Setting the note aside, I stare down at the DVD. “Charlotte, he thinks he can find his real dad at BronyCon. I want to support him, but that’s just too crazy even for me.”
She sighs and perches on the edge of my bed. “Ava, I think deep down he knows he’s not truly going to find his real dad there. You need to understand how important this is to him. You need to realize how much he just wants to know and understand where he came from. It’s a pipe dream that he’ll find his dad out of all of those people, but it gives him hope. No one has ever understood the whole Brony thing he’s got going on, aside from other Bronies. He just wants his real dad to be someone who understands him.”
Sixty minutes after Charlotte left, I’m sitting on the floor in my room crying harder than I’ve ever cried in my life. Friendship IS magic. Tyler is part of a community that believes in friendship and being happy, why is that so bad? People only think it’s weird because they don’t understand it, but these horses are role models! Fluttershy represents people with crippling social anxieties and Twilight Sparkle embodies bookish people without making them look like nerds. It’s genius!
It’s about people trying to belong! Sure, they dress up like ponies and there’s Cloppers and Furries and other things I don’t understand, but that’s not the point. These people don’t want to have sex with ponies or do weird shit with them. Okay, some do, but not the majority. Most of them are simply looking for friendship and a place where they belong, a concept I’m very familiar with. All this time I’ve been looking for a place to belong. My mom tried to make it be Seduction and Snacks and I was miserable. Fashion is where I belong, and talking to other people about fashion. Tyler found his place to belong a long time ago and who am I to discourage that?
I immediately get out of bed and fire up my laptop. Hopefully I’m not too late and I can still do this. I’m going to show Tyler once and for all that I’m not afraid. He fought my battle for me with my mom, but I’m going to fight this one for him. I’m going to make sure everyone understands what I love about him.
As soon as I get what I need printed off of my laptop, I head towards my door just as my mom comes through it.
We stand there staring at each other awkwardly for a few minutes before she finally speaks. “I don’t like apologizing.”
I nod. “Me either.”
Glad we established that.
“I forgive you for not wanting to work at Seduction and Snacks.”
“And I forgive you for not understanding my dream,” I tell her.
She leans in and wraps her arms around me. I slide my arms around her shoulders and hug her back.
“You’re totally my favorite child,” she whispers before pulling back.
“You just said that same thing to Charlotte a few minutes ago, didn’t you?”
She shrugs. “Does it matter?”
“Nope.”
I thrust my arm out and hand her one of the print-outs. “Now that we like each other again and Tyler made you cry, I expect you to be there.”
She looks over the page and then gives me a questioning look. “You have got to be kidding me.”
“I would never kid about something like this.”
Mom looks back down at the paper. “If I go to this, can I make fun of people?”
I start to tell her no and then think better of it. If I tell her no, she definitely won’t come and I need her to be there. “You can only make fun of people if they make fun of you first.”
She thinks about this for a few seconds before nodding. “I can deal with that.”
I walk out of my bedroom with a smile on my face, making plans in my head and hoping that everything works.
Chapter 28 – BronyCon
- Tyler -
“I still don’t understand why I have to be blindfolded. Are you going to do some weird, kinky shit to me?”
Gavin laughs and I feel his car come to a stop as he turns off the engine.
“Sorry, no kinky shit for you today, my friend. Today, your dreams are coming true,” Gavin tells me.
I hear him open his car door and get out and, a few seconds later, he’s opening my door and helping me out of the car.
“My dreams already came true. Liz finally showed me the masturbation room,” I tell him as he slams my door closed and starts leading me away.
“I still can’t believe she did that. Aunt Liz didn’t even tell me about that room until a month ago,” Gavin complains.
We walk in silence for a few minutes and I’m about ready to bitch at him again for the blindfold when I hear him speak to someone and a rustling of papers.
“Two adults? Very good. Have a magical day!”
Gavin thanks the guy and continues pulling me forward. We walk through a door and I’m suddenly assaulted with the sounds of hundreds of laughing people, a bunch of them bumping into me as we make our way through a crowd.
“Okay, I think it’s safe to remove the blindfold now,” Gavin announces.
I feel his hands at the back of my head and I’m blinking at the bright lights and colors that surround me a few seconds later.
This can’t be happening. There is no fucking way this is real.
“Am I dreaming?” I whisper as a guy in a Twilight Sparkle costume walks by me and smiles.
There’s My Little Ponies as far as the eye can see. MLP costumes, MLP toys, stuffed animals, games, signs and face painting. There are televisions lining the walls playing episodes of MLP, there are people acting out scenes on one side of me and voice actors from the show signing autographs on another. It’s so beautiful I want to cry.
“Oh, fuck, it’s Tara Strong, the voice of Twilight Sparkle,” I say excitedly, pointing over to one table. “Shit, that’s Peter New, the voice of Macintosh! Peter New is here, Peter New is here!”
I start jumping up and down, clapping my hands together like a fool, but I don’t care! I’m at BronyCon, motherfuckers!
Gavin laughs, grabbing my arm to turn me around. When I see what’s behind me, I really do start to get choked up. Standing in a group is everyone I love and none of them look the least bit uncomfortable surrounded by My Little Ponies.
My mom and dad are the first ones to approach me, both of them wrapping their arms around me.
“We just wanted to tell you that we love you and we accept you just the way you are,” my mom tells me. “I’ve already been asked to speak on a panel about the negative implications regarding Bronies and perversion. Isn’t that exciting?”
My dad pats me on the back and smiles. “Even though you’re not my son by blood, you’re the son of my heart and that’s all that matters. Also, your mother now wants to try out one of those Brony butt plugs later on tonight, so thanks for that.”
I cringe and back away from him as Liz and Claire both come up to me.
“We’d both like to thank you for your love of all things Brony because after being here for fifteen minutes, we’ve already been asked by BronyCon if they could be an official sponsor for Seduction and Snacks,” Liz tells me.
Claire nods. “I was even asked to make a thousand pony-shaped cookies for next year’s event.”
Carter and Jim walk up to me next and my eyes widen in surprise when I see that they’re both wearing MLP t-shirts.
“Oh, my gosh, are you guys going to be Bronies now? Do you want to come to my next meeting?” I ask them excitedly.
Jim holds up his hand. “Whoa, slow your roll. This shit is still weird as fuck, but I will admit that I like the way this shirt looks on me.”