The early rays of celestia’s sun beamed down on the head of Jake Anthony. On second hand, it was not Celestia’s sunrays. But merely typical sun that awakened him into his daily routine and he had loathed waking up in the morning. You see, Jake was a brony; he had been so for the past couple of months. For Jake, watching the adventures of 6 happy cartoon ponies seemed to be the only good thing going on in his dull and hate full life of his. Jake tended to be very depressed at times and had grown a disliking for many of the people around him. He was just short of giving up hope on everything and just killing himself, but not today. Today Jake would go to school and at least try to become a normal kid. Little did he know that his life would make a drastic change on this seemingly average day in the spring.
“This again, I really hate going to my school but I must, if I miss any more days I will get into serious trouble!” said Jake as he got out of bed. As he finally got out of his bed, he glanced at the improvised Fluttershy poster on his wall that he had printed at the school library. “Why? Just, why can’t you just be real? Why cant the world be like that of equestria, where everyone is kind and what little problems there are can be solved by 6 whimsical ponies in a 25 minute episode?” Jake could relate to the yellow pony in the way that he was somewhat outcast and very shy around new people, and also had low self-esteem.
Jake mustered himself about, and dug through his laundry pile on the floor to find some relatively clean clothes on the floor. The rest of the clothes smelled very badly, for he had been working in them, aside for one shirt and a pair of old jeans that were hanging on the end of his bed. Jake had purchased the shirt online, and it had a print of a pony on the front and words that read “Brony” were on the front of it. “I really do like this shirt” he thought “but if I wear it the kids at my school will make fun of me even more”. In spite of the thoughts that had gone through his mind, Jake realized that he was going to be late, so he proceeded in sliding the brony shirt over his chest, grabbed his backpack, and decided to catch the bus.
You see, not many kids liked Jake. For what reason? No one is entirely sure. But he was an outcast at school. Bullied by other kids, his confidence was shaken quite a bit and he tended to have a lot of anxiety around people. His grades were dropping due to his lack of motivation. He felt as if he could not continue to fight on in life, that the awful people that were his classmates had overcome him. Jake had actually attempted suicide once, but it failed after the round in the pistol was a dud.
Jake walked out into the living room of his 12 by 60 foot mobile home that he lived in. His mother was still asleep and he just decided to skip breakfast and go straight to the bus stop. Jake did not like to ride the bus; the bus was not a happy place for him. It was one of the many places that the other students would make fun of him. And today it would be much. Much worse for him considering the fact that he was wearing a Brony shirt today.
It was a cold morning compared to most late may days. He could feel the crisp air hit him as he exited his house. There were even patches of frost on the grass outside. Twas a very overcast and rainy day, just like most. Jake walked off his porch and began to start down the road outside his house through the trailer court that he lived in. The sun wasn’t very high up in the sky yet and it was around 6am. When he had finally reached the bus stop, Jake considering going back home and skipping today to avoid the hostile environment. That thought was quickly brought to a halt when the school bus had pulled up near him. The bus’s doors squeaked open and Jake stepped inside of the vehicle, the interior of the bus smelled of diesel fuel and grubby grade school kids. Everyone jakes age already had their own car, and they drove it to school every day thus leaving Jake the only 18 year old on a bus full of squirmy middle school kids. He plopped his bag down on an empty pleather seat and proceeded to sit down there. As he placed his head against the front of the seat he began to daydream about things…. Ponies to be exact. “Why can’t season 2 get here faster” he thought “ The season one finale was good, but what am I going to do now that it is over?” his thoughts began to drift and before anything he knew, he had drifted to sleep.
Jake was awakened by a sudden thud; the bus had hit a pothole while driving down Main Street. Jake rubbed his eyes and had figured he was about half way to the school. If he were to go back to sleep it would have been a waste of time considering the fact that if he went back to sleep he would be too tired to continue on with the day.
He took his hand and wiped the cold fog off the bus window and looked outside at Main Street of his hometown. Stanton was a dying town, not many people lived here after the Frigidaire factory shut down. He continued to look outside at the foreclosed housed and businesses. On a corner was the restaurant where he celebrated his 6th birthday party, now in shambles with its windows boarded up. He remembered the day vividly, the good old days where there was no trouble or worry. Back before dad passed away and before mom lost her job.
Jake remembered going to the mom and pop restaurant. He remembered the smell of cooking food. Everyone there seemed so friendly. Jake and his mom had sat down in the nearest booth. Jake, as a little kid was kind of sad about the fact that he did not get a full-blown party with balloons and a cake but he tried to remain polite about it. But just as that thought had entered his mind it had exited just as fast when he noticed a person walk over to the table. No, not just any person. This was Jake’s father who had been put on leave from his 2nd tour in Iraq. Jake was overcome with joy as he ran up to his father and gave him a hug! His father was still wearing his military uniform. And also out of the corner of his eye came the rest of his family. His aunts and uncles and even his grandmother, he even saw cake and balloons and a bunch of presents. It was truly the best day ever!
Jakes train of thought was broken when the bus brakes went off and pulled up to the school. He heard a group of middle school kids whispering about him most likely, considering he was the only senior to ride the bus before the other kids were to be dropped of at the middle and elementary schools. He had wished that the days were still as good as that of his early childhood. He grabbed his heavy backpack, threw it over his shoulder, and began to advance down the isle of the bus. He finally stepped outside and saw a bunch of his classmates standing around outside by the door, the only door that he was allowed to go into. Jake had remembered the fact that he was wearing a brony shirt today and that he was going to receive some bad flak for wearing it. As he paced nearer to the school he saw a high school jock standing by the door talking to his girlfriend. Jake tried to make nothing of it but before he could walk past the jock exclaimed “nice shirt pony faggot!” and threw a coke can at his head and it make his girlfriend chuckle.
Jake was not a small kid he was actually pretty tall and strong. He wanted to walk up to this brute and beat the living shit out of him. Not just for insulting one of the only things that brought him joy, but because of the fact that this kind of shit happened to him every single day. Kids would make fun of him for whatever reason they could. But Jake would not stand up for himself today, he did not want to get into trouble and get kicked out of school. He just kept walking and opened the door into the school. He saw even more students talking and mingling among the commons before class started, many of them pointing at him and laughing and mumbling unkind things to him under their breath.
Jake did not have any friends to talk to at school, so the first 15 minutes of school before class was like a form of torture for him, no one to talk to and if he did go out and talk to people he would be shot down and made fun of for no reason. He sighed and thought to himself “well there is no way I am going to stand around here and be made fun of some more” thought Jake “ I guess I will go down to the library and work on some class work of mine. Jake continued to linger down the hallway towards the library, with an occasional elbow or remark by a couple students here and there.
He had finally reached the library and he sat his things down near a table and sat down in the wooden chair. Jake reached down and unzipped his backpack. And pulled out his geometry book. He really didn’t plan on getting any work done at all; he just kind of stared down at his book and continued to daydream. He missed how things used to be when he was little; he continued to think about his father. When a crushing memory came upon him.
It was 2 days after the glorious birthday party with the cake and being able to see his father after almost a year. His father had to back to war the next day and from his bedroom, Jake heard his parents arguing about something. “All you care about is yourself you cheating pig!” yelled jakes mother. “I assure you honey, there are no women on the barracks! They separate us!” Assured jakes father. Jakes mom had always been a paranoid person and tended to make fasle accusations a lot. She had bipolar disease and often had severe mood swings. She had even once accused jake’s father of stealing something that she had in her pocket unknowingly. “Get out of my house!” yelled jakes mom. “get the fuck out you pig! And never come back!” she continued. “I am sorry it has come to this and I will leave, just please let me say goodbye to our son before I leave” stated jakes father. “no get out now! I will not have you teaching him the ways of your grubby filthy man ways! My baby is too good for you!”. Jakes father let out a sigh and walked towards the door. Jake was in tears, he did not want his father to go away again. He ran outside at his dad into the driveway and hugged him. “how long are you going to be gone?” cried jake “ I don’t want you to go away again!” “ quite a while I am afraid, daddy has to back to Iraq” said his father in a calm voice. Before any of them could continue the goodbye jakes mother ran out “jake! Get your fucking ass in this house right now before I beat the shit out of you!
“but mommy” cried poor jake. “daddy has to go back to the war, I might never see him again”. “I do not give a rats ass about your cheating father anymore, what happens to him I don’t care about!”. Jake cried and ran off to his room, It was two days later that Jake’s father had been killed by a roadside bomb.
“Excuse me?” said a female voice to Jake as he snapped back into reality. “is anyone sitting here?”. It was a fairly attractive girl that Jake had been eyeing for the past couple days, he even thought he was starting to get a crush on this girl. Jake blushed and replied “umm no there isn’t, why?” in a timid voice. “oh nothing really I’m glad I just needed to take this chair if that’s ok” Jake’s insides sunk, the look on his face was similar to that of when his puppy died back in the 5th grade.
