How I became a brony...

So, how I became a Brony... an odd tale to tell I think. See I am an avid reader. If all else is done at home or work, I pull up a story. It's not uncommon for me to buy and finish a book in the same day. I've been a reader all my life, it's one of my passions, though most of it is brain candy.

So to state for the record: I wasn't a fan of MLP till I wondered what to read next at work one night. MLP was a thing I was vaguely aware of existing, something to smile about when I saw a funny meme of it; usually with Twilight having a lovely freakout, or of Pinkie with a lovely dark text. I have, at someone else's behest, watched the first couple episodes encompassing the summer sun celebration and the defeat of Nightmare Moon. I thought the animation was nice and at least it had decent writing, which other than Avatar the Last Airbender, was rare in American shows. But it just didn't appeal to me at the time, and I decided to move on.

I had been burning through books the my Kindle Unlimited account had to offer and those that were not such as manga and Light Novels. I decided in my boredom I wanted to read a Fan Fiction, my flavor being Zootopia Fan Fictions, but after many months and 700 ish fictions later, I wanted a change of scenery in my literary intake. All tasks we had scheduled for the aircraft in the hangar that night had been completed and there was nothing to do for the rest of the night. Naturally I pulled out my phone an pondered what to read...

So while slapping my brain halves against each other messily, I had an epiphany of a gloriously hilarious thought that had me grinning the biggest Grinch/Pinky hybrid grin... "I wonder if there is a Doom and MLP Crossover...."

So a google later brought my phone's browser to this wonderful website, and another search later brought me to my first MLP Fan Fiction. The story was called Guardian By Thule117, and I was blown away by the story. The main character, while a little Gary Stu ish feeling in the begining, was still fun to follow and the tale of his growth from mere mortal to the hell sundering Doom Slayer was riveting. I went from feeling the wondrous joy he had with his family, to the bottomless despair and subsequent psychotic all consuming wrath at their loss, and the chills of the absolute fervor he had in his devotion to the Princesses Luna and Celestia as seraphim. (Also: I now consider the backstory of the Doom Slayer as portrayed by Thule117 to be cannon as it is, personally, much more satisfying than the rather lackluster one in the video games themselves.) I loved it...so I went looking for more. Bio Shock, Dead Space, Anime, HIE, Displaced, Slice of Life, Romance and many other searches bore fruit. And I partook of that fruit viciously, with great enjoyment...and a couple "Wut did I just read..."'s

Now I started reading FIM fictions back when this account was first created in 2019 in August. Since then I have read 900 ish stories. I have archived 1,403 on my computer and backup disk, and I have most of those in my Dropbox, ready to download in to my txt reader app to read to me in google voice while I work. That folder is currently 1.42 GB. Am I a lost cause now? E'yup.

And that is how I became a Brony, through the wonderful creations of this fandom.