//------------------------------//
// Chapter 1: Honest Coercion 
// Story: Synthesis 
// by Znex 
//------------------------------//

The Arcane
Chapter 1

Ugh, where am I? I opened my eyes to see absolute darkness all around me. Trying to look even for the slightest sign of light, I lifted my hands over my head. To my dismay, I couldn’t even find the dim shapes of my hands. Damn it, I’d better not be blind. My hands dropped back onto the ground and I tried to get up from where I lay. Slowly, I clutched whatever surface was beneath me and pushed myself up. My feet gradually shifted before they suddenly met something foreign beneath me and flung my body forward into the ground.

With pain exploding in my mind, I forced my battered body to get up with better success. Deliberately and carefully, I stepped my way backwards to where the object now was and crouched down to meet it. I felt its rough surface, and found it was lumpy, though flexible. Reaching my hand around on it, I found an edge that I pulled out to reveal its inside.

It was a knapsack of some sort, containing a number of odd objects. I felt my way in slowly before I met a peculiar orb-like object. As I pulled it out, it suddenly ignited with white light, causing me to drop it in shock. The orb’s light flooded all that surrounded me, extending as far back as several hundred metres. As I turned to look at what was revealed, it was then I remembered.

All around me were the Trees of Silence, stripped of branches, bark, and foliage. Even during the daytime, they were rumoured to touch the sky. This forest was well known to the inhabitants of Silva for the breathtaking silvery dimness of the trees during the clear night. The trees were like needles of bone, dead and inert. However the people of this land treated this forest as sacred as their own gods - because of history or for some other reason, I knew not. What I knew was that it was perhaps the safest place in all of Silva. They call it the Dead Forest.

Taking the orb and satchel in hand, I moved further into the forest. What always unnerved me was the complete silence of this forest - it was rumoured that no living creature had lived here for centuries. Even now, my feet upon the rough brown earth made the only sounds, and it frightened me. It was unnatural to me that no life should ever exist here. There was not even the chirping of crickets, nor the occasional hoot of an owl.

As I moved each foot forward, I shivered with deep apprehension. To keep my mind off, I took the orb under my left arm and shuffled through the bag looking for something interesting. After a while, I found it. I curled the long roll of parchment out of the knapsack to reveal a large and detailed map of the forest, including interestingly a highlighted location within the midst of the forest. A long and avid smile appeared along my face as I remembered then why I was here.

In these forests was rumoured to be the ancient Diamond of Ages, hidden in some ruins. sounds vague, should prolly revise From since I had first heard stories of it in an old tavern, I longed to take hold of this prize. To merely call it a diamond was an understatement - the Diamond of Ages was a magical artefact, restraining the full powers of the arcane and daemonic. No mortal could unlock its properties and live, though I wasn’t the least bit concerned about that. I just wanted to make my damned retirement off the money.

I remember the search well, though with no lack of revulsion. Many of the Silvans I struggled to get information out of were simpletons, plain and true. I could have asked them about any other thing and they would still bring up their own little fools’ theories and speculations about the wonders of butter and chicken.personality break? It took me months before I found something remotely related and followed it to an ancient tribe living on the fringes of the Dead Forest. I not only discovered precisely what I wanted to know, but I also obtained the map drawn by the first of those to settle near here.

From what they told me, it was guarded well - there were supposed to be ancient mechanisms and traps covering every inch of the final stretch, each powered by an external magical source. This wasn’t the worst of it. The worst was that the Diamond of Ages was suspended by a rope over a bottomless chasm.

I wouldn’t be a master thief if I didn’t prepare for this however – this bag of mine held not only food and water, but also everything one could ever want for a job like this. If a wizard happened to remain at the ancient ruins guarding them like a lone soldier, I was ready for him. If a monster came crying out of the night and leaped at me with its claws bared and rotting mouth wide open, I was ready for that too, though you wouldn’t expect something like that in these dead woods.

But I was getting off track: it was time for me to get to work. Looking at the map revealed the ruins were deep within the very centre of the forest? hill? should consider better location
notes: need to think of better name for story
memory recovery seems a bit stupid


*BRRR-ING!!*


“Alright, please ensure you have all your essays back within the next week.” The literature room swelled with a cacophony of groans.

I looked up with a start - most of those previously sitting around for the class were already leaving. Those who remained were assumedly trying to make up for lost time spent sleeping by stuffing as many books as they could into their bags at impossible speeds. The teacher himself was packing up quite leisurely with no hurry.

I glanced down at my own table to find the only two books I ever brought to lectures nowadays: my occasional notebook, and of course my masterful and utterly brilliant draftbook. The notebook was for occasional lines of ‘wisdom’ from the lectures that I probably might as well have retrieved from textbooks, but for the most part my draftbook occupied the majority of lecture time. To me, it was my heart and my soul, my escape from the mundane. This particular one was the sixth of my draftbooks from Year 10, though I’ve had plenty of scraps I’ve scribbled on before, and for good reason. I had never written an entire book before though, except for The wolf from down the road, but that was never approved by publishers - so I was at the Claudius University wasting my time away...

Don’t get me wrong, not all of it was so bad. My lectures were shit, but the campus itself was brilliant. Oftentimes when nothing was happening, I would just wander around and take inspiration from the wonder of my surroundings, whether it was the enchanting Victorian architecture, or the beautiful and varying gardens.

The library was vast, unlike any I had ever seen before. It was filled with an immeasurable amount of literary masterpieces, some of them I had read, most of them I hadn’t, though I relished the idea of reading them. If I were looking for any other degree, I probably would have decided to stay here. Indeed, I had already decided to leave a month or so before, and now I was just waiting until I finished my new book and got it published. That is, if it got published.

I suppose I was ignoring the idea that it wouldn’t go through. My hopes for continuing an independent life were completely based on the royalties from this book, but I never considered any other path. In my firm opinion, what other option could there be for me? In any case, I wasn’t worrying about that.

I clutched the books in my hands and shoved them somewhat roughly into my bag before heading out the door of my lecture room. Swarms of other students pressed past each other on their ways to what was likely several times more interesting than any of my lectures. However, I headed a different way – to early lunch.


~~~~


Whenever any of us went to lunch, we normally headed to the café several streets away. Usually it was crowded, but they served good food and so all types of people went there. If Leonardo Da Vinci ever went there, he’d probably have a field day just drawing all the varying and interesting structures of different peoples’ faces. As for me, I was more interested in the people themselves. There would often be a time where I’d meet a university associate or a juggalo, a journalist or a WoW nerd. You name them: I’ve met them all.

However, today was particularly unusual. Today I met a peculiar group of bronies.

There were about five of them seated around a large round table, most of them must have been in their mid 20’s, though one of them near the back with a hoodie on looked like he was about 20, same as me. They were all notably distinguished by either a pony shirt they wore or by other pony merchandise they had (interestingly, the leader had a hat shaped into a bright pink pony), and they were all busily jabbering away about what sounded like a new MMO. I decided to listen in closer.

“And Hasbro has given sanction and everything for it. It’s going to be so awesome.” The leader pressed his cheeks together in a way that horridly reminded someone of a duck face.

“Oh man, I can’t wait to get my epically-awesome pegasus into the air and flying around,” the arms of an overweight brony with a shirt covered by a rainbow-coloured pony waved about, “I’m going to be roleplaying so much.”

“Wait,” another brony slammed his hands into the table, causing his purple pony figurine to fly a few inches into the air before landing again on its side, “does that mean the main six are included in the game?”

“Undoubtedly,” the leader crossed his arms, “Even Derpy is included as an easter egg in different parts of the game, cross-eyes and all. But all this stuff isn’t even the very tip of the iceberg.” His eyes swerved to the left and right, around him and his group before settling on me and widening.

Swiftly he straightened up and spread his arms open. “Greetings good sir, and welcome to the weekly meeting of the local bronies. I presume from your vacant gaze that you do not know the wonder that is ponies?”

I shook my head slowly and carefully, remembering my previous encounter with bronies that almost landed me into a week-long MLP marathon (I’m still not sure how they were going to do that).

A few gasps came from the other bronies before the leader made signs for them to be quiet. “Then clearly it is our duty to educate you - but where are my manners? May we introduce ourselves to you? Please sit down, make yourself comfortable. I am the Great and Powerful Pinkie, or as I’m known IRL, Evan. These are my cohorts.”

“Enough of the fancy talk, Evan, or you’ll turn Prench.”

Evan waved off the cynical comment from a brony with a wide grin, “The one who rudely interrupted me is known online as Lyrinx, and he is basically the joker of this group. Watch yourself around him if you want to keep your sanity. This guy,” here he indicated the brony with the rainbow shirt, “is Windy, the resident roleplayer. Don’t accuse his characters of being Mary Sues and you should be okay with him.”

“Hey!” Windy’s face creased into a grotesque grimace.

“Over here,” this time he pointed to the brony with the purple pony figurine, “is Menchant. He does coding for a living. Come to think of it, coding is his life.” Menchant and the other bronies chuckled at this.

“The last one here is Ergo074 - he doesn’t say much, though he knows all there is to know about the show and its universe. We call him our portable encyclopaedia.” Ergo, the one clothed in a large and dark hoodie, scowled at the leader’s sniggering. “There usually is another one here, but I don’t think--”

“Excuse me, sorry, my bad, please excuse me, begging your pardon, excuse me!”

“Speak of the devil.” Pinkie grinned at me as a young girl with long hair dyed pink ran between the various tables scattered outside the cafe towards us, apologising to other patrons as she did. I noticed that she too couldn’t be much younger than me. As she finally arrived, she struggled to say anything in between her puffs. “Allow me to introduce you to the pegasister of the group, Felicity03, my baby sister by seven years! She’s a regular Fluttershy – she even dyed her hair pink for the role.” The other bronies laughed at this somewhat awkwardly – it now seemed clear to me that they all, for the exception of Ergo, had a thing for this pegasister.

“Oh, I’m so so sorry I’m late, guys,” Felicity finally managed, “I’m not usually, but there was so much traffic and then halfway I had to get petrol and then, and then--”

“My dear baby sister!” Evan stood up out of his chair and threw his arms around Felicity in a great bear hug, which elicited such a shy squeak from her that Lyrinx, Windy and Menchant were on the verge of fainting out of pure joy. Windy ended up falling out of his chair. I was struggling to keep myself from smiling at the spectacle. Pinkie pulled her up into the air with his hug. “You know we could never not forgive you.”

Felicity winced as Evan drew his arms tighter around her. “Erm, good. Great! Yes, yes I am...um, relieved?”

Evan finally looked down to notice that he was choking the living daylights out of her and quickly released her. “Felicity, allow me to introduce you to...” He looked to me for a few seconds before he realised I never told him my name. “Oh, of all the things to forget! I never asked you your name! Would you mind...?”

“Call me Andrew.”


~~~~


The meeting continued for several hours. All through lunch we talked about different things. Halfway through, Windy even began a roleplay session with several of the bronies which sounded like it was set during medieval times - though all the characters were thoroughly pony. Overall however, there is not much to be said about what happened, other than what I understood – and that was they were all obsessed with ponies! Perhaps an obsession even more powerful than that of the bronies I had met before. However that is not to say I didn’t enjoy the meeting – I realised that I enjoyed it much more than I should have.

As the sun began to set, the meeting drew to a close, but not before Pinkie started to say one last thing to us all. “Alright, so I think we’ve gone over everything, but I would like to say a few more things first before we leave.” He searched through a small bag on the ground next to him before fishing out a sheet of paper. He began reading from it.

“Firstly, don’t forget to get a copy of the collector’s box for the second series. This is quite possibly the best thing to happen to the Southern Hemisphere since...since the collector’s box for first series was released. We cannot waste such a fucking awesome opportunity by deliberately avoiding spending money and torrenting every single episode, Menchant!” Menchant glanced towards something in the distance as Pinkie stared at him with an evil eye. Pinkie coughed a bit before looking back and continuing. “Secondly, remember to support Derpy. Derpy is best background pony and none of us want to lose her for good.”

“The Derpy crisis has been over since last year!”

“Yes, yes, I know that, Lyrinx.” Evan massaged his brow carefully. “But as long as Derpy remains a background pony, there may still be trouble. Thirdly, love and tolerate. Fourthly, support Friendship is Global--”

“Hold on.” The velvety voice came from Ergo, to my surprise. “We never actually finished discussing this, and you never told us what the big pitch line was.”

The other bronies nodded in agreement, and I being curious nodded alongside them.

Pinkie looked up at us and a grin grew on his face. “Ah yes, of course!” He threw his paper onto the table before going into his bag once more and taking out a garishly-decorated flyer. “Friends, bronies, countrymen, you will not believe what I have to offer to you.” With a melodramatic movement of his arm, he slammed the flyer right into the middle of the table. I with everyone else drew my head closer in, and this was what the flyer said:


Hey bronies and pegasisters!
We at FiG would like to invite you all to playtest the newest
and best MMO out there, MLP: Friendship is Global!
All you have to do is:
1. Meet us at the address on this flyer between 10am & 6pm on the 31st June
2. Have some previous testing experience
3. Have fun!
All those who are approved will be able to test the newest gaming
technology known to mankind (and likely ponykind!)
May the best pony win!
From FiG Corp.


The last space on the flyer contained an address and some company logos and copyrights. Interestingly, the address was to a computer lab back in Claudius University.

“Behold! A playtesting invitation!”

This last line sent all the bronies into an excited hubbub. However, it was my turn to raise my hand. “Hold on, this can’t be the big pitch line. Plenty of MMOs involve some sort of playtesting, so this MMO isn’t any better for that. What’s so different about this session?”

Pinkie gazed up at me incredulously. “What the playtesting involves. The flyer did not exaggerate how new the technology is. It is really new. The sort of new that has been involved in nothing before now. The new graphics and new gameplay and new storylines all other games advertise about; they all pale in comparison to this technology. In fact, it is the fucking Einstein of the gaming world! You would need an enormous brain just to understand the fucking simplicity of the whole fucking thing--”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” Lyrinx wrapped his arm around Pinkie’s shoulder as he noogied his head. “Calm down bro! You’re dropping F bombs like it was World War Three happening. Besides, I think Menchant knows heaps more about this.”

The other bronies turned to look at Menchant as he began to speak. “Yes, Friendship is Global uses a new type of technology. Most people call it the Ariadne Project.”

“Isn’t Ariadne the Greek legend of how spiders were formed?” I scratched my head trying to decipher what it could mean.

“Yes it is.” Menchant nodded as he thought more about it. “The project is based on a large network of electrical impulses all connected in a way so to emulate the way human nerves work. It’s all a bit like a web, which was likely where they got the name from. I heard that they tried to name it the Matrix, after the systems used in the movies, but they never got the rights for it...”

“Human nerves?”

“This is what Ariadne is. It synthesises every nerve impulse you receive - if you feel any sensation, it’s an impulse that actually arrives from the computer hardware itself, completely coded and calculated. On the other hand, any impulses you send go straight to the computer, and the computer responds to that according to its coding. The coding’s so complex that experience in coding isn’t good enough - from what I’ve heard you need to at least have a major in human biology and coding. Or something like that.

“Anyway, that’s not the point.  Most of the people working on this project are geniuses – I’m amazed that FiG got their hands on it. You’d think this would be the sort of thing they’d sell at a trillion dollars apiece to governments.”

“Instead they’re gonna be selling them for a thousand bucks each to computer geeks like him.” Lyrinx pointed his thumb back at Menchant.

“I do hope that means we’ll be able to feel what it’s like to be a pony.” Felicity shook with joy. “I’m so excited!”

A period of silence followed as Lyrinx, Menchant and Windy realised once again that Felicity existed and began to stare at her without realising, much to the amusement of me, Ergo, and Pinkie, and the embarrassment of Felicity herself, who promptly began to shrink back into her chair.

“Ahem.” Evan tapped his papers onto the desk. “That’s enough interruption. We should really get back to the point in hand. Remember to support Friendship is Global. Fifthly, attend that play-test session - that means you too, Ergo and Andrew.”

My eyes widened as I realised he said my name. “Whoa wait! What makes you think I’m going?”

“Well it seems to me that this will be a prime opportunity to teach you the pony way.” A wry smile appeared on Pinkie’s face as he said this. “After all, you do seem so interested in the project it would be a shame not to invite you either.”

“W--wait, what?!” I stood up quickly. “Look, I appreciate the gesture, but I’m seriously not into My Little Pony. It’s all too much sparkles and rainbows…you know?”

The blank looks on everyone’s faces said completely the opposite.

“Right…look, I really have to go. There’s a bus I really should have caught a while back, and I’m kinda late. Bye!” I threw my bag over my shoulder and started heading in the general direction of the bus stop in what was now the dim twilight. After a few minutes of fast walking, I paused and let out a sigh.

My reactions to what they had each spoken about had exposed what I knew then to be my intense enjoyment of the group. Unlike most groups that I had previously conversed with, heated debates and discussions were an uncommon thing. I could not comprehend how I found these bronies more interesting than other groups – maybe it was the odd choice of subject matter, yet I knew there was weirder out there. It puzzled me to the point of frustration. And this was why I hated them then and there.

I began walking again. The dim blackness of the growing night reminded me of what I already knew – I was very late. However, I was ready – there was always another bus I could rely on to get back to at least my local area, even if I had to wait a few hours.

I wished I had a car, but my part-time job gave me barely any money back for the rent and food. I was lucky my parents lent me uni funds before I left home.

As I slung my bag onto the empty seat and sat down, I realised that for the first time I was the only one there. Even the street I was on was void of traffic. Usually there would be at least one other person there with their earphones and their dubstep at maximum volume.

“Excuse me...”

I almost launched myself from the seat as the gentle voice came just out of nowhere right behind me. It was Felicity from the brony group.

“Oh, I’m so so sorry! I didn’t mean to scare you,” Felicity squeaked out, “I was only wanting to get your attention, but then I must have overdone it because then you almost fell off the bench, and then --”

“Damn it, it’s alright. Just, don’t appear right behind me again. Alright?” She slowly nodded.

I revolved around to face the empty street. A few more seconds passed before I realised that she was there for a reason other than to annoy me. I turned around again with a grimace. “What is it?”

“Well...” Felicity nervously twirled her long hair around in her fingers. “I-I was wondering if you wanted me to...drop you off back to where you live. Well, if that’s okay with you.”

I frowned as I thought about the absurdity of the question. “If you hadn’t noticed already, I’m waiting for a bus.”

“Well yes, but...”

“So, no, thank you!” I swivelled back to my position facing the road.

“But – there aren’t any buses that go through here after 7...”

That was when it occurred to me that I never thought to check the time. Swiftly scrambling my phone out of my pocket, I saw that the time was 7:32, almost four hours after the time I’d normally arrive here, and long after I was sure there were any buses arriving. Even if I were to go to any other bus stop, I would have no idea which one was going the way I wanted to go. With a loud groan I fell into my outstretched hands and massaged my face as I tried to figure out what to do.

“So...want me to drop you off?”


~~~~


Our path led us over to a car (that looked like it had just been driven directly out of the 80’s) parked on the side of a road a few blocks away from the bus stop. As the light in the car turned on, I saw that it was a rusty golden Suzuki with patches of actual rust over the car – most of them were on the roof. There were a few rips in the felt chairs but for the most part, it was a very clean car inside. A cream yellow pegasus figurine hung from the rear view mirror, accompanied by a pair of normal dice.

“Feel free to sit wherever you want.” Felicity smiled as she unlocked the doors and got in. “Though please mind the ashtray - my dad uses that every time he’s in the car, and well, he’d be sort of mad.”

The ashtray was sitting precariously just behind the gear stick, held down by a blob of Blu-tack. It didn’t look it should hold on much longer. Despite my preoccupations I sat down in the front.

“So...where do you live?”

“Just outside the city – near Sunmoor.”

A wide smile appeared on her face. “Ooh, that’s near where I live! Um, hold on, let me just get this started...”

Felicity had to twist the key into the ignition several times before the old bomb of a car started.

“I, um, live in a block of apartments that way.” She put the car into gear before continuing. “It’s not that much though - only four rooms. That’s including the bathroom too. It’s home for me though, and I...um, enjoy it. Wh-what about you?”

“Live in a flat too.”

Felicity sat there a bit speechless before she gave up the conversation for lost with a sigh and drove out of the gutter. We moved into the crowded main street, packed full of homebound cars. From as far as I could see into the city, more rivers of cars streamed into the roads, illuminated by the adjacent street lights. Were it any other time, I’d be awed by the sheer scope of those many who worked within this city. However I felt that I would be lucky if I got home in an hour, let alone less than that.

Yet there was one thing that continued to nag at me as we drove along. As we came up to a set of traffic lights, I looked back to Felicity. “Why did you offer to drop me off back home?”

“Well,” Felicity stammered, “I knew that there would be no buses through there at this time--”

“Yeah, you said that already. But come on, we’re both strangers to each other. Strangers don’t offer to take others home.”

“Well, um, I-I--”

“You know what I think is happening?” I smirked as I observed her response. “I think Evan put you up to this, didn’t he? He wants you to somehow win me over to the brony cause, doesn’t he?”

“Wh-wh-what?!”


**BEEP**


Both she and I swiftly looked behind us and then back to the front before we realised the lights had gone green. Felicity appeared a bit green herself before she quickly got into gear and drove us back into the stream of cars.

“D--do you think we could talk about this later?” She grinned sheepishly as she glanced back to me.

“Right.” I rolled my eyes. “I guess we can talk about this after you drive me to the playtesting session in a few weeks.”

A hopeful smile appeared on her face as she took a quick look back at me. “Really?”

“No, that was sarcasm.” My left hand smacked into my face. “That session is the last place in this whole stinking world I would want to be.”

I was fed up. In my mind, I had just confirmed my suspicions. Maybe I was just antagonising the bronies, but I sure didn’t have any fucks to give about that. The quicker I got out of this disintegrating car and back into my flat, the better.

“If you don’t mind me asking, Andrew, um...why are you so opposed to going to the session?” Felicity glanced back at me with her mask of concern.

I kept my mouth shut.

“I mean, I wouldn’t think it’s such a bad thing. Well, I know ponies are involved, but, um, that doesn’t remove anything from the...”

Shut.

“...the gameplay? Yes, I think that’s...it. Plus you would be able to play around with the awesome stuff!”

Closed tightly.

“Arachne sounds like a pretty cool thing. Or whatever it was called. Arachnid? Aridnid? Um...”

Not a word.

“Anidiot? No, they wouldn’t name a system that...”

Oh God, why?

“Anspider? Arachnea? Hmm....iRachnid? No, it’s not an Apple product...or is it?”

My lungs were starting to convulse.

“iSpider? Oh dear, um...iRiadne?”

I couldn’t hold on for much longer.

“iRidiou? Oh, iWecouldn’tthinkofanygoodnamessoweusedsomerandomoneandputiinfrontofit.”

A few uncontrollable sniggers escaped from my mouth before I finally seized up in hysterical laughter. I never laughed this hard from something so inane, but everything about this whole situation was ridiculous. Felicity sat in what must have been shocked amazement before she joined me in laughter. It continued for what felt like hours.

I was still in hysterics when Felicity finally poked me in the side. The last few chuckles left my mouth before I realised we had stopped outside my apartment. I started to get ready to leave.

“We’re not quite there yet.” Felicity prodded my shoulder with a shy grin. “I was just about to ask you for some final directions.”

“What do you mean? We’re back at my flat.”

“Um, actually that’s my flat.”

I studied the apartment again and was about to refute her claim until I just realised the implications.

“Wait, you live here?”

“Well, I...” She looked at me for a moment before she caught on. “You live here?”

“Flat 6, second floor. Can’t miss it.”

“I live on the first floor. Flat...3.”

“But I...” I closed my eyes, trying to search my memory for her. “I’ve never even seen you before. We can’t have been missing each other all that time.”

“Well, I tend to avoid social contact.” Felicity nervously grinned at me. “I stay in my apartment most of the time.”

“Even during work.”

“Oh, no. I only occasionally work part-time starting around lunch time. As a child care helper.”

“Even on Saturdays?”

Felicity nodded with a frown. “Especially Saturday.”

I settled into my seat again.

“My brother always bugs me about me not going out. I only ever go to the brony meeting.” She smiled as she thought to herself. “Maybe he’s hoping...no, I don’t know.

“I suppose this is the last time we’ll be seeing each other, though.” A heavy sigh came from her. “Well…with the whole not-liking-ponies thing.”

We both sat there for a moment. Then I straightened up and looked at her. “Look, I’m sorry, Felicity. For earlier. It was unfair for me to think you weren’t sincere.”

She smiled back at me. “It’s alright. I probably would have thought the same were our positions switched. Also, call me Sonia.”

“Sonia?”

“My real name.” She nodded. “Felicity was chosen to be so different from my normal name that internet predators couldn’t guess who I was. Evan’s idea, not mine.”

Sonia twisted the key out of the ignition as I started to get out.

“Are you sure you won’t reconsider at least going to the session?”

I took my bag out from between my feet and slowly opened the door. “I...don’t know.”

Sonia looked at me curiously.

“Well...I guess I don’t see any real harm in going...”

A smile threatened to split her face in two.

Now I was stuck in a rut. I still didn’t really want to go, but I was too strongly attached to the group...damn my prejudices. Damn these bronies.

I sighed. “Alright, I’ll go to this...session thing.”

“ThankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouTHANKYOU!” Suddenly Sonia grabbed and hugged me so tightly my life was flashing before my eyes. Or at least I thought it was.

“Couldyouletgoofmeplease?”

Swiftly I was released back into the living world. I sat there gasping a little as I looked up at the now-blushing Sonia. “Um, erm...”

“Don’t worry about it - you only nearly gave me an early death.” I coughed a bit before smiling at her. “Also, uh, is the meeting a weekly thing?”

“Yes...why?”

“Count me in.”


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