2011 classics—let's have 'em! · 8:24pm May 9th, 2014
Well, I won't do that again.
I just emerged from over six months of graveyard work. For my international readers, that means the shift started in the late evening. Too much of it is bad for your health and sanity, and breeds indifference. My house became filthy, my social life dwindled, and I went into semi-retirement from ponies.
I spent most of 2013, and the first few months of this year, in an evil mood—sometimes lashing out for stupid reasons, and rarely writing anything. I spent as much time drafting unpublished resignation letters as writing anything constructive. I felt like I was in a bad relationship—wanting to leave, but psychologically unable to.
Now, I feel better than I have in ages. I want to return to the fold, and this time I don't want to invoke anger in myself or others. I want to make friends, and create things, and help people with their creations. But first I need a jump-start.
I'm looking for the same magic I knew in 2011, when this pony business was all fresh and new. Remember when we only had one season? Remember when it seemed nothing could stop the fandom's rise? Remember when grimdark ponies were a really big thing? Remember when you could count the number of halfway-decent Human stories on one hand? Remember when iamnotacleverpony and iBringDaLulz were still making music?
Hey, it's the 21st century; you're allowed to be nostalgic for stuff that happened only three years ago.
So let's do a little show-and-tell. I would like to know what specific creations you loved in the early days. Art, artists, comics, stories, videos, tumblrs—everything. List as many as you want. Nothing is too small. If you weren't here in 2011, post the things that got you into ponies.
For example, this is the big one for me:
Imagine watching this while knowing nothing about ponies. When I saw it, they instantly had me in their clutches, though I didn't know it yet.
Thanks in advance! Be well, friends.
I'd have to say the thing that really got me into the fandom was A Cup of Joe. I made an account specifically to favorite that story, and being in the fandom is the main reason I'm still into poni. I'm actually terrible at keeping up with television, so even the best of shows get slowly pushed aside. Were it not for the fandom, I more than likely would have dropped off before season 3 started.
I joined in early 2012. I actually didn't read much fanfiction when I first came into the fandom - I had to ease into that. Mostly, it was the music at first. People like WoodenToaster, PinkiePieSwear, JackleApp, SoGreatandPowerful (who was probably my favorite), and sooooo many others. I still have a pretty substantial pony playlist on my iPod, and listen to it on a regular basis. Few things do more to bring the feeling of those early days back.
One of the first fanfics I read was Fallout Equestria, which really impressed me. Later that year, I came across Background Pony, which probably remains my favorite pony fanfic. There were a lot of others, of course. I didn't actually start reading your stuff until relatively recently (
).
My early days in the fandom were really special. Over time, it's changed. The honeymoon period has ended, which is only natural. And then there's drama and so forth, which kind of mucks things up. But you know what? I still love this fandom. I still follow fan content on a daily basis, and enjoy it immensely. In my experience, this fandom (and I'm sure it applies to plenty of other things too) is only as fun as you let it be. There's so much cynicism and complaining these days, and it really feels, more than anything, that such people have really lost the will to just have fun. They overcomplicate things, take everything so seriously, and sour their own experience.
Reacquainting ourselves with that initial spark could probably do wonders. One thing's for certain, though. I don't plan on going anywhere anytime soon.
A Dangerous Business is the one that really got me into mlp fiction. There were other great fics that unfortunately never went anywhere at the time, but this one was one that kept goin'. There was also A World Without Rainbows and The Night that Never Ended, since I was always looking for great AU fics. And the Luna Vs (aka Progress) series I think one of the first fics I read, that one had a huge impact on me. And I have read Thessalonica, it was such a good one. Set a nice standard for HiE for me. A standard you broke BTW!
And Ballad of Twilight Sparkle got me into shipping
Jumped into making fanfics almost as soon as I accepted that I liked ponies. I've been doing it a few years with other fandoms (StarCraft, SaTAM, things like that) so it wasn't that big a shift for me. But I hadn't written anything for years before picking up the keyboard and typing out an alt. ending to Cupcakes. Ponies got me writing again. That may or may not be a good thing ...
As to what I liked in ye olde days, well, Niggerfaggot has always been my favorite - the artist not the insults. Sure, he does R34 and all but his non-porn stuff is still really good. Very show-true in my opinion. Other than him, I loved FOE because of how well everything fit together annnnd ... that's about it. I like Thessalonica Legacy and there are a ton of older fics on my Read Later/Favorites list but nothing really leaps out at me as something I loved from the early days of the fandom. Not big into the club music scene, not huge into dupstep, not really a big artist watcher ... though going to EqD and reading their fanfiction list and such sticks out in my memory. Trying to find those gems in the pile of AiE (author in Equestria). Yelling at GDocs when it went down in the middle of a story ... ah, the good old days before fimfiction made it easy to put out pony fics.
I started watching the show in Winter 2011, so these'll probably be from around that time period.
Songs/Videos:
The only memorable image for me:
fimfiction-static.net/images/story_images/106075.jpg?1369501374
Stories I liked a lot:
Anonymous -- Bubbles
Jetfire -- It's a Dangerous Business, Going Out Your Door
Kkat -- Fallout: Equestria
Thanqol -- Yours Truly
George Pollock Jr. -- Tales
SaddlesoapOpera -- Pony Psychology Series
Somber -- Blood, Sweat and Tears
Somber -- Simply Rarity
WTFHIW -- Memories of Those Friends Who've Gone Before Us
Visiden Visidane -- Upheaval: Breaking Point
present perfect -- Dance 'Til We're High
Donnys Boy -- Not Unless You Mean It
Only somewhat a 2011 fic, but it's why I made a fimfiction account:
AbsoluteAnonymous -- The Games We Play
A lot of these don't give me the 2011/early 2012 vibe though. Here are some that do:
Jetfire -- A Day for Spike and Twilight
Jetfire -- The Sun Never Sets
Daetrin -- Off the Edge of the Map
kits -- Storm
kiyyik -- The Circle of Friends
SyrinKitty -- Common Sky
ROBCakeran53 -- My Little Dashie
SyrinKitty -- Lost in the Crowd
Cloudy Skies -- Building Bridges
Stories I never read, but remind me of the time all the same:
CRISIS: Equestria
Paradise
Through the Eyes of Another Pony
Tales of the Winter Magic Academy
Special mention to A Rose is a Rose by spacebrony, which no longer exists.
The show still does it best though:
(Notably tagged under Autos and Vehicles
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/entertainment/253634-my-little-pony-friendship-is-magic was a big one for me.
Other big 2011 stuff I liked was Princess Molly, JohnJoseco's grimdark art, Eurobeat's Discord, Flutterwonder, and working on Repercussions.
Beyond that, I enjoyed Winter Wrap Up, At the Gala, Sonic Rainboom, Cutie Mark Chronicles, and the first five episodes of season 2.
Something that really seemed huge to me was Borsuq Rebirth of the Damned.
I was all new to reading fanfiction, so to read a crossover with a game series that I was nostalic towards was huge to me. Now, I'm one of his proofreaders and keep finding flaws. It's not as clear a read, but it's still good. :3
I finished my service in the FDF in January of 2011. Pretty much the first thing I did was to check the happenings around the internets, and that way I discovered the glory that is pony. But the fandom really got me by the balls with The Descendant's, A Cup of Joe and Fallout Equestria.
I loved that one back in the day. Although I guess it's from 2012. But it's still great!
Edit: dang, somebody else already posted it. Oh well!
I was already:
Writing Half the Day is Night when I stumbled across this one, so I know it's gotta be from 2011. The combination of Pony and Spike Jones makes it my favorite pony video to this day.
Mike
I was leading a brony hate group during the beginning of 2011. I guess, in a way, I've actually been influencing the brony movement since the beginning. Of course, we just said "ponyfags" instead of "bronies".
If I could travel back in time, I would slap the shit out of myself. I'm so glad I'm different now, but it's too bad that it took over three years for me to pull my head out of my ass and change for the better.
I hate to be cliché, but ... FOE got me into this. I know there is a lot of mixed feelings about it these days ( even though it has an utterly massive fandom), but back then I thought it was the cats pajama's, simply because it offered something the show didn't:
Darkness.
The Show was fine an all, but it was altogether far to cheery for my dour personality, oh sure it was nice to help lighten the mood, but asides from good animation, and good storylines and morals, I personally wasn't all that fussed about it. It's mainly been the fandom which has gotten me into this, not the actual show because it offered some form of turmoil and depth. Of course this was years ago and the shows grown on me a bit since then, but I still remember waiting with bated breath for the next FOE chapter in 2011.
The other thing that dominated it was a huge scale fanfiction piece that I was in the midst of creating during the first season, which had Zeerust and Ray-gun gothic pouring out the sides. I never actually managed to get it going, but I still have a lot of the ideas and frankly the show hasn't deviated enough from to make it unfitting three years later. One day I am considering resurrecting it, simply because I still think the idea is too good to leave in the gutter.
This video. Saw it about 9 months before I even discovered how huge MLP was on the internet. And it still holds up. ^^
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Thanks muchly, everyone!
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I know, right? I'm kicking myself over how long it took me to remember that.
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A-ha! I was having trouble tracking some of these down! Thanks!
Yes, as I recently found out. This was just as I was finally getting around to reading it. You'd think someone would have saved it. I promise you, if I ever leave, I won't take my creations with me.
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Appropriately enough, that same story is another one I've been meaning to read for about three years. Onto the list it goes.
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That's a common enough thing. I remember when we always used to say "Welcome to the herd". Ah, that takes me back.
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It's funny, isn't it, how well such cheery settings and characters lend themselves to dark interpretations? Early Dark works like FO:E, and a lot of the fan art, and even Cupcakes, paved the way for large parts of this fandom's culture... including our respective stories.
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I have an html and a microsoft word version of it. I can pm you a copy if you would like.
I'm glad to hear that.
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I grow nostalgic for our Skype days.
2011: Giantitp, my homepage and the website I spend much of my free time on, alongside this and YouTube, I started seeing pony avatars. I didn't take much notice, because I stay down in the free-form roleplaying section. 2011-2012: Several pony freeform universes popped up in the free-form roleplaying section. I shrugged, and carried on my way in the Nexus. December, 2012, I notice one. By that time, it was quite old, and called Fallout: Equestria. Finally intrigued, I start investigating the others and seriously researching them. I thought they were a bunch of weirdoes, watching a show for little girls, but back when my sister was reading Twilight (the story, not the pony) she told me that I should either shut up and stop criticising, or read the books. I chose the former for Twilight (the story, not the pony), as I'd heard little good about it and romance isn't really my thing anyway. MLP, I chose the latter, as I'd heard lots of good, I had an hour of free time and nothing better to do. I stayed up very late that night, watching half season 1. I watched several episodes for the next few nights, slowing down during season two. Then I read Fallout: Equestria, and joined that universe in the Free-Form Roleplaying section, was directed to several FO:E side stories, one by a chap named Lycan 01, who also writes A Dash of Apple, the first non-dark ponyfic I read. It might have been the first non-FO:E fic I read, but I might have read Cupcakes first- I can't remember. I made my account in January 2013 to stop pony from dominating my Favourites bar. So FO:E brought me into pony, but AppleDash shipping introduced me to the whole variety of pony fics.
I still read a lot of dark fics, and Fallout: Equestra fics, but now they're liberally mixed with a lot of lighter works. I was introduced to your work via The Writing On The Wall, when it went into the Ponyfic Vault, and I commented upon it at the time. I don't comment often, as I don't write myself and I don't feel comfortable critiquing anyway.
I heard about some pony show in late 2011, and watched the first few episodes. I didn't really like it, and forgot all about it.
Most of a year later, in late summer 2012, I followed a link to a fanfic here from a tvtropes page. I read it, I liked it, and I found some more on the featured box (which was, at the time, on top of every page) that I liked. In September I registered an account because my usual method of tracking pages I want to visit later--opening them in new tabs and killing the tab--was getting excessively unwieldy, so I registered to get a read later list. And...well, the world of pony fanfic sucked me in. I think All-American Girl was a big part of that (it may even have been the story linked from tvtropes), because it was very accessible without knowing much about pony, and I really wanted to see more of some of the characters (it also had a lot to do with my initial hatred of Rarity). I also think that My Little Denarians and the Dresden Fillies were a big part of drawing me in (I was getting hyped for Cold Days and really wanted more Dresden).
I still don't care for the show that much. Something about it is hard to watch. I watch the big game-changing episodes, and if there's a specific reference I want to understand I'll go watch that episode, but I think that there are still more episodes that I haven't seen then episodes that I have seen (this is why, while I am willing to proofread, I am not willing to do editing (or write my own fics)). I came for the fanfic, and I'm staying for the fanfic.
2095568 I was shown this video by a dude called Galactus on the asoiaf forums.
Curse you Galactus. What have I become.
I saw Wolokai's "Don't Go Outside..." and I instantly fell in love with his dark and twisted world.
I then read "Beleiving Stories" by TypewriterError before it was rewritten and before she made the alternate version. It was in its pure, original form. It wasn't the best work out there, but it's the story that made me create an account to follow it.
It's been over two years now, and I can't help but feel that sense of longing for the simpler times in the fandom.
Though I realize that it's only going to continue to get better and better. And that makes me happy.