Speaking of cruel reality, apparently there are some people who are making pony tulpas; a tulpa being a sort of customized split personality that you can trick your mind into perceiving as a real-world being (or to put it more simply; create a character in your mind and (for lack of a better word) "pretend" it's sitting next to you)
Quite honestly the whole concept creeps me out (especially the apparent risks, such as the tulpa taking control of you) and I have too little of a grip on reality as it is to be fooling around with something like that