Year Zero

My first My Little Pony anniversary occurred several months ago actually. I've been struggling to write something with significant gravitas to do (what I feel is) the appropriate amount of justice for such an occasion. Since I am now notably tardy I'm just going to wing it and see what happens.

My entry into the fandom was rather gradual. I was first made aware of it back in February 2011 when I ran across screenshots from some imageboard forum commenting on a screenshot from Running Of The Leaves. I was intrigued enough to dig a little deeper and almost immediately stumbled across the Derpy sensation. At the time I was busy with life and other things, and actually actively decided to not dig any deeper - I could feel the draw, feel the potential this show had to suck in the lives of people. Eventually I caved. Sometime in May or June 2011 I sat down and watched the whole first season on YouTube. I started reading Equestria Daily daily. I moonlighted on ponychan.net and fim.413chan.net. ED reintroduced me to fan fiction (something I hadn't given any thought to since my Tomb Raider days) and that lead me to Fanfiction.net and, eventually, here. ED drawfriends feature started highlighting community artists and suddenly I was following them on DeviantArt. Someone there linked me to Ask Pinkamena Diane Pie on tumblr and a whole other world opened up.

But nothing lasts forever. For starters, there is simply too much. When I got into it, ponies were still relatively novel. Tumblr was this strange new thing, Crooked Trees was still running his infamous ask blog. I was downright starved for poni. Now I'm personally tracking over one thousand artists, in twenty one weeks I've read over 2.8 million words on this site alone, and my pony folder measures in the tens of gigabytes. What was new, fresh, and exciting has become dull and routine. Spending all my free time with pony is too much pony.
But also the community has changed. With vast size increase comes targeted, niche interests, sure, but also alienation. It's not unlike living in a huge city instead of a small town. And some days it seems like all the cute and adaaawable has been drawn or written. You've seen ten pictures of DerpyXMuffin OTP, you've seen them all.
I'm not going anywhere of course. I've met some interesting people, and seen some great works. I'll be around, I just won't be spending all my time ponying it up now. It breaks my heart because I know I'll miss some good stuff, but that's life. I can't be everywhere at once, despite my sincerest efforts.
And eventually this fandom will fade. The last episode will air (maybe next season - it's only 13 episodes long after all, not 26), the fan base will dwindle, Bonycon will be shuttered, and tumblr blogs will fade into obscurity and/or vanish (if tumblr itself doesn't go under). Tara Strong and Lauren Faust (and others, of course) will be guests of honor at nerd cons well into their twilight (pun intended) years, I'm sure.

And I'm sure there will be moments twenty years down the road when I'll be browsing some forgotten corner of the web and I'll stumble across a G4 screen grab or something and I'll remember. I'll remember the excitement of new episodes every Saturday, I'll remember the Derpy fiasco, I'll remember listening in awe to This Day Aria. I'll remember Cupcakes and Rainbow Factory, I'll remember LyraXBon Bon, and Rainbows Sonic Rainboom.
I could say something about 'if it's in our hearts it's never truly dead' but then I start sounding like a Hallmark card and I don't have medical insurance that covers that particular operation.

But all that is tomorrow, and this is today.

I hate picking favorites. Instead of pointing out my 'favorite' story I'm going to list ones that I find myself reflecting upon on a regular basis. In no particular order:

First up are Ditzy Doo's Dismally Derpy Day and Dinky Debates Dexterity, Destiny and Dinner by CLAVDIVS CAESAR which (along with another story I can't seem to find) informed my entire head canon regarding Miss Ditzy Doo.

Society of Pegasus Protectors by Sithicus deserves a mention.

Interview With a Princess by Hoopy McGee is a nice reversal of the Human In Equestria trope.
So is Arrow 18 Mission Logs: Lone Ranger by AdmiralTigerclaw.

More recently we have Background Pony by Short Skirts & Explosions. This guy. This [redacted] somehow busts out 20 thousand words a week and weaves an absolutely wonderful narrative in the process. I am both in awe and seething with envy at the same time.

Synchronicity by Sev is an epic read (and a bit saucy to boot).

Shipping and Handling by Pegasus Rescue Brigade is a cute and fun story that (I feel) nicely captures the happy-go-lucky feel of the show.

And finally there is Nightfall at Sweet Apple Acres by midnightshadow. I've never finished Nightfall. Every time I read a chapter I spend half a month moping about afterwards. Just a big sap I guess.

Ciao.