Chapter 5
New York City changed so much on Sundays that a song had been written taking note of the fact. For Luke and Julie, the buzz of the traffic and activity they had seen over the past few days unnerved them a little, and they kept to the hotel. On Saturday, of course, they went to the convention center, and had enjoyed that sort of traffic, since it was all bronies like them. Then they woke on Sunday to see three of every four stores with their security gates down, parking lots that had been stuffed to bursting now empty, and sidewalks they could actually see.
“Luke, since we’re here for the first time,” said Julie, “let’s see some of the city.”
“But the con’s re-opening soon.”
“I know, I don’t want to miss any of it either. But we can’t come to New York and say that all we saw was two buildings.”
“No, I suppose not,” Luke said. “But we’ve definitely got to be back by noon. I don’t want to miss the new episode premiere.”
The skies in Manhattan were clear, since even the native pegasus people stuck to the ground. The tall buildings meant that flying wasn’t much advantage over walking. Luke and Julie reached an intersection where they thought that their wings would at least help them cross when the “Don’t Walk” sign was lit, but it turned out that the New Yorkers did that on foot anyway.
They walked uptown and emerged from the maze of skyscrapers to the southern edge of Central Park. Here at least, a few pegasus people were in the air. The couple shouldered their bags and took wing.
They tried to fit a day’s worth of tourism into an hour. Rapidly heading north, they took a few moments to observe points of interest. “Ooh, look at the reservoir.” “There are a lot of playgrounds in here.” “Let’s at least take a few minutes for the zoo.”
They were engrossed in the view, and didn’t notice the sun rising toward its peak. Julie noticed that they were the only two in the air, and she looked at her watch. “Luke! It’s twenty of twelve. We’ve got to get back,” she said.
They started flying back south, but didn’t get far before they heard a voice from below. “Hey! You two heading for the con?” It was a young man in a Fluttershy T-shirt, but whether he was an earth human, or a magical brony, or hadn’t been enhanced at all, they couldn’t tell. By his accent, they could tell he was a local.
“Yes, we are,” said Luke.
“Well, you won’t make it flying. One of those protest groups has got people stationed on the upper floors of buildings trying to take out any pegasus person flying by.”
“Great,” said Julie. “I guess we’re walking.”
“That’s no good either,” said the youth. “Another one has a human barricade on the avenue.”
“So we’re going to miss it. I can’t believe it!”
“No need for that, miss. One way still open left. Come on.”
*******************************************
Luke and Julie ran up the stairs, keeping their wings closely folded so as to not snag them on anything. Breathing heavily, Luke said, “Does this count as ironic? We’ve got to get somewhere, we can fly, and we wind up taking the subway.”
“I think it does, but some people are awfully fussy over that word. Let’s keep moving.”
They emerged onto the street and ran into the convention center. Flashing their badges to the security personnel at the door, they slowed to a fast walk and found the central theater. There was another brony in the red security shirt. “Are we too late for the panel and the episode?” Julie asked.
“Not quite. There are still a few seats left in the last row. I’m just heading in myself.”
“Great! We’ll sit together. My name’s Luke and this is my wife, Julie.”
“I’m Alex. Nice to meet you.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
With the extra money she had from the talent competition, Olivia was trawling the vendor hall and loading up on swag. When she had entered the convention the day before, Lisa had handed her the panel schedule and a highlighter. Together they had marked out the ones they wanted to see. The only problem, as Olivia now discovered, was that there had been no time to visit the artists or the merchandisers. They had barely managed to eat.
She had just put another art print in her bag when she got a text from Lisa asking her to meet up in front of the central theater. Hurrying up to the front of the hall, she was stuck behind a small crowd in front of a table. From what she could gather, there was a raffle about to be drawn. She tried to maneuver her way around and found herself close to the table itself.
“You want a ticket?” the lady behind the table asked.
“Huh?” Olivia said. “I’m just trying to get past.”
“You sure? Only four dollars a ticket, and you can win this life-size Rarity plushie!”
Olivia was about to wave the vendor off and keep pushing through, but she stopped at the phrase. “Life-size?” she said. “How can you have a life-size of a cartoon pon-ooh!” She saw the plushie. It was big enough to ride. “Well, for four dollars, I’ll give it a try.”
She filled out a slip with her badge number and put it into a drum. “Last call! Anyone else want a ticket?” the vendor shouted.
No one else said anything, so the vendor continued. “OK, we’ll have the draw now!” She spun the drum to mix up the tickets, pulled one out, and read the number.
“That’s me!” said Olivia. “I won!”
“Are you sure?” asked the vendor. “Let me just check your badge. . . Looks good. Congratulations! Come on back and pick up your prize.”
Olivia went in behind the desk. The vendor was still addressing the crowd. “OK, everypony else, let’s get going! The big panel’s starting in a few minutes!”
Olivia realized that she had a problem. She was never going to be able to carry around the giant plushie without knocking people over, to say nothing of seeing around it. She turned back to ask the vendor if she could pick it up afterwards, but she had joined the people hustling for the exit.
She had to act quickly. She pointed at the plushie and concentrated. Muttering to herself, “I hope it doesn’t blow up,” she worked through how to cast the spell. She had gotten quite talented at improvising her magic.
Slowly the plushie began to shrink. Olivia focused harder and the magic sped up. It got down to about a foot long and she grabbed a hold of it. She ran out to meet Lisa.
Halfway there, she thought, Wait, if I can do size-change magic, why didn’t I just buy a regular one?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lisa closed her cell phone after sending the text to Olivia and floated it into her handbag. She had long since gotten used to taking small actions magically. It was like having an extra set of hands. She was about to go wait at the central theater door, when she felt someone watching her.
She turned around to see a girl who couldn’t have been more than six years old staring right at her.
Lisa looked around, trying to see if the girl had anyone watching her, but couldn’t tell. She knelt down.
“Hi,” she said. “What’s your name?”
“Kim. You do magic!”
“Yes, I do. Where’s your mommy, Kim?” she asked, looking then for con security as well.
“She’s outside fighting,” Kim said. She pointed to the glass doors. Lisa saw one of the protest groups yelling at the few bronies who had ventured outside the building. Kim wasn’t much interested, though, and kept looking at Lisa. “Can you show me how you do it? I want to magic too!”
“You have to practice a lot, and you have to watch My Little Pony first.”
“Mommy won’t let me watch ponies.”
“No? Well, when you get older, you can watch them on your own. Then maybe you’ll learn magic.”
One of the women protesting outside looked around her and saw Kim inside. Tearing open the door, she raced toward the two of them. She had a mean look about her, and Lisa backed off, fearing she was going to be attacked. But the woman just took Kim by the hand and said, “What are you doing in here?! You shouldn’t go in here. These people are freaks!”
She dragged Kim off by the arm, and Lisa was left alone. She thought that she had done a good deed for the little girl.
“Hey, come on, let’s get going!” It was Olivia, running up to her with a bag from the vendor hall.
They went inside the theater just as the doors closed and sat in the back row. Olivia struck up a conversation with the two pegasus people sitting next to them.
“Hey. I’m Olivia and this is my friend Lisa.”
“I’m Julie, that’s Luke, and down at the end is Alex. You guys ready? This should be pretty exciting.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“So go out, have fun, be safe, and enjoy the con!” With those words, Bastian had concluded the opening ceremonies of FimCon. No one decided to go to a con for the opening, but it was important for the organizers. It let them gauge the number of attendees and their attitudes, answer some common questions—even if they had been answered dozens of times already—and occupy everyone’s time while the more popular exhibitions were being set up.
Since his speech the previous night, Bastian’s spirits had been high. The problems particular to this convention having been, if not solved, dealt with, made the problems inherent to any convention seem easy by comparison. Video equipment wasn’t working, or was missing in some cases. But he knew this was going to happen and had spares. One guest missed her flight and would be coming in late. Easy enough. Send one person to pick her up at the airport and another to sharpie a new time on all the posted schedules. There had been a mixup and some staff that had been promised hotel rooms weren’t booked. He went to the front desk and had them make four copies of his key. He wouldn’t be needing the room at this point.
Then, late Sunday morning, a miracle had happened. He had stood in the middle of the hall and no one came up to him. He looked into the staff room and there was no line out the door of people with complaints. He reached for his cell phone and found that there were no text messages screaming, “Urgent! Get to Panel Room 5 now!” He had a moment to breathe, a time to not hurry.
He took the opportunity to stroll the convention. All around were people in costumes, people listening to lectures and participating, people playing music and reciting memes. And all the people were smiling. At the front door, the people outside had angry faces, but they were out, and all the important people were in. It was as if a bubble had formed around them, and all of the good and happiness had floated into the bubble.
He ducked into a room. This was not for panels or discussions. When the staff had chosen their exhibits, they found that this closet of a room didn’t fit anything else, so someone had suggested that they set up a wide-screen TV and just run the episodes on repeat. By his estimate, they could get through the first four seasons without any repeats.
Few people were interested. They had all seen the episodes many times. The people who were in mostly used it as a cool-down room, a place to sit in the dark and sip some water before moving on to something else. Bastian put his phone on vibrate and sat down.
It was the episode where Rarity and Applejack slept over Twilight Sparkle’s house during the rainstorm. I haven’t seen this one in a long time, thought Bastian. What was the title? ‘The Sleepover’? No, they’re always punny or joking names. ‘Look Before You Sleep,’ that was it.
My Celestia, how long has it been since I’ve watched any episode, let alone an early Season One? It was so different then. Nopony was streaming it over the internet, there were no immediate post-broadcast discussions, no memes based on particularly funny lines.
There was an innocence about that. The show grew without people helping it. It was something special, something magical. Perhaps, in all the hoopla that surrounded the show, the show got lost.
I can imagine how this would be received if it were shown today. Did the storm knock out the lights? Does Twilight have electric lights? Electricity is canon, people! And wait, they’re eating s’mores. Marshmallows have gelatin, right? Gelatin is made from animal by-products, but Pinkie sang that their diets were completely vegetarian. Blatant contradiction! Ah, Rarity and Applejack are back together. Must be time for a bunch of fics shipping them.
If only I could go back in time and relive it as it was.
Bastian’s looked at his phone and saw that it was almost time for the big discussion panel. He got up and left the room.
No, he thought as he headed to the central theater. I wouldn’t go back. It was good then, but it’s good now too. I remember when we were convening in a tiny room with dirty windows in the bad part of town. Now we’re in the biggest arena in the city, and we’re national news. Going back would mean not having most of these people here, and we’d be less for that. And the enhancements are important too. Wings and magic, growing and strength, they could help everyone, brony or not. We can’t give that up.
It would be like going to sleep. And I don’t sleep.
Bastian reached the theater and took his position on the dais. The crowd was still chattering, so he turned up his microphone and started the panel.
“OK, I’m glad you’re all here, and I’m sure you’re all waiting for the unseen episode to start, but we wanted to run this panel, which is also going out over the net, to talk about our problems being enhanced bronies. I’ve talked about this with other people, and we’ve agreed that what we need is not any sort of collective action. We’re not a cause. But we want advice for people and families. What it comes down to is this: because of our love for ponies, and because of the abilities we’ve gained from it, we’re targets. How do we deal with that? I want to hear from you. There are microphones set up for anyone who has a suggestion, and we’ll read out some from the chatroom. Get in line if you want to say something.”
A pegasus girl stepped up to one of the mikes. “I know that no one wants to say it, but we all know that people who watch My Little Pony, and don’t become fans don’t get any powers. Isn’t that, like, an evolutionary indicator that there’s something wrong with the person? Ponies should be a litmus test for knowing who’s good and who’s not.”
There was a pause, and then Bastian spoke up. “I don’t know that that’s true. I still have friends who haven’t watched My Little Pony, or who have and didn’t like it, and who are good people. But even if it were, we don’t have the means to say that someone who isn’t good should be restricted from doing anything. Thanks for the comment. Yes, next?”
A magical brony spoke, holding the mike by his powers. “You’re right to say that we don’t have the means, and that we can’t become a movement. But what we need individually is more aggression. Not pre-emptive, but when bronies are being targeted, we need to fight back. Magical bronies have learned defensive spells, but if we knew some offensive spells as well, one or two news stories might put some fear into those who would try to subdue us.”
“So what you’re saying is, ‘When somepony tries to block, show them that you rock’?” asked Bastian. That got a laugh. “What does everyone think? Do we need to take the offense?”
One of the other panelists took the mike and said, “I know there might be a visceral reaction to that suggestion that we can’t do that, that it would just bring us down to their level. But there are going to be bronies who think it’s the right thing to do, so we have to give some thought to the consequences.”
“OK, here’s one from the live-stream chat,” said Bastian. “It says, ‘Pro-active is good, but aggressive is bad. What we need to do is to evangelize. Our powers have done a good job of selling the show, but we haven’t. We need a consistent message of how nice it is to be a brony. Then people sitting on the fence will start to come over to our side, and then it’ll be the other side who’s marginalized.”
Olivia stood up. “You’re going to say something?” asked Lisa.
“Oh, yeah.” She went up to the mike.
“Just from looking at me, I’m sure you can all tell that I know a thing or two about prejudice and bigotry. I know the dangers of ignoring it. . . and I know the dangers of paying too much attention to it. I’ve seen too many of my friends think of themselves as girls first, or as Blacks first, and how it’s kept them back from reaching their full potential. And when I first learned to do magic, I was excited, but I knew that I couldn’t be a magical brony first and Olivia second.
“But at the same time, I think the premise of this panel is wrong. We need each other. We don’t have to become a movement, but we can’t do anything on our own. We need to get together, and I mean live together. We need to find other bronies with whom we can spend all our time, both for protection and for enrichment. Every one of us, whether its flight or Earth powers or direct spell-casting, has been touched by magic. And we know what magic is. It’s friendship. We’ve never needed that more than now. We each need help from outside, not just within ourselves.”
She sat back down, and there was another silence in the room as everyone digested what Olivia had said. Bastian addressed the crowd and said, “All right, I think we have a good start here. We’ll continue the discussion later. Right now, I’m sure everypony wants to stop being so serious, kick back, and watch some ponies!”
A large screen descended from the ceiling, and the projector turned on. Everyone in the theater hushed, but the rustle of their clothing and the sound of their breathing still caused some interference with the sound. Bastian raised the volume. A musical arpeggio sounded as the screen went from black to showing Pinkie Pie and Twilight Sparkle in the library.
“Are you all set, Pinkie Pie?” asked Twilight.
“I sure am!”
“You have your speech prepared?”
“Yep.”
“You have the map?”
“Right here!”
“You have my checklist to check me just like I’m checking you?”
“Yeah. Do I have to?! I know that you’re super-duper-organized and you’ve got everything you need,” said Pinkie
“What’s the rush?”
“Rush? It’s a chance to meet new friends. Who wouldn’t rush? Come on, Twilight, let’s go and meet the humans!”
All through the theater, bronies gasped. The stream chat scrolled with blazing speed as people everywhere typed things like, “OMG humans are canon,” “Pinkie Pie is actually going to come through the 4th wall,” and “Humans? Best ep ever!”
The screen faded and the harp signified that the theme song was beginning. Everyone in the audience was held in rapt attention, so they didn’t notice the doors at the back of the theater opening.
***
A minute earlier, the young girl Kim was talking to her mother about meeting Lisa.
“She was a nice lady,” said Kim.
“No, she wasn’t. She’s one of those horrible bronies. You shouldn’t be around them,” said her mother.
“But she knew magic! She said when I grew up, I could watch ponies and learn magic too!”
However misguided her principles were, Kim’s mother stuck to them. Hearing her daughter declare that she wanted to be a part of the hated enemy, she snapped and acted in what she thought was the defense of her child. She swung the stick holding up her sign, smashing the door to the convention center. She ran in, stepping on the broken glass, and headed for the main theater.
It takes very little to turn a crowd into a mob. All the protestors had thought about it, perhaps even talked about it. But until then, no one had done anything. When one person entered, the next concluded that it must be all right, and he followed. The aggression compounded, and in a moment the entire group was storming the theater.
“They’re coming in!” shouted Alex, and he leaped up from his chair to try to push back against the throng. Olivia used her magic to try to create a shield. She was not accomplished at this spell, and Lisa had not learned it at all, but it kept some of the attackers back, more from fear than from its actual ability.
The pegasus people in the audience were the most vulnerable. They had no way to escape the theater through the air, and those who did take wing found themselves easy targets for rotten fruit and other, more dangerous projectiles.
Amidst all the chaos, the My Little Pony theme kept playing, a sharp contrast in its positive message to the terror being wreaked. The protestors swung their signs as clubs, and swung their fists, as speakers around them cried, “Frieeeeends!”
And then they all stopped.
Literally stopped, as everyone in the theater who was not a brony hung in place immobile, their angry sneers locked onto their faces. One or two people waved their hands in front of the frozen faces to see if there was a reaction. No magical brony had ever showed this much power, so all were confused.
“Oh, bronies? Over here!”
All heads turned toward the screen, where Pinkie Pie was waving her hoof, trying to attract attention, and Twilight was locked in concentration, her horn aglow.
“Twilight is using her unicorn magic to hold off those meanies trying to hurt you,” said Pinkie Pie, “so that gives me a chance to talk to you all. Please, take your seats.”
There were a few awkward minutes as the bronies didn’t know quite what to do. Bastian looked at the video tech, who shrugged his shoulders and shook his head. But most did as Pinkie asked, and the overturned chairs were set back up. It was a little unnerving for the bronies, to watch with the angry frozen protestors behind them, but they didn’t want to miss Pinkie Pie either.
She held up a scroll that contained some notes in her hoof and began to speak in earnest.
“A while back, I had a strange, new feeling that was part of my Pinkie sense. I’ve had some strong Pinkie senses before, but this wasn’t just a doozy, it was a willy of a humdinger of a doozy! My sense is always vague, but with the help of my friends and Princess Celestia, we figured out what it meant. It told us that there was a whole other universe out there! And that universe was yours.
“Nopony knew what to do about you. We could see and hear you, but you weren’t aware of us. Some ponies were all for leaving you alone, especially when we found out how mean and nasty you can be sometimes. But others, myself included, thought that that was just because you didn’t have any magic and were at the mercy of your world.
“We had a long discussion that involved a whole lot of ponies, and while it was way important, was also bo-ring! But the result was that we agreed to try to get in contact with you.
“One of the biggest advocates for you guys was Princess Celestia, and I’m sure you know that around here, she carries a lot of weight. Figuratively speaking, of course! She and Twilight put their heads and their horns together and came up with a plan that would be the best for you, while keeping Equestria safe.
“The plan, of course, was to send you stories of our world, and to include magic that would be revealed to anyone who could accept it. Only those humans with love and friendship in their hearts would be able to experience the magic.
“While we’d always hoped to eventually open up travel between Earth and Equestria, we didn’t realize how much of a backlash you guys would have with the meanie-heads. So we’ve had to move up our schedule a little bit. We had hoped to send you a few more years of stories to really let you know what Equestria was like, but now we just want to make sure that you’re all safe. Here’s what’s going to happen:
“In a moment, Twilight is going to release her freezing spell and cast the shield spell. I’m sure you all know that one. It’s the spell that her brother, Shining Armor, uses. It’s going to push all the bad humans out of the room. We could have done that at the beginning, but we want them to know what’s going on too.
“Once that happens, the next thing she’ll do is to cast the spell that will open up a Gate between your world and ours, right where those rear doors are. Everyone should move in an orderly fashion through the doors, and we’ll meet you in Equestria!
“Just a few more things, because we’ve seen some of the ideas that you have about us—Oh, not that we don’t like all the stuff you’ve come up with! I think that some of your music and stories and videos are awesome. There’s one about me doing Gypsy magic that—“
“Pinkie!” said Twilight. “Can we get on with it before my horn falls off?”
“Sorry! I was just going to say that you shouldn’t get any ideas about this being a one-way trip. Once you’re in Equestria, you can go back to Earth any time you want! We do need to set up some more Gates, but that just takes time and magic. And you don’t have to turn into ponies, that’s just silly!
“So, if nothing else, consider this a free passage out of the room past the people who want to hurt you. But we really hope that some of you will stay. We like you guys just as much as you like us.”
From the screen, a sphere of red light emanated and grew. It passed through all the bronies, but to the invading protestors it was solid, and shoved them out the doors. Then the doorways themselves burst into a blinding white light.
Every brony in the room looked at the one next to them. Just as the mob had needed one person to take the lead, so did the bronies.
Julie turned around to the crowd. “Well, come on!” she said. “What are you all waiting for? What, do you think this is some sort of trick? That they’re really going to eat us? That was Pinkie Pie up there! I trust Pinkie Pie as much as anyone! I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m going through that Gate, and I’m going to be first!” She stuck out her tongue.
“But I’m not going alone,” she said. She held her hand out to Luke. He had never been more proud of his wife. He took her hand in his, and together they flew into the white light.
Without saying anything, Lisa and Olivia looked at each other and smiled. They held hands and walked through the Gate.
Throughout the theater, every brony found someone to hold hands with as they paraded into Equestria. On the big screen behind them, Pinkie and Twilight looked on in approval.
Alex had been the closest to the door, but he had refused to go through. He was still on duty as convention security, and considered it part of his job to make sure that the march didn’t become a stampede. He kept directing the bronies to spread out and not to shove. They listened to him, mostly.
As the crowd thinned, he saw that everyone had found a partner to hold hands with. He said out loud, “I guess I’ll be the only one going through alone.”
“It doesn’t have to be that way.” Alex looked up and saw Bastian, hand in hand with Tommy, the treasurer. “The great thing about hands is that we’ve got two of them,” Bastian said. “Which means that there’s no limit to how long we can make a chain of people.” He held out his other hand. Alex smiled and took it. They walked through together.
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this actually seems interesting
liked it already
YEAHHHHHHHH!!!
NO!!! The wall is broken, the horrors between can come through. FOOL!!!
Beginning of story: dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/emoticons/misc_TwilightWut.png
Middle of story:
End of this chapter: dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/Twilight_Sparkle_lolface.png
This is pretty good
Keep it up - I'll be waiting...
This is freaking great!
Since My roommate is a Vampire is complete this is my new fav. story
Moar. Please
Was there any chance of someone gaining powers similar to discords to a lesser extent....?
Interesting... But, what's up with 'Celestia Shrugged'? Nopony seems to have become an objectivist.
OH GOD I NEED MORE!!!!
This is going to create some really major issues. Mainly that there's sentient life out there besides our own, and there are going to be many people who want it eradicated. Not that they really can at all. I look forward to the next chapter.
Holy hell man. This is amazing. Words can't even. You are an amazing writer.
More please.
This was amazing.
how has this not been featured
I have a request. Could you please put me in
? I'm a 14 year old Australian boy who likes Rainbow Dash
and would be a Pegasus human!
I'd probably have to become "Hoof Nukem" and turn my life in to Call of Brony: Power Ops.
Hmmm I'd like to be in the story as well
I'm a 22 year old Canadian Man who is a huge fan of Fluttershy [Heck I even made an RPG game Crossover where Fluttershy is the game's hero] I'd be a Pegasus Human as well
1216916
You didn't notice the subtext of Ponyman Master Race? It's about as subtle as reading /int/.
Not that I think the author actually believes this stuff, but the characters are... remarkably blasee about declaring themselves the superior beings. Incoming pony-human-Daleks?
ok my only question here is
what happened to the one that didnt go to the con???
did they stay and wait for a bus or something???
I'm loving this story so far. I just had to give you an FYI: Marshmallow's origin.
What about the poor souls who couldnt go to the con?
Please tell me there's a way for others that comes in later in the story!
pleaaaaaase?
sweet