The announcement came and went.
The game released and I observed it from a distance. At night I’d watch gameplay on my phone, amazed at every detail, every feature, every—
Pony.
Everypony.
I spent these nights glancing over my shoulder, expecting Derek to barge in at any moment. He never did.
Then things took a turn for the strange.
It was a Thursday morning and Brian was no longer with us.
“Isn’t that the dumbest shit you’ve ever heard in your entire life?!”
Derek sat on the couch, phone in hand, mouth wide open.
I wasn’t sure what exact type of shit it was, but it was certainly something.
“Christ on a bike, the man was even more wacko than we thought.”
“I think we’re— I think we’re ignoring the greater fact here that—”
“That he threw his entire life away?”
“Well, it’s not every day that you see somebody get put… well, put inside a videogame—”
Saying it out loud made me feel a kind of stupid that was usually reserved for childhood. It was the truth though, and he wasn’t the only one. Over the week, reports had spread of a magic procedure that plucked people out of the real world and plopped them right into Equestria.
“Yeah, but as a pony? Please hold me Francis, I think I might be losing it. The sheer waste of technology! The humanity! The... pony-anity!”
That got a grin of disbelief out of me, but the weight of the situation prevented it from spreading any wider.
“What do you even do in Equestria?” Derek rolled off the couch and onto the carpet, staring up at the ceiling in an existential daze. “I bet they just… hug each other all day. Hug each other and sing songs. Winter wrap up, winter wrap up, yadda yadda.”
That doesn’t sound too bad.
“Wait, isn’t that… a song from the show?” I asked, peering at him knowing very well that I could sing every line by heart.
Derek stayed frozen, his brain firing on overdrive for a response.
“Yeah, I mean… at least I think. My little cousin used to watch it. Possibly the most annoying thing ever. Way too cheery.”
My eyes returned to my phone, a gray message blocking out the entirety of a group chat.
Hey guys, it read, an opening as casual as an invitation to dinner. So this is all going to sound a bit strange to you, and I completely understand, but it would be wrong of me not to clue you in on what’s going on. As some of you may have heard, Equestria Online is offering a service unlike anything we have seen before. An invitation to participate in the game physically. I know this might seem ridiculous or silly, hell, I feel crazy just typing it, but I know that I can’t pass on an opportunity like this. When I look at my life and when I see what’s going to make me happy, I know that this is the only choice. But I just want you to know that I love all of you and that this in no way reflects an ill-will. Thanks for everything, and I hope that we can all see each other one day.
“No ill-will,” said Derek, dropping his phone back onto the ground. “He thought he could just send this into a fucking group chat? No goodbye? Goes to show how much he actually cared about us. ‘I hope we can all see each other one day’, now there’s an insult. Everybody knows this is permanent. Everything he ever did, straight in the garbage bin.”
Derek scampered upward, heading into the kitchen.
“I need a goddamn drink.”
He passed by, leaving me alone in the living room. I reread the message again, memorizing every single word, every small detail.
At no point during the day did I stop thinking about it.