On The Topic of the MLP Fandom.

Now that are eyes are dried from last night’s Series Finale, let’s take a look back on our fandom. There’ll a couple sections of this post. They are better known as ‘my experiences’, covering my experiences with MLP, and ‘the fandom’s inspiration’, covering the fandom’s inspiration for being as good as they are today.

I’m sure someone has done this already, but now you get my view.

My Experiences

So, I used to be that one guy. That person who criticized bronies back when they were the butt of every joke, better known as 2013. My friends and I even came up with a derogatory reimagining of the MLP theme song. It went like,”My Little Pony, short, fat, and bony, tripped on a wire, fell into a fire, and now she’s dead, yay!”

Not my brightest days.

So, what happened?

Well, a year and a half ago, TVTropes happened. I was just browsing some comedic tropes and thought,You know what would be funny, if I checked the My Little Pony section in the Western Animation section, just for kicks and giggles, you know. Yes, it sounds silly, but you don’t know the things I do when I’m bored. For some reason, working on my stories isn’t among them.

Well, it turns out that the show actually looked pretty funny.

So, I went onto a ‘Confess Something Random’ thread on the WoF Wikia, confessed that I was interested in seeing the show, and got overwhelming support.

It’s pretty clear what happened next.

In case that’s not obvious, I’m a huge brony now.

But, that’s not my experiences, now is it? What makes these ponies hold such a place in my heart? What’s so important?

Well, I’m inspired by this show now, my goal is to uphold the Elements of Harmony as much as I can. Ever since I saw that first episode, I wanted to be those ponies. Honestly, they probably made me a better person. I cannot live to see a person sad anymore, I try to teach the values of friendship as reassurance to others who believe they are bad friends. Before MLP, I didn’t help people as much, but I know everyone’s important now.

Anyways, that’s not where it ends. I have a ‘friendship bracelet’ of a sort with my 4 closest friends. What is it you say? I assigned them the Elements of Harmony to show how I think of them in my minds, along with what I believe their cutie marks would be.

I assigned myself Honesty, and I’m still trying to live up to Applejack’s example. My cutie mark: a pair of drumsticks, as drumming is the one time where I truly don’t feel like I’m wasting time until I die.

My best friend, who you can find by ‘CrazyInsaneGuy’ on the WoF wikia. He got Laughter, as he always has some joke just lying around to make my day that much better. His cutie mark: A pen, as he’s amazing at so much involving a pen. He can write and he can draw, though he won’t claim to be good at either pf those things. Although now, I’d probably assign him a computer terminal, as he’s the only guy I know who could code a Pokèmon game in Visual Basic.

My other best friend, who you were able to find on YouTube as ‘Channel E Games TV’, got Generosity, as every year he attended my last school, he brought in candy for everyone to eat around Christmas. His cutie mark was a pair of Switch controllers, as he’s so good at knowing all the obscure facts about Nintendo and he was good at playing video games. He’s a self-proclaimed brony now, so that’s something I can get behind.

The friend of mine who was the only brony in my friend group for a while, he got Loyalty. He’s almost loyal to a fault, and whenever something happened to us, he would make sure we were OK. His cutie mark was a PS4 controller, for the same reasons I listed for my friend above. This friend is notable because he, 5 years ago, upon me mentioning that I saw Pinkie Pride, asked me who my favorite character was. I said Spike, and now it’s Discord, but he’s been a brony for who knows how long, and it’s impressive that he’s still around.

Finally, a very special friend, my sister. She’s a little depressed, so I always try to brighten her day. She also got Loyalty. She’s also almost loyal to a fault, and always tries to stick with her friends, most of her broken friendships have her as the victim. She was a pegasister until Season 5, which I promptly remade her into upon the advent of the Season 8 hiatus. Her cutie mark was a pen writing a story, because she’s a really good writer, and her teachers say exactly that about her.

Each picture came with a Bible verse and a quote dealing with the element (my sister got a writing quote instead), and the pony’s cutie mark on the back with a quote they said that paralleled the element.

And all this pictures, my friends still have them. It’s the unofficial bond between us, and one thing that MLP has taught me, friendship isn’t luck, it’s destiny, and I can’t ask for better friends then these.

The Fandom Inspiration

It’s not news when I say that the fandom is amazing, and we truly believe that, to quote PrinceWhateverer,”We’re in this together!” So, why are we so tight-knit? What makes us ‘bros’?

Well, the show probably has something to do with it.

MLP drove friendship into our minds so much my skull went numb, but the more it’s retaught, the more we embrace the magic of friendship. Therefore, we grow closer, and with every season, we grow closer still.

I’m not saying disputes and scummy bronies don’t happen, but I’m saying for the most part, that the MLP fandom are good peoples.

Another thing that may inspire us to be as good as we are, the crazy amount of mares in the series paved the way for shipping them together. Thus, we have so many accepting people in the fandom. We’e so accepting that we can hear about homosexual relationships, like Magpie Pony and The Lost Narrator, and not bat an eye. The same goes for the transgender folks such as Forest Rain and Viva Reverie.

Heck, it’s to the point where when LyraBon and Appledash became canon; at least for those who accepted the (fairly obvious) evidence, those who accepted the evidence rejoiced.

In short, this show’s incessant teaching of friendship has made us all take it to heart and imagine ourselves as a unit, as friends.

That’s how MLP touched us.