The living room of a cheap apartment somewhere in Western Pennsylvania. Four chairs around a coffee table. Merchandise as well as homemade art celebrating the children’s television show MY LITTLE PONY FRIENDSHIP IS MAGIC is out on shelves, walls, etc. Sitting around the table are: BEN, wearing a My Little Pony t-shirt, rainbow colored sweatpants, and MLP-themed slippers; RACHEL, wearing a bright blue MLP wig with ears and a unicorn horn; SHAWN, wearing a full-body My Little Pony costume of the character Pinkie Pie; and JEAN, wearing a button down shirt, leather jacket and jeans. For a moment nobody speaks. The mood is sober. They wonder who will speak first. Then: SHAWN I used to wear a fedora. I look back on that time and think: what was I trying to prove? That I was a man? That I was Don Draper from Mad Men? I didn’t even watch that show. It’s like I was looking all over the place for someone to be. “Am I that guy? No. Am I that guy over there? No. What about that guy in the mirror? Nope, not him either. Well, what if I put on this hat?” Every time I put it on I felt like a fake. I knew how stupid it looked, but I could never admit it because—“if not this, then what?” I really thought that if I kept at it, putting it on all day every day, I would become the sort of person who looks good in a fedora; who makes sense in a fedora. I thought: If people see me in this hat often enough, they’ll start to think I’m the hat. They’ll think I’m a fedora. And they’ll take me seriously. But: You don’t get to choose your cutie mark. It chooses you. Ben and Rachel nod knowingly. SHAWN When I saw my first episode it was like opening a door into this other room in my brain that I never knew existed—where I could have feelings and not be ashamed of them or have to make sarcastic remarks or have to put people down before they put me down. It was like getting this warm welcome to the home I never knew I had. Where everypony gets me and I get them. Beat. BEN That was really great, man. SHAWN I’m not done. Ben makes a “mea culpa” gesture. SHAWN Just thinking about that transition from BMLP—that’s Before My Little Pony—to AMFE—After My First Episode—it made me realize that things transformed all over again when I met you guys. I didn’t know how to sew a costume before I met you guys. I’d never done a role-playing game. And
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