MLP Finale and Thoughts at the End

So I literally just finished watching the MLP triple-header ending (mostly on YouTube, after Brony Network got spammed and suffered buffering issues), and I figured I'd talk about how I'm feeling now that it's all over. Yeah, I know there's one more movie, an Equestria Girls special, and the comics will be doing a Season 10 in the next few months, but the show itself is over how we know it.

It's a weird feeling to say the least. I started watching MLP all the way back in September 2011, after I heard about bronies both from my local bar's trivia game and Game Informer magazine (long story), then found all the episodes on the Game Informer Bronies forum. From there came the hour long car drive to see "Equestria Girls", the yearly sojourn to Baltimore for BronyCon, and my own life growing from high school all the way to my current state in graduate school. It's so strange thinking that something I started all the way back in tenth grade was here the whole time, or that something that managed to go so long is now over.

I think that's why I had an emotional reaction to this ending. Not the bombastic kind with lots of tears or laughing (anybody that knows me knows I don't get emotional that easily), but there was something there, something I've rarely felt when watching any MLP episode. A strange mixture of satisfaction, relief, and...not sadness so much as melancholy. Ponies were what pointed me in the direction my life is going now, focusing on writing and art instead of the lawyer job I was aiming for back when I started this Equestrian journey. In that way, I suppose it'll be with me for the rest of my life.

I could talk about my opinions about the finale as a whole in-depth and nitpick certain things, but all my issues are relatively minor (well, except for that opening twist with Grogar/Discord. That was weaksauce). It was, all in all, a solid ending, and the decision to do an epilogue episode instead of a long three-part fight was nice. The ending image for the show was also perfect, partly because it was so expected, but that made it all the more charming.

If I've been reminded anything by this finale, it's that what you do with those around you is up to you. Many people have already announced their dropping the fandom, feeling nothing else will keep it chugging without new episodes. I understand that feeling; I too have ditched shows the second they stopped airing, content the story was concluded and things were tied in a nice bow unlike real-life.

But as cliche as it sounds, the My Little Pony fandom isn't like any other fandom. I get the feeling that we'll exist for several years, decades even, popping up every now and then in the eyes of the normies before slipping back into the Internet folds. Perhaps some of us will go on to be the future great artists of the world. Maybe even one of us will find a way to get into the development staff of future MLP projects and create a new generation of bronies.

Either way, I've chosen to stick around, to do more things with the My Little Pony fandom as long as I feel the need to keep coming back. I hope you'll stick around too; there's plenty of room around here.