HAPPY 10 YEAR ANNIVERSARY

Ten years ago, I was going through a dark time in my life. I had just finished college, but it wound up being such a miserable experience for me, especially toward the end. To make matters worse, I was struggling to get a job, so even just getting a livable wage let alone any wage just seemed untenable at the time. I was in a rut to say the least.

Then one fateful day, I was surprised to learn that my sister was into a show called My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. The show’s first season had been going on for a couple of months at that point. Like most people, I initially thought it would be like that cheesy show from the 80’s, but when I checked out the first episode, it didn’t take long before I became a brony.

For the past 10 years, the show has been a consistent source of comfort and inspiration for me. I know I haven’t written much pony fanfiction for a while (life gets in the way), but I still followed the show till its tearjerker ending, and even to this day, I would check out the art from Equestria Daily and occasionally write blogs on my account.

If I have to sum up what made the show so successful, it's the fact that it had a large cast of loveable character, an imaginative world to explore, heartwarming messages about friendship, great humor, really fun art direction and animation, catchy songs, and an online community willing to add to and share this wonderful show. It truly was a lightning in a bottle show (Or should I say rainbow in a bottle? ) that I doubt could ever be duplicated.

Looking back, it truly was an amazing run, more so than I was expecting when I saw the first episode. This show ran for a total of 9 seasons, 222 episodes (228 if you count the clip show episodes), 1 theatrically released movie, 2 direct-to-video movies, two spin-off series, and several shorts, comics, novels, and other media, making Friendship Is Magic the most successful TV show based off of a Hasbro property (unless you count the recently acquired Power Rangers). MLP:FiM was such a wild ride, and I am eternally thankful I got to be a part of it.

Let us give thanks to Hasbro for producing this show, to the hard working writers who kept the stories evolving, to the talented voice actors who brought the characters to life, to the hardworking animators who showed that Flash can produce some gorgeous animation, to everyone behind the scenes who helped in their own small ways, and to the fans who helped spread the love around.

Ten years later, and we’re all still going strong.