Story Time: How did I get here and have I become a Brony?

G'day all, I'd like to take a bit of some time off to have a little chat as I have a confession to reveal; I will be perfectly frank with you lot, I am by not exactly a fan MLP. I've only seen key episodes of each season, watched the movie and three of EQG. What I am a fan of is the community content being produced by this franchise. The Audio Dramas, the fan inspired music videos, the passion projects and of course the contents in this site. Needless to say, I became a fan of the fandom. But does that make me a Brony?

To be honest, for a long time I was once one of those who shun MLP as being directed towards kids. I grew up watching James Bond, Indiana Jones, Lord of the Rings, and a stupendous amount of anime. I was one of those who believed I was intellectually superior due to my choices of stories. That was until one day, all of my preconceived thoughts of my interests were tossed out the window.

I guess I should start from the beginning; it all started last year.
After dropping out of a film course in Uni (due to medical reasons), I was spiralling into an empty desert called "The lack of creativity". I struggled to find my means of writing my original works due the lack of inspiration and quite frankly, isolation. As you could guess, it only got worse when the Lockdowns came; and the dark night of my soul happened. I was watching a random playlist of villain songs for the DnD campaign I was in at the time when I encountered none other than Tempest's "Open up your eyes" from the MLP Movie. I heard this without visuals at first and thought, "Okay this is new, where did it come from?" and was thoroughly disappointed when I found the source.

I thought nothing of it at first, until I got another video recommendation from YouTube of InkPott's musical animatics using MLP characters; and I was impressed. It still didn't coax my interest in the franchise. But then came this video:

And my spiral begun. I contacted an old friend of mine in Secondary College (it's a mix between Middle school and Highschool for those of you in the US of A) whom I laughed at all those years ago when he confessed to me that he was a Brony. (Who's laughing now?) I asked him about the series and he was more than happy to send me his entire (downloaded) collection for me to curb my boredom during the lockdowns. Surprised to say I was impressed, but not satisfied. This series impressed me with their (potential) world building, characters and sense of comradery; something that my sister and I shared in our childhood. However, it fell short due to the back of my mind still cringing that it was, for better or worse, a kids show. Sure, it had elements that a lot of adults can relate to but there was still a level of silliness I still couldn't get over.

After finishing what I could only describe to be a week's worth of guilty pleasure, I kept going back to that one video that started this spiral and I wondered, "What was it that intrigued me about it?" And a new horizon opened: Obabscribbler, LostNarrator, DrWolf, and of course, DisneyFanatic. (more specifically, the Bride of Discord series) These narrators of fan fiction opened the floodgates to new horizons for me and introduced to me the potential of the fandom. Got to say, I was hooked but I still had one foot held firmly on my pride that I still kept on thinking that this fandom/franchise isn't my favoured story.

Then came my great eyeopener to what the fandom potential could be:

Stardust by Arad became not only my favourite MLP Fanfiction to this day but ended up in my top 10 books of all time (I went so far to buy the hard copy, it was that good). This was when everything changed, I immersed myself into the community and ended up discovering this site in the process.

It was at this point I was in pure denial as to what my stance is: am I a Brony who just loves the MLP community, or am I an outsider who just likes the content of the community? It all boiled down to a conversation I had with a bunch of my friends I had back when I was in TAFE but still hung out after I went to UNI:

Me: So, I have a confession to make, I took a nose dive to the MLP fandom.
Friend #1: Dude, Joe. I can't believe it! You actually went there?
Friend #2: Congrats, buddy! Welcome to the club!
Friend #3: You are officially a Brony!
Me: But, I'm not a Brony though! I'm not a fan of the series, I just like the content from the fandom.
Friend #2: Bruh, you serious?
Me: Yes, I am! I just appreciate the creativity of the community, that's all.
Friend #3: Joe, answer me one question; How many fan videos and fanfics did you go through?
Me: ........ 20, give or take.
Friend #1: ......... Joe, embrace it; YOU ARE A BRONY.

That conversation shattered my pride and forced me to embrace the truth, I am one with the fandom. It was with this conversation that opened me to the possibilities to new ideas as well as giving me an opportunity to finally find a platform and idea to start my writing.

Which led me to where I am now, which comes full circle to my constant cycle of denial and acceptance. Have I truly become a Brony? Let me knw what you guys think.