So, Season Five is coming soon.

Rest in peace, The Hub. There were good things on you other than just ponies.

As almost all of us know, Season Five is on the horizon. Furthermore, I haven’t made a blog post since October, something that I’ve never done on this site. My Little Pony has been a sugar rush - a fun one, but it cannot last forever. But I still believe that I can stick around for longer if I stop playing TF2 for every ounce of my free time. That game’s really been taking the spotlight of my free time recently, and even managed to eclipse Halo for a few weeks straight. Forza Motorsport is almost irrelevant to me now.

I remember that fateful day, but not like it was yesterday. I started getting into Death Battle a few days before that and I truly can say I had no idea what Rainbow Dash was when I clicked that thumbnail - I didn’t really recognize her as a pony there. The thing was though, I really had next to no idea about what to expect from MLP, I didn’t pay any attention to the commercials when I was little, and I hadn’t really watched TV recently in general. Needless to say, I was shocked and curious upon watching Rainbow Dash’s victory and analysis.

From then on, I did some digging. I was far more open-minded than I thought I would have been. I spent a good chunk of my free time digging through the wiki and looking through all that I could. For starters, the art style was far less ‘girly’ then I thought it would be—it was vibrant and colorful but its palette extended far beyond pink and a few other colors. The transcripts didn’t look half bad either. A detail that I remember is that the current episode back then was ‘Hearts and Hooves Day’ Then I heard discussion of ‘My Little Dashie’ on Rainbow Dash’s page.

To be honest, I thought it was a comic at first.

I searched it up, and clicked on the first two links - Equestria Daily and this site. Equestria Daily never really loaded in comparison. I spent the next few minutes digging through all the MLD sequels, spin-offs, etc. Once I got to the story, I procrastinated for a while reading through it. I will be embarrassed to say - I cried. Now, hundreds or even thousands of stories read later, it feels like bland wish fulfilment to me.

Afterwards, I went through the site a bit more. When I saw Shipping and Handling in the feature box, I thought,“Whatever,” and clicked on it. I spent the next two hours reading through it.

Keep in mind that I never saw the show by then.

At the start of Spring Break, I joined the site, and pushed out a few steaming piles of tar. The only one that’s still around to see is John-117 in Equestria. The rest is history.

About two weeks after joining, I decided to check out MLP for once. The day before, I listened to the theme song and it took about two seconds for me to crank the volume all the way down. My expectations were a bit shot. My fears were unfounded, I adored it. The animation was smooth, although it had a few hijinks mainly due to the use of Flash. The voice acting wasn’t half bad either, each character had their distinctive personality, and most of all back then - I loved that there was a legitimate plot that they actually focused on. I spent the next six days watching every bit of Season One - something that I thought would take me up to a month! Next, I watched through Season Two, at a slower pace.

Finally, I watched through A Canterlot Wedding and sat in quiet contemplation about what I had done. For starters, there were no more episodes for me to watch, secondly I had done something that my past self would have come to the future and compulsively slap me for - I had watched My Little Pony, and I enjoyed it. Yes, they weren’t half bad at all, but the dominant factor in my free time for the next two years had been decided.

Oh how I remember how I despised haters back then. I would take every chance I could to shut them down, and more often than not, I got no response. There was that reflex reaction of rage whenever I saw it. My earliest followers most definitely remember that. Then, there was a period where I felt as though the fandom was declining, the people steadily getting more and more hypocritical. It even got to the point where I didn’t even feel like calling myself a brony.

The main two catalysts for me to think so were Littlest Pet Shop and to an extent, Equestria Girls. Speaking of which, I only watched Rainbow Rocks recently - I enjoyed it but hey, I can’t tell if I’m getting back into the show or I was just bored and procrastinating. I can blame me drifting farther from the show due to getting into other things. Littlest Pet Shop didn’t last as long - all I know that Season 3 had a hiatus and I haven’t bothered to catch up. Gravity Falls has new episodes very infrequently, although the newest one will be in a few days. I can say that Gravity Falls is a better show than MLP in my opinion, but it just doesn’t feel the same watching it, as it does watching re-watching MLP. Then, came along Dan Vs. and I oh so adored it. Watching it truly offered a feeling of obsession that rivalled when I first watched MLP. I remember getting so worked up seeing Emily Ashby’s review on Common Sense Media rating it a one star. After that was Invader Zim, getting back into Pokemon, etc.

My opinion as of now? Being a brony doesn’t mean that gender barriers are broken, it doesn’t mean that you’re a special snowflake beyond the others, nor does it mean you’re enlightened. Bronies are a fandom like any other, and just as prone to bashing other things that may compete as any other. There was a time where I deluded myself into believing so. I look at the newer bronies, so fresh, optimistic, and obsessed. Despite such, it’s an experience that I’m pretty sure I’ll be latching onto for a while. When I look back at it all, first experiences, obsession, all I can say is that I still smile.

You asleep yet?

I'm still working on the Blazing Muzzles rewrite. It's called Emnity, and you may not even recognize it.