what?”
“For starters, we can start off by introducing ourselves properly.”
She picked her head up. The unicorn always did look so adorable even when she looked sad. “O-okay.”
“Hello, my name is Jacob. And you?” I held my left hand out to shake her hoof.
Lyra’s face brightened with a weak, d’awww inducing grin. “Hi, my name is Lyra Heartstrings.” She then reached for my hand with her right hoof. I proceeded to grab it so we can shake. I already knew what her name was, and I am sure she knew that I knew. Aside from that, we had a nice chat between the two of us. From what I can tell, we were going to be good friends.
