//------------------------------// // Chapter I - A doubtful discovery // Story: This can't be real! // by Somebodycallmylawyer //------------------------------// This can't be real! A My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic fanfiction by Somebodycallmylawyer Based on the concept of the Ponyearthverse, created by SkyblazeTheBard A.K.A Markus Chapter I - A doubtful discovery ~~Day 1~~ It all started on a cool October Sunday. On that day, I would never live the same life again. When I woke up in the morning, I wasn't expecting the day to be very interesting. I was eventually proven wrong. The morning couldn't have been more deceiving. When I slipped back into consciousness, I was trying to remain asleep. Eventually, I opened a pair of tired eyes and slowly sat up. I groaned slightly as I positioned myself to look at my clock on the windowsill. The clock drearily displayed the time: 8:41. It was still quite early in the morning. Too early. I wasn't exactly an early bird, when it came to getting up on the weekend. In fact, I didn't usually leave my bed until at least 10:15. Despite my intentions to continue my sleep, my body clock had other plans that day. It tended to get up a couple of hours before I did. I sighed as I saw the numbers on the clock, knowing that I would need to think about something, to let the time pass as I slept. Before I decided to lie down and return to my slumber, I chose to look outside of my window instead. 'I may as well look outside,' I thought to myself. 'I'm sitting by the window, anyway.' On that note, I stood up on my bed, with my knees on the mattress. I then carefully edged my way to the windowsill. From there, I moved the blind out of the way and peered out through my window. The view wasn't breathtaking, but I imagined that it would be far more picturesque than the view from an estate. A horse field complemented the country landscape. The plain, block-sized field was only a meter from the back of the house. The field dominated the foreground in my view. In the distance, there was a radio mast, which was located by the coastal cliffs. I lived in Jersey. I know what you're probably thinking, but you're not right in your assumption. I didn't live in New Jersey. That was on the other side of the Atlantic. I actually lived on the island of Jersey. It was a small British territory that was located near to France. The island was my calm and quiet home. It was largely rural; in fact, Jersey only had one town. I lived up in the countryside, not unlike most islanders. We tended to get confused with the state of New Jersey, especially by Americans. My attention shifted from the horizon back to the nearby horse field. A couple of horses were standing there. They were not doing anything particularly exciting. I looked at the brown equines and commented in my head, 'Boy, it must be boring to be a horse.' As I continued to look at the animals, I smirked. I was so lucky to be a human. I knew that I was enjoying my life more than the horses probably were. On most days, the horses were taken from their stables, only to spend much of their day in a confined, dull field. They would always be given opportunities to exercise inside and outside of the field, like any other horse would. However, they didn't have much of a choice about where they went and what they could do. In contrast to their lack of choice, I was in my own warm, comfortable bed. I was able to get up whenever I wanted. The horses could only play with each other to entertain themselves, whilst I had electronics that could kill hours of time. They would be forced outside for fresh air, even when it was winter and when it rained. I had a roof and soft bed sheets over me. I couldn't live as a horse. I would have to give up so many luxuries. My laptop, my home, my bed. All of these would be useless and inaccessible to horses. A horse would get very few creature comforts. However, to be fair, the horses in the field had always lived like that. They didn't know any better way to live. After laying my thoughts to rest, I finally went back to sleep. I had a mental discussion with myself, as time slowly passed by. I wanted to avoid waking up for a while, but I managed to sleep for another hour, without getting bored. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ I had a peaceful sleep. I had an ample opportunity to relax in bed. This was partially due to the lack of any obnoxious sounds. All I could hear was the gentle sound of cars passing by the house. I lived by a long, lonesome country road, so I had gotten used to that sound over the years. If it weren't for those vehicles, you could have heard a pin drop. The silent house reflected the day that I thought I would have. The house wasn't always this quiet, but it was just that little bit quieter than usual. This didn't alarm me at all. In fact, a smirk slowly crept onto my tired face, as I remembered that I would have the house all to myself. Mum was going away on that weekend. She was going to see my brother in England. She would not come back from her visit until Monday evening. The absence of her voice implied that she had left. I happily sighed, as I assumed that I would be alone today. I was eagerly looking forward to having some personal leisure time. Today was going to be a quiet day. It would be my day. Despite probably being the only person in the household, I couldn't go through the day without speaking to someone. Without any prior warning, a faint ringing sound woke me up. I groaned in protest at the end of my sleeping session. I knew all too well about who was on the other end of the line and why they called. My dad must have been calling me. In moments, the ringing stopped, and I could hear dad's voice as he left a message for me. I opened my eyes and looked to my watch. The hands presented the time. It was only 9:50 AM. I could never sleep for too long on a Sunday. I always spoke to my dad on Skype on a Sunday morning. It was the only time in the day that we could speak. Dad lived on the other side of the world, and we were many time zones apart. Consequently, we had to call each other in my morning. He usually interrupted my sleep, but to be fair, who knows how long I would have slept for if he didn't call me that day. As a teenager, I could have easily slept until the afternoon. I quickly got up, washed myself, and changed into some casual clothes. Upon my venture outside from my room to the shower downstairs, I saw that mum was indeed away. I headed back upstairs to speak to my father. I carefully took my computer from my room, and placed it on the table in the opposing spare room. Then I turned the system on. Within minutes, I was speaking to dad on Skype. When the call began, he greeted me with enthusiasm "Hello!" "Hi." I replied happily. "How are you?" I answered his question honestly: "I'm alright." I had gotten over him disrupting my sleep. He was my dad, after all. "How about you?" "I'm," he paused for a moment. He quickly searched for a response as he was taken aback by my question, "…good." Dad's enthusiasm returned in no time, but I could tell that he still felt uncomfortable. How did such a simple question suddenly make him feel so uneasy? Ignoring the thought for the time being, I dragged the conversation along, "How's your week been?" "It was quite eventful." "Really? What did you get up to then?" Dad proceeded to recap his experiences of the past week. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ For the next ten minutes, we had a fairly normal conversation. We talked about our week and what we were looking forward to doing in the following weeks. I then deviated slightly from the topic, by asking dad a question. "Is there anything on at the moment?" I wanted to know if he was watching any TV shows lately. My dad didn't reply immediately. Instead he stared blankly at me. A frown was forming on his face. He was looking at me as if there was a misunderstanding. As I stared back at him, my face also began to droop. What had I said? Was there something that I should have known about? What was going on? After seemed like several minutes, my dad finally spoke up. "There's nothing on at the moment," he paused again; I could clearly see the look of bewilderment on his face. "but we've been watching nothing but the news this evening." He could tell from my face that I hadn't watched the news at that point. He continued, "You won't believe what's happening!" When I heard the last sentence, my thoughts translated into wide eyes and a look of horror on my face. I had to know what was happening. I couldn't wait for another moment. "What's going on then?" I asked the question impatiently. Did a natural disaster occur? Did terrorists attack a famous building? Had the Queen passed on? I almost dreaded my dad's answer. When he told me what was actually going on, his reply threw me. "Apparently, there's a winged unicorn in someone's house!" "What?" I had asked dad in an annoyed tone. My dad was right. I didn't believe him. As a teenager who was sceptical about almost anything irrational, I simply couldn't take him seriously. I just couldn't accept such a ridiculous claim. I was absolutely certain that unicorns couldn't exist. I resumed my response, "You must be joking. That idea doesn't sound realistic at all! I simply can't believe that." Dad had grown frustrated at my response. To my surprise, he dealt with his stress in only a matter of seconds. As he temporarily calmed down, my dad spoke to me in a calm, clear and simple tone. "I am completely serious." I was still sceptical, and continued to show him my annoyed look. "Go and look on the news later!" He raised his voice slightly, as he spoke with an increasingly upset tone. After hearing him, I changed my mind. Maybe he was telling the truth. He looked quite convincing at this point. I wondered if he genuinely meant every single word. After a moment of consideration, I gave my dad a chance. "What have they said about this 'unicorn'?" I sighed lightly. “Well, it was spotted in a celebrity’s house a few hours ago.” “Really? Do you know the celebrity’s name, by any chance?” “I can’t remember her full name, but I think it was Lauren something.” “Okay.” I accepted his answer with doubt and suspicion. I was wondering who the celebrity could have been. I couldn’t think of any famous person called Lauren. As dad revealed more information, his story became increasingly unbelievable. If he was making it all up, he was certainly running out of ideas. However, I was wondering where he would take his claim, along with what he would be telling me next. “There’s more,” my dad added. “Apparently, the unicorn has a name.” I moved my head slightly closer to my monitor. What would dad say about the creature’s name. What was its name? Cream? Lilly? Fluffy? I knew that this would be interesting. After I shuffled towards my laptop, dad resumed the conversation. “They have said that its name was ‘Celestia’ or something.” My tired eyes widened slightly. Celestia. I had heard that name before. ‘Is it possible that...’ As soon as that thought appeared, I dismissed it. Celestia was nothing more than a cartoon character. There simply couldn’t be a relation between the two equines. “Uhh..” I couldn’t carry on speaking to dad. I wanted to finish the call to think about what he had said. “That’s... intriguing. I’ll have to watch the news soon.” I no longer questioned my father's story. I couldn't think about it when I was still talking to him. I needed to wrap the call up. “I think I’ll go now.” “Okay then.” My dad replied in a puzzled tone. Despite his confusion, he allowed me to end the call early. “Well, I’ll speak to you next week, then.” “I’ll see you next Sunday.” I replied quietly. “Bye, Charles!” I barely managed to let out a weak “Bye.” I ended the call by clicking on the red button. I proceeded to lie back against my wooden chair and took my gaze away from the computer screen. Once I was comfortable, I began to stare at the window. I reconsidered dad’s ‘news’, throwing any other thoughts away. A unicorn in a celebrity’s home sounded ridiculous to me; as it would for any other rational, sane person, but the unicorn’s name had caused me speculate wildly. Celestia was the name of a winged unicorn from the newest My Little Pony cartoon: Friendship is Magic. The only reason that I knew that was because of the show’s popularity online. I had seen the mare many times in the previous 18 months. I had known about the bronies for a while. In 2011, I found out that teenagers and young men were watching the cartoon. Initially, this came to me as shocking, strange, and intriguing. I couldn’t understand how such a show could appeal to males at all. Shortly after this discovery, I quickly encountered screenshots, fanart, and other MLP-related content on some sites that I used. I never took part in the bronies’ activities. I didn't even like their posts. On the contrary, I actually found the posts to be annoying. As the fandom grew, I couldn’t browse the web without encountering their content at least once a day. I only wanted to look at rage comics and watch videos on YouTube. I certainly didn’t go on for ponies. Despite my initial annoyance at the bronies, I eventually accepted their presence. I slowly got used to finding pony content practically everywhere. I learned to ignore them whenever I could. I wasn’t very interested in the show, or its fandom. Despite the visibility of the bronies on the internet, I knew how obscure they were in real life. Someone like my dad probably wouldn’t even know that the show existed. I simply wouldn’t expect him to mention the name of one of the characters. That’s what confused me. Assuming that he made up the story that he told me, and that he was completely unaware about Friendship is Magic, where did he get the name Celestia? Was this a coincidence? Did the name come to him whilst he gave me the details? Did the name simply happen to match that of the animated winged unicorn? I couldn’t find a more plausible answer. It had to be a coincidence. Despite this, I still held onto a drop of uncertainty. I couldn’t completely accept my answer because I wasn’t sure if dad’s story was indeed false. I remained in deep thought, taking no consideration towards my surroundings. On one hand, the unicorn story would sound like a myth to any sceptic. On the other hand, my dad explained it in surprising detail. This left me with two explanations. Either he scripted the entire story, or the story was actually true. As I thought about the authenticity of the story, another question surfaced. Had my dad lied to me? Was he tricking me? I tilted my head downwards at the negative thought. We loved each other. He wouldn’t be cruel enough to fool me that much. When I was younger, he sometimes fooled me with false claims and insignificant white lies. When he did, however, he was either joking or persuading me to do something. Every time he did this, I quickly forgave him. If my dad was fooling me, he would do so for an apparent reason. I assumed that we were on good terms, as we always were. Surely, my dad held no grudges towards me. I was reluctant to jump to a conclusion, but I guessed that he was telling the truth. If my assumption was correct, it meant only one thing... ‘...But that story must be fake. I can’t explain it.’ I abruptly broke out of my trance and opened my browser. The internet would know the answer. Without thinking, I quickly opened a second tab. I logged onto Facebook like a zombie. I was going to look at the news on the first tab, but I needed to check my profile first. In the end, I never clicked on my page, or any news website. I was glued to the news feed. The news feed contained a few normal posts; however, they were easily outnumbered by a sea of other posts. Each of them mentioned Celestia, MLP, or 'Lauren', the celebrity who was involved. My friends weren’t talking about anything else. One post read: ‘Just checked the news. I can’t believe it!’ When I refreshed the page, a new post appeared: ‘WTF is going on at Lauren’s house?’ I soon realised that the celebrity in question was Lauren Faust, the creator of Friendship is Magic. Some of my closest friends noted that the unicorn in her home looked like Celestia. My jaw was so low, I feared that I would break my bones. I never expected a day when anyone would talk about ponies. FiM was virtually unheard of in Jersey. I knew that the locals didn’t embrace internet culture. My friends tended not to discuss internet memes, unless they were very popular. I knew that they didn’t visit the same websites as me. For example, I didn’t know any other Reddit users. Only a handful of my friends ever visited Know Your Meme. If they ever saw any pony content, they probably avoided it, like I did. I wouldn’t expect them to understand the fandom. We saw internet culture as something irrelevant to us. It was never a significant part of our lives. Upon looking at the news feed, my heart sank. I knew that something was wrong. The unicorn incident was not just a real news story; it must have also gathered a considerate amount of attention. I needed to look at the news. I was about to click on my other tab, but before I could do so, my stomach churned. It was now 10:30, and I never made time to eat breakfast. I quickly typed a post: ‘Why is everyone talking about unicorns and ponies? Could anyone please give me some context?’ I hoped that someone would summarise the attention surrounding this incident. I clicked the post button and put my laptop into hibernate mode. I travelled downstairs to make my breakfast. Once I was done, I brushed my teeth in the upstairs bathroom. I was finally up and ready for the day. Now I could watch the news on the TV in the living room. As I walked down the stairs again, my heart pounded at an ever-quickening pace. What was going on? It was only a matter of seconds before I would find out. I sat on a couch and grabbed the remote with a shaky hand. ‘Let’s see what the deal is, then.’ I wasted no time in turning the TV on, and switching to the news channel...