As this year ends, I look back on bronies... · 11:02pm Dec 27th, 2013
WARNING: VERY LONG POST FULL OF NOSTALGIA AND RANDOM LINKS AHEAD
Looking back on the two-odd years I've been a brony, and with 2014 coming up, as well as that darn Equestria Daily post with that awesome music video, it strikes me that so much has happened with the fandom. So much has changed and gone forward. So many things that I take for granted now used to be so new and so strange. I'm not saying I'm bored with the fandom—far from it. I think we're hitting the best years we'll ever have if our astounding creativity keeps up. But I feel driven to go back and look at some of the things that I saw and knew when the fandom was still young. I officially joined the herd back in... oh, I think it was February 2011, a few months after the show actually aired, and about right when Equestria Daily was just getting off the ground.
It started in January, in an IRC chat room I shared with some friends of mine back then. It was a day like any other, with all the geeky insanity that a bunch of bored guys with sci-fi and fantasy leaning tastes can come up with. Then, one of them made the fateful announcement: he'd discovered that there had been a revival of My Little Pony, and was linking it to us to enjoy what horrors would unfold from yet another iteration of a silly little girl's cartoon.
I clicked the link. I watched the season premiere. I laughed at it, figured "Well, this wasn't as bad as I thought it might be." I made fun of it like a good manly man. But at the the back of my mind, I knew something was happening. Something I couldn't ignore and, in my private time, wouldn't ignore. Something that I knew from the moment I saw Twilight Sparkle hilariously abusing Spike, and doing her best not to make friends with her colorful, well-animated, vivacious, and not at all totally annoying like other pony shows' characters. I didn't just not hate it. I actually liked it. I kept watching, every single episode, chugging through the week all the way up to Call of the Cutie, which I'm pretty fairly sure was the latest episode to have arrived. I hit the fandom running. I started talking to my friends about it, proudly announcing (well, maybe not proudly) that I was and will remain a fan of My Little Pony, and hey, you should watch it too because this isn't just not bad, it's GOOD!
I'm sure most of us 'oldsters', and I use that term very lightly, still remember when Equestria Daily just got started. As I said, I was pretty sure this was just a good show. When I saw Equestria Daily, I wasn't just surprised. I was astounded. Other people were out there. Other people were enjoying this show just as much as I was. I found EQD in the last days of January and on into February, the month I really revved up my love for pony. Back then I think we were all still amazed that any of us even liked the show. EQD was still doing rinky-dink announcement posts, slapping up fanfiction with almost no content filters, even just straight up linking to screen-capped walls of text straight off 4chan.
Ah, 4chan. Even before the pony fandom I was familiar with that place through some friends who went there every so often, and I watched with heady amusement as the brony fandom slowly evolved from "lol I like ponies" to "Hey, the fact that I like ponies can actually say something about me as a man and as a person in general."
I was there when these were first posted.
Applejack's Tail (and accompanying slightly saucy picture)
The Elder Scrolls VI: Equestria
Pinkie Pie Corridor of Cupcakes
A precursor to Anthology videos, perhaps?
Night of Pony PMV (super crazy)
I remember when pop culture at large finally began to acknowledge us, tried to puzzle us out, and often mocked us.
I remember when that one dude did a physics presentation using ponies, too.
I remember when 4chan was exploding daily, with pony users insisting that this was a new fandom to be respected and 4chan was saying "NEVER!!!!111"
I also remember when this post happened: 4chan creates a pony board
By then, though, the fandom had already become what it is today: unstoppable and irreplaceable. Back to 2011...
The fanfiction! THE FANFICTION. Sweet Celestia's pretty white plot did I love the fanfiction! Anyone remember when this was the only way to find stories on EQD, complete with star ratings that everyone coveted so much?
Equestria Daily's Old Story Archive
I still remember trawling that thing day and night, day and night... devouring new chapters of Fallout: Equestria as they came, and being so proud of myself when my very, very first pony fic showed up on that list. That's right my followers, here now is a real relic of my fic archive, the very first and extremely incomplete story I ever wrote for the fandom. All two chapters of it.
And who could forget this little gem: It's A Dangerous Business Going Out Your Door
I remember when this first popped up and really stirred the cup of my imagination: Hlissner's Map of Equestria and the World Beyond
Those two baubles of pony history, above all else, are what got me convinced that pony wasn't just cool, new, or fun—it could be absolutely mind-blowingly epic.
I remember the stories that affected me and made me believe that pony could be devastatingly emotional and thoughtful: Ships That Pass in the Night
Tales (Still one of the best Twilight Sparkle stories ever)
I remember when FIM Fic first came out, but everyone still wanted to get that 6-star on Equestria Daily. I remember when FIM Fic started exploding in popularity, and there was a little picture of Trixie in the corner that said things when you clicked on her.
All this and more, convincing me that bronies are not just fans, but a phenomenon. So much creativity, devotion, and high spirits packed into one group of people. So many great PMVs, so many incredible stories, so many songs that will stay stuck in my head forever, and so many words of friendship passed between us at cons and meetups. I also want to thank Andrew Joshua Talon for actually being the one brony I've met up with so far in real life! Thanks for the fun talks, Andrew, and don't stop writing.
Guys, it's been a loony, odd, and sometimes kinda scary ride. But I have been changed for the better because of this show, and all the people I've met since becoming a fan. All you people in Seattle's Angels. Whatever pre-reader decided to accept A Far Gone Sun. All my friends who joined me for the ride and didn't look back.
Thank you all. Every year has been fun so far, Derpy Hooves debacle and Twilicorn drama notwithstanding, and I hope that we only keep growing, learning, and making friends in the years ahead.
As for why I made this huge and pointless post, I blame sleep deprivation, lack of judgement, the heat of the moment, and George Orwell's 1984.
I also blame it on the ponies.
As a similar 'oldster', it's scary how similar my story is to yours.
A series of escalating dares leading to reading, writing and flourishing in Fic.
I also recently have been 'coming out' to friends as a Fic reader.
A long strange ride, indeed.
<3
Also: I regret nothing. Pony is an absolute good
Here here!