Nine years, huh? Neat.

Like so many, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic fell into my lap when I was in a place of need. Gary Chapman talks about us having a “love tank” that, when filled with appropriate nurturing and intimacy, helps us to develop and operate effectively in life. And in early 2015, I was without by a large margin due to choices of my own just one year prior, made consciously no less. I navigated life both bearing the weight of guilt, and the absence of love.

A friend of mine introduced me to MLP:FiM on a whim in late January of that year, and a week after our visit, I picked it up on my own to continue. I had watched a number of television series’ and movies over the course of my life (at the time, I was 24), and many of my favorites were animated. But I had never in my life found so much love and connection with a show until this one, and I had to discover what sort of content existed online.

That’s when I discovered Tumblr, DeviantArt, and most importantly for me, Fimfiction. I learned about all the artwork fans created for these canon characters for whom I now cared, and the existence of original characters made for non-canon stories, drawn or written. And it was the latter which helped me feel comfortable enough to chase an idea that had already been forming in my head – one which another friend inadvertently furthered by drawing me an OC for the fun of it.

Not even a full week after that, I wrote the first few chapters of my OCs story, Nighttide Star. It went on to both be the platform upon which I would ply my long-dormant desire to write an original story, and the one which I most used to develop my skills (boy, was it a shaky process). I fell in love with this original creation and finally went on to create both a character and a story which fulfilled that desire within to write something original and express myself through a medium which I had longed to do so for many years.

It wasn’t long before I started writing stories for the canon characters which I had grown to love, and suddenly, I was the happiest I had ever been in my adult life. I found my creative outlet, and I was fulfilled. I spent the rest of the year writing content and enjoying the snot out of it, until one day, the desire finally felt complete, and much to my surprise, I was done with writing. I thought it would be something which would remain with me as a lifelong hobby now that I had discovered an outlet, but for some reason, by the start of 2016, I was good to step away from writing indefinitely. It was hard to embrace that point at first since I still had ideas I wanted / was actively chasing, but once I started becoming frustrated with the writing I was trying to force myself to complete, I pulled out before I grew to resent it.

And then chased drawing!

It wasn’t a passion of mine, but visual art was something I had appreciated for many years, and it was now something which I actively “consumed,” I guess you could say? Not sure the right way to word being a patron of online art, haha. But I looked up art all the time and loved sifting through the Drawfriends that posted daily on Equestria Daily. So I tried my hand at it for a year… and very much hated it! :P

Eventually, I had exhausted my desire to express myself through creative outlets, and switched gears to just being a patron (we’re going with that now) of the show and all the created content of fans. For a time.

Enter faline-art, someone who I knew personally at the time, and who was experienced in drawing. We reestablished contact after an absence, and I introduced them to the show. When they showed me some of the drawings they made, I absolutely flipped at the quality of the work. And once we began pursuing a relationship together, I offered them to try my Wacom Intuos Pro – their first attempt at digital art. The rest is history – but history through which I fawned over the created work of someone close to me, and works which I could see being actively created in-person, rather than just on a livestream or speedpaint.

I can’t say it enough. My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic impacted my life in nothing but a positive manner, and the fans who I have met and interacted with over the years, plus theirs and so many others’ created content, has poured so much love into my “love tank” that I am fulfilled in a way which I had no idea how to become prior to discovering the show. And that fulfillment helps me to push forward in life, and strive for the things I both need and want to make it one worth living.

Thank you, to the writers, animators, voice actors, and all members of the team, past and present, who have created the show.

Thank you, to the writers, animators, voice actors, and all members of the fandom, past and present, who have created original content for the universe.

And thank you reader, for reading my story. It’s just one out of many, many thousands of stories of people who have been impacted positively by the show and its community. I am thankful, for like many fandoms, there have been toxic persons and content that existed solely to inflict harm and damage on others. But I never did encounter much of it, and that's pretty awesome. Mine was a strictly positive experience, and such is the case for the vast majority of those who would call themselves bronies or fans like myself.

If you’re reading this sometime in the future and are not familiar with the show or fan content, give it a look? All you have to lose is some time watching an episode or two, and perhaps perusing some art or stories online. If you don’t like what you find, no sweat! But if you do…

Neat.

Have a good one, reader.