A Better Place

I was just a normal person, a normal brony, until that one wonderful and horrible night. It started as any usual spring break might, school let out Friday and I went to a little dinner party on Saturday, there was good food, good conversation. Now before I continue I should probably mention that the previous Christmas I had gotten a few things that would make any 17 year old brony happy. I had a jacket with Rainbow Dash making her awesome face on it, a toboggan or a beanie with her cutie mark and an iPod case with the same. I had been a brony since the beginning of that school year, it seemed like all of my family knew except my father, I never could figure out why I never told him, perhaps it was lack of courage or the fear of what he might say or perhaps I just couldn't figure out how. Unfortunately I didn't know my time for thinking was over. We were on our way home from the dinner party and he asked that one question, the question that changed everything

"Bryan, I've been wanting to ask you this for a long time but I figured I'd just leave you alone with what you liked but,  what's with the rainbowy crap on your hat."

I was a bit stunned to say the least, both by the suddenness of the question and the wording. Not wanting to have to explain everything from the back seat of the car I grinned, I'm not entirely sure why but I smiled and said

"I'll tell you when we get home" he didn't inquire further but I knew he wanted to. The ride home was shorter than I had wanted, not even ten minutes actually. The whole time I was racking my brain on how I was supposed to tell him this, I mean really I'm a BRONY that's not exactly something a father wants from his 17 year old son. After thinking and thinking I decided that the easiest thing to do was to simply show him, so I flipped through my iPod's pictures and found two pics, one of RD and one of her cutie mark. When we got home I waited a few minutes, helped carry in leftovers and waited for just the right moment, the moment when my dad was about to walk outside, I unlocked my iPod, and brought up the pictures. I walked up to him and said "since you wanted to know" and I raised up my iPod, the picture of her cutie mark first

"ok so here's the symbol right" he nodded, and I flicked my finger across the screen to bring up the pick of rainbow dash her self " and here's where it came from" he stood there for a few seconds, slightly shaking his head. My heart was pounding I assume from the worry bought on by the uncertainty of his response, and then it came.

"I knew it was some kinda power puff shit! Come on Bryan why would you do that to yourself you're 17!" Needles to say I was taken aback by the harshness of his reaction

"you don't get it, I'm the average age, there are 40 year olds watching this show" he turned around and looked at me

"I don't care, it's for 3 year old girls!" I glared right back but he never gave me the chance to respond "I just don't understand why a fucking 17 year old would watch something so childish and gay."

  That last statement, the sentence I heard hundreds of times at school and on the street from strangers and children, I'd always been able to ignore them but coming from my father, the one person who was supposed to love me unconditionally finally made me snap

"oh but you wouldn't would you!" I screamed "no one ever does! I go to school and hear barely a word about my jacket not to my face at least but I've heard the whispers! I ride the bus home everyday and the little shitball third graders make fun of me like some handicapped fool! I can handle their words, I can handle their torture but then......then I come home and hear it from you! The one person who is supposed to love me no matter what! You might not understand why I watch a show that was intended for little girls, you might not understand why I set myself up for ridicule but you know what, I don't understand why you fucking care, I'm your son it shouldn't matter what I watch, it shouldn't be important!" He stood and looked at me wide eyed and red faced, I knew I had crossed a line but I didn't care I even kept going "you think I don't realize that it's strange, you think I don't know people will shun me because of it!? I know I might lose friends, hell I've already lost one, but although it will cost me friends it has also made me friends, I don't care what they think! And I certainly don't care what you think either." After that final rant I turned around and ran down the stairs, taking two at time.

The basement was my room. It wasn't a bad basement, it was finished with hardwood floors and a big television, I was almost always down there it seemed like. I didn't know what I was going to do or say if he came down those steps behind me but I didn't really think about it either. I grabbed my PS3 remote, flipped on the TV and turned on Assassins Creed, it seemed like such a small distraction at the time. It didn't seem to work either my brain was buzzing with what I had just done, with what I had just said. I knew I'd pay for it later but I still didn't care, I had spoken my mind which is a lot more than I usually did in those kinds of situations. I hadn't even got the game running yet before I heard a noise behind me, the lights flipped on and I knew it was him

"Don't waste your breathe I know what you're going to say and I don't want to hear it" I said angrily. I knew he'd be mad and I was already in no mood to deal with any criticism, I don't think I would have even been able to listen to an apology but I never had time to fabricate that scenario

"Well, maybe I should leave then" I knew right then that it wasn't my father, the voice was overpoweringly feminine and yet it held so much grace. It was a voice not easily forgotten and a voice whose owner I immediately knew. I jumped out the bed I was laying in and turned around, and tears immediately came to my eyes. Before me stood the key to escape the prison of earth, the door that led to a place far better than the crime and hate filled world I lived in, before me stood Princess Celestia beautiful in all her grace and power, I fell to my knees, not out of fear or respect, but of joy. "I....I don't" I was silently crying out of sheer happiness by then, tears silently rolling down my face

"Why do you cry Bryan" she said, a small and understanding smile on her face "Is it because you realize what my presence means, that Equestria is real, that this world of happiness and laughter you've only fantasized about is in fact a reality?" She said calmly. I sat there staring, I didn't know what to say or how to say it but there was one question, one all important question that somehow weedled it's way through my lips "w-why me?" So simple in its nature but yet so important in its entirety. After several moments of what could only have been consideration she answered.

"For centuries now me and my sister have been observing this world and its inhabitants, although Equestria is a utopia compared to your world it is not entirely crime free, it has prejudice and blind hate, and it does have violence and war. Me and Luna have tried all our lives to make it a place of absolute peace but no world is perfect. So when all our efforts failed we turned to your world, we searched for the exceptional humans, the ones who never hated and who never tried to harm any other living thing. And once, every century we pick out one of the exceptionals, we come to earth and we bring them back with us in hopes that they can make Equestria better where we cannot."

My tears had stopped by then, my joy had not wavered but my eyes had run dry, I sat there with a foolish grin on my face still not knowing what to say but then I decided to follow my gut and let things push themselves along. When I did not respond the white monarch continued

"you have faced adversity and hate, you have suffered because you wish for a world others only see as fantasy, and that Bryan is why Luna and I have chosen you. That is why we place the peaceful future of our world in your hands"

At that point my wits had returned to me and I slowly stood up on unsteady legs. When I had stood up to my full height I looked Celestia in the eye for a single moment. I immediately lowered my eyes from hers I didn't understand why at the time, I wanted nothing more than to keep staring at them but I couldn't. I lowered myself down to one knee and bowed my head.

"I would want nothing more than to help better a world that should rightfully be perfect. Princess I would be honored to help in any way I can" for almost a minute I held that pose. For almost a minute the princess said nothing. Finally out of the silence she responded.

"You may rise Bryan and know that such displays of respect are welcome but not needed, in Equestria you will be my equal in status. Now come and take my wing, you have a new life to begin, in Equestria." I rose to my feet with that same foolish smile on my face and made my way over to the princess. She spread her wings to their full length in a beautiful display of of her magesty. I couldn't help but stare. then with the princesses words still ringing in my head I said something I probably shouldn't have

"I hope you don't mind when I tell you princess but I must say I have never seen such a beautiful sight." I wrapped my fingers around the surprisingly thin base of her wings paring for the teleportation spell I knew was coming

"Hmhm I don't mind at all Bryan, in fact I'm glad you don't feel like you should hold your tongue in my presence, most ponies feel like I might punish them if thy said something like that" she said quietly. "Now hold on and take a deep breath, teleportation is a bit rough the first time" with that she lit her horn and there was a bright flash just as I saw my father walking down the stairs.