I'll make one thing clear: I was never good with introductions. Seriously, I'm EXTREMELY terrible at introducing myself...BUT that doesn't mean I won't introduce myself. To start off, my name is John Daniels. I'm a 21 year old white male, I was born and raised here in North America, and...well...my life fucking sucks. That's all I have to say.

I have no parents, no girlfriend, and until I can get some more money, I'm stuck in a small apartment in New York City, also known as "Crime Central." I like to call it the real life Arkham City. And there's many reasons why this shit hole of a city is given those names. Every night, I can hear a woman screaming for help, but everyone knows no one helps each other anymore. There can be only two options: She gets raped and lives, or is raped and dies. It's mostly the latter nowadays. Surviving rape is extremely rare in North America.

But rape isn't the only thing that happens. Some nights, you can hear a gunfight from a mile away as the gunshots echo in the air. After that, there's always those goddamn sirens. It's impossible to get a good night sleep. And yet the government doesn't give a single fuck about this city. Seriously, the government has done nothing to make America a better place. The worst came when Romney was elected in 2012. That's when things started going completely downhill. Gas prices rose, stores had gone bankrupt. Soon enough, America was labeled "the most dangerous country on Earth." Crime in America had risen to 93%. Yeah, I know. I can barely believe it, either.

A year ago, I hoped America would soon change and become a better country. Nowadays, I actually wish enemy countries would just wipe us off this godforsaken planet. Once you do so much to a world, there's no going back...

...Ahem...I seem to be getting off topic here. Let's get on with it.

It was one of those extremely and surprisingly rare calm days in New York. Meaning, no screams, no gunfights, and no sirens. Just the occasional traffic horns and sounds of shuffling feet. And so you don't constantly wonder about the damn date, it's April 30th, 2016. Happy?

...Anyway, today was a rather upsetting day. I just recently threw my remote on the couch in anger. Why? I had just watched a news report that claimed that the Titanic II had sunk. No, this wasn't a movie. It was the real deal. Three years to complete. An hour to take it down.

Damn Chinese. You may think it sounds racist, but it's true. Every product that China makes is easily breakable. They build a boat, tap it with your finger, you can easily puncture a hole in the damn thing. It took a tug boat...A FUCKING TUG BOAT...to take down an 886 1/2 foot long cruise ship. The Chinese need to stop making everything out of goddamn plastic and use a stronger material for once.

I apologize, I seem to be getting off topic here. AGAIN. Let me continue. After I turned off the TV, I held the note that my girlfriend had given me. Well, my ex-girlfriend. I opened it up and read it once more.

"We need to talk."

Those words echoed through my head. A simple conversation turned into a tragic break up. Ain't my life fucking grand?

...

Eh, she was a bitch anyway.

In anger, I crumpled up the note and threw it in the trash. Excuse me, tried to. Unsuccessfully, the crumpled up paper landed just a foot from the trash can, forcing me to get up and throw it away. Once I threw the trash out, my eyes made their way to a picture. My eyes quickly avoided the picture, but I couldn't resist anymore, forcing me to look at it again, bringing tears to my eyes once again. This wasn't any old picture...It was of me and my parents.

I forgot to tell you about them, didn't I? Allow me to explain.

When I was born in 1995, I was raised by a fairly money-sustained family. My mother, Wendy Daniels, was an architect for the Museum of Natural History. My father, Thomas Daniels, was a businessman at the World Trade Center - the old one, mind you. Over the years, we did fairly well. We made a ton of money, I did well in school, and once I was old enough, my father and I managed to create our own little business together.

My life was once perfect...until that one night. It was not too long ago, in 2008. I was only 13 at the time. In fact, it was my birthday, and my family decided to take me to a special place. I already knew where we were going, but I still acted happy and acted surprised, mostly because I actually was.

As my parents drove us to the area, a pair of headlights blinded all of us. I heard a crashing noise, and the next thing I know, I was upside down. Being old enough, I knew the car was upside down. It took me a couple of seconds to get my seat belt off, and I quickly crawled through one of the smashed windows. Just as I did, I felt a pair of hands help me up, and noticed that much of the people in the city block came to help out. Once they helped me, I went back to the car to see if my parents were okay. When I saw them, the tears quickly came down my face like a river. My parents didn't even look like people. Seeing them, they reminded me of sick, twisted, mutated monsters that you would sometimes see in the movies. It was enough to make me scream.

After that incident, I didn't speak for well up to a month, even at and after the funeral. It was too painful to know that my parents were gone. Taken away from me in the fraction of a second. It felt so unreal. But I had to face the truth.

After that, the business my father and I had started a while ago closed down. Even after all those years, I still walked to the place we started it, now beginning to become overgrown with vegetation and vines.

Just before the funeral, my grandparents visited me, feeling my sorrow. It wasn't long after that they actually bought the house. I could still live in the home I was raised in, but not with the same people, but I was at least glad it was with family.

Soon enough, 2013 came along, and I finally graduated from High School. I eventually packed up my things and was headed to college. Just a year later, I got a call saying that my grandparents had suffered fatal heart attacks. I didn't attend their funeral...I just couldn't. I just watched two of my most important family members die. I couldn't stand to go to the funeral of two more.

After that, the remaining college years went by like a breeze, and soon enough, I was out of college. That was two months ago. I decided to apply for a job at the World Trade Center, the same place my father once worked. The job was fine. I heard it payed its employees just enough as when my father worked here...I found out that was a big, fat fucking lie. They can barely pay any people two goddamn dollars as a raise now. I barely had enough money to afford the shitty apartment I now live in. Of course, I had completely forgotten that North America had gone into another Great Depression, much more severe than in 1929. And you know who caused it? Mitt Romney.

I'm just gonna go and break the 4th wall here. I basically live in an alternate universe, different from yours. Instead of Obama winning in 2012, it was Romney, and unlike your world, my world literally went to utter shit and chaos. Though some things in our worlds did happen at the same times. Like that Snowden guy who exposed what the NSA's doing to us, but different things have also happened here. Remember North Korea? In our world, they successfully managed to nuke one of our major cities. Right after that, just 24 hours after, America opened up a new tourist attraction, called "The North Korean Crater."

Alright, I've told too much. Allow me to continue where I originally left off.

After looking at the picture for what felt like forever, I headed back over to the couch and sat down once more in the cushions. I then picked up my remote and turned on the TV once more. I flipped through around twenty channels. Nothing good seemed to be on at the moment. Deciding not to watch television, I then got up and headed to my movie shelf, and looked through the DVD's that I had. There was nothing interesting to watch.

Then I remembered something. My friend had given me a DVD last month. I headed to my bedroom, and looked under my dresser drawer. There was a tiny little safe, with the same color as my carpet. I put in the combination, entered it, and opened the safe. Inside contained a DVD case, labeled, "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic - Season's 1 - 5".

For some of you people who probably don't know, My Little Pony was a rebooted cartoon that had this big fandom, called bronies. If I remember correctly, they were teenage to adult males who loved the show. When I first heard about them, I thought they were just internet trolls. Then overtime, I knew these guys weren't messing around. They actually liked this show.

I live right next to the place where they hosted this thing called "BroNYcon", some huge convention where tons of bronies throughout the U.S, and possibly the world, gathered. They had other conventions like this one, but the only ones I could remember were BroNYcon, GalaCon, and Equestria LA.

Since the show started in 2010, the fandom grew to an enormous amount of people. By 2013, there were over 50 million people on the Earth alone who had become bronies. By then, there were 8 billion people on Earth.

I didn't hate bronies. I had a few friends who were bronies, and I didn't hate them. I even listen to some brony music, like from TheLivingTombstone, YellingAtCats, and MicTheMicrophone. Online everywhere, bronies posted things, saying the fandom and the show, which was in its 5th season, would live on forever, and that the fandom would never die.

That was until the same year of 2013. Apparently, somehow, at one of the conventions - I believe it was Equestria LA - One of the voice actors for one of the characters - I think her name was Apple Bloom - was kidnapped. They noticed, like, 10 minutes later, then created a search party to look for her. They did manage to find her about an hour later, but when they did, a few had vomited at the sight. No, she wasn't dead...but...she was raped. They could see whip marks, bruises, and worst of all, semen and blood pouring out of her.

It sickened me, but the one thing that made my stomach turn was the fact that she was only 14 years old. 14. FUCKING. YEARS. OLD. Who the fuck does that to a 14 year old girl?!

Turns out, I got my answer just a week after the incident. It turns out, it was not just one brony, but many bronies, ranging from 10-13 bronies. When I saw this on the news, I was completely shocked, as were my friends. Bronies already had a bad name online, then some bronies brought the fandom to a whole new low.

Within a few days, there was another news broadcast, saying brony conventions were going to be shut down forever, then there was news that Hasbro was cancelling the show.

Just a few days after that was announced, riots broke out all across the world, ranging from the US, to Germany, to Australia, and even China. We eventually found out that the rioters were all bronies, outraged and angered by the cancellation of the show. The government announced bronies were dangerous to the public, but I thought the government was taking things a little too far.

Soon after, a group called the A.B.A. - Anti Brony Alliance - swarmed in and took out a large number of bronies. And by "took out", I mean they killed them. All over the world, the A.B.A. captured bronies and shot them point blank in their heads. Pretty soon, the world's population dropped from 8 billion to 7 billion, just as it was in 2012.

By the end of 2015, two years later, the government announced that if anyone were to see a brony, they are to be taken to the A.B.A. and executed, and that all My Little Pony related products were to be burned immediately. I then said to myself that the government stooped to an all new low. They have no rights to just take someone who likes a cartoon and kill them, even if a lot of the fandom went on a rampage.

Pretty soon, most of the artifacts of My Little Pony were erased from the world. The show no longer appeared on television, all of the songs, art, and uploaded episodes on the internet were deleted, and websites of My Little Pony were shut down.

Before that all happened, whenever I walked the streets of New York, I'd see many people wearing pony shirts with pictures of the characters, with captions such as "20% cooler" or "FUS RO yay". Do I see that anymore? Fuck no, thanks to the fucking government.

In order to avoid being killed by the A.B.A., my friends stopped wearing all of their pony shirts and clothing whenever they went out. But that doesn't mean they got rid of it. They kept this hidden safe in their rooms, where they would put their stuff. I forgot to tell you, the A.B.A. does monthly inspections in homes throughout the world, in search of pony related products. If they found one pony product in a home, that would be enough proof that the owner of the home is a brony, and he/she would be executed.

Just shows how fucked up the world is now.

Anyway, last month, my friend told me to meet in an alleyway at noon, so I met him. He then gave me a DVD set of the first - and last - 5 seasons of the cartoon. He wanted me to keep it. He got caught with it 3 months ago and was nearly executed, but with his clever mind and words, he was let off with a warning, but surprisingly, they didn't take the DVD from him. He knew it wasn't safe at his house, so he gave it to me.

I quickly headed home and locked my door. I quickly headed to my bedroom and put the DVD in the safe, which I installed several months ago.

So...I guess this leads to now.

I hadn't seen the cartoon yet, but since the inspection by the A.B.A. wasn't for another 2 weeks, I guess it would be a good time to watch. Although, I'll have to keep the volume down unless I want to attract attention from my neighbors.

I pulled the DVD case out of the safe, closed the safe, then headed back into my living room. I took the DVD out of the case, and put it into the DVD player. I then shut the DVD player, and pressed play.

The intro of the show comes on, as it shows the six ponies singing the theme song. Once the intro ends, it says, "Developed for television by Lauren Faust."

Wait...Lauren Faust made this?! THE Lauren Faust? The same Lauren Faust that created Powerpuff girls, Codename: Kids Next Door, and Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends?!

...Maybe this could be good, after all.

It was now 10:00 pm. I had already watched 10 episodes of the show. I have to admit...this show is pretty amazing. It has great acting, great animation, and great actors, such as Tara Strong. Yes, Tara Strong. Y'know, the actor that plays Princess Clara and Timmy Turner and Ben Tennyson. On this show, she plays one of the characters named Twilight Sparkle.

After watching just 10 episodes, I now knew all of their names. There's Pinkie, Rainbow Dash, Twilight, Applejack, Rarity, and Fluttershy.

I know this might be a little creepy to say, but Fluttershy actually looks kinda...pretty. I know it might be weird - and maybe a bit creepy - to have a crush or to fall in love with a cartoon character, but trust me, I'm not the only one.

Soon after, my stomach began to rumble. Of course, the last time I ate anything was at noon today, so obviously, I'd be hungry after 10 hours. Picking up my phone, I dialed the phone number to the nearest Papa John's. Since I had a bit of money left, I decided to order 4 boxes instead of the occasional one box. Tonight, I'd eat 1 box, and have the remaining 3 boxes for the next 3 days. Since I wouldn't get what is called a raise nowadays for the next week, this pizza will be my only last meal for a little while.

The time between calling and the pizza arriving was around 10 minutes, so not very long. The pizza man explained to me that he would've gotten here sooner, had it not been for the gunfight that occurred in a minor traffic jam. After explaining, he pointed to his delivery car, covered with bullet holes. Jesus Christ...

After paying the man, he bid farewell and left...I hope he made it safely back...

After I finished the box of pizza, I put the other 3 boxes in the fridge and headed to the bathroom to take a shower. I just sat in the shower, thinking about why the world went to hell so quickly. It wasn't the fandom's fault. It was those 10-13 bronies that raped that voice actor. They should be the ones executed. The government shouldn't punish an entire fandom because of some bronies' stupid actions. It almost makes suicide worth thinking about.

As I was thinking about the current years, I slowly close my eyes, letting my mind begin to wander off. I just did nothing but think...Think and wonder. Think about the hellish world I now live in, and wonder what it might look like in...10 years? 50? 100? Hell...there might not be anything left by next year.

I constantly wondered and thought of this world...until the squeak interrupted my train of thought.

Wait a second...squeak?

I open my eyes for a brief moment to see what could've caused it. That was when I questioned my mind if I was seeing a hallucination. In front of me was the yellow cartoon butterfly-flanked pony, Fluttershy. Of course, I didn't exactly question my mind. I definitely was seeing a hallucination. Fluttershy was in the bathtub with me, but she wasn't looking at me. Instead, her eyes were closed, and she was smiling, also playing with a little rubber duck. Everytime she squeezed it, it went, "Squeak! Squeak! Squeak!"

At that moment, I felt as if my heart was going to burst from the sheer adorableness that occurred in front of me. I just wanted to reach my hand out and pet her. And that's exactly what I was doing. But before my hand even got close to petting her, she suddenly faded away from sight, the duck fading with her, the squeaks fading along. I simply remembered that it was just a hallucination, not the real thing...Sad, really. It was the one thing that made me smile for the first time in...I don't know how long. But everything comes to an end sooner or later.

Not long after the hallucination occurrence, I finished my bath and finally got out. I grabbed my towel and began to slowly dry myself off. Once I was finally dry, I headed into my bedroom and proceeded to put on my clothes. Once I had my boxers and some shorts on, I turned on my TV, placed the DVD into the DVD player, and pressed play. I then headed to my bed and laid down. I grabbed the DVD remote and skipped the first 10 episodes until it got to episode 11, "Winter Wrap Up".

Finally, the episode started.

It was now about 1:30 a.m. The streets were still filled with the sounds of honking horns, people walking, and even the sounds of death. Lights were still on at this time of night. They always were...

I kept the TV on so the episodes still played. As I slept, I began to have a dream about...well...living in Equestria. As I dreamt this, I realized how different Equestria was from Earth. Equestria was a heavenly paradise. Everyone was nice to you, there was almost no evil, but also, nopony really died until old age.

On Earth, crime is daily, the government approved of a group who wants to wipe out the remains of the bronies, and global warming is melting the ice caps. The oceans are already flooding into the streets of Manhattan, but people decided not to panic. Pfft. Can't wait to see their faces when a tsunami comes in and kills them all.

Then, sadly, I woke up in my bedroom, which was dark but was partially bright because of the lights of the city shining through and the TV. I looked to see what episode was on. The girls seemed to be on a train heading to the city on the mountain side known as Canterlot. It was snowing outside.

I looked at the show description. The episode was called "Hearth's Warming Eve." I assume it's similar to Christmas Eve. It's pretty funny about the names of the holidays on here. Nightmare Night is basically Halloween, Hearth's Warming Eve is Christmas, and.....well, I don't think they have a holiday for Thanksgiving.

I realized that Equestria would be a lot better to live in than where I live now. Stupidly, I closed my eyes and made a wish.

"I wish I could go to Equestria."

Like anyone would expect, nothing happened.

"Well, that was pretty stupid of me," I said to myself.

All of a sudden, under the door that led to the living room, I saw a light. I also heard a sound, sort of like a very long "Wooosh" sound. I decided to get out of bed to check it out.

I opened the door, and saw in the corner, a bright ovaly circle, spinning rapidly. It was a portal.

The moment I saw the portal, I jumped back, startled.

"W-What the fuck?" I yelled. Some people would probably be cool with seeing something like this. Me? I was freaking out of my mind. Th-This was impossible! There is no way I was actually seeing this with my own two eyes. Could I...just be dreaming? Or was I awake and my mind was playing tricks on me?

I had to find out. Slowly, I began to walk closer to the portal. Expecting something to lash out and grab me, I jumped back, but nothing happened. The portal continued to spur and spin. I continued my walk towards it. Finally, once I was in "arms reach" of it, I began to risk peering through it.

It showed a faint view of a small village. Wait, that village looks familiar. Like, awfully familiar, like I've seen it before.

Wait a second...is...is that...Ponyville?

Suddenly, just as I knew what the village was, the portal seemed to grow, slowly at first, but quickly got bigger and bigger. Soon enough, I could feel a suction sensation, and quickly realized...I was being pulled into the portal. Before I managed to grab onto anything, the portal sucked me through. For mere seconds, I felt complete weightlessness, as if I was floating in the depths of space. However, I only experience it for almost 20 seconds before suddenly blacking out.

I slowly opened my eyes to see the sun shining brightly in the sky. I squinted until I sat up. I then looked at my surroundings. I happened to be in a large field. There was a path next to me that led somewhere. I then felt a little bit of my hair get in the way of one of my eyes. I brushed it away with one of my hooves.

Wait...hooves? I looked at my other hand, which was replaced with a hoof. I tried to look at myself but couldn't get a good view. I knew, though, that I was...a pony. Which means...if I'm a pony...I'm in Equestria!

I wish I had a mirror to see what I looked like. But then I noticed the physics of the show. If this place is the same as the show, the physics could be the same. What I'm saying is like during "Sweet and Elite," Pinkie suddenly grabs a Party Cannon out of nowhere.

Slowly, I reached into a fur pocket that I seemed to have. I reached around but felt nothing. I pulled my hoof out, and suddenly, I had a mirror in my hoof. Wait, how can I hold this if I don't have any fingers?

Never mind, that doesn't matter. I then brought the mirror up to my face.

I looked with interesting results. I was a darkish blue pony, with very dark brown hair. I looked to the side of me where a cutie mark would be. I had a cutie mark of a dark cloud with a lightning bolt shooting out of it.

That doesn't seem to be anything interesting. But then again, Rainbow Dash does have a cutie mark of a cloud with a Rainbow colored lightning bolt shooting out. I wonder if my special talent is the same as hers. That will be something to see later.

I then placed the mirror back into my pocket, and decided to follow the trail. It was a little difficult for a few moments to walk on all fours, but I got used to it pretty quick.

As I walked, I heard the sound of something passing by. I looked around. I spotted a blue blur flying through the sky. Was it Soarin of the Wonderbolts? No, that couldn't be him. He's always with Spitfire and...that other Wonderbolt that I can't seem to remember.

I then realized it wasn't Soarin. It was the fastest flier in Equestria. Rainbow Dash. I couldn't believe it. Just hours ago, I was watching Rainbow on a small television, and there she was, right in front of my eyes.

She had landed in the shade of a tree to take a break, I guess. She sleeps nearly all day. Then, I decided to talk to her.

So, I walked over to the shade. But while I was, I realized that they don't know me, so I have to pretend I have heard about her from Ponyville or something.

"Hey!" I yelled to her. She looked at me with surprise.

"You're Rainbow Dash, right?" I asked.

"Yeah! Fastest flyer in Equestria! You've heard of me?"

"I have. I am a big fan of you and I was wondering if I could...have your autograph," I said to her, pulling out from my fur pocket a pen and picture of Rainbow posing like a Wonderbolt.

"Sure," Rainbow said, smiling as she took the pen and picture. She signed her name onto it and gave it back to me.

I can't believe it. First I'm talking to Rainbow Dash, now I got an autograph from her.

"What's your name?" She asked me.

I completely forgot to think of a name. I then looked at my Cutie Mark and quickly thought of a name.

"Thunder. Thunder...Ice," I replied to her. I then smiled.

"Y'know, when you pulled that picture and pen out, you kind of reminded me of a friend of mine who happens to pull things out of nowhere."

"Pinkie Pie?" I said to her. Inside, I slapped myself. I completely forgot I wasn't supposed to know who they were.

Rainbow's eyes widened a bit. "How do you know about Pinkie?" She stepped back a foot. Or is it hoof...?

"Sorry. I had heard about Sugarcube Corner. I heard it had the best sweets in Equestria, and the greatest baker, so I decided to leave Manhattan to check it out."

"You mean Manehattan."

"What?"

"You said Manhattan. It's actually Manehattan." Rainbow smirked a little.

I then realized that many of the places here in Equestria have different but similar names to ones on Earth.

Like Detroit is Detrot, Philadelphia is Fillydelphia, California is Califoalnia, and like Rainbow said, Manhattan is Manehattan.

"Right, my bad. Hehe....So, where is Sugarcube Corner by the way?" I asked pretending not to know where Sugarcube Corner was. I knew it was in Ponyville, but I didn't know where that was.

"It's in Ponyville. I'm actually headed there right now," Rainbow said as she opened her wings and got ready to fly.

"Cool. I'll be there soon, I suppose," I knew I didn't have any wings, so I couldn't fly with Rainbow there, but I've always loved to walk, so it wouldn't be a problem.

Rainbow then flew off towards the direction of Ponyville. I began to walk the same way.

Finally, after a few minutes, I finally reached what I was looking for. Ponyville. It was so amazing. It looked a little bigger than it did on the show. In the hills, I could see the farm of Sweet Apple Acres, surrounded by dozens of apple trees. In the far distance, I could see Canterlot on the mountainside.

I knew I would end up making a lot of new friends, and heading to a lot of new places.

I then began walking again towards Ponyville.