//------------------------------// // Chapter 6 BroNY-Con // Story: More Silver Than Gold // by Stepany1234 //------------------------------// You know that feeling when you’re caught in a lie? You know, the one that instantly makes your palms sweaty? Yeah. That’s the one I was experiencing. As my idiot brother opened the door to my room I jumped in after him. “No! Don’t!” I repeat, in the same alerted tone as before. I look around in my room to see my brother laughing. “Ha! Is that one old cartoon you used to love watching when you were little? You were watching it?” He asked. I was so desperate to find where Silver Spoon was that I didn’t even care to listen to my brother’s taunting. “Huh?” I ask. “That’s why you took forever to answer the door. You love this show and you were embarrassed we’d find out and tease you about it,” my other brother said. He stayed at the entrance of my bedroom and smiled. I smiled followed with a nervous laugh. “Yeah, that’s it. You caught me,” I lied. As my brothers laughed and exited my room, I looked around for Silver Spoon. My eyes landed to the ground and I smiled to see Silver Spoon’s tail sticking out from under my bed. I let out a small chuckle after she poked her head out and gave me a smile. “Good save,” I tell her. She just beams with a cute grin and I almost forget that my brothers are in the other room. “I’ll shoo these guys off soon, don’t worry. Just enjoy the show,” I whisper. She gets out from under the bed and jumps back on top. I close the door behind me and walk back over to the living room. I do my best to rush my brothers’ visit and lucky for me they didn’t plan to stay long. What an exhausting day. By the end of it, I find myself sitting on my bed watching the show with Silver Spoon. Well…not watching. More like staring at the TV and thinking about something completely different. Just like school. Well for me at least. I felt like I had such a knot in my stomach with the thoughts that were floating through my mind. Usually I try not to let things bother me too much but this situation just had me constantly thinking. How am I gonna help her? How are you supposed to help a cartoon? Ugh! I can just scream. But I look down at her and see the sweetest most adorable thing I ever came in contact with. A little pony, not a pet but…a friend. Silver Spoon laughed at something that happened in the show. I patted her head and she snuggled closer to me. She probably is really missing her mother and friends and home…man I really have to figure out what to do. I know for sure that she seeks my comfort to cover up her real feelings. She’s probably more desperate than I am to get her home. But some part of me wants to keep her. Does that make me selfish? I looked down and saw the show had already ended a while ago and Silver Spoon had fallen asleep. “Bronycon,” the words escaped my lips like they were shoved out from my brain. That convention center takes place here in New York. Where better to get information than from a place filled with the people that are experts in the show? I guess I’ll have to hurry to look into it…seeing how tomorrow was the day this convention was taking place. --------------- “What do you mean I need a ticket!?” I shouted. Here I stood in this stupid enormous line. Filled with a bunch of people, mostly guys. I was tired and spent the hours talking to my bag. Well, to the pony inside the pink bag around my shoulder. I had the bag unzipped but Silver Spoon had to stay low so nobody could see her. None of the people around me noticed. They were all busy talking, laughing…singing. Some were even dressed up in costumes. Wow. Some real dedication here. I usually wouldn’t be caught dead at these things but I desperately need to know about this show. Ugh. I feel like a dog chasing it’s tail. Pointless. “I’m sorry, Miss but you can’t come in without a pass. We’ve been sold out for months,” the guy at the door tells me. “You gotta be kidding me,” I mutter as I walk away from the entrance. “What happened?” Silver Spoon asked. “They won’t let me in,” I say to the air. Obviously I was talking to Silver Spoon but to the people around me I looked like a lunatic. It looked like I was basically talking to myself. “How are you gonna get in?” Silver Spoon asked me. Her question reminded me why I came in the first place. I can’t go home now. I gotta get in. And that’s exactly what I’m gonna do…just not through the front door. After probably fifteen minutes of sneaking around and constantly ducking and tiptoeing, I finally made it in. How can I be arrested for sneaking into a convention about ponies? Surely I won’t though. As long as I keep quiet and out of sight. I really am only here to observe anyway. “Wow,” was all I could say. Just wow. So many people…fans. For a show like My Little Pony? I used to watch that show when I was little and hated it because it was so dull and girly. Silver Spoon looked nothing like the ponies I remembered from my childhood so I guess things have changed. She poked her head out of the bag and looked around. “Hey! That girl’s dressed as Apple Bloom’s sister!” Silver Spoon said loudly. Excitement in her voice. I pushed her head back into the bag out of panic and looked around to see some people looking at me strangely. “Um,” I mumbled. “Hi, welcome to Bronycon,” one guy told me. He held out his fist and waited. “Uh.” I had no clue what he was doing. “It’s a brohoof. You know, knuckles,” he said. He was rather cute so I tapped my knuckle against his and he smiled. “Welcome to the herd. You’ll catch on fast,” he said before walking off. “Where am I?” I said. Silver Spoon nibbled on my hand and I quickly removed it from the bag. She looked at me angrily and I simply shrugged. “Sorry but I can’t have anyone seeing you. Especially not here,” I told her in a hush tone. “Oh sure, just let me know before you shove me back in the bag!” She whispered back. “What’s up, everypony?” A guy said with the microphone. Everyone cheered and their attention went to the front of the room. A long table with small microphones and chairs sat in front of a projector screen. I noticed a large camera on a stand was set, recording everything that was going on. “And hello to everyone who couldn’t be here but are watching us live through the live stream,” the guy said as he gave a wink and a smile to the camera. “The internet? Wow this place really thought of everything,” I said to myself. Silver Spoon silently poked her head out of the bag and looked around. I hadn’t noticed until I glanced over to see her staring at her surroundings. She looked up at me and quickly dove back into the bag once I shot her a specific look that I know she understood. Pony or not, you can catch on to whatever was on my mind. “We’re so glad that you all could make it! Are you ready to watch the new episode?” The guy shouted. The crowd roared and pierced my ears. I winced at how loud the grown men could shout. A picture of the ponies from the show showed up on the projector screen. I guess they were testing the projector to make sure it was working. Colorful ponies with large eyes, the same ones that popped up from when I did my research on Silver Spoon and her home. Silver Spoon once again poked her little head out. Just barely enough to see through the zipper line of my bag. Her tiny nose was as visible as her big curious eyes and equally large glasses looked around. I begin to walk and get a bit closer to the crowd. Most of them sat in chairs and in the center was a large table that led to the stage. “I wonder who’s in charge around here?” I say to myself. A picture of Silver Spoon and some other equally small and adorable ponies showed on the projector as the slideshow continued. She popped her head all the way up and gasped. My attention shifts when I see her jump out of my bag and onto the small table that centered around all the…bronies? Or that’s what I think they call themselves. I lunged forward to tried and catch Silver Spoon but only managed to attract more attention to ourselves. Silver Spoon lands on the table, her hooves clacking loudly against the white wood. Everyone looked to see Silver Spoon staring at the picture of her and her friends from her home. “How did they get that picture? I don’t even remember anypony taking it,” Silver Spoon said quietly. So silent that only she could hear herself. I heard a small gasp make its way through the crowd and a large amount of awkward silence just rushed through the room. I quickly picked Silver Spoon up and cradled her in my arms. She looked around with her eyes and snuggled onto me tightly after seeing all the strange people staring at her. More and more eyes just kept staring at her and she finally buried her face into my sweater to avoid them. “Hey, that’s a dandy looking plushy you got there,” the guy with the microphone said. Plushy? Plushy! “Uh, yeah. Thanks. I uh…like to make them,” I said. That cocky sly liar face of mine had to kick back in. Haven’t used that since high school. This pony is bringing the kid back out of me! “She looks like the real thing! You really are talented!” The guy said. A few guys in the crowd smiled and nodded before applauding. Soon they all were. Silver Spoon was still hiding her face and I seized the opportunity to talk to her while the crowd clapped and cheered. “Don’t move or say anything. It’s all gonna be okay. Trust me,” I tell her. She nuzzles me and replies. “Okay.” “Can we see it? It’s suppose to be Silver Spoon right?” The guy asked. I looked up at him and looked around. “Oh, no. Sorry. I’m very particular about my work so I rather not. Better to be safe than sorry, you know,” I say while placing Silver Spoon back into the bag. She stays low as the guy continues to beg for my participation. “Well, alright then,” he says with a smile as he finally gives up. He asks me my name and the crowd begins to clap and cheer after I announce it. “Wow, really friendly,” I mumbled. A girl in purple shades and blue wig came up to me and shook my hand. She wore a white dress with a music note on the side. “Cool stuff,” she said before walking off. I noticed I was getting a lot of attention and so I rushed out of there. I heard them ready to announce the episode but knowing that Silver Spoon was in the bag…I just couldn’t do that to her. How would she react to learning that she was a cartoon? A fictional creature that somehow ended up in my world. Instead, I walked out and sat in an empty part of the convention center. I sat on some steps and Silver Spoon hopped out of the bag and onto my lap to be face to face with me. “Did you see? They know about Ponyville! They had pictures of the other ponies! They had a picture of me!” She said. Her excitement reminded me of a little girl who was going to the carnival for the first time. My eyes started watering and I covered my face to hide the fact that I wanted to cry. Silver Spoon looked at me worryingly and moved my hands from my face with her small hooves. “Hey. What’s wrong?” She asked me. The concern in her eyes and voice made me smile. “Nothing. I guess I’m not feeling very well. That’s all,” I lie. How can I tell her that she’s not real? It nearly kills me inside that something as innocent and loving as her believes her home exists in my world. What am I supposed to do?! I begin to cry again. “Hey, listen. I bet you miss you’re family, huh?” She said. “What?” I ask while lifting my head from my hands. “You live alone and only have me. It’s okay to miss you’re family. I miss mine but I know you’ll help me and until I get back I’ll be here for you,” she told me. Right in front of me were those big purple eyes accompanied by a warm smile. I hugged her and couldn’t stop sobbing. “It’s okay,” she told me in a comforting tone. If she only knew why I was really crying. How am I supposed to tell her that I have no idea how to get her back home? The idea of me breaking her heart was too hard to bare. And after hearing her tell me that? God get me out of here and take me back home. I hugged her and she moved back to look back into my eyes. She took her hooves and rubbed my cheeks dry. “My mommy used to do that to me whenever I would cry,” she said. I kissed her forehead and smiled. “That’s what my mommy would do for me,” I told her. I stroked her hair and she smiled at me with her innocence gleaming through. Guess she’s not so bad after all. According to the show, she’s not the nicest…kind of a bully too. But it’s like I’m sitting with a totally different character. I felt warm and comfort right there with that small pony. I hadn’t felt like that…since I was five years old. It was as if she was reminding me of all the good things in my life. She was kinda right though. I’ve been alone since I moved out here. Now that she’s with me, I feel like I don’t need to seek love from anyone like I did whenever I was lonely. “Thanks, Silver Spoon. Hey, do you wanna see something cool?” I asked her. “Yeah!” She perked up and grinned ear to ear. “Come on. Let’s get out of this dump,” I said. She laughed and jumped back in the bag. I walked through the convention center and slipped my way through the back. But not before grabbing a key chain from one of the tables that wasn’t being supervised. Try to consider it borrowing and not stealing. The one I had grabbed had Silver Spoon and four other little ponies. One pony had a big pink bow, another one was a white unicorn, the other was orange with little wings, and the last one was pink with a tiara. They were cute but I grabbed it only because I saw Silver Spoon in the little picture. It wasn’t anything fancy, just a small picture cut out and slipped into a small glass circle connected to a clip on chain. I slipped it into my pocket and ran out through the back. Everyone was busy watching the show on the big projector in the other room so nobody saw me sneak out. I finally felt that I could breath once I was outside. I stepped onto the sidewalk and began walking, that’s when I saw the sun was setting. I let Silver Spoon out of the bag and had her walk next to me. Nothing too dangerous about that. She looks like a dog from far away. If anyone would get too close then I would just scoop her up into my arms. Eventually we both got tired of having to do this so I flagged down a taxi. As I sit in the taxi I realize something. I’m running low on money and that fact reminded me that I need to find a job. I’m running low fast on what I had saved up to come out here with. I shook my head and tried to put aside that thought for another day. There I go procrastinating again. Silver Spoon sat in the bag and I told the driver where I wanted to go. After awhile of driving we reached it. The driver stopped and turned around to face me. “Here you go. The park.”