When Cosmopolitan.com editor Amy Odell asked me, "How do you feel about Bronies?" my first reaction was "I don't care." Bronies — grown men (and women!) who are obsessed with My Little Pony — are often incorrectly assumed to be sexual deviants (I think because people confuse them with furries, another nonsexual subculture that people are weirded out by and therefore ascribe to the category of "they must do weird freaky sex shit because I already don't understand them!"). Bronyism always seemed to me a blown-out-of-proportion hobby, picked up on by media outlets because it's appropriately buzzword-y.

But as someone who's seen every episode of Buffy The Vampire Slayer no fewer than 200 times and has dated at least one known Trekkie, I'm absolutely a geek girl. I've also been known to make my own glitter eye shadow and wear a lot of rainbow patterns, so the more I thought about it, dressing up like a human My Little Pony was something I probably would've done on a day off anyway. (I'd like to lie to you and tell you I don't routinely Google "cosplay" but ohhhh, I do.) So when I saw that Ponycon NYC — a major Brony convention — was happening not only soon, but on Valentine's Day, I decided to check it out.

When I got to the convention (which was held at St. Francis College in Brooklyn), I already had on my super-sweet outfit of a children's My Little Pony hoodie (the adult ones weren't as colorful and plus, look! Rainbow sleeves!), a cotton candy pink wig, giant fake eyelashes, and rainbow knee socks that made me look like a human cupcake filled with bubble gum and whimsy. Since it was held at a college, there were still people there doing normal college things and those people immediately looked at me like I had on a helmet made entirely out of herpes. But I didn't give a shit and immediately went to find my fellow pony lovers.

A guy in the elevator with two lip rings and an official Ponycon T-shirt immediately told me he loved my outfit and was psyched I was there, and I wanted to hug him once for every time the college girls downstairs gave me major side-eye. I had no idea where to start, so I just wandered into Manehattan Hall (Ponycon dearly loves a pun and for that, I fell for the Bronies even harder), where numerous merchandise booths were set up. I saw guys playing virtual reality games, watched little girls have their hair turned into magical pony princess hair via pony stylists who put in long, rainbow clip-ins that were so cute I could not handle it, and also saw a guy wearing a denim vest covered in Metallica patches with a pink pony on his shoulder. As you can see, he is punk as fuuuuuck.

Katia Temkin

After that I watched episodes of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic with a bunch of 6-year-old girls who looked at me like I was a princess full of magical secrets who smells like candy hearts and exhales nothing but bubbles when she speaks, and then met this guy.

Katia Temkin

He made his own My Little Pony posters that, according to my photographer, are actually "super hard to make. That guy has major talent right there." I actually developed some confusing "I sincerely respect how hardcore nerdy you are and I'm kind of in love with it even though you're not my type" crush on him because good god, that man was earnest as fuck.

I also met a girl named Pepper. I know this sounds like the beginning to a country song, and maybe in a few weeks it will be. Pepper asked to take a photo with me, which made me love her immediately. She had a badass dress she made herself and was seated at her booth full of her incredible My Little Pony-inspired glittery resin crafts. We immediately geeked out over sewing and wacky patterns and resin jewelry and glitter. Here's us looking at the photo her friend took of us.

Katia Temkin

Then I noticed the name of her company was Cosmo Cat Crafts and I almost flipped over her glitter-filled table. "Dude, I'm here from Cosmo!" I said. "No way," she said. And it was then that I knew that Pepper and I would be lifelong friends. Or at least we'd follow each other on Tumblr later because she asked for my URL.

Every single person I met had an open heart and looked so relieved to be spending time in a world full of nothing but magic, which is something we should all strive for every day. Life can get incredibly hard and even the sweetest cities can be full of cruel, messed up, awful-ass stuff. I spent most of the day imagining what all these adults did for work, if they had a large circle of friends or felt rarely understood, and if they came to these conventions alone, which many of them seemed to. But no matter what they did every day, we were still all technically adults (with some adorable exceptions) who came to play make-believe for a day, and it made me wish so badly that I was legit into ponies.

(I tried to watch Friendship Is Magic before the con but I couldn't get into it.) But if there were a Buffy or a Veronica Mars convention in town, would I go and get dressed up and probably make my own costumes and props? Um, yes, of course, absolutely. Because I love to love things. And so did these people. I never once felt any kind of sexual vibe — quite the opposite, actually. I'd never felt less sexual pressure or weirdness, so it just made me feel like I was on some kind of sixth grade field trip full of lovable dorks.

Just before we left, I went into an empty room called the B-In Chill Room (TBH it took me a second to know what this meant), and found an unopened Valentine on the table. I wanted to open it even if it wasn't for me because I am a deeply curious person, so thankfully it read:

To: You

From: (I have no idea what was written here.)

Katia Temkin

It was just a simple card, with some stickers on it, intended for anyone who found it, in the hope that it would brighten someone's day.

And let me tell you. It worked. I fell in love with the person who made me that Valentine. Not because they did not aggressively send me dick pics on Tinder — although that was a deciding factor — but because that person was a passionate, thoughtful, and kindhearted person. Who also happened to dress like children's toys in public.

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Lane Moore Sex & Relationships Editor I'm Lane Moore, sex & relationships editor at Cosmopolitan.com.

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