Colt Conversion: Going from Anti- to Pro- MLP

I am not sure if I'm quite a Brony. I was, in 2010, my Junior Year of High School, quite the misanthrope when it came to giving a new show its due. I grew up in a prominently Conservative family, and, despite my love of animation, I joked about the franchise that was and is My Little Pony for as long as I could remember. To be fair, it was saccharine and a bit over done for most of the previous generations. It wasn't strictly the femininity. I watched "The Powerpuff Girls" religiously, for one thing. But Ponies? No. Nuh-uh. Neigh, I say. Some of you are chuckling, some of you are groaning right about now. I apologize to no one for either! Neigh!

I heard the phrases "New My Little Pony" and "Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends" used in the same sentence from a friend who quickly became a Brony. I had a little sister who was 4 or 5 at the time, I loved "Foster's", and I am a big animation buff. I still didn't budge. I moaned with agitation whenever my little sister would have the show on. I didn't do anything to impede her viewing, but I did consider the show annoying for some time. I remember when my views shifted. It had to be 2012, because I remember the first time I actually sat down and watched an episode of MLP: FiM, while babysitting my little sister, and it was "Read It and Weep".

I remember the characters being familiar by sound, since I would hear them in another room while I avoided the TV, but when I could put a sound to a face, it was actually very captivating. The animation was so smooth, novel, and there was an actual narrative involved with a cartoon aimed at small children. I didn't fall in love, but I was certainly more open to not ragging on the show as much as I did.

For some time more, it remained completely off of my radar. Sometimes, my little sister would watch it, and I'd catch an odd episode here and there. I had yet to realize that MLP: FiM is a serialized show, and not episodic like SpongeBob Squarepants, for example. I'll get to this point later. But, to a large extent, the Bronies and I existed in completely different realms. I had respect for MLP, and that was it.

This past Christmas season, I took part in a forum's Secret Santa event, and something caught my eye. A user had signed up, and I recognized them as someone who had critiqued a past Pokemon Fan-Fiction with insightful editing and keen attention to detail that I'd never seen before in comments. The Writing section over on this forum is pretty dead. You're lucky if you get a comment at all, even with thousands of views. This person, whom I recognized, had requested that, if it were at all possible, the person who would be assigned to them write a Fan-fiction.

Back story! In this Secret Santa event, you can only exchange gifts through the internet. You write down your favorite things such as TV shows, Movies, Franchises, Music, etc, and whoever is assigned to be your Secret Santa gives you something based on what you put down. It has to be something you made, but it can be a story, a video, a piece of music; something that you can click on and access, and not something somebody would have to mail to your house. Inside categories, you'd list specific things you like. If you really liked something, you'd put it in bold, so "Santa" would be able to make an educated decision on what to pick to actually work on.

I already knew this user was a Brony. Their Avatar and Signature on a Kingdom Hearts Fan Forum gave them away. Bronies were still an enigma to me, as I couldn't understand why someone would devote so much time towards this show. I liked it, but, as I said, I wasn't yet enamored. Verified, "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic" was one of their bolded interests. I thought, "This is a good person. They are well-read, and I've seen them really put themselves out there for the benefit of other users. Whether or not I get this person, I want to get them that story, since they mentioned never receiving a story before in the event."

I got somebody else. Somebody who liked "Phineas & Ferb" and "Hunger Games", and so I decided to write a fanfiction that blended- you know what? Not on topic.

I wanted to doing something nice for this person. I was busy at work on the other Fan-fiction, but I made sure to let the Brony-in-question know that, regardless of circumstance, they were going to get a story. I figured: They get one story or two. So long as their actual designated Santa wouldn't feel bad, it was a no-lose situation.

Problems came up. The Secret Santa event came, went, and the recipient I was supposed to give my gift to vanished, and the Brony never got their story (To my knowledge). It was time to start work on my little fanfic. My little fanfic. Ah^Ahhh^Ahhhhh^Ahhhh And another problem came up before that: I had no clue about any of the characters. I'm meticulous about my writing. I have to know the characters in and out. I just knew one was smart, one was quiet, one was kind of a rebel, one was country, one was zany, and one was into fashion. Oh, and there was a dragon.

Luckily, Netflix HAD My Little Pony.* I started casually watching from Season 1 Episode 1 up just before American Thanksgiving, 2014. When I ACTUALLY was introduced to the characters, when I realized there was grand scheme of things in the show, and when everything started to click together: that's when I fell in love with the show completely. The why is another blog in itself.

That fanfic that I'm working on, posting it on that forum before mentioned, is the first of hopefully many more stories I'll be able to share with this community. I've finished watching the entire series just in time before Netflix's scheduled removal. I started writing the story early because the first removal date was in February and I wasn't even close to done watching. I was going to dive in, and hopefully piece everything together before finishing the whole story.

Oh! And I found this site thanks to darkponyD. They are also an MLP fan from the forum I mentioned, and, when I mentioned my recent arrival into fandom to them, they suggested their own fanfic. They linked me to this site, and I just had to join. So much structure. So many great-looking stories. And I'm glad to be here. I really am.

Post Script: For those wondering, I am not really quite as Conservative as I used to be. I was raised in an environment where Homosexuality wasn't just "sinful", it was a Mental Disease. Conservative isn't even the right word. The better term is "Right-Wing". My views changed as I got older. I became an actor, and being Homophobic while being an actor is not a very smart social nor career choice. I changed for the sake of my craft, but, ultimately, I changed in many ways just to become a better person. I can't really believe all fans of MLP: FiM are Liberal without exception. My aim is not to talk up or trash talk a political party of any sort. I just mean to say that the environment in which I was raised was one that influenced me --- not taught --- to, essentially, look down on the strange. But I grew to love the "strange".

Post Post Script: I still debate whether or not I am a full-blooded Brony, because I have no interest in "Merch". I want to get my little sister the remaining four stuffed Ponies she doesn't have... and maybe a Discord plush... but that's about it. I've watched both of the Brony-themed Documentaries on Netflix, and I may be a Brony purely based upon being one of the Creative types mentioned in "Bronies: The Extremely Unexpected Adult Fans of My Little Pony". It's something I feel the community would have to decide, even if the definition is as really simple as "An adult fan of MLP".

*I wrote "had", as, by the time this blog may be read in the near future, it may already be taken off.