Chapter 1: Foreigner
I didn’t wake up that morning expecting anything unusual or extraordinary to happen. Longmont just wasn’t that kind of city. Hardly anything odd, unusual, or extraordinary happened here, and usually when it did it was some whack-job getting into a standoff with the local authorities because he’s a meth head high on who knows what. Longmont is a commuter city; people lived here but worked pretty much everywhere else. That is, unless you happened to be in the IT or related fields because that industry is booming in Longmont.
So I suppose that saying I was shocked when I found someone, nearly unconscious, at the base of some sandstone cliffs at Sandstone Ranch at the edge of town in the middle of the night would be somewhat of an understatement. This kind of thing just doesn’t happen here!
Making sure it was safe to proceed, I quickly composed myself as I approached the individual, a female. She was lying at the base of the cliff, breathing softly. Her white t-shirt, which bore a pair of connected eighth notes, white shoes and shorts had minor dirt marks and scuffs, as if she had taken a hard fall. Her shoulder-length hair, which looked like had been dyed blue lay in a mess around her head, partially obscuring her face. I didn’t see anything lying around her person. Her breathing was light, and her arms and legs had small scratches and bruises.
I mentally berated myself for not thinking to bring even a small medical kit.
Kneeling down next to the girl, whom I judged to be about my age, I gently tapped on her shoulder. “Are you alright?” I asked, hoping to get a response.
Nothing at first, so I repeated the action, this time slightly more firmly and louder, and quickly ran my eyes over her various injuries, judging which ones were most serious. Thankfully none of them appeared to be very deep or large though I’d guess that they all stung plenty.
As I attempted to elicit some kind of reaction from her for a third time, I felt her arm stir. I immediately turned my attention to her face, looking for any change in expression. Her eyes twitched a bit before slowly opening. I inwardly breathed a small sigh of relief, because hopefully this would mean no trip to the hospital.
She blinked a few times before turning to look at me, and the second she did she shrieked and attempted to push me away while backing up against the cliff.
“WHAT ARE YOU?” She shrieked, pointing at me.
I was about to respond when my brain registered that she had said ‘what’ and not ‘who’. That one word threw my mental processes off and I stammered a bit in response, trying to make sense of it. It was also at that point that the girl noticed her hand and shrieked again, as if the appendage was totally foreign to her.
Confused, I attempted to calm her down. “Please calm down, miss, I’m not going to hurt you. I’m here to help, and I need to know how you ended up here and how badly you are injured.”
As I spoke she tried to back away, only to find herself already pressed up against the cliff. ‘This is too weird.’ I thought to myself as I tried to make sense of her odd behavior. It was entirely possible that she had suffered some kind of head trauma, possibly from whatever caused her to be in this state.
“What. Are. You?” The girl repeated.
I blinked and just decided to go with it. “I’m a human. My name is Matt, and like I said I’m here to help.”
The girl looked down at her own body and examined it. “A human?” She said, starting to calm down. “Is that what I am now?”
Wait, ‘now’? “Yes, you are a human.” Suddenly the thought of seeking help from a mental institution seemed a very realistic possibility if things didn’t start making sense.
“Ugh…” She groaned and rubbed her head, which immediately made me wonder if she had in fact suffered some kind of head trauma. “Where am I? How did I get here?”
“You’re just outside of Longmont, Colorado.” I replied. “And I was hoping you’d be able to tell me how you wound up here like this.”
“Colorado? Longmont? Ugh. The last thing I remember…I had just got home to my apartment and I was having a bad night and then I fell asleep and…oh no. No no no no!” She suddenly worked herself into a panic.
“Calm down please!” I tried to calm her down. “Breathe deep.” She complied. “Now tell me, what is your name and where are you from?”
“I’m Vinyl, and I live in Trottingham.” The girl responded. She suddenly looked very worried and whispered, “Can you help me?”
I thought the name sounded odd, and the town sounded British in origin, or at least like it would be in New England, but it was definitely not a place around here. I ruled out the possibility of it being British; her accent was definitely American. I smiled and said, “Of course I’ll help you.” I stood, and extended a hand to help her up.
Vinyl looked cautiously at my extended hand, and slowly grabbed it with both of hers. I couldn’t help but notice that her skin was unusually soft and smooth. She wobbled a bit as she stood and tried to regain her balance, and I put my other hand on her arm to help balance her. Vinyl smiled back at me and then winced as if she was just now registering the various cuts, scrapes, and bruises across her limbs. As it turned out, Vinyl was fairly tall. Not quite up to my height, and I stand at over six feet, but she was definitely taller than most women I knew.
“We’ll have to get those cleaned and taken care of to minimize the risk of infection.” I commented. “Since there’s no telling how long you were out here or even how you wound up with them, we shouldn’t waste any time.”
Vinyl nodded and grabbed my arm with both hands to steady herself. I didn’t mind since it was clear that she was having some difficulty with basic motor function, and I led her back to the path. There were a number of questions that I wished to ask her pertaining to her unusual word choice, but thought that for now at least they could wait.
“So, Vinyl, do you have any friends around here or a place to stay?” I asked as we made our way past the fence and gate.
“I don’t even know where ‘here’ is.” Vinyl replied. “I’ve never heard of Longmont or Colorado before.”
Now I found that to be rather odd. I can understand people not knowing what Longmont is. Longmont may be a small or mid-sized city but it’s always getting overshadowed by nearby Denver or Boulder. But not knowing about Colorado? Okay, so I can understand that people tend to overlook Colorado outside of the ski season, but to have never even heard of it?
I tried not to let my confusion show. “I see. So then I take it you don’t have any friends nearby?”
Vinyl shook her head. I was almost starting to wonder if maybe she had been drugged and abducted.
“Okay, well until I can sort things out I would like to take you to my place and get you cleaned and bandaged up. Is that alright?” It was the least I could do to help, and I’d feel like a terrible person if I didn’t at least try.
Vinyl stopped walking and looked at me, worried. “You’re not going to hurt me, are you? How do I know I can trust you?”
I smiled back at her and shook my head. “I promise I won’t hurt you, and if at any time you feel like you are in danger then I won’t stop you from leaving. I can’t make you trust me or even believe a word that I’m saying, but since you seem to be in serious need of assistance I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t at least try to help you.”
Vinyl looked me straight in the eye, and it was then that I noticed hers were a magenta color. I figured that she just had some kind of special contacts in and didn’t think much of it. “I’ll trust you for now…Matt, was it?” I nodded. “I’ll trust you for now Matt. You seem nice enough…and thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” I replied and we began to walk again.
We were about to reach the parking lot when Vinyl asked, “So do you live close to here?”
I pointed over towards the city. “Just over there. We’ll drive.”
Vinyl looked at me quizzically. “Drive?”
“Yeah, you know, with a car?”
“What’s a car?”
I raised an eyebrow. “Don’t have cars where you’re from?” She shook her head. “That is a car.” I pointed across the lot to my vehicle, a 2006 Chevrolet Maxx.
Vinyl blinked as she studied the machine. “It’s what we use as transportation.” I explained.
“Oh, so it’s kinda like a carriage or chariot!” Vinyl said.
Carriages? Chariots? Where on Earth was this girl from? “You could say that, but cars don’t require animals or other people to make them run.”
“Okay, so they run on magic then.” Vinyl replied as we approached the vehicle.
“Not quite.” I said, pulling out my keys and remotely unlocking the car. Vinyl jumped slightly when the head and tail lights flashed on. “We use gasoline and electricity to power cars.”
Vinyl blinked again, and gave me a look that said she had no idea what I was talking about.
“Vinyl, did you hit your head recently?” I asked, stopping in front of the car.
“I…I don’t think so.” She said, letting go of my arm and trying to balance herself, only to fall forward slightly. She propped herself against my car.
“Would you mind if I checked real fast?” I asked, and she gave her consent. I parted her hair as best as I could, looking for anything odd, and felt the contours of her head for any unusual bumps or features. After a minute of thorough searching I found nothing.
“Is something wrong?” She asked, nervous.
“Well I can’t seem to find anything that would indicate that you’ve suffered any kind of head trauma recently.” I said. “Now, do you think you can make it to the passenger side of the car and get in?”
Vinyl looked at where I was pointing and slowly made her way around the car. She fumbled a bit with the door handle but she managed to open the door and climb into the passenger seat. I climbed behind the wheel and gestured for her to close the passenger door as I stuck the key in the ignition and turned it.
The engine roared into life, lighting up the instrument cluster and the dashboard, startling Vinyl. I couldn’t help but grin a little bit. “Now, buckle up and try not to get blood on anything. It’s a real pain to clean stains out of these seats.”
Vinyl began to fumble a bit with the belt buckle. “Help?”
I grinned again and reached across to grab the belt. Unintentionally my arm grazed her breasts as I reached around her, but she gave no indication that she cared. I quickly pulled the belt around her and secured it.
I disengaged the emergency brake, but before I put the Chevy into reverse I pulled out my iTouch, which was plugged into an AM/FM transmitter, and resumed the playlist I had going. I put my hand on the gear shift as I looked at the song that was playing. It was a trance song called ‘Nostalgic’ by an artist on YouTube that called him or herself Vinyl Scratch.
Wait a minute. Vinyl Scratch. Vinyl. Immediately my head was filled with images of an animated alabaster mare with electric blue mane and tail and magenta eyes and a mark on her flank that resembled two connected eighth notes.
Suddenly, I got this crazy suspicion. I almost berated myself for not noticing the similarities sooner, but at the same time I had more pressing things to worry about and this suspicion was so incredibly far-fetched.
But it was worth a shot anyways, and if my suspicion proved to be correct, it would explain so much about this individual.
Vinyl’s head was bobbing slightly to the beat of the song. “I’m diggin’ this song.” She commented.
I looked at her and said, “You’re Vinyl Scratch.”
Vinyl froze and slowly turned to look at me. “How do you know my full name?”
I ignored the question. “You’re Vinyl Scratch, a dee jay unicorn from Equestria who goes by the stage name DJ Pon Three.”
Vinyl’s eyes widened in shock. “How do you know this?”
Well, now that definitely sealed the deal. Unless this person was some kind of crazy ridiculous dedicated cosplayer, then this was the real deal.
Okay, small confession time. During my last year in college I was in introduced to a cartoon known as ‘My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic’. At first I wasn’t sure what to make of the fanbase. The show was directed towards little girls, but for some inexplicable reason the show had caught on with men of all age demographics, though the primary age group associate with the fanbase seemed to be those who were in their late teens and twenties. Eventually I forced myself to watch the first few episodes, and before I knew it I was hooked. Yes, I was hooked to a cartoon whose main cast included a bunch of pastel-colored magical ponies. Never in my life did I ever think I’d be hooked on such a thing, but I was. The voice acting was of professional quality, the animation style was fresh and interesting, and what I appreciated was that the show sought to teach lessons that people learn through friend making and social interaction, and some of the lessons were actually pretty good ones. In fact this show is the focus of the online social ring I’m a part of.
One of the many background characters was named Vinyl Scratch by the fandom. This character was never given a name in the show, or even any speaking roles, but apparently it was all real because there was a humanized representation of that character sitting right next to me in my car!
Now came the awkward part…explaining all of this.
I sighed. “It’s…truthfully it’s a long story and I promise you I’ll explain it all, but I can’t here and we need to treat your injuries.”
Vinyl studied me carefully for a moment. “I trust you, Matt. But I expect an explanation.”
“Trust me, you’ll get one.” I said as I put the car in reverse and backed out of the spot before heading back to the highway to head home.
I can’t say that I’d totally blame her for suddenly being suspicious of me. After all if she truly was the Vinyl Scratch from the cartoon, and she suddenly she wound up in a totally unknown world but the natives there know of her, her being freaked out would be totally understandable. But it still left the question of how she got here in the first place.
Out of the corner of my eye I could see Vinyl tense up as I hit the accelerator to get up to speed on the highway, engine revving. “You’ve got nothing to worry about.” I said. “That noise is just the engine working to get the car up to speed on the highway.”
I noticed Vinyl relax, but only slightly. “How does it work?” She asked.
“The engine works by using gasoline as fuel. It combusts in the engine causing pistons to revolve and move gears which propel the car forward. When I push on the acceleration pedal…” I pressed slightly on the pedal, and the engine responded appropriately. “…it causes more fuel to be used, the pistons to revolve faster, and the car speeds up. When I press on the brake pedal, disks on the wheels press against them causing them to slow down, thus slowing down the car.” I merged into the turn lane to get off the highway and turned onto the correct city street.
“It sounds really complex.” Vinyl responded.
“It can be.” I admitted. “Some cars take different kinds of fuel, and some cars rely only on electricity, and some use both fuel and electricity.”
“What’s electricity?”
“It’s what we use to power our machines.” I said, turning off the street and onto another. “You can say it’s like magic, but it can be very dangerous if misused.”
Vinyl sighed. “I guess it’ll take a while before I understand all of this.”
The conversation died as I pulled into my neighborhood and parked in the driveway in front of my house. On that note, why do we park in driveways and drive on parkways? I put the car in park and turned the engine off, killing the radio in the process. I took my camera and iTouch and pocketed them before climbing out and walking around to the other side of the car. I opened the door for Vinyl and unbuckled her when she couldn’t quite get the buckle to work, then hit the lock button on the door panel to lock the vehicle and helped Vinyl out.
Vinyl looked up and down the dark suburban street before looking back at my house. “Nice place.” She commented. Yeah it was a nice place, two floors and an attic plus a basement and two car garage. I rarely parked my car in the garage during the weekdays. Don’t ask me why, because I honestly wouldn’t have a response. It was just a habit.
“Thanks.” I said and led the way to the front door.
Moments later we crossed the threshold. I led Vinyl to the dining room table, flicked on the lights and offered her a seat at the end of the table. “Wait here a moment, I’m going to go get my medical kit.” I said. She nodded and I went upstairs to get what I needed.
I returned a minute later with a box of bandages, a small bottle of rubbing alcohol, several cotton balls, and a rag. I placed everything but the rag on the table and went into the kitchen to wet the rag. It didn’t take very long to get the water to lukewarm temperature, and I proceeded to soak the rag. I then wrung it out so that it was moist but not dripping and returned to Vinyl.
“I’ll start with your legs.” I said, and pulled out a second chair. “Would you mind putting them both on this chair for me?” I asked, and she complied.
I kneeled down between the two chairs. “Now this will probably sting some.” I cautioned and began to wipe the dirt, debris, and dried blood off the cuts. My medical training was screaming that I should be wearing some kind of glove as a sanitary precaution, but I ignored it as I worked. A few moments later I had every cut on both legs cleaned, and I returned to the kitchen to rinse and soak the rag again. Once I had done so, I returned and proceeded to work on the cuts on her arms.
“Are you going to tell me how you know who I am?” Vinyl asked as I worked.
“I will.” I said, finishing with her arms. “But I need something else to help back up what I will tell you. Now…” I tossed the rag into the sink from where I was kneeling and grabbed the rubbing alcohol and a cotton ball. “…I guarantee this will sting, but it will kill all the germs and bacteria that might have gotten into your wounds.”
Vinyl nodded and grabbed firm hold of the edge of the chair she was in. I poured some of the rubbing alcohol onto the cotton ball and began to rub it across the wounds. Vinyl tensed up every time the liquid made contact with her exposed and sensitive flesh. I tried to be as quick as I could while still being as thorough as possible.
Several cotton balls later I was finished with that, and moved on to covering with wounds with bandages.
“Are you done?” Vinyl asked, still clutching the chair.
“Almost.” I said as I placed the last two bandages on. “There! Hopefully we’ve prevented infection with this.”
Vinyl smiled at me. “Thanks, Matt.”
Then there was a new sound. I looked knowingly with a grin at Vinyl as she turned a light shade of red. “Hungry?” I asked. She reluctantly nodded.
“Alright then, I could do with something to eat so I’ll order some food.” I said.
“What exactly do humans eat?” Vinyl asked.
Crap. I hadn’t thought about that. Ponies don’t eat meat, so explaining that humans were omnivores would be an interesting experience.
“Well…” I started, looking through the delivery menus from local restaurants, picking one from the sandwich shop Jimmy John’s. JJ’s was good food, but for the same price I could go get more at Subway. However Subway doesn’t deliver and most of them would probably be closed at this hour anyways, whereas JJ’s was open until three in the morning. I flipped open the menu and sighed, taking a seat in another chair next to Vinyl. “Please don’t be alarmed, but humans are omnivores.”
“Omnivores? So humans eat meat.” Vinyl stated.
“Yes. Humans eat meat, but most humans don’t eat horse or pony meat, especially not in this part of the world.” I replied.
Vinyl simply stared at me, expressionless. Then she reached up to her mouth and felt the tip of a canine tooth. “So that’s what these are for then.” She commented after a moment.
“Correct.” I replied, setting the menu down in front of me. “Not all humans eat meat though. Some don’t even consume anything that comes from an animal, and that includes cheese, eggs, and milk.”
“I see.” Vinyl seemed to be taking this information quite well. I guess she had already come to terms with being in what would be an alien body, and she was willing to cope with whatever diet happened to come along with it.
“I personally am quite partial to bacon, however if you don’t wish to eat any kind of meat, this place has vegetarian options.” I passed the menu over to her for her to read.
“I can read this.” was the first thing that came out of her mouth. I blinked, and then realized that I hadn’t considered the fact that she might not be able to read English print. Sure apparently ponies speak English, but I had forgotten that their written language was totally different. It was something of a minor relief that I wasn’t going to have to teach the English language to Vinyl.
She pointed to the end of one of the items on the menu. “Is this the price?” She asked.
I looked at what she was pointing at. “Yeah, that’s the price. We use something called dollars in this country.”
“Is Colorado the name of this country? And how am I going to pay for this? I don’t have any money.”
“Don’t worry about paying for it.” I insisted. “And no, Colorado is what we call a state. In this country there are a total of fifty states that make up the United States of America. Most people call it America for short. Colorado is in what we refer to as the Mountain West. I’ll show you a map later.”
“Okay.” Vinyl returned her attention to the menu and pointed out one that she liked. I pulled out my phone and called the restaurant, placing our order and giving my address and card information to the employee.
I hung up a moment later. “It should be here within ten minutes.”
“Cool.” Vinyl relaxed a bit in her chair. “So what’s a dollar?”
I grinned a bit. There certainly was a lot that I was going to have to teach her. “The dollar is our form of currency.” I replied, pulling out my wallet. She gasped when she saw a depiction of her pony self on one side of my wallet with the initials ‘MLP’ in big white letters in a corner. Fuck, hadn’t thought about that. I pretended like I didn’t notice as I pulled out the cash in the wallet and put the wallet away, facedown to hide the pony on it. I spread out the different denominations of bills and coins on the table. I pointed to the single and said, “This is a single dollar bill. This is a five dollar bill, and that’s a twenty dollar bill.” I pointed to each as I mentioned them. “There’s also a two dollar bill, ten dollar bill, a fifty dollar bill, and a one hundred dollar bill. There are higher bills, but most are either out of print or not available to the general public. The two dollar bill is also officially out of print, but most banks still carry them and will give them to you if you ask for them.”
Vinyl nodded and pointed to the coins. “And those?”
“These represent fractions of a dollar. I have several pennies, a nickel, two dimes, and a quarter here.” I also pointed at each of these as I named them. “The penny is a worth one cent, or one hundredth of a dollar. The nickel is worth five cents, the dime ten cents, and the quarter is worth twenty five cents, or one quarter of a dollar. There is also a fifty cent piece, or half dollar, and it is the biggest coin. However it has not been minted by the government for a good while, and nowadays they are fairly rare. But we have developed a system that allows us to pay for things with a plastic card so long as we have funds attached to that card or otherwise in our bank account.”
Vinyl picked up a penny. “What are these things on the bills and coins? Are they famous humans and places?”
“They are.” I took the next few minutes to explain who each individual on each bill were and what they were important for.
“So in this country you don’t have a princess, but a government with hundreds of humans and a president?”
“That’s correct.” I nodded. “There are a few countries that still have a royal system of kings, queens, and the like, but most of those countries keep them for historical and symbolic reasons. There are no countries like that in this part of the world.”
Vinyl set the penny down and sat there, as if trying to digest the information.
I stood up and placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. “I know it’s a lot to take in at once, and I don’t expect you to know or understand everything immediately. There’s still a lot more you need to learn if you are going to be living here for any length of time.” At this point there was no doubt in my mind that this person was in fact Vinyl Scratch, but I still needed to know how she wound up here, and how she became human.
“Yeah…wait, living here?” Vinyl looked at me, confused. “What do you mean?”
“Well you’ve got nowhere else to go, right?” I said. She looked down at the floor and didn’t respond. “Longmont may not be a bad place to live, but this world isn’t safe for someone like you.”
“Why not?”
“That will become clear once I explain how I know you.” I replied. “There are a fair number of very good humans living here, especially in this part of the world. But human nature tends to be violent. The history of mankind is riddled with wars and violence and all kinds of conflicts, and there are still some very unsavory people living out there.”
“So…if it’s not safe for me in this world, where will I stay, and how will I get back home?”
I sighed again. “I cannot answer that last question however I can offer you one of my guest rooms. It wouldn’t be any trouble, and you can stay here as long as you wish.”
Vinyl remained silent for a moment. “I guess I don’t really have much choice, huh? Stay here where I hope I’m safe or take my chances out there in world I know nothing about and hope it all works out.”
“If that’s how you wish to look at it.” I shrugged. At that moment the doorbell went off. “I’ll be right back.” I grabbed and pocketed my wallet and headed towards the door. It was the delivery man, who gave me a ticket to sign. I left a decent tip and thanked him for the food, and he was off.
“That smells pretty good.” I heard Vinyl comment as I locked the door.
“Jimmy John’s sandwiches are pretty good.” I replied and went back to the table. I gathered up all the cash and set it aside so there was room for the sandwiches. “Want anything to drink?” I asked before sitting down.
“Some water would be appreciated.” Vinyl replied and peered into the bag containing our food.
“One water, coming right up!” I went into the kitchen and filled a glass with ice and water and grabbed a soda for myself. I set the glass in front of Vinyl before sitting down and digging into the bag, pulling out Vinyl’s sandwich and then my own. “Dig in!” I unwrapped the paper around my sandwich, took a half and took a big bite out of it. Vinyl did the same with hers, inspecting the food before taking a bite.
I swallowed and said, “How is it?”
Vinyl attempted to say something through a mouthful of sandwich. Realizing she could not be understood, she quickly chewed and swallowed. “This is better than anything I’d ever had back home!”
“Haha, if that’s what you think then you’ve got to try some other places around here. JJ’s is good, but there’s much better around here.”
Vinyl looked at me as if what I had just said was impossible, before taking another bite. I laughed again and finished the first half of my sandwich before cracking open the soda and taking a swig.
“I’ll stay here.”
I barely caught the words as I finished my sandwich. “Pardon?”
“I said I’ll stay here.” Vinyl said. “If you really think that’s safest for me. But I trust you not to start any funny stuff. Besides, as much as I like free stuff, I think I at least owe it to you to try and repay you.”
I nodded. “Don’t worry about repaying me, at least not until we get things sorted out. But you can trust that I will respect you and your wish so long as you give me the same courtesy.”
“It’s only fair I suppose.” Vinyl replied, finishing off her sandwich. “Now then, how about that explanation you owe me?”
I took my soda and invited her to follow me into a room across the kitchen. I flipped the lights on to reveal what I called my office. Really it wasn’t much more than a large desk where I kept my laptop, router, and printer, along with other related supplies. I set my iTouch and camera on the desk and booted up my laptop. I offered Vinyl a chair as I sat into mine.
“So, in this world we have something called the internet.” I began. “The internet allows people to share files, text, sound, images, or pretty much any other digital medium almost instantaneously over places called websites. Think of the internet as a planet, websites can be like countries, pages in each website are like a city, and files we can download from those pages are like stores. A link between pages is sorta like a highway.” I logged into my laptop and opened up a browser using Chrome. “A web browser is the tool we use to access these pages. The internet, unfortunately, can be a very unsafe place to anyone who doesn’t know what they’re doing. You can accidentally stumble upon some very…disturbing and grotesque images or pages, or have your computer infected by a virus or malware that attacks it, sometimes resulting in complete destruction of your software. Software is what makes the computer and all programs run. You can also get caught up in a scam and have your private information stolen from you, and that’s only some of the not so good things that you can run into. Fortunately I know how to get around the internet and avoid these things.”
I opened a tab and went to Google and typed an image search for ‘Vinyl Scratch’, making sure that ‘Safe Search’ was enabled. I personally don’t really care about ‘disgusting images’, but I figured it would be best if Vinyl didn’t see that stuff right off the bat. Within seconds the whole screen was full of vectors and stills of the pony. I let Vinyl take a good look at the images.
“Now then, a few years ago a company called Hasbro contacted a woman by the name of Lauren Faust about the revival of a popular children’s cartoon known as My Little Pony…”