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Love And Tolerate

by Joshweiser22

Chapters

Foreward

Hello again. Joshweiser here. There's mostly three things I want to say in this foreward:

This story was inspired by something John DeLancie said in his 13th update for his BronyCon: The Documentary project (which can be found at this link: projects/257527888/bronycon-the-documentary ). He said "And while love and tolerate should apply to all occasions, I'm also of the opinion that deliberate lies and innuendos should never be allowed to go unopposed. At what point does tolerating the intolerable make you part of the problem?" He really does make a good point here at after I read that, I began thinking of Bronies who might love and tolerate too much. This is a story about someone who becomes a Brony but overdoes it a bit.

This is NOT a story about me. James (the main char of the story) does get picked on and tortured a lot. None of this happens to me. I don't even get made fun of. I'm not even a closet Brony. I'm open about it and nobody makes fun of me. However, I'm sure there are some Bronies who get made fun of. Maybe not quite to the extreme as James, but still, they do.

As you read, I'm sure you'll recognize the names. James. His girlfriend Jesse. And his best friend Butch. Yeah, they're the named of Team Rocket from Pokémon. Don't pay too much attention to that. I'm not good with names so I just chose the first names that came to my head. Don't think Pokémon, think of just three people who's names happen to be James, Jesse, and Butch. To make this more believable of this NOT being the characters from Team Rocket, James and Butch are best friends in this story (or at least they start out to be) but they HATE each other in the show. So yeah, no connection whatsoever. Just the same name.

So without further ado, read on, and please, enjoy!

Knowledge Is Key

"HUT!" I heard those words and started running as fast as I could for the end zone. The defensive line were doing great and somehow managed to not allow the other team to sack the quarterback. Butch, my best friend, was the quarterback and I was the wide receiver. I ran while looking back and noticed that the ball had already been thrown. Damn, I thought. I had already run to far. Maybe if I stopped...sure enough, the ball came straight towards me. I caught it and continued running. To the thirty, to the twenty, to the ten, I, COULD, GO, ALL, THE, WAY! The other team was right at my tail. Only 5 more yards to go. I had to make this last stretch count. I dived straight for the end zone and I realized my eyes were now closed. I opened them slowly to see where I was. I wasn't passed the 0 yard line. However, the football itself was across. I did it. Touchdown.

I heard the crowd cheering and I managed to get up. The rest of the team had caught up to me now and were giving me high fives. "Nice work there, James." Butch told me. "Thanks." I replied as I walked back. Our team got ready for the extra point and it was good. I'm so glad I got that touchdown or the game would have gone into overtime and they would have had a chance of winning. We won 7-0. My team was chanting my name over and over. I liked being recognized but maybe a little too much attention for my taste? Either way, it felt good to win and have fun at the same time I was doing so.

Soon afterward, I got home and got on the computer. I was gonna look up some game highlights from yesterday's game. I missed it while I was at detention at school. I heard my ringtone from my cell. It was Butch. He said "dude, u HAVE 2 c this!" followed by a link to a video on YouTube. Naturally, I clicked on it. It was a Know Your Meme video. I had seen some of there other videos talking about memes. But, wait, what was this? The name of the video was "Know Your Meme: My Little Pony". I texted him back. "lolwut?" I said. Almost immediately, he replied "JUST WATCH IT". I let out a big sigh and clicked play.

"War. War never changes. It's been almost a year since their first attack. We thought they were powerless. We were wrong. When they hit, they hit us hard. We tried to fight back but it was too late. Over time, the numbers grew exponentially. Like some unknown force, they were unstoppable." he had started saying. The main guy of Know Your Meme that is. By this point, I was very interested in what was coming. And naturally, I got trolled and turned out he was playing with My Little Pony dolls. Then he started talking about how there were teenagers and adult watching this show. MALE teenagers and adults. Called Bronies. "What the hell was wrong with these people?" I thought to myself. Soon, I got another text message but I decided to wait until the video was done.

Youtube Video

Really now? Ponychan knocking off of 4chan? This was getting a bit extreme..."It is prophecised that one great Brony will unite the heard and usher in a new era of love and tolerance to the entire web." he said. Ok, this video was clearly a bunch of crap. And soon California Gurls by Katy Perry. Except this was different. And horrible. Apparently, the pink pony from the show, who they called Pinkie Pie, sung a version called Equestria Girls and they even made a shoutout to the Bronies. Lame. Soon, they performed a little experiment that was pretty freaking awesome. Purely for the reason that there was dubstep in the background. Dub. Step.

The video ended and I looked at my text. Again, it was Butch. "o god this is worse" he said with another YouTube link. Why was he showing me all these pony videos! I guess just for a good laugh. I clicked on the link and it brought me to a video that said "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic – You Got to Share, You Got to Care". I'm sure this would be a doozy. The piano started and that same Pinkie Pie pony looked out of the curtains. "We may be divided. But all of you I beg." Pinkie Pie started singing. Good lord it was even worse than I thought it would be. And then she started bouncing. Of course. I felt horrible just for watching that monstrosity. Luckily, it wasn't that long. Only about a minute and a half and it ended.

Youtube Video

Now it was my turn to text. "those 2 were possibly the worst 2 videos on YouTube or anywhere that i have ever seen in my life" I said. He texted back "IKR!" Those videos truly were so unbelievably stupid. That song was SO dumb. Who would actually watch this show? I thought those Bronies were just a bunch of crap. Well, tomorrow would be another day at school. I texted him again "mayb i'll SHARE my day with all my wonderful and magical friends at school tomorrow?" and all he said was "LOL". I knew we would have a great time talking about this the next day.

The Invasion

The next day at school, I came walking in. I couldn't wait to talk to him about those dumb Bronies. I still didn't understand how they could actually watch and enjoy such a stupid show like My Little Pony. Instead of finding Butch, I found my girlfriend Jesse. I was gonna walk up to her and act all smooth. But that's when I saw what she was wearing. It had a picture of a pony on it. It had a paper on it's head and it's hands. Or hooves I guess since that's what a horse's hands are called. And it stated "Derpy Is Best Pony", whatever that meant.

"Hey Jes, what's with the shirt?" I said walking up to her. "What, you haven't heard of a Brony?" she said. "Oh dear god, don't tell me your a Brony?" I asked. "Why yes I am. Specifically a Pegasister. That's the female version of a Brony." she replied and I just gave her a "WHY!" face and walked in the direction of where I now saw Butch. "Hey Butch, get a load of this!" I said dragging him in the direction of Jesse. I pointed at her shirt and he burst out laughing but Jesse just rolled her eyes. "Look. At the end of school, you are watching an episode of My Little Pony with me."

"Pssht, yeah, like that would happen." I said. She didn't respond and just stared at me. As if she was giving me the evil eye. The three of us just stayed there for about a minute of silence and then finally Butch leaned into my ear and said "Good luck, bro.". I let out a big sigh and conceded. I knew there wouldn't be any way to get out of this so I might as well just agree to watch than to continue arguing. "Very well." I said followed by Jesse smiling and walking to her class.

After the few hours left in school, I walked to Jesse's home with her and she made me sit on her bed, right in front of the television. She grabbed her remote and went to the on demand section. Under "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic", there was a list of many episodes. She went to the bottom and clicked on the last one that was titled "Friendship is Magic". I figured it to be the first episode. She played it.

"Once upon a time, in the magical land of Equestria, there were two regal sisters who ruled together and created harmony for all the land." the narrator started saying. I was about at the point of crying of how unbelievably horrible this was. Why would Jesse want me to watch this? Why would anybody watch this in the first place! I got ten minutes through and I thought I was about to pass out. A pony flew straight into Twilight Sparkle. I was ashamed to even know her name...what I was even more ashamed of was that I actually let out a little smile when Rainbow Dash laughed out loud when she messed with Twilight's hair. Still, almost all of it was pretty boring.

Finally, after twenty minutes, something interesting happened. Nightmare Moon appeared. Even though every single part of me was saying to stop watching this crap, something about Nightmare Moon seemed pretty cool to me. The episode left in a cliffhanger so I allowed Jesse to play part 2. 7 minutes through part 2 and I was regretting that decision ever so much. Pinkie Pie's "Giggle At The Ghosties" was a bit too much stupidity. First "You Gotta Share, You Gotta Care" and now this. I really wasn't a fan of Pinkie's. I expected something cheezy to happen at the end. I really doubted they would just kill someone. And I was right. They reverted Nightmare Moon into a much less cool looking pony who they called Princess Luna and was the sister of Princess Celestia. Twilight stayed, everyone cheered, Pinkie Pie did, whatever she does... and the episode ended.

I didn't enjoy the two part episode AT ALL, however, it wasn't exactly what I was expecting either. Instead of learning educational crap, it was more of an adventure. Still, it was ponies. Ponies were for girls. Right? Jesse asked me if I liked it so I didn't lie. "It wasn't all stupid like I expected but I still didn't really like it." I said. "Well at least you tried it." she said. We said goodbye and then I headed for my home. I had a lot to think about.

Discord

I got home the next day. Same as always. I grabbed a snack and watched some TV. As I flipped through the channels, I got to The Hub. My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic was one. I was about to turn it, almost the instant it the TV allowed me to. But something stopped me. I heard a voice, a very familiar voice. My dad had been a huge Star Trek fan so naturally, I knew quite a lot about it. One of the characters especially. His name was Q. He was fond of causing mischief and chaos for the Star Trek crew in three different series like The Next Generation, Voyager, and Deep Space Nine. He was played by John DeLancie. And this voice that caught my ear unexpectedly in this show for ponies was none other than John DeLancie himself. He was voicing a character in My Little Pony. My head was spinning but I had to watch this.

I was at 8 minutes after 3:30 so I figured that I had only missed a little bit. John's character was giving them riddles and stuff. I thought that this episode might just be interesting. The ponies went off to find out where the Elements of Harmony were. Those were the same things they used to defeat Nightmare Night in the episode that I saw with Jesse. I also found out that the characters name was Discord. I then started noticing many many similarities between he and Q.

First of all, the both appeared in a flash of light. Second, whatever magic he used would be caused with the snap of his hands. And three, he created chaos for the main characters. This was officially awesome. I couldn't believe I thought that but I did. Discord was making me believe that this was awesome.

Discord hypnotized all the ponies and Twilight got back home. As events progressed, Twilight figured out what she had to do, and she even referenced the first episode I saw. She brought everyone back to color and they defeated Discord which I think was probably the worst part because now Discord wouldn't be in any other. Then again, Jesse had told me that there was an episode where Princess Luna returned so it was very well possible that an episode. I guessed that I would just have to watch for all the new episodes. I wasn't a Brony or anything. I was just watching this because of John DeLancie. Because of Q. Because of Discord.

Exposed

That was it. I was now determined to find out what it was all about. First I know that Bronies, people who actually like the show My Little Pony, exist. Then I realize that I myself am watching the show. What could be so good about it! I had to find out.

I went to the gold mine of all information. The internet. I searched up the term Brony. What I first saw was an entry in the Urban Dictionary but I already knew everything it had to say. The second was a friendship is magic fandom entry on Wikipedia. The site's never that credible but I figured I could give it a shot. I read almost the entire article which took a while and turned out it was all for nothing because it was still everything I knew. It explained what a Brony is but not why Bronies exist. I scrolled down the Google search page and found an entry on Know Your Meme – the same people who created the video I saw on Bronies.

I read it and found that there was fan created things. In the music part, the first video it listed was one called "Eurobeat Brony - Discord (The Living Tombstone's Remix)". A song about Discord. I had to hear this. I listened to the whole thing and by the end I was already singing along to the chorus. That was a freaking awesome song. I had to know more.

Youtube Video

After more searching, I found that many memes were started off of the show like Trollestia and the Shrugpony which were both very funny in different situations. Now I tried searching up "My Little Pony Fan Art" and clicked on the second result which brought me to a wikia page for it. I was flooded with the information I wanted now. Games, music, literature, videos. Everything inspired by the show. I browsed through lots and I found that one of the fanfictions was especially popular.

It was called My Little Dashie, by ROBCakeran53. I proceeded to reading it. It was a story about a guy who had a terrible life but then one day found Rainbow Dash as a little filly. He took care of her for 15 years and then Princess Celestia came to take her back. The ending was so incredibly emotional that I was actually crying. I didn't know how it was possible for me to cry at something pony related but I was. I never cried at real life events yet I was crying at this. Something was up. Someone writing something this good couldn't just be some fat guy sitting at a computer watching ponies all day. Maybe it wasn't so bad to be a Brony after all.

I looked down at the floor and started thinking about what to do. Everything in my life had pointed to steering clear of things that weren't right or normal. But then again, what was normal? I could be a Brony but at the same time I couldn't and it would make no difference. Yet, would I be satisfied? Even with everything I knew, I still needed to know one more thing.

I searched up "Becoming A Brony". I found many results from sites like Yahoo Answers and Wiki Answers. All from people who wanted answers to the questions I did. I guess that this time, not even the internet knew. And if the internet didn't know, then I was certain there was nothing in the universe that could answer my question. I would have to go with my gut this time. Discord may be a good character but My Little Pony was still My Little Pony. It was still a show for girls. I turned off my computer, went to my room and turned on the television. I put the On Demand section on. Sure it was My Little Pony. Sure it was meant for girls. But I liked it. I liked My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic and I am a Brony.

The Way Of The Brony

It was already a few months that I had now been a closet Brony. I hadn't told anyone other than Jesse that I was a Brony. I had been keeping up with the Brony fandom online and watched all of season 1 of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. I thought it was finally time to tell my friend Butch about it. I confronted him at football practice after talking a bit.

"Hey Butch, do you remember that show we used to laugh about? My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic?" I asked. He started laughing already. "Ha, yeah, how could I forget something so stupid?" he said. After that, I was thinking of not telling him but I knew I had to. I couldn't keep it a secret forever. "Well I sorta watch it now." I blurted out. He didn't believe me at first. "Yeah, like you would be one of those gay fatties who watch ponies all day." That really ticked me off. "I'm NOT gay. I am a Brony." I said, determined to convince him. He was actually starting to look worried. "Are you serious? No man, you can't be. We're men. You remember that. We play football. Not watch a show about unicorns and the magic of friendship. You got that!" "It's not what you think. You have to watch it to know what it's really like." I said, realizing that I myself might be turning someone else into a Brony now. Butch just stared at me for a few seconds and then said "Loser.". "You know that the Brony's motto is to love and tolerate everyone. So no matter what you say, you're not going to get a reaction out of me. I'm going to love and tolerate you to the best of my abilities." I told him. He stopped at first but then decided to ignore met and ran back into the game to continue practicing.

I sat on the bench realizing that in by exposing my Bronyness, I might have just lost a friend. Then again, if he could get so upset as to stop being my friend just because of a show I watch, then he was probably never my friend to begin with. Eventually, it was time to go back home.

The next day at school, I was in for a huge surprise. Nothing out of the ordinary at first. I went to my first period class and then went to the bathroom at passing time. When I was done, I started walking out and I saw a huge crowd of students there. I stupidly thought they were all there for the bathroom because Butch stepped behind me in that direction. Soon, another huge flood of students surrounded the first crowd. It probably wasn't but it looked as though half the student body was there. Then I felt someone push me to the ground. It was Butch.

"Hey! What was that for!" I yelled about to get back up but Butch kicked me back down. He didn't even care to answer me and instead spoke to the crowd. "Yep! This is the guy who watches My Little Pony!" he said. I suddenly heard everyone talking. It seemed as though every second I heard gay, faggot, or queer. Then it struck me. Someone's foot that is. And another. And another. Soon everyone was kicking me and I couldn't get up. Even at my head I felt kicks. So much pain was flooding through me. My vision started to go blurry. I tried to yell out Love and Tolerate but the only thing that came out was mumbled words. I continued trying to say Love and Tolerate, each time softer and softer until I eventually passed out.

Love And Tolerate

I don't think I was fully unconscious because although I couldn't see or move, I was still able to hear everything going on around me. "Move! Move it!" I heard Jesse say. Then I heard a teacher's voice telling everyone to scram. The bathroom was literally only a few feet away from the office so she was able to drag me there into the health room in to time at all. My face felt very cold all of a sudden so I imagined that the nurse put an ice pack on me. Then the rest of my body felt cold. She was probably putting ice packs on all the bruises those students gave me.

After a half hour, which felt like only about five minutes to me, I started to wake up. My body still hurt so incredibly much. I looked around only to see that Jesse was still with me. "Why did you let them hurt you?" she asked me. I realized that I could now probably talk again. "I-I had to." I said. "Why!" she yelled. "Because I'm a Brony. I had to love and tolerate them." I said. She stared at me for a few seconds and then started talking again. "James, I didn't know you were so caught up in the Brony fandom. Why would you listen to something like that?" she asked. "Because. It's a good message. Imagine what the world would be like if everyone loved and tolerated all the problems on Earth. There would be no war and peace everywhere." I said. Jesse closed her eyes. "Maybe so, but at what point do you become a part of those problems when you choose to love and tolerate the intolerable?" she asked. I stayed silent. "You think about that. I have to get back to class." she said. Jesse walked over to me and gave me a kiss on my forehead.

Maybe she was right. Maybe we the Bronies didn't have to love and tolerate absolutely everything. Maybe, things could change...I slowly drifted off. Back to sleep.

Equestria

"Where am I?" I thought to myself. Everything was dark. I turned around. A stage was right in front of me. On it was Pinkie Pie. She was singing "You Gotta Share, You Gotta Care". He turned to the audience. Chief Thunderhooves and Sheriff Silverstar agreed that it was the worst performance they had ever seen. They obviously were not loving and tolerating Pinkie Pie nor each other. But there was a buffalo involved, not just a pony so that was probably the reason.

I turned around again and I was in Twilight's house. Everypony was gray, except for Twilight. They kept stealing Twilight's book which contained the elements of harmony. Eventually Twilight blew her head and started freaking out until she got her book back. That obviously wasn't loving and tolerating. Still, Twilight is known for being crazy sometimes. Loving and tolerating was still the way to go.

I turned around for the last time and was next to the Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000. Applejack's family and her honorary family members were fighting Flim and Flam for the best and fastest apple cider. They weren't loving and tolerating the Flim Flam brothers at all. And the apple family is the most honorable family there is. Could it be possible that I should have taken loving and tolerating with a grain of salt? I was very confused at this point.

I remember that at the end of the episode, the Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000 left with the Flim Flam brothers, but something was different this time. Their machine got jammed and it started making noise. Everyone took cover but I just stared at it. Then it exploded.

Suddenly, I woke up. I was sitting straight up in the health room bed. My body was hurting still. Obviously because of all the bruises. Whether loving and tolerating was the right thing to do or not, I couldn't let it destroy my life. I had to stand up for myself. Nothing like that would ever happen ever again.

The Bronification Project

I got up and started heading out the office. I told the nurse that I was feeling much better now, which in part was true. I didn't have a headache or feel sick, just very bruised. My next few classes were full of kids just staring at me but I tried ignoring them. Surprisingly, noone tried attacking me after school and I managed to get back home. I watched more reruns of pony episodes that I had already seen. I had already seen them all. I definitely was in the need for a high does of ponies. They seemed to take all the worries off of me. With my pain and the comfort from the ponies, I fell asleep on my bed.

My alarm woke me up the next morning and I got ready for school. Once there, Butch was the first one to greet me. "Hey man! Cool prank yesterday wasn't it? Did it snap you out of being gay?" he asked. My first instincts were to love and tolerate him. Jesse's words echoed in my head. "At what point do you become a part of those problems when you choose to love and tolerate the intolerable?" I heard her say inside of my head. I was suddenly filled with rage and I pushed him so hard he hit the wall.

"Hey! What happened to love and tolerate!" Butch yelled. "I was wrong." I said. "Loving and tolerating is a good thing. But bad things can come out of it if you choose to over do it. Peace is good, but if you go beyond peace it just becomes plain ignorant. Take this." I said grabbing out a My Little Pony trading card out of my pocket. I threw it at him like a ninja star. I had glued it to a plastic cover to make sure he wouldn't just rip it in half. He started at me and then stared at the card. It was a Twilight Sparkle card. I could tell he wanted to just throw it away but he then put it in his pocket instead. Inside, I knew that I had just done the right thing. I had many more inside my pocket.

Last night, I was talking to Jesse and we came up with an idea. We called it, The Bronification Project. We would tell and explain to everyone we could about the Brony society and how it was growing bigger and bigger. We also explained how good they are for society itself. How peace, through loving and tolerating (to a certain extent of course) is what the Bronies are made up of. We brought many trading cards with us to school and were going to give one to every single kid in our entire school. It would cost money and time, sure, but it was worth it. An effort we could make for the betterment of the people. Watching ponies was one thing. But doing the things Bronies do is another. People could be like a Brony without watching the show. They could choose as they pleased. We gathered as many cards as we could and started passing them out.

The rest was history. About a year later, Butch came up to me to tell me that he had become a Brony. He searched up the fanbase after studying the card I gave him on the internet. I had a feeling others did the same. More and more kids at school became Bronies. We were all seeing the same message. Ponies or not. What we wanted was more peace and less ignorance. As it grew and grew, different kids that we would have never in a million years expected to become a Brony, became a Brony. More than half of the school was a Brony community where we could all love and tolerate each other. Our plan had worked. Not everyone was become a Brony but, hey, what can you do? Even if we had just changed a few student's lives for the better, that was enough.

Even those who considered themselves to be Bronies but didn't actually watched the show were helping out with The Bronification Project. Soon they were watching My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic themselves. Jes and I were happy that we could spread the Brony love with our school. It took a while but I eventually forgave Butch for what he did. I never continued to be his friend, even when he begged me to forgive (which he actually did!) him. I knew he was sincere but what he did was inexcusable. However, I wasn't holding him accountable for anything more than what he did. So yes, I accepted his apology and moved on with my life.

More and more Bronies came to be. It was summer time and all we could think about was when the next My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic season was coming out. I never truly found out why we liked the show. Was it the ponies themselves? Was it the love and tolerate message it gave? Was it a sense of hope that people felt from the show? I didn't think I would ever get an answer. I don't think it was one particular thing. It was something, well, magical! And together, as a community of Bronies who cared for each other, we knew, that to a right extent, we would be able to abide by that one rule consisting of three words. Love and Tolerate, everypony. Love and Tolerate.

Credits

Actual Show Credits:

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic:

Created by:

Lauren Faust

Written by:

Lauren Faust

Amy Keating Rogers

Cindy Morrow

Chris Savino

Meghan McCarthy

Charlotte Fullerton

M. A. Fullerton

Dave Polsky

Merriwether Williams

Directed by:

Jayson Thiessen

James Wootton

Executive Producers:

Lauren Faust

Chris Bartleman

Blair Peters

Kirsten Newlands

Beth Stevenson

Stephen Davis

Composers:

William Kevin Anderson

Daniel Ingram

Steffan Andrews

Voice Actors:

Tara Strong

Ashleigh Ball

Andrea Libman

Tabitha St. Germain

Cathy Weseluck

Nicole Oliver

Michelle Creber

Meadeleine Peters

Claire Corlett

John de Lancie

Production Companies:

DHX Media/Vancouver

Hasbro Studios

Top Draw Animation

Distributor:

The Hub

FanFiction Credits:

Written by:

Joshua Simon

Shows Used:

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic

Disclaimer:

I do not own the rights to anything that is or is related to My Little Pony.

Final Comment:

Thank you to everyone who read and enjoyed my fanfiction! It was so much fun to write this fanfiction so I hope you enjoyed it! Thank you again!

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