I immediately get out of bed and fire up my laptop. Hopefully I’m not too late and I can still do this. I’m going to show Tyler once and for all that I’m not afraid. He fought my battle for me with my mom, but I’m going to fight this one for him. I’m going to make sure everyone understands what I love about him.

As soon as I get what I need printed off of my laptop, I head towards my door just as my mom comes through it.

We stand there staring at each other awkwardly for a few minutes before she finally speaks. “I don’t like apologizing.”

I nod. “Me either.”

Glad we established that.

“I forgive you for not wanting to work at Seduction and Snacks.”

“And I forgive you for not understanding my dream,” I tell her.

She leans in and wraps her arms around me. I slide my arms around her shoulders and hug her back.

“You’re totally my favorite child,” she whispers before pulling back.

“You just said that same thing to Charlotte a few minutes ago, didn’t you?”

She shrugs. “Does it matter?”

“Nope.”

I thrust my arm out and hand her one of the print-outs. “Now that we like each other again and Tyler made you cry, I expect you to be there.”

She looks over the page and then gives me a questioning look. “You have got to be kidding me.”

“I would never kid about something like this.”

Mom looks back down at the paper. “If I go to this, can I make fun of people?”

I start to tell her no and then think better of it. If I tell her no, she definitely won’t come and I need her to be there. “You can only make fun of people if they make fun of you first.”

She thinks about this for a few seconds before nodding. “I can deal with that.”

I walk out of my bedroom with a smile on my face, making plans in my head and hoping that everything works.

Chapter 28 – BronyCon

“I still don’t understand why I have to be blindfolded. Are you going to do some weird, kinky shit to me?”

Gavin laughs and I feel his car come to a stop as he turns off the engine.

“Sorry, no kinky shit for you today, my friend. Today, your dreams are coming true,” Gavin tells me.

I hear him open his car door and get out and, a few seconds later, he’s opening my door and helping me out of the car.

“My dreams already came true. Liz finally showed me the mas***bation room,” I tell him as he slams my door closed and starts leading me away.

“I still can’t believe she did that. Aunt Liz didn’t even tell me about that room until a month ago,” Gavin complains.

We walk in silence for a few minutes and I’m about ready to bitch at him again for the blindfold when I hear him speak to someone and a rustling of papers.

“Two adults? Very good. Have a magical day!”

Gavin thanks the guy and continues pulling me forward. We walk through a door and I’m suddenly assaulted with the sounds of hundreds of laughing people, a bunch of them bumping into me as we make our way through a crowd.

“Okay, I think it’s safe to remove the blindfold now,” Gavin announces.

I feel his hands at the back of my head and I’m blinking at the bright lights and colors that surround me a few seconds later.

This can’t be happening. There is no f**king way this is real.

“Am I dreaming?” I whisper as a guy in a Twilight Sparkle costume walks by me and smiles.

There’s My Little Ponies as far as the eye can see. MLP costumes, MLP toys, stuffed animals, games, signs and face painting. There are televisions lining the walls playing episodes of MLP, there are people acting out scenes on one side of me and voice actors from the show signing autographs on another. It’s so beautiful I want to cry.

“Oh, fuck, it’s Tara Strong, the voice of Twilight Sparkle,” I say excitedly, pointing over to one table. “Shit, that’s Peter New, the voice of Macintosh! Peter New is here, Peter New is here!”

I start jumping up and down, clapping my hands together like a fool, but I don’t care! I’m at BronyCon, motherfuckers!

Gavin laughs, grabbing my arm to turn me around. When I see what’s behind me, I really do start to get choked up. Standing in a group is everyone I love and none of them look the least bit uncomfortable surrounded by My Little Ponies.

My mom and dad are the first ones to approach me, both of them wrapping their arms around me.

“We just wanted to tell you that we love you and we accept you just the way you are,” my mom tells me. “I’ve already been asked to speak on a panel about the negative implications regarding Bronies and perversion. Isn’t that exciting?”

My dad pats me on the back and smiles. “Even though you’re not my son by blood, you’re the son of my heart and that’s all that matters. Also, your mother now wants to try out one of those Brony butt plugs later on tonight, so thanks for that.”

I cringe and back away from him as Liz and Claire both come up to me.

“We’d both like to thank you for your love of all things Brony because after being here for fifteen minutes, we’ve already been asked by BronyCon if they could be an official sponsor for Seduction and Snacks,” Liz tells me.

Claire nods. “I was even asked to make a thousand pony-shaped cookies for next year’s event.”

Carter and Jim walk up to me next and my eyes widen in surprise when I see that they’re both wearing MLP t-shirts.

“Oh, my gosh, are you guys going to be Bronies now? Do you want to come to my next meeting?” I ask them excitedly.

Jim holds up his hand. “Whoa, slow your roll. This shit is still weird as fuck, but I will admit that I like the way this shirt looks on me.”

Carter shrugs, looking down at his own shirt that says ‘BRONY’ in big, black letters across the chest with a picture of Applejack under it. “I don’t know, man, everyone here is so friendly. The guys at the face-painting booth told me I had nice bone structure. I could hang with them.”

Even though I’m in the best place ever and all of these people have come to support me, there’s still someone missing. Before I have a chance to dwell on it, I hear a throat clear behind me. I turn around and my jaw drops.

Ava stands there with her hands on her h*ps wearing a tight, pink bustier, a pink tutu and white, knee-high boots. She does a slow turn and attached to the ass of her skirt is a multi-colored tail that hangs down to her knees. She looks over her shoulder at me and shakes her ass and it takes everything in me not to throw her to the ground and climb her like a f**king pine tree.

I walk over to her as she completes her turn. She slides her hands up my chest and around my shoulders, clasping them together at the back of my neck.

“You are the hottest f**king woman I have ever seen in my life,” I tell her softly as she smiles up at me.

“I hope this makes up for the fact that I was a total bitch to you. I should have never said the things I did.”

I shake my head at her. “No, I was an asshole. I pushed you too far and I said some really shitty things when all I wanted to do was tell you that I love you.”

Ava closes her eyes and sighs, pressing her lips to mine. She feels so right and so amazing in my arms that I let out a groan of disappointment when she moves away.

“I kind of like this look on me and I’m having a great time here. I think I’m going to like being in love with a Brony,” she admits.

“Is this your way of telling me that you were completely wrong about Bronies and they aren’t weird at all?” I ask with a laugh.

She thinks about it for a minute and then smiles. “I don’t like apologizing, but when I’m wrong, I say I’m wrong.”

I smile right back at her. “You looked wonderful out there. Nobody puts Ava in a corner.”

We hear a groan and turn to see Drew and Jenny standing arm-in-arm.

“Did you two vaginas just quote Dirty Dancing?” Drew asks.

“Drew? What the f**k are you doing here?” Carter asks. “I thought you said you had a meeting today and couldn’t get together with us.”

“And what the mother of f**ks are you wearing?” Jim questions, looking him up and down.

“You didn’t tell me you guys were coming to BronyCon, you just said you were doing something to surprise Tyler,” Drew explains. “And I’ll have you know, this pony costume is one-hundred-percent fleece and the tail is made from genuine unicorn hair.”

We all stare at Drew’s pink, plush horse costume, complete with a giant stuffed horse head that he’s currently carrying under his arm.

“My balls are sweating like a motherfucker in this thing, but it’s totally worth it,” he tells us with a smile.

“And the best part is, Drew hasn’t been cheating on me!” Jenny announces with glee.

Drew sighs and takes a step forward. “I can’t live with the shame and the guilt anymore, guys. I’m tired of lying by omission and not living my life the way I was meant to live it. Everyone, today I am officially coming out as a Brony.”

A few passers-by stop when they hear Drew’s announcement and start clapping and cheering for him.

“Shit! That’s where I recognized the glitter from on your hand that day at work,” I say suddenly. “That’s the glitter we use at Brony meetings when we do the handshake. You’ve been secretly going to Brony meetings!”

Gavin leans in closer to me. “Dude, I thought you said there wasn’t a handshake?”

I scoff at him. “Like I was going to admit all the Brony secrets to you. It’s against the code, man.”

My mom lets go of my dad’s hand and walks up to Drew, staring at him for a few minutes. Drew stares right back, squinting like he’s trying to get a better look at her.

“Don’t I know you from somewhere?” Drew finally asks.

My mom nods. “You look familiar too, but I just can’t place it.”

I look back and forth between them, wondering what the hell is going on.

“Have you ever worked at the strip club Jennie’s Juggs?” Drew asks.

My mom shakes her head. “Nope.”

Drew brings one of his horse hoof hands up to his face and scratches his cheek. “What about Starbutts? They used to have this great show with two chicks and a couple of ping-pong balls. You sort of look like one of them.”

My mom shakes her head again.

Drew eyes suddenly go wide and he lifts his hoof up in the air. “I REMEMBER! Aren’t you the chick I had that foursome with in college? You’re name’s Debbie or Dinda or something, right?”

“Oh, my God,” Gavin mutters next to me.

I’m still trying to figure out what the f**k is going on right now when I feel Ava squeeze my hand.

“Donna, my name is Donna,” my mom tells him with a smile.

“That’s it! Donna! Well, shit, it’s good to see you again,” he tells her before turning to Carter. “Dude, this was the chick I banged the night you met Claire, remember?”

“I thought you passed out in the bathtub the night we met?” Claire asks.

Drew and my mom laugh and the sound makes a little bit of vomit come up in my throat.

“I totally passed out in the tub, but that was after the foursome. Actually, now that I think about it, weren’t you in the tub with me?” Drew asks my mom.

She laughs again and nods. “I was. I woke up the next morning curled up in that thing alone wondering what the hell had happened.”

“Oh, holy fuck,” Ava whispers.

No. No, no, no. This is not happening. This is NOT f**king happening!

Drew shakes his head in regret. “Damn. I didn’t even realize I left you in there. I got up to take a piss and couldn’t stop laughing about the fact that I still had the condom on, stuck to my penis.”

I let out the breath I’ve been holding and send a prayer up to heaven.

“Too bad that fucker was totally broke and hanging in pieces around my junk,” Drew continues. “Good thing nothing bad ever came from that, huh?”

Drew and my mom keep right on laughing, not even realizing that everyone is staring at them and I’m about ready to lose my shit all over this place.

Claire steps forward and looks back and forth between Drew and I. Her eyes widen and she does it again. Back and forth and back and forth until I want to run screaming out of this place.

“Oh, sweet Christ,” she finally mutters.

My mom finally stops laughing and mimics Claire, looking between Drew and me.

“Oh. Oh, my,” she whispers.

Drew puts his hoof hands on his h*ps and glares at the two of them.

“Well, you wanted to come to BronyCon and find your dad,” Ava tells me. “Congratulations, sweetie.”

I bend at the waist and rest my hands on my knees, taking in as many deep breaths as I can without passing out.

Drew huffs. “What? I don’t get it.”

Epilogue - Ava

Three months later…

“Are you sure you’re using enough lube? I don’t think you’re using enough.”

“Shut up, I totally know what I’m doing, I watched a couple of YouTube videos.”

“You’re not going to tell anyone about this, right? I mean, this is awesome and everything and I love you and trust you, but I don’t need this shit getting out.”

“Will you stop complaining? Do you want to do this or not?” I demand.

Holding the MLP butt plug up in the air, I glare at Tyler. He’s clutching onto the table in the mas***bation room at Seduction and Snacks, sticking his bare ass out, looking at me over his shoulder.