This can't be real!

by Somebodycallmylawyer

Rating: teen
Tags: Slice of Life, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Alternate Universe, Human, Other, Original Character
Length: 6862

I don't know what's happening, I feel lonely, and I don't know who I am anymore. I'll never forget the last 14 days. Part of the Ponyearthverse.

I can't believe what I am seeing. I haven't been able to believe anything from the last 14 days. I was once a happy and carefree person. Now, I can only reminisce in the memories. They are so close, yet so distant. I am tearful, lonely, and terrified. I'm not sure where I will be. My life has all but grinded to a halt. Do you want to know how I got to this stage? If so, then stay with me and get comfortable. It's a long story.

This story is part of the Ponyearthverse, a collaborative universe created by SkyblazeTheBard A.K.A Markus.

Published 2013-02-17 22:00:01 UTC
Last updated 2013-05-18 22:09:07 UTC

Prologue - A tale of the unexpected

Prologue - A tale of the unexpected

Hello there! How are you? What are you doing today? How is life going for you? Are you enjoying it? Have you had the chance to see anyone this morning? Are you glad to be living in the real world?

My name is Charles, and I have been unable to put that last question to rest. I would like to think that I am experiencing reality. However, I have doubted this assumption recently. Ever since this one fateful Sunday in October, I have witnessed the impossible unfold in the world around me. You wouldn’t believe what has happened this month. Firstly, ordinary people are victims of a series of transformations. Their own bodies have been replaced by ones from a cartoon. They have effectively turned into animals. In particular, the vast majority of them became ponies. Some of which became equines that were previously mythical.

The strange events don’t stop there.
Society has been divided into two main groups. One group consists of individuals who are sympathetic towards the changed people. The other group are heavily discriminatory organisations, which are prejudiced towards the former humans and the new-found creatures. In a few countries, there have been short clashes and conflicts between these two groups. Much of the conflict has been between the former humans and the hate groups. Many equine-creatures have been targeted by anti-pony organisations.

Just a few days ago, an extremist from one of these groups; P.A.P.A, tried to shoot an innocent yellow pegasus. This mare was one of the main characters in the cartoon that she was from. I felt like punching a wall when I found out about the shooting. However, despite my strong feelings at the time, I knew that my reaction couldn’t solve any injustice, especially if it occurred on another part of the world. Sadly, people are always going to disagree on something. Violence can erupt as a result. I've accepted the fact that things like this always happen, because everyone has their own opinions and morals. It’s just human nature, I suppose. Although groups like P.A.P.A exist and are operating worldwide, my area has been fortunate enough to avoid any speciesist incidents.

This doesn’t mean that this ongoing crisis has not affected us. If you’ve had the chance to look at the calendar lately, you would have observed that it has changed beyond recognition. I don’t even know what day today will be known as. This, however, is the least of my worries right now. I can’t imagine what might happen today.

This morning so far has been quite unusual for me, and I haven’t even started my day! Simply getting up was a battle. I haven’t been awake for very long, yet I have struggled to get to my mother’s room. Her bedroom is connected to the bathroom, which both me and mum use to get ready for the day. I should be ready to go downstairs and face the day right now, but there is one thing that’s stopping me from doing so.
I am looking into one of the mirrors (which act as cupboard doors) at this very moment. I have been here for at least 15 minutes. I can’t help myself from taking my gaze off from the object in this mirror. The object is still making me shiver. I am slowly calming down, but whimpers are escaping my mouth as I look into the mirror. After a moment of hesitation, I slowly turn away from the mirror.

What I am currently facing, along with what I have had to come to terms with in recent days, shouldn’t be happening in the real world. I have no idea if anything could logically explain the transformations and the calendar change. I have occasionally thought that this crisis is just an object of my imagination. I couldn’t escape the possibility that I, personally, was no longer living in reality. When these thoughts have appeared, however, I have told myself that all of this probably is real. I don’t see how I could have lost my grip on reality so easily. If I were comatose, I would probably know by now.

I still don’t know for sure. There are many reasons why I am unsure about my condition and my experiences. Firstly, I have never been in a coma before, so I don’t know what a comatose patient would actually experience, nor do I know how they would react and what they would think. Secondly, I can only assume that this crisis is a series of entirely unprecedented events in the history of the world. Impossible events have occurred without any rational reason. Surely, they couldn’t happen in the real world. My personal debate has shattered and frightened me. I can't go to sleep anymore, without having these thoughts at least once every night.

To summarise my experiences thus far in a nutshell: I have lost my confidence and composure in a short space of time.

This isn’t the only thing that I have lost.

As the ‘Great Pony Crisis’ has unfolded, I have lost the sense of control and security in my own life. I have lost my sense of belief and much of my ability to make rational judgements. These have been replaced in favour of cluelessness, fear, and more prominent scepticism. In fact, I might now have an unhealthy level of scepticism. I have almost lost my mind, whilst trying to comprehend the events as they unfolded. This might not seem like much, but now, I have lost something more valuable than any of the above.

I have literally lost my very humanity. My sense of individuality has gone with it.

All of this has gone, in the space of about 14 days, which used to be the length of a fortnight. It’s amazing how everything can change, just like that. I would have clicked my fingers to emphasise my point, however, I don’t know how to do that, for a start. There is a bigger issue, which prevents me from doing such an action. I don’t even have fingers anymore.

I am just as confused as you are, if not more so than you. The only way that I could begin to explain this to you is if I told you what happened in the last handful of days. From that fateful Sunday to the subsequent crisis that has unfolded recently. Let’s go right back to the beginning...

Chapter I - A doubtful discovery

This can't be real!

A My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic fanfiction by Somebodycallmylawyer

Based on the concept of the Ponyearthverse, created by SkyblazeTheBard A.K.A Markus

Chapter I - A doubtful discovery

~~Day 1~~

It all started on a cool October Sunday. On that day, I would never live the same life again. When I woke up in the morning, I wasn't expecting the day to be very interesting. I was eventually proven wrong. The morning couldn't have been more deceiving.

When I slipped back into consciousness, I was trying to remain asleep. Eventually, I opened a pair of tired eyes and slowly sat up. I groaned slightly as I positioned myself to look at my clock on the windowsill. The clock drearily displayed the time: 8:41. It was still quite early in the morning. Too early.

I wasn't exactly an early bird, when it came to getting up on the weekend. In fact, I didn't usually leave my bed until at least 10:15. Despite my intentions to continue my sleep, my body clock had other plans that day. It tended to get up a couple of hours before I did. I sighed as I saw the numbers on the clock, knowing that I would need to think about something, to let the time pass as I slept.

Before I decided to lie down and return to my slumber, I chose to look outside of my window instead.
'I may as well look outside,' I thought to myself. 'I'm sitting by the window, anyway.'
On that note, I stood up on my bed, with my knees on the mattress. I then carefully edged my way to the windowsill. From there, I moved the blind out of the way and peered out through my window. The view wasn't breathtaking, but I imagined that it would be far more picturesque than the view from an estate.
A horse field complemented the country landscape. The plain, block-sized field was only a meter from the back of the house. The field dominated the foreground in my view. In the distance, there was a radio mast, which was located by the coastal cliffs.

I lived in Jersey. I know what you're probably thinking, but you're not right in your assumption. I didn't live in New Jersey. That was on the other side of the Atlantic. I actually lived on the island of Jersey. It was a small British territory that was located near to France. The island was my calm and quiet home. It was largely rural; in fact, Jersey only had one town. I lived up in the countryside, not unlike most islanders. We tended to get confused with the state of New Jersey, especially by Americans.

My attention shifted from the horizon back to the nearby horse field. A couple of horses were standing there. They were not doing anything particularly exciting.
I looked at the brown equines and commented in my head, 'Boy, it must be boring to be a horse.'

As I continued to look at the animals, I smirked. I was so lucky to be a human. I knew that I was enjoying my life more than the horses probably were. On most days, the horses were taken from their stables, only to spend much of their day in a confined, dull field. They would always be given opportunities to exercise inside and outside of the field, like any other horse would. However, they didn't have much of a choice about where they went and what they could do. In contrast to their lack of choice, I was in my own warm, comfortable bed. I was able to get up whenever I wanted. The horses could only play with each other to entertain themselves, whilst I had electronics that could kill hours of time. They would be forced outside for fresh air, even when it was winter and when it rained. I had a roof and soft bed sheets over me.
I couldn't live as a horse. I would have to give up so many luxuries. My laptop, my home, my bed. All of these would be useless and inaccessible to horses. A horse would get very few creature comforts. However, to be fair, the horses in the field had always lived like that. They didn't know any better way to live.

After laying my thoughts to rest, I finally went back to sleep. I had a mental discussion with myself, as time slowly passed by. I wanted to avoid waking up for a while, but I managed to sleep for another hour, without getting bored.

I had a peaceful sleep. I had an ample opportunity to relax in bed. This was partially due to the lack of any obnoxious sounds. All I could hear was the gentle sound of cars passing by the house. I lived by a long, lonesome country road, so I had gotten used to that sound over the years. If it weren't for those vehicles, you could have heard a pin drop. The silent house reflected the day that I thought I would have. The house wasn't always this quiet, but it was just that little bit quieter than usual. This didn't alarm me at all. In fact, a smirk slowly crept onto my tired face, as I remembered that I would have the house all to myself.
Mum was going away on that weekend. She was going to see my brother in England. She would not come back from her visit until Monday evening. The absence of her voice implied that she had left. I happily sighed, as I assumed that I would be alone today. I was eagerly looking forward to having some personal leisure time. Today was going to be a quiet day. It would be my day.

Despite probably being the only person in the household, I couldn't go through the day without speaking to someone.
Without any prior warning, a faint ringing sound woke me up. I groaned in protest at the end of my sleeping session. I knew all too well about who was on the other end of the line and why they called. My dad must have been calling me. In moments, the ringing stopped, and I could hear dad's voice as he left a message for me.
I opened my eyes and looked to my watch. The hands presented the time. It was only 9:50 AM. I could never sleep for too long on a Sunday. I always spoke to my dad on Skype on a Sunday morning. It was the only time in the day that we could speak. Dad lived on the other side of the world, and we were many time zones apart. Consequently, we had to call each other in my morning. He usually interrupted my sleep, but to be fair, who knows how long I would have slept for if he didn't call me that day. As a teenager, I could have easily slept until the afternoon.

I quickly got up, washed myself, and changed into some casual clothes. Upon my venture outside from my room to the shower downstairs, I saw that mum was indeed away. I headed back upstairs to speak to my father. I carefully took my computer from my room, and placed it on the table in the opposing spare room. Then I turned the system on. Within minutes, I was speaking to dad on Skype.

When the call began, he greeted me with enthusiasm "Hello!"

"Hi." I replied happily.

"How are you?"

I answered his question honestly: "I'm alright." I had gotten over him disrupting my sleep. He was my dad, after all. "How about you?"

"I'm," he paused for a moment. He quickly searched for a response as he was taken aback by my question, "…good." Dad's enthusiasm returned in no time, but I could tell that he still felt uncomfortable. How did such a simple question suddenly make him feel so uneasy?

Ignoring the thought for the time being, I dragged the conversation along, "How's your week been?"

"It was quite eventful."

"Really? What did you get up to then?"

Dad proceeded to recap his experiences of the past week.

For the next ten minutes, we had a fairly normal conversation. We talked about our week and what we were looking forward to doing in the following weeks. I then deviated slightly from the topic, by asking dad a question.
"Is there anything on at the moment?" I wanted to know if he was watching any TV shows lately.

My dad didn't reply immediately. Instead he stared blankly at me. A frown was forming on his face. He was looking at me as if there was a misunderstanding.
As I stared back at him, my face also began to droop. What had I said? Was there something that I should have known about? What was going on?

After seemed like several minutes, my dad finally spoke up. "There's nothing on at the moment," he paused again; I could clearly see the look of bewilderment on his face. "but we've been watching nothing but the news this evening." He could tell from my face that I hadn't watched the news at that point. He continued, "You won't believe what's happening!"

When I heard the last sentence, my thoughts translated into wide eyes and a look of horror on my face. I had to know what was happening. I couldn't wait for another moment.

"What's going on then?" I asked the question impatiently. Did a natural disaster occur? Did terrorists attack a famous building? Had the Queen passed on? I almost dreaded my dad's answer.

When he told me what was actually going on, his reply threw me. "Apparently, there's a winged unicorn in someone's house!"

"What?"

I had asked dad in an annoyed tone. My dad was right. I didn't believe him. As a teenager who was sceptical about almost anything irrational, I simply couldn't take him seriously. I just couldn't accept such a ridiculous claim. I was absolutely certain that unicorns couldn't exist.

I resumed my response, "You must be joking. That idea doesn't sound realistic at all! I simply can't believe that."

Dad had grown frustrated at my response. To my surprise, he dealt with his stress in only a matter of seconds. As he temporarily calmed down, my dad spoke to me in a calm, clear and simple tone. "I am completely serious." I was still sceptical, and continued to show him my annoyed look. "Go and look on the news later!" He raised his voice slightly, as he spoke with an increasingly upset tone.

After hearing him, I changed my mind. Maybe he was telling the truth. He looked quite convincing at this point. I wondered if he genuinely meant every single word.

After a moment of consideration, I gave my dad a chance. "What have they said about this 'unicorn'?" I sighed lightly.

“Well, it was spotted in a celebrity’s house a few hours ago.”

“Really? Do you know the celebrity’s name, by any chance?”

“I can’t remember her full name, but I think it was Lauren something.”

“Okay.” I accepted his answer with doubt and suspicion. I was wondering who the celebrity could have been. I couldn’t think of any famous person called Lauren. As dad revealed more information, his story became increasingly unbelievable. If he was making it all up, he was certainly running out of ideas. However, I was wondering where he would take his claim, along with what he would be telling me next.

“There’s more,” my dad added. “Apparently, the unicorn has a name.”

I moved my head slightly closer to my monitor. What would dad say about the creature’s name. What was its name? Cream? Lilly? Fluffy? I knew that this would be interesting.

After I shuffled towards my laptop, dad resumed the conversation. “They have said that its name was ‘Celestia’ or something.” My tired eyes widened slightly.

Celestia.

I had heard that name before.
‘Is it possible that...’ As soon as that thought appeared, I dismissed it. Celestia was nothing more than a cartoon character. There simply couldn’t be a relation between the two equines.

“Uhh..” I couldn’t carry on speaking to dad. I wanted to finish the call to think about what he had said. “That’s... intriguing. I’ll have to watch the news soon.” I no longer questioned my father's story. I couldn't think about it when I was still talking to him. I needed to wrap the call up. “I think I’ll go now.”

“Okay then.” My dad replied in a puzzled tone. Despite his confusion, he allowed me to end the call early. “Well, I’ll speak to you next week, then.”

“I’ll see you next Sunday.” I replied quietly.

“Bye, Charles!”

I barely managed to let out a weak “Bye.”

I ended the call by clicking on the red button.

I proceeded to lie back against my wooden chair and took my gaze away from the computer screen. Once I was comfortable, I began to stare at the window. I reconsidered dad’s ‘news’, throwing any other thoughts away. A unicorn in a celebrity’s home sounded ridiculous to me; as it would for any other rational, sane person, but the unicorn’s name had caused me speculate wildly. Celestia was the name of a winged unicorn from the newest My Little Pony cartoon: Friendship is Magic. The only reason that I knew that was because of the show’s popularity online. I had seen the mare many times in the previous 18 months.

I had known about the bronies for a while. In 2011, I found out that teenagers and young men were watching the cartoon. Initially, this came to me as shocking, strange, and intriguing. I couldn’t understand how such a show could appeal to males at all. Shortly after this discovery, I quickly encountered screenshots, fanart, and other MLP-related content on some sites that I used. I never took part in the bronies’ activities. I didn't even like their posts. On the contrary, I actually found the posts to be annoying. As the fandom grew, I couldn’t browse the web without encountering their content at least once a day. I only wanted to look at rage comics and watch videos on YouTube. I certainly didn’t go on for ponies.
Despite my initial annoyance at the bronies, I eventually accepted their presence. I slowly got used to finding pony content practically everywhere. I learned to ignore them whenever I could. I wasn’t very interested in the show, or its fandom.

Despite the visibility of the bronies on the internet, I knew how obscure they were in real life. Someone like my dad probably wouldn’t even know that the show existed. I simply wouldn’t expect him to mention the name of one of the characters. That’s what confused me. Assuming that he made up the story that he told me, and that he was completely unaware about Friendship is Magic, where did he get the name Celestia? Was this a coincidence? Did the name come to him whilst he gave me the details? Did the name simply happen to match that of the animated winged unicorn? I couldn’t find a more plausible answer. It had to be a coincidence. Despite this, I still held onto a drop of uncertainty. I couldn’t completely accept my answer because I wasn’t sure if dad’s story was indeed false.

I remained in deep thought, taking no consideration towards my surroundings. On one hand, the unicorn story would sound like a myth to any sceptic. On the other hand, my dad explained it in surprising detail. This left me with two explanations. Either he scripted the entire story, or the story was actually true. As I thought about the authenticity of the story, another question surfaced. Had my dad lied to me? Was he tricking me?

I tilted my head downwards at the negative thought. We loved each other. He wouldn’t be cruel enough to fool me that much. When I was younger, he sometimes fooled me with false claims and insignificant white lies. When he did, however, he was either joking or persuading me to do something. Every time he did this, I quickly forgave him. If my dad was fooling me, he would do so for an apparent reason. I assumed that we were on good terms, as we always were. Surely, my dad held no grudges towards me.

I was reluctant to jump to a conclusion, but I guessed that he was telling the truth. If my assumption was correct, it meant only one thing...

‘...But that story must be fake. I can’t explain it.’

I abruptly broke out of my trance and opened my browser. The internet would know the answer.
Without thinking, I quickly opened a second tab. I logged onto Facebook like a zombie. I was going to look at the news on the first tab, but I needed to check my profile first. In the end, I never clicked on my page, or any news website. I was glued to the news feed.

The news feed contained a few normal posts; however, they were easily outnumbered by a sea of other posts. Each of them mentioned Celestia, MLP, or 'Lauren', the celebrity who was involved. My friends weren’t talking about anything else. One post read: ‘Just checked the news. I can’t believe it!’ When I refreshed the page, a new post appeared: ‘WTF is going on at Lauren’s house?’ I soon realised that the celebrity in question was Lauren Faust, the creator of Friendship is Magic. Some of my closest friends noted that the unicorn in her home looked like Celestia. My jaw was so low, I feared that I would break my bones. I never expected a day when anyone would talk about ponies.

FiM was virtually unheard of in Jersey. I knew that the locals didn’t embrace internet culture. My friends tended not to discuss internet memes, unless they were very popular. I knew that they didn’t visit the same websites as me. For example, I didn’t know any other Reddit users. Only a handful of my friends ever visited Know Your Meme. If they ever saw any pony content, they probably avoided it, like I did. I wouldn’t expect them to understand the fandom. We saw internet culture as something irrelevant to us. It was never a significant part of our lives.

Upon looking at the news feed, my heart sank. I knew that something was wrong. The unicorn incident was not just a real news story; it must have also gathered a considerate amount of attention. I needed to look at the news. I was about to click on my other tab, but before I could do so, my stomach churned. It was now 10:30, and I never made time to eat breakfast. I quickly typed a post: ‘Why is everyone talking about unicorns and ponies? Could anyone please give me some context?’ I hoped that someone would summarise the attention surrounding this incident. I clicked the post button and put my laptop into hibernate mode. I travelled downstairs to make my breakfast. Once I was done, I brushed my teeth in the upstairs bathroom. I was finally up and ready for the day. Now I could watch the news on the TV in the living room. As I walked down the stairs again, my heart pounded at an ever-quickening pace. What was going on? It was only a matter of seconds before I would find out. I sat on a couch and grabbed the remote with a shaky hand.

‘Let’s see what the deal is, then.’ I wasted no time in turning the TV on, and switching to the news channel...

Chapter II - This just in

Chapter II - This just in

~~Day 1~~

(Originally posted 18th May 2013)

When I began to watch the news channel, a report about the incident was underway.

"The children's TV producer hasn't been seen in public since Thursday. Her condition is still a mystery. This uncertainty has become a cause for concern for those who work closely with her, as well as her countless fans. I spoke to one of these fans, who told me his response to the reports."

The report then showed footage of an interview of one of Lauren Faust's fans. According to the reporter, the fan claimed to be a brony.

"As you have heard this report emerging, what has your initial reaction been to it?"

"Well, when I first saw the picture," the fan hesitantly replied, "a-and the reports, I didn't believe them, I was skeptical, you know?"

"Uh huh." The reporter briefly displayed his mutual agreement with his guest, before swiftly returning to the subject in progress. "So are you still doubtful about this?"

"If course I am, I mean, this story has just came in. Not to mention that it is still unconfirmed reports we're talking about." The interviewee wasted no time explaining his ongoing doubt. He rushed through his point, "Maybe the picture was just manipulated, and it was posted at the right time to cause a stir."

Leaving with that note, the report shifted away from the vague interview with the fan.

"We tried to contact Hasbro to discuss the matter, but they chose not to comment. However, the company has released this statement:"

'We no longer work with Mrs. Faust. Furthermore, she is not involved in any of our corporate affairs and our products. This includes our "My Little Pony" toy line and the accompanying animated television series: "Friendship is Magic". We believe that the creature, allegedly seen in Mrs. Faust's home, is not related to any of our characters in any way, shape, or form. Any resemblances between the hypothetical being, and any of our characters, are purely coincidental. We would like to wish Mrs. Faust the best of luck as she continues on her personal career path.'

I paused the TV to re-read the statement. I knew not to accept company statements without questioning them, or without at least approaching them with caution. Companies tended to be deceiving. They chose their wording carefully for a reason. They would do anything to protect their reputation. If that was damaged by the media, their business could easily be affected.

Looking at the manifesto, I knew that Hasbro was trying to brush the issue under the carpet. Their description of the creature as 'hypothetical' showed that they didn't want their consumers to think the incident was true. They also tried to avoid media attention by saying that the creature was apparently unrelated to their characters.

I smirked after seeing Hasbro's tricks. Thinking about thief typical evasion tactics helped to distract me temporarily. My heart was starting to beat at a more normal pace.

When I had calmed down further, I unpaused the program. The report was now reaching it's conclusion.
"Despite the countless amount of people who are already denying the authenticity of this photo..."

Up until this point, I was absorbing every word in the report, but for a moment, I was unable to absorb more information. A picture of a white creature stole my attention.
"...Due to the lack of any professional and reliable analysis of the picture so far, there is no evidence to dispro-"

I paused the TV again.

I couldn't take my eyes away from the mysterious photo. All I could do was stare at it. In a strange way, it almost seemed like the it stared back at me.

When I took a first glance at the picture, I could instantly see how blurry and unfocused it was. The white object that appeared beyond the window, was even more blurry than the rest of the picture. If this was an actual photograph, I could tell that it was probably taken from a distance.
Despite the quality of the image, I knew what I was seeing. My focus shifted to the white object in the window. ‘So, this was Celestia, was it?’ I had to assume it was. The object had the appearance of a quadruped. I could tell that the creature's body shape wasn't completely realistic, but it's resemblance to a real horse was eerie.

The creature's body was as white as a blank sheet of paper.

The longer I looked at it, the more bizarre it seemed.

From the top of creature's head, a spectrum of unnatural colours flew in the air. It was as if someone placed a multi-coloured veil over it's head.

There was no question. That definitely looked like Celestia. The photo showed a frighteningly realistic photo of a creature that looked identical to the cartoon character.

'Wow. What are the chances?' I jumped to a conclusion for a second. Then I overlooked the image.
I had unintentionally raised another question for myself. Despite it’s realism, was the picture simply manipulated?
After looking at the photo for another time, I gave up on answering the question. If anyone knew, it would be the media. New developments could have occurred after this report was made. I needed to watch more about the developing news story.

Without any prior hesitation, I unpaused the report.

"...ve it's authenticity. Even if it is proven to be fake, two questions still stand: what is causing Lauren Faust to keep a low profile? And when will we hear from her again? As America sleeps, the rest of the world is waiting for answers." The reporter completed his report, and live footage was being shown from the studio.

"And we can join our correspondent from the US right now." The young anchorwoman introduced the man who created the report. She seemed to read my mind, as she commanded the interview with a demanding question. "Now, you ended your report with a summary of the situation, but has anything changed since you sent it in?"

The reporter's forehead reddened. However, he retained his calm tone. "I'm afraid not, Rachael. The report is more than an hour old. We must remember that this is still a breaking story. No new developments have emerged yet. Now this is partly due to the fact that it's very early in the morning over here. Understandably, we have no updates about Lauren's condition nor about the picture posted online."

The presenter swiftly moved onto her next question, her face holding her frustration back. "Okay, so if we haven't had any developments concerning the photo, can you give us more details as to why this is?"

"Well, this photo is taking a while to be properly analysed. It's taking longer for this to happen because analysts are having a hard time looking for any clues that could disprove it." The reporter presented his answer simply, before continuing, "The few professional photo-analysts who are observing the photo have been baffled by it. They can't immediately find any telltale signs of manipulation. Although this picture has emerged online, we are still in doubt about whether it was manipulated in any clear way." After giving this answer, he signalled for the presenter to stop the video call. "Back to you in the studio, Rachael."

"Thank you very much, Jack. We will speak to you later."

As the call ended, the presenter moved on to the next headline. However, she was unable to introduce it smoothly. “New uh allegations have … surfaced about sexual abuse by Jimmy Savile...”

As the presenter continued and regained her confidence, I wondered what the day’s headlines would consist of. Despite all the Lauren Faust hype, the most important and relevant stories were still being covered. Half of the program consisted of the story about the celebrity. In 10 minutes, the sports headlines would be shown. As the broadcast continued, I remained seated, as I watched the news attentively.

By the time the channel was summarising their headlines again, relatively few stories had been covered. After the first story, the other headlines consisted of the unravelling Jimmy Savile scandal, the latest reports of the conflict in Syria, and the highlights from the weekend’s sports results. Any political story that would have been covered, was shelved for the day. It was already 11 AM, which meant that each headline would be repeated in a 30 minute routine. I stared at the screen, waiting for the unicorn report to air again.

“Good morning.” The anchorwoman greeted her viewers in a neutral, professional tone, concealing her emotions. “Confusion and fear is spreading on social media sites, as a picture, appearing to show a winged unicorn from a cartoon, has been posted online.” She began to describe the photo, as it filled the screen. “The image allegedly shows a realistic version of the character ‘Princess Celestia’...”

The presenter continued to introduce the main headline, relaying the background information to her audience. For a short moment, I looked away. I did not expect any new developments. At this point, I was only watching the news because I wanted to listen to the entire story. I could have missed important details from the start of the report.

“...Jack Robertson reports on the initial reactions to the mysterious image.” Once this sentence reached my ears, I quickly looked back towards the TV screen.

I watched Jack’s report for the second time. This time, I watched from the very beginning. “Baffling, mysterious, and unexplainable,” He covered my attention. “Soon after this picture surfaced online, questions have surfaced across the blogosphere. Thousands of people are arguing over what it supposedly shows, as well as it’s authenticity. According to some descriptions, a winged unicorn is apparently shown to be in the home of Lauren Faust. The unicorn has been referred to as ‘Princess Celestia’, due to the creature’s appearance. The creature looks identical to a fictional character on a television show that Faust used to work on: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic."

“The animated children’s show has become notorious for it’s following among male adults, who refer to themselves as ‘bronies’.” My face was dropping, as the report failed to provide me with information that I was not aware of. “Many of these fans have contributed to the spread of the image online.”

“Although the picture was unknown just a few hours ago, it has became immensely popular. Currently, Some copies of the image have been viewed 40,000 times. On Twitter, it has been retweeted by 15,000 users. Many mirrors of the image have used on popular social and photography-based websites. The view count on many of these copies have exceeded the four-figure mark in an extremely short space of time.”

“As this image has appeared on numerous websites, sceptics have relentlessly attacked it, claiming that it has been manipulated. Despite the scepticism, the image cannot be verified. Others have became concerned over the description and content of the picture, fearing it’s meaning, in the small probability that is proven to be real. Even if the image is proven to be fake, the timing of the image surfacing has lead many to question Lauren’s recent low profile.”

“The children's TV producer hasn't been seen in public since Thursday...”

I let out a small groan, as the reporter began to repeat himself. It looked like I didn’t miss out on any exciting parts of the news story. Why was I still watching this? I didn’t stay to hear some background information. I was looking for something more relevant to the picture at hand.

I was loosing my patience.

I was hungry for more. Nothing else mattered.

Despite my dissatisfaction, the report continued. I took a deep breath, sighed, and focused on the television once more. The rest of the report remained unchanged from the last time I saw it. Any hope of hearing an important development faded minute by minute. I couldn’t sit through this for much longer.

“As America sleeps, the rest of the world is waiting for answers.”

The show was streaming from the studio again. I heard Jimmy Savile’s name again.

I grabbed my remote and switched the TV off. I did not have a reason to watch the news. At this point, the front of my head felt numb. My eyes were blinking much more frequently than they usually did. My mind was running out of energy. I needed a break.

I rose from the comfortable love seat and slowly trudged upstairs.

When the day was drawing to a close, I was back in front my TV. I had decided to return to the news channel at the end of my session on Reddit.

In the afternoon, I retreated to the website. I managed to find hours of entertainment and community posts. It was a place where I could relate to my generation, and forget about my problems.

But it seemed that all good things had to end.

My browsing adventure came to a standstill. When I viewed the homepage, I encountered an urgent announcement from one of the admins. In a few hours, Lauren Faust would be holding a press conference.

The post was simply titled ‘Lauren Faust to hold a press conference at 5:30 PM EST’. The post gave an overview of the outdated reports, which were now several hours old. The bulletin also discussed how Lauren's confrontation would 'silence the rumours abruptly.'

There was a mixed reaction to this in the comments. The interpretation of the post contributed to the public's opinions. The majority of commenters were reassured that Faust would triumphantly crush the irrational speculation. Despite this, Reddit always had it's sceptics. I was among them. If the Princess Celestia images were faked, I would have known at this point.
I could tell that something was wrong. She didn't need to hold a conference to deny a rumour.
I needed to watch that conference. At that moment, it was 9 PM. The news conference wouldn't start for another hour and 30 minutes. In this time, I continued to browse the web. As I did so, I tried to forget about the news.

The post took it’s toll on my once peaceful mind. Every now and then, I reminded myself about the conference. My other thoughts were displaced. I couldn’t escape it.

Five minutes before the conference, I turned my PC off and rushed down the stairs. I swiftly turned to the news channel. My chest was pounding, the pressure increasing by the moment. The ticking on the clock seemed to become increasingly crisp. My eyes were locked in place, staring at the screen in anticipation.

I took a deep breath, and exhaled forcefully.

It was now 10:30...