Happy Anniversary, My Little Pony

Ten years. Ten...years. On this day, ten years ago...the world would be changed...it just didn't know it at the time; no one knew that a new show...on a brand new network...would go on to be the most successful...brand from said network, even outlasting the network itself. What was meant to be the new generation in a toyetic franchise turned into something much more thanks to its creator and the talent she'd pull around herself.

I wasn't there from the start; course not, I was far from the targeted demo you could get. My interests in what was once The Hub was the old and new GI Joe & Transformers series, it was in said network bringing on programming from Warner Bros & DC, including the Adam West Batman series from the 60's. It wasn't this show clearly meant for grade school girls if not younger featuring pastel ponies, why would I be interested in it? ...and then...I started to see what it had started within the fanfiction and fanart community. I'd catch sight of crossover works with these characters interacting with franchises I was aware of and enjoyed and...maybe it piqued my interest?

Though, if anything did, it was these videos; from Familiar Faces, a retrospective on the franchise as a whole from its first generation to what was then the new gen...and this:

...what might be the most famous episode of Death Battle...least one of them...and what would spurn me into giving this show a shot...and I never looked back. And heck, someone I made friends with over a Star Wars character originally disliked - though now we can't get rid of her 'XD - ended up changing his attitude over the series once giving it a watch.

So, for a show that's aired over 200 episodes, got itself a theatrical movie, a couple of TV specials - holiday and not - and a spinoff franchise despite its rocky start...Happy Tenth Anniversary. May you be forever archived in the annuls of entertainment for us and others to look back upon.