Just to set the setting right now:

Right now it's 3:16AM. The dorm room is dark. My roommate is fast asleep on the top bunk. Adult Swim is playing softly on the TV but I couldn't care less. There's a certain subtle tranquility in the air tonight...the kind that tends to lead me to deep thinking and sentimentality.

With that said...

I'm watching Bronies again, this time in 1080p (first time I watched I was too excited and just got the 480p because it was fast), and the sentimentality is in full force right now.

I'm a relatively new brony, so while I understood a lot of the lingo and general information in the documentary, it was enlightening to see what the brony experience was like as the fandom really began to explode. While the events of the entire movie occurred many months before my time (hell, at the time of the conventions I probably didn't even fully comprehend what the word "brony" meant), I couldn't help but feel the connection to all these folks. I've been in fandoms before where love and togetherness are cornerstones, and where I've faced ridicule for being in the fandom (James Cameron's Avatar, that's a different story for a different day, though), but we've chosen to overcome and laugh in the face of discrimination.

Anyway.

I still remember the first night when I finally realized I was a brony (I had my start as a "moderate"*), and I was looking for fan material, I came across this song. If you know me by now you know I like to reference it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LH8Ri2VULHo

Ever since then, this has been the message I have carried in my heart, and it has been the lens I have viewed the world through. I look at all the darkness in our world and compare it to the light of Equestria. There's beauty in the world, but in all honesty, sometimes I yearn for Equestria. I honestly wish sometimes that one night when I fall asleep I'll wake up to the sweet smell of Equestrian air mixing with the baked goods wafting from Sugarcube Corner, a pegasi-assured clear sky above my head...

*snaps back from daydream*

Wait...what?

Aaaannnnyyyywwwwaaaayyyy...

In my humble two months in the herd, I've come to realize something...

Equestria is more than a fantasical land of pastel ponies and adventures, it is a state of mind. It is a place where the spark of friendship burns bright, so bright that it is a guiding light. Unfortunately in our world that spark has grown dim, one does not have to look very far to see that...simply turn on a TV channel, check a news site, or open the paper.

But we bronies make this spark burn bright again in our troubled world.

Anytime someone is kind, Equestria is there.

Anytime someone is loyal, Equestria is there.

Anytime someone is generous, Equestria is there.

Anytime someone laughs with joy, Equestria is there.

Anytime someone is honest, Equestria is there.

...And when you let these elements into your heart, you make magic.

...And all of these elements - all of that magic - was present at Bronycon.

At Bronycon, Equestria was real.

The world is a long way from Equestria, but when we live by the Elements of Harmony, we bring the world just a little bit closer.

When we choose love, Equestria is real.

Even though my tickets for Airventure 2013 are already purchased, and I will not be able to attend BronyCon 2013 (hopefully Midwestria, though! Hooves crossed! ) in person, I will be there in spirit. Why? Because friendship is just that powerful, it transcends space and time in a way that only such a magical force can. And friendship is a powerful force, just look at everything in the documentary! Friendship inspired a man with Asperger's to overcome his condition to attend the con and end up a more confident person in the end.. It helped a boy to face his conservative parents and get them to come to the convention, and even change his dad's perspective about bronies a bit! It gave a man courage to face the bigotry in his town (and from one aviator to another... *brohoof*). It drives hundreds of people to support a boy with cancer that they don't even know. It drives bronies to raise thousands upon thousands of dollars for amazing charitable causes all over the world.

Equestria might have started out as a fictional land, but slowly - bit by bit, act of love by act of love - we are making it real.

*PS: I am resonating with those "creatives" who've become inspired to create art in all of it's forms thanks to My Little Pony. I'm not creative (most other airman I know aren't particularly the right-brain type, either ), but suddenly...I want to be. Had it not been for being a brony, I probably wouldn't have cared if a pencil in my hand never met paper to make art ever again, but suddenly I have an ever-growing notebook full of sketches. I probably never would have laid down $100 for a digital sketch pad and used GIMP or Inkscape, but I am. I probably would have never touched a musical instrument in my life, but as I type this, sitting in the corner is a Kansas Acoustic Guitar that I acquired from a friend when he came to visit campus (all it cost me was $60 worth of PS3 games). Honestly, what is it about pastel-colored ponies that can awaken creativity in somepony who always thought they were never creative?

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

*Looks at clock again*

4:51AM.

That got out of hoof. -_-

In closing...

This is from me, to everypony on this board, and every brony in the world whether they ever see this or not...

/)*(\