If there was a place other than the farm to call home, it would have to be the greatest convention for video games. Every year, publishers worldwide would present their newest creations to their curious fan base. Anyone could suit up and come as their favourite video game character, such as Link, Samus, Mario, Lara Croft, and many more. Luckily, I didn’t need a costume – none of us did. I was a blue unicorn, a pony just like the rest of my companions. Well, not all of us were unicorns. Two were earth ponies, and the other two were pegasi. People gave us weird looks as we stood around, looking for a way into the hall.

“I’m not sure this was a good idea to come here…” Twilight had been worried ever since I suggested this little trip.

“Drop it, Twi’! This is awesome! Look how high the clouds are and all those would be spectators!” On the other end of the spectrum, Rainbow was giddy with excitement.

“Are you sure nopony will do us harm, sugarcube?” AJ was quite nervous being amongst so many strangers. “I mean, Twilight told us that humans,” she leaned into our ring, “eat meat.”

“What?” Trixie was surprised. “All these creatures are meat eaters? And we should simply walk among them? Then we could just mix ourselves with mixed spices and jump right down the throat of a manticore!” I had to roll my eyes.

“I already explained to Twilight that only pork, beef, and poultry are on the menu. Even if it isn’t, I doubt they have the necessary tools with them to prepare us for dinner.” As if to counter my argument, someone dressed as Cloud from the Final Fantasy games passed us, including that huge Buster Sword. Fluttershy ducked from sight and hid behind AJ and Rainbow Dash. “Those things aren’t real, just rubber.” In that moment, Gummy poked his head out of Pinkie’s mane and jumped onto her back, almost as if knowing that “rubber” sounded like his name in German. “It’s like with this little guy’s teeth.” Everypony looked over to Gummy, who blinked his eyes. “So no reason to fear.” Fluttershy looked up behind AJ and nodded cautiously.

“Come on, guys! This is gonna be great!” Pinkie hadn’t paid us any attention the entire time and had followed every single cosplayer, guessed their costumes within seconds, and tried to make friends with them. However, most didn’t heed her as they believed her to be some sort of remote-controlled animatronic thingy. That was what I wanted to capitalise on for our cover.

“Let’s get moving then and remember this: move as stiffly as possible and don’t mind the people until we are inside.” With that, I went ahead and AJ, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Trixie, Twilight, Pinkie, and Rarity followed suit. Speaking of the latter, she had been quiet through the whole time, busy with observing every piece of clothing she could lay her eyes on. I was wondering how she hadn’t jumped down anyone’s throat yet due to their lack of fashion sense. Together we went up the stairs to the western entrance. I had chosen that because it had the least amount of traffic. At the north gate was the parking lot and the taxi spot, while at the south gate was the train station. I still wondered why people didn’t seem to mind us. Then again, this was Europe’s biggest nerd meet-up. Why should a bunch of cartoon horses cause any sensation? We squeezed ourselves between the humans whom even us horned ones could only reach to hip height and stood in a little hall with the ticket control. We lined up as was right and proper.

“You really think we can pass like this?” Twilight was looking around nervously. As we waited, the first people around began to notice us and whispered amongst their friends. It was only a matter of time until the first would try to take photos with us, only to realise that we weren’t in fact robots.

“If we keep standing like this, then no. Everyone ahead in robot single file.” We waddled on past all the waiting humans. Last time I did that, I had an ID around my neck that allowed me to do so. Still, no one seemed to be bothered by this. Were humans really that ignorant? We reached the first turnstile where you needed to scan the barcode to pass. We could have easily created ourselves a few fakes or simply enchant the machine with magic, but we were small enough to pass under it. The staff on the other side watched with wide eyes as eight little ponies simply entered the cordoned area and trotted past them. I quickly glanced at Fluttershy, who had bitten onto Rainbow’s tail and had closed her eyes. I was happy that she had agreed to this journey in the first place. When I had told her about the event, she hadn’t been very eager. A female staff member went to the turnstile we had just passed.

“Okay, party’s over! Who owns these bots?” That was our mark to vanish.

“Go!” I called, and we galloped along the long hallway as fast as our hooves would carry us. Rainbow, with the Fluttershy accessory firmly attached to her tail, was flying beside me.

“Darling, my coiffure!” Rarity shouted. “And I’m starting to sweat,” she whined as the sound of hooves on smooth tiles filled the hallway.

“We’re almost there,” I answered. Ahead of us was the stairway down to the main hall. The staff was going to have a hard time finding us once we mixed with the crowd there. Our small size was our best cover. That was why I had chosen Saturday, for more people were attending. It would also make it harder for us to see, but that was why I had wings on demand. Twilight and Trixie could levitate and would do the same for AJ. For Pinkie, well, she was Pinkie. With that thought, I looked for the bundle of energy, only to realise that she had disappeared.

“Where’s Pinkie?” We were standing above the stairs, with the staff members, mostly students working for some extra cash, way behind us but closing fast. It would still take them a minute or two to reach us. Ponies, even the small ones, were simply faster than humans.

“I have no… idea,” Twilight answered, gasping for breath.” She was just… behind me.” Unlike Twilight, I was still in shape thanks to all that work on the farm. A few months ago, such a sprint would have easily finished me and not just because of my belly. I glanced over the crowd and actually located our missing friend, standing on top of an oversized Blitzcrank. Somebody had actually made the effort to build a costume of the champion from League of Legends. Now the same person had issues raising his heavy arms to shoo away the pony on his head. Said pony was leaning forward right in his view, dead set on striking a conversation.

“Back there.” I pointed at the spectacle that had already garnered some attention. So much for a stealthy visit. “I would’ve liked to welcome you to the GamesCon but for now… get Pinkie!” With that, Rainbow and I shot down the stairs, me on my hooves and her in a steep dive. Much to our dismay, the pink pony seemed to have discovered something more interesting and jumped off from Blitzcrank’s head.

“Pinkie!” I called out to her, but with all that noise, it was unlikely she would hear me, not to mention actually listening. Rainbow and I were now among the crowd searching for our friend but without success. I glanced back to the others, and much to my chagrin, they were gone as well. “This keeps getting better and better....”

“What now, egghead number two?” She hovered next to me and kept herself afloat with light wing strokes, but that was no solution. What was supposed to hide us had become the biggest issue in finding the rest.

“Well, we arranged a meeting spot, so let’s just try to see as much as possible. We’ll worry about the others if they don’t arrive past twenty.” I pointed to the large clock showing ten in the morning. “So, what games would you like to play first?”

“Oh! Those zombie games you talked about. I’ll show those undead how awesome I am.” She clapped her hooves together. If the head of a zombie had been there, it would surely be one less to worry about. There were supposed to be two games being shown: Day-Z, a mod turned into a full game, and a similar game set as a MMO, though I had forgotten the name. Before we had arrived, Twilight had provided us with a plan for the convention. Sadly, it had been left on my nightstand at the farm.

“Let’s check for those then.” I grew my wings and we rose up to just below the roof. We might not have been able to see our friends from here, but the others could see us, and we could look around for the proper booths. Also, no human would even think about looking up. I knew that some bronies from a specific forum were around, and they knew my story. In hindsight, I shouldn’t have written about everything. If AJ found out, I’d become a permanent resident on the couch. She disliked talking about ‘private’ things in public, and the internet was everything but private. Other than that, there might have been other bronies around who could cause a panic once they saw us. The little incident at the Toys’R’Us showed us that there was little time between fangasm and reasoning.

“What’s that?” Rainbow pointed at the Nintendo booth where multiple Wii’s were displayed and a few people were playing tennis or bowling.

“Those are games with motion control. Those two sticks transmit the movement of your hooves into the game.” From up here, it looked as if people were boxing with the wall.

“Cool! Can we play a round?” Rainbow had the biggest grin on her face, and to our luck, one visitor had just put down their controllers. What could possibly happen? Before anyone could occupy the console, we shot down, and like an eagle diving for her prey, she caught the controller with her mouth.

“God ith…” she happily said and spat the stick to my hooves. “How do I put it on?” Back as a unicorn, I levitated the device in front of her and opened the loop.

“Just put your hoof through here and grab the stick.” She did as told and now hovered in front of the screen. Much to our luck, we had gotten one of the bowling games and not tennis. That would have been problematic without fingers. “Now just do as if the stick was the ball and go for it.” I took a glance behind us and saw the disbelieving pairs of eyes slowly form a half circle around us. I followed suit and observed Rainbow reach back and land her first strike. “Awesome!” She turned back to me.

“What did you expect?” She noticed the crowd, and with an even bigger grin, reached back for her second toss. Once more it was a strike – go figure. My brother had owned a Wii for some time, and I rarely got more than three or four pins. I didn’t even want to talk about real bowling. There was a long applause when Dash turned around and bowed for the public. “Thank you, thank you, I know I’m awesome.” She finished the sentence with a small loop, gaining even more attention.

“I think we should look for something else. They’re becoming a bit too much.” She seemed disappointed but only for losing her freshly gained fans.

“Meh, that game was no challenge anyway.” I had to hold back in reminding her that the game had been on the lowest difficulty, but her attitude was really tiring. I hoped that other games would be much harder so that she would get her head out of the clouds.

“Thanks for your attention, but the performance is over now,” I said to the onlookers, and with a bow, I quickly transformed. Together with Rainbow, we went up to the ceiling and disappeared behind some metal girders from the crowd who had kept pointing at us with their fingers. Many of them were so in awe that they forgot to take photos with their phones.

“That game is impossible!” I looked down at that familiar voice and discovered something that had caused a little commotion. Twilight and Trixie were each standing on a mattress with their legs moving at near light speed, trying to hit the right fields. I had no problem with them causing a little bit of a racket, but they were standing on the damned stage of all places! The announcer for the weird dancing game had actually let go of his mic while watching the two ponies seemingly establishing a new high score. A large crowd did the same via a large screen.

“HA! Trixie is better than you, Twilight Sparkle!” Both were so absorbed in the game that they probably didn’t even realise what was going on. I flew down to them, causing some gasps to ripple through the audience, and tapped Trixie on the back.

“Hey! You can’t just waltz onto stage like that.” Trixie looked over to me but only so far as to keep an eye on the monitor with the instructions.

“Not now, Light. Trixie has almost defeated Twilight Sparkle.” I sighed and stepped behind the stage. Some of the staff there gave me weird looks but kept their mouths shut, at least until I bit on the main power cord, trying to pull it out of the outlet.

“Hey! You… You pony! You can’t just….” one of them called but I just ignored him, and with one strong jolt, the cable was out. I heard music go out and the public groan in frustration.

“Damn machine! I was about to win!” I heard Trixie shouting. I stepped back onto the stage and looked over to Twilight, who was more occupied with breathing rather than answering. “Don’t think this is over, Sparkle!” I coughed shortly before teleporting us a few meters up in the air to the roof of one of the booths. Rainbow was already sitting there, laughing her flanks off.

“You should have seen their faces when the machine went cold. Priceless!” Trixie gave her the same murderous look as she did to Twilight before giving her one hell of a magic punch that forced her off the roof. I ran to the edge and saw that Rainbow Dash had landed on some guy dressed up as…. Rainbow Dash. She was slowly rubbing her head before grabbing one of the wings at her side. On contact, her eyes widened. “My wings! I can’t feel my wings!” This time, it was I who had to stifle a laugh.

“Rainbow!” I called down, only to get the attention of both. “I think those wings belong to the guy under you.” Both looked around in confusion until their gazes met. I expected anything: wild screaming, Rainbow ramming her hooves into the guy’s face, they checking each other out before brohoofing and becoming instant friends. Instead, the guy just fainted. Back to the Future I-see-my-other-self type of blackout. Classic.

“OKAY! Why is this dude dressed like me? Is he some kind of creep?” Twilight was now standing beside me and looked down to the pile of rainbow below.

“Let’s just say he is a fan. Now get up here, Dash,” she ordered, and with a few powerful strokes, the mare was back on the roof.

“So, why should I just leave my fan down there? I mean, why do I even have fans? I did just one trick. Are humans that easy to impress?” Twilight and I exchanged a few nervous glances. Aside from her, only Celestia had knowledge about the show.

“Very easily. One or two loops and you’ll have hundreds of friend.” For a moment, I had forgotten that there was someone else with us who bathed in attention as much as our beloved stunt flyer was.

“Really? Trixie needs a stage immediately!” I facehooved as she was gone as quickly as a lightning bolt.

“That’s my stage, my fans!” Rainbow shouted and left Twilight and me behind on the roof. Perfect time for a synchronised sigh.

“You couldn’t just keep your mouth shut, huh?” I felt as Twilight’s gaze drilled holes into my sides.

“In my defence, you wouldn't have come up with anything smarter.” I saw how Twilight scanned the crowd and discovered that Rainbow’s temporary mattress was gone. Either he was picked up and brought to the paramedics or had stood up by himself. The last thing I hoped he would do was head for the next meet-up group and tell them about a how a living Rainbow Dash had fallen on his face. Alright, bronies might be crazy, but that would be too crazy even by their standards.

“So? What now?” I was thinking the same question. We still hadn’t found the others, and both Rainbow and Trixie were now on a stage probably trying to grab the attention of a puzzled audience.

“Any game you want to see?” She was not amused. “Alright… let’s look for the others.” I changed to a unicorn. “So, where to now?” Before I could teleport us anywhere, Twilight beat me to it, and we landed on the roof of another booth. I couldn’t tell if we were in the same hall, for there were too many blinking lights and signs in my way.

“AJ must be nearby. I felt her aura.” I nodded, and after a quick transformation, I was sailing over the crowd. The constant changes, however, were doing a number on my reserves, and I wasn’t sure how long my nerves could keep up with that. That was one of the reasons why I had never gone with more than three people to these types of events. No, seven ponies don’t count as three people even if stacked. They would actually be closer to fourteen, fifteen if I accounted for Pinkie.

I made another round and saw something at the FIFA ’13 stand. Electronic Arts had erected a small soccer field for the younger ones, but it was the goalkeeper who caught my eyes. She was the most beautiful one I had ever seen in my life, but I guess we all say that about our special others, right? The children seemed completely unfazed by playing soccer with a pony, and she on the other hand had no problems blocking balls with her had without losing her hat. I went down at the edge and laid my forehooves over the railing.

“Give ‘em hell, AJ!” I cheered for her, granting me a little smirk from her. The ball rolled over to her hooves, and she began to gallop the few meters all the way to the other goal. The ball remained right in front of her, giving her opponents only a small chance to get it. She skilfully evaded a girl who tried to intercept her and shot the ball from the middle line right into the goal. Much to misfortune of the kid standing there, AJ had underestimated her power, as the ball struck him square on his chest and catapulted him back in the net. Surprised from the outcome and the sudden amount of curious looks from the younglings, she pulled her Stetson over her head and left the field right beside me. “I see you had some fun.” I grinned at her, and we exchanged a short kiss.

“Look! That’s Applejack!” I looked over to the other side of the field, and I could make out a few guys standing there and pointing at us. Others were following the finger of a man with a T-shirt featuring a grey pony with white mane and an engine block cutie mark carrying a wrench in its mouth. I had seen that pony somewhere, but I was not sure. “That cosplayer was right!” AJ had also noticed our pursuers.

“Who are these guys, sugarcube, and how do they know my name?” Everyone was still looking at us, but everything had gone silent somehow.

“No time to explain. We should run!” I was about to turn, but AJ was standing still, her eyes burning with anger. “AJ?”

“What are you hiding from me?” Her voice was chilly and threatening. “What did you not tell me?” Her breathing became visible, and I fell on my ass in shock. “Are you lying to me?” It was the double voice of Nightmare, but that couldn't be.

“Hey Light! I found the zombies.” I spun around and saw Dash in front of a horde of undead. Not cosplayers, real ones. Rotting flesh, some without skullcaps, others with open chests. “They are so cool!” With that last word, one of the zombies bit down into her right wing and ripped out a large chunk of it. Rainbow did not even flinch. No, she smiled.

I turned around and was greeted by the cold gaze of my girlfriend. I ran off in the other direction, around an empty booth, down a long hallway, and fell into the first door I could find. What was going on here? I leaned against the door and fell on my side. Only then did I realise where I was. It was a shed. Not some random one – it was Fluttershy’s. Skeletons hung from the walls, brains were piled up in the corner, and from the shadow of the opposing side, the owner emerged. She had a serene smile on her lips.

“Why do you risk our life for a dead world?” That question came out of nowhere. “Why do you risk our lives for those who might be dead by now?” Her smile slowly turned into a grimace. Her eyes narrowed, and the shadows around her began to grow. Her teeth turned pointy and saliva ran down them. “Why do sacrifice us? Your loved ones are all dead!” I couldn’t move, nor could I answer. She picked up a massive chainsaw that had ‘Doomsday Machine’ written on it, and with a jolt of her head, it sprang to life. “If you don’t want to give me an answer, I will tear it from your head!” The saw shot down on me, and everything went black.

Bathed in my own sweat, I shot up from my sleep. My throat was dry, my head banging, and my breathing flat.

“That! Was just a nightmare.” I needed a few seconds to get myself together and looked down upon the pendant around my neck. I could almost hear Nightmare laughing. I levitated it off from my neck and hammered it into the corner of the room. “Even locked away, she still causes me trouble.” Slowly my heartbeat turned back to normal, but I had probably woken up AJ.

“You alright, sugarcube?” I flinched, that image of her still fresh in my head.

“Yes, just a bad dream.” One based on all the doubts I had at the moment.

“Do you want to talk about it?” I understood now why people always declined this offer.

“Actually.... yes.” I had to get it off my chest. “You girls always wondered how I knew so many things about you, right?” AJ nodded, and her hoof touched mine. “I said that I always dreamed about what might happen if I… If something like this were to happen.” She was still listening. “I dreamed about all this, about Equestria, about being here. Humans know about this world, AJ, but for them, it’s only a fairy tale, nothing more than a good night story for little children who still believe in a perfect world.” I couldn’t make myself look into her eyes. “You, Twilight, Pinkie, and all the others are the main characters in those stories. They talk about your adventures. Because of this, you had many fans. Not just a few but thousands, probably even more. I was such a fan myself, and when I ended up here, it was like a dream, a dream come true. But I made a mistake. Stories never carry the full truth.” With that, I remembered my dream. I would never tell anyone what had happened. There were both private and embarrassing moments. If someone would come to know… I don’t know. “I thought everything was the same, but I was so wrong. You’re not the pony from those stories. You are your own being.” For a while, there was only silence.

“That still bothers you?” I looked into her smiling face. “Twilight told us a long time ago, and I don’t care. I actually feel rather flattered. It’s not like being constantly watched.” She gave me a long kiss. “Even if they would get something to look at.” I couldn’t hide my smirk. “But I’m happy you confessed to me. Now let’s go back to sleeping.” We snuggled closer to each other, and I soon drifted into a deep dreamless sleep.

Author's Notes:

As you can guess, I wrote this around GamesCom in Cologne/Germany. I thought it was a nice touch to add a little dream chapter. Hit me with sticks.

Thanks to LtcWest for translating this chapter.
Special thanks to JBL for proofreading and editing.

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