Except that’s not what happened at all now, was it?
You went home. You threw on My Little Pony Friendship is Magic and tried to drown out your sorrows with “A True True Friend”. You cried yourself to sleep to the tune of SoGreatandPowerful. You knew it would make everything worse and yet you did it anyway because this is who you are and you liked every second of it.
This is what you did to cope. And when you woke up, you knew you had made a decision you could stand by. There was a life to live and you were going to live it.
I got the job. I was going to be a production assistant and I was going to do what I was told and that would be all I needed. The amount of people participating in Equestria Online grew every day and I paid no attention. Looking back was a dreaded mistake that would slight me in ways I couldn’t imagine.
This is how it went. I stopped watching the show. I stopped listening to the music. I was going to give up on distraction and I wasn’t going to waste a minute of the day, all to prove that I was dedicated to my choice and that there would be no regret along the way.
I was going to earn my happiness.
There was no other option.
Then one day you walked into that living room and the news was on.
Derek was sprawled out on the couch, bottle in hand. He looked dazed, like a man drifting out of reality only to be drawn back with every new commercial.
Before I could escape to my room, I caught those magic words once more, my denial placed right into the comforts of my own home.
They were talking about Equestria Online. The rising numbers. The public concern. They even interviewed a bedridden man all about his plans to emigrate. I stood there listening, unable to remember anything else. All I could see was the man’s smile, the comfort that had been granted to him in the most astonishing of ways.
“Ya’ ever wonder if we’re the dumb ones Francis?”
I looked down at Derek having briefly forgotten he could hear me enter the room.
“I mean, look at this dude. They’re saving his life! He’s gonna become a pony and his entire family is going to join him. It’s like… holy shit, this is reality.”
“I’m glad they’re using it for good at least,” I said, keeping my thoughts on the matter as brief as possible. “If it can make people happy, then maybe it’s for the best.”
“Yeah and it’s setting the standard so high that you can’t even reach it anywhere else.”
“What do you mean?”
“It’s changed everything! People are frolicking around in the flowers and telling everybody about how spectacular wacktacular it is and then it’s like, wow, my life will never be like that. Might as well become a fuckin’ pony! If everybody around me suddenly went to go frolic in the flowers then I’d just have no other choice. Suddenly the only thing that’d make me happy would be to join them.”
“I… I don’t know if that’s true necessarily— There’s always something new waiting around the corner.”
“Eh… Maybe.”
The frankness of this stung. It was Derek’s way of saying ‘do you really believe that?’, and I was unsure if I did.
“Maybe I should throw on an episode and suddenly we’ll be in Equestria by tomorrow. I remember there was this one with a wedding and this song—”
A Canterlot Wedding. Of course. I have seen it a hundred times.
“Yeah, might have to pass on that one,” I said, turning for the stairs.
I had work again tomorrow.