Many people called this war the "Fandom War", other's called it the "Week-long War", and others called it the " Fandom Civil War".

But to those of us who not only were there but also took part of it, we simply call it the "Brony/ Tribute Conflict". And it's not how the media says, where a publicity stunt had gone wrong and had caused the whole conflict, which did last a week long. But in reality, we fed them that because the truth would have brought the entire Tribute fandom into question about whether they were real fans or secretly a terrorists nest.

As for me?.... Well, I can say that though I participated in the event and have been hailed a "hero", I was just some Brony who had gone and one things that that most of the Military Bronies, we call them Soldier Bronies now, didn't want to either think about or even do. In fact, when the whole fandom began to fight back, it was maybe a day or two later.

And it all started when the convention started up, around the time that things seemed to get tense.

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I calmly walked along the sidewalk in my Star Wars jacket as I tried to find the convention on foot. It was my first Brony-related convention ever and I was both excited and nervous at the same time. I walked through the occasional throng of people as I turned a corner and across the way from a park, I could see the building that the huge convention was taking place at. In fact, the only people even allowed in it were people who were part of the convention and as I began to make my way through the park, I watched as I could see several Cosplayers from multiple fandoms walking through the park next to normal fans. I quickly made my way as my hands went into my jeans pocket and it rubbed the ticket I had previously bought online. As much as I could have bought it at the doorway, I  preferred not to wait and, besides, I just wanted to have some nice fun. The website said it would last an entire week, which surprised me because usually conventions lasted no more than a day or two, so it was very strange.

I passed some fans of the Doctor Who fandom and as they waved to me, I kindly waved back but continued along my path. The breeze from the wind was cool on my skin as I walked along and just as I got near the street that lay between myself and the convention, I stopped to admire all of the Cosplayers lined up nearby, a mixture of Doctors, Star Wars characters, My Little Pony characters, Tribute characters, and so many more it was hard to count them all. I smiled as I looked both ways of the car-deserted street, out of pure instinct, before I briskly jogged over to the convention center just as a few people with sercurity badges stopped me.

I took out my ticket and showed them it and they looked at what looked like a long roster before they nodded and let me through. I smiled as I ascended the small flight of stairs and as I came to the doors, I could feel excitement and nervousness coursing equally through my veins. I went through the door and a world of noise and excitement nearly blasted me off my feet as I gazed upon the convention.

Banners of Fandoms hung from the steel-beam rafters and what could be described as districts were set up for each individual fandom. As much as I was a respected Brony, I was also a Star Wars fan and as I walked along, it wasn't hard to see either of the spots claimed by both fandoms. Cosplayers moved about as I tried to avoid bumping into people unexpectedly as I slowly made my way to the Brony fandom area. I saw all sorts of people there, as well as all sorts of Cosplays, and as I walked past some Cosplayers in Canterlot Guard outfits, I whistled as I saw a stage had been set up for what I assumed to be for the Cosplayers. I continued to look around as I saw some Bronies in military uniform and I gave them some respectable space as I went passed them and looked around the booths. There was mostly merchandise of stuffed animals and toys but a few had booths involving the movies and shows on DVD's, some showed off costumes for Cosplayers, and some booths showed off the individual groups that formed the Bronies, like the Military Bronies.

I calmly walked around as I wondered what to do first when someone tapped my shoulder and asked, "Excuse me, are you lost?"

I turned around to see a boy maybe my age, with black hair and blues eyes and wearing jeans and a Brony shirt, and I simply said to him, "No, just first time to a Brony convention. I just don't know what exactly to do, considering I've usually been accompanied with my parents to other conventions."

The boy grinned as he said, "Well, then let me accompany you around here. I've been to a few of these before so I can help you out some. By the way, if you want, you can just call me by my username, Xx_Opalrekt6721_xX or OpalRekt for short."

I almost laughed at the username and he saw me grin as he said, "Yeah, its a stupid name. But what's yours?"

"Mine? I use two of them for my Brony stuff. I go by either KommandoStalker or Kommadno293." I said to him.

He laughed his butt off as he looked at me and said, "CommandoStalker? What sort of stupid name is that?"

"Its with a K, not a C. And Stalker comes from a video game, respectively." I told him as he settled down.

"Well, at we know we're gonna have fun together. Between the two of us, though, you're gonna get looked at much more weirdly." OpalRekt said with a small laugh as he soon steered me from where I was as we began to tour the Brony area.

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After many hours of walking around not only the Brony section of the convention but also of the other sections, myself and Opalrekt came back to the Brony section as it seemed to me that announcements for what was going to happen throughout the week were about to be told to all of the fandoms by the fandoms individual leaders. So, as we made our way through the throngs of fellow Bronies, I thought I saw some Tributes with some toy weapons moving near the stage but I soon lost sight of the figures as people began to clap and a person came onto the stage.

"Bronies and Pegasisters!" The audience roared in reply and the speaker let it die down before he continued.

"Today, we stand upon the greatest convention ever done from any of the fandoms. Tomorrow, we will begin a march that will loop around the city, stopping at special marked buildings, as we spread love and joy to the people in the city."

"Dude, this could be awesome! I wonder if we try to join FOB Equestria if we'll be given military uniforms?" Opalrekt said next to me and I merely chuckled at that as I muttered to him, "Um, I think we need to be actually in the military, as reserve or active, before we can be even considered to become FOB Equestria."

"Tomorrow, we shall all meet here at 6:00 a.m. as the other fandoms ready themselves before us. We have humbled ourselves and have decided to take the end of the line. We ask all Cosplayers, even if its just casual, to please come and march at the sides or the front. We will have the whole street to use so lets not get pushy with each other. When we come tot he first checkpoint base, we will stop and rest for a short bit before we move onto our next place to stay. More instructions will be given as we begin the event."

Just then, everyone heard very loud, audible click! and I was about to see if I could see what had happened when I saw something round fly up on stage. And as the object hits the stage, the person on it looks down at the spherical object and as the heart beats in my chest seem to go on forever, I hear the man begin to say, "What the-" before there was a blinding light and the most deafening noise I have heard as what must've been some sort of grenade went off and as I crumpled to the ground, cupping my ears, I didn't know what was going on. I was dimly aware of Opal next to me and as he got up, he dragged me up too and as we looked around at the chaos that was unfolding around us, we both knew that if we didn't move ourselves, we may die here to whatever war was happening.

And so, we ran.

              ****  ****

We ran as fast and as hard as we could straight out of the convention and as I looked back, all I saw were people of every fandom running to and fro, scared as we were and just as clueless at what was going on. We ran into the park and as we did, we would occasionally come across people who had hunkered down beneath the tree's and pavilions that dotted the large park. We ran out of the park till we came to an apartment complex and as we entered it, we hunkered down by the door and we sat there, panting and breathing heavily as we looked outside.

"What was that? Was that a grenade that blew up on the stage?" He asked me as I kept my eyes directed outside.

"It looked like it... Better question is why it happened at all? Are the Tributes trying to do a publicity stunt? Are they  trying to gain more people in their fandom? Or did something go wrong?" My mouth spat those out as I wiped a trail of spittle off my mouth.

"What do we do?" He asked me.

"We wait till tomorrow morning... find out what's going on..... Lets just hope its not a real war that they're planning to start...."