Ok, so I'm not the most confident guy ever. In fact, I'm about as closeted as a brony as you can get. Well, okay, I did go to the movie with a few other people, so I'm probably not that bad. But still I have a lot more nerves than I probably should have. You could say I had trouble getting myself to even consciously admit that my pony obsession means my dignity will be at stake if I don't go! Thankfully a gave in to these urges and got myself in the car and my butt over to that theater so I wouldn't put dishonor on my family...although my family isn't that supportive so that's probably a terrible expression to use XD

So I get to the theater mall, right. It's 45 minutes till the showing and I'm just standing near the venue as awkward as I can be. I know everyone's probably staring at me even though I have no pony merch or anything so there's really no reason for them to be. But in my head they totally are. Well, I kind of do this weird walking around thing where I'm looking at the showing times on the screen above the ticket counter while also pretending to be interested in the stores nearby. I do this for about 20 minutes until I realize the other people who were supposed to come are probably late. So I have to go up to the ticket guy by myself. Well great.

I'm walking into the theater when suddenly I hear the ticket guy call my name. No way, I'm thinking. He can't possibly know me. I walk up to him, and sure enough...it's a guy I know from high school. At this point I know I'm a dead man. There is no way this could have gone worse...time to pray and hope God makes my last moments quick so I don't have to remember them when I'm in the afterlife. No lie, I've done bad things in life, but this a whole new level of torture that I thought should be reserved for the worst of the worst...not me. 

Somehow I managed to tell him, Vlad, this guy I know from freaking high school...that I want to see the MLP Movie. I think I was on autopilot at this point, because I don't remember having to tell myself to tell him what I wanted to see, it just kind of came out. To my surprise, he didn't even blink. Just handed me my change and total my to go to the auditorium on my right. I'm kind of in shock for the next 5 minutes...did that seriously just happen. I guess...I can live to see another day. Now I've just got to make it into the auditorium.

Well, I walk into the auditorium and there's one adult lady there. She looks up and I'm like oh shit and run back out. I gotta get myself composed first! Can't just walk into the room like some ghetto clown...or at least that's what I thought myself as. Just breathe deep, I'm thinking outside, when I notice that the rest of my group has shown up. YES! Finally I can be awkward with some other people. 

Inside the room we sit down and one of the guys has got like five plushes with him, a pony shirt, and an mlp-themed handbag. And here I am with nothing. You can imagine how I'm trying to mentally transition from being self-conscious about going to the movie as a male fan to being totally outdone by the hardcore fans around me in terms of merch count. Like, can I possibly feel normal in this setting in any way? XD

Yeah, so the movie was incredible obviously. At least, I thought they did a pretty good job. After we leave the auditorium and are standing at the front of the theater, the guy who was sitting next to me goes up to the lady at the counter and asks about what they do with the movie posters after the films are done showing in theaters. He's wanting to know how he can get the poster for himself. Eventually he's discussing the fandom and what they do at pony conventions and all these things and the lady at the counter is just nodding "uh huh" to everything he says, and she probably has no idea what any of this is about. Yeah, it was pretty awkward...but I lived and made it out of that alive too.

You think that was all I went through - Nope! I run into another person I know from high school further in the mall. She asks why I'm there and my friend replies we just saw the MLP movie. She goes "ohhhhhh" and then changes the topic. Yup, I don't even know what's happening at this point. It's all been too surreal for me and nothing can scar me anymore. Nevermind that we walked around the mall for a half hour getting TONS of stares from everybody and pretending like we're not. Afterwards we peeked into Toys R Us to look for pony stuff...and then I drove them home and hung out at their apartment for a bit. But ultimately, it was pretty exhausting to go through all that as an anxious guy...and I didn't die. That's the good part at least. It's safe to say mission accomplished, although my nerves made want to explode at times. I hope I wasn't the only one like this, haha.