The Other Element

"Nathan... Nathan!"

"...yeah?", I said, shaking my head a tad.

"You were doing it again.", my best friend Sam informs me from across the cafeteria table.

"Oh, sorry.", I hastily apologize for being distracted. It had been happening a lot lately. Though I'm sitting right in front of him as we're eating lunch, Sam and I might as well've been miles apart. It was like I was on another planet entirely. A very specific planet, definitely not Earth.

Sam looks at me and asks, "You were thinking about ponies again weren't you?". How did he know?

"Yeah...", I admit.

"Dude, seriously you gotta sort your fucking life out man.", Sam tells me. 'Bucking', my mind corrects him.

"I know, it's just I've been under a lot of pressure lately." Lying. I'm not under any pressure. Unless you count pressure as being stuck in a town without another brony for miles, swimming in a sea of bucking parasprites, not even being able to buy a damn t-shirt or a plushie to help me express how I feel about this AMAZING show and fandom. Oh wait, keeping your feelings bottled up with no way to express them? Isn't that the definition of pressure? Okie dokie motherbucking lokie then, I GUESS I AM UNDER A LOT OF PRESSURE!

"I'll be all right.", I tell him. Inside, my mind is raging. Can you get addicted to pony cartoons? I'm past the point that I care. For Luna's sake, if this cafeteria gets any colder, it's going to need a winter wrap-up. Something else Sam wouldn't know anything about.

"I worry about you sometimes man.", Sam says and goes back to eating. Yeah, I worry about me too. I worry that if my internet connection dies, I won't be able to watch MLP and then I'll be as bored as you and the rest of our friends. Reminder: need to download new episode song remix on Iphone. We went back to eating. The day went by normally, barely noticed it until it was over. Dad picked me up, took me home. Got home, hugged parents, loved parents, had dinner, went upstairs to bedroom. Sister is staying at friend's house, might have peace and quiet tonight. Watched MLP videos on youtube, had lullz. Tomorrow's Friday. That means day after tomorrow, new episode!! Sam will probably want to do something considering it's the weekend. Might do something with him so long as it's not in the middle of the new episode.

"Nathan! Light's out.", mom calls from downstairs. That's when I clicked on the link and saw the video. It was in my 'recommended for you' section. Is youtube profiling me now? You scare me sometimes internet. The video was only about a minute and a half long. It was about Rainbow Dash... my favorite pony. I don't know, just something about her being AWESOME struck a chord with me. In the video though, she was mauled by timberwolves. She'd been "invited to the Everfree Forest by Gilda in the middle of the night only to be ripped to shreds by timberwolves". She was left lying there in the middle of the forest as the camera zoomed out. Not bad animation all things considered. Why does the brony community do this sometimes? I know there's some sort of weird fascination with seeing the ponies mutilated but OH COME ON! I didn't like seeing that happen to my favorite pony. To anypony, really. I know they're just cartoons and it was just a fan-made video but... why? I replay the video again and again, watching every gorey detail. Why am I torturing myself with this? I want to save her, I want to LITERALLY jump into the computer screen and save her.

"Nathan! Lights out!!", mom calls again. I find myself crying. I turn off my computer and go to bed but I know there won't be any sleep for me tonight.