Not looking for sympathy or anything. I was just struck by an uncanny feeling, and this seemed like the most appropriate place to unpack it.

Once upon a time, I worked at a job where I routinely looked at people's date of birth. At some point I realized that whenever I saw one from the 90's I'd think "oh, this is a kid" and then do the math and realize "no, this person is legally an adult." I think what I'm experiencing now is similar to that, but dialed up a notch or two.

I hopped on the pony bandwagon in my 20's and I remember being the sort of person who ravenously consumed everything that came out at the time (because of course there was very little official content back then). I used to check EqD multiple times a day to keep up with all of it.

Time passed, things calmed down. I found myself in a niche sub-fandom that ultimately became so bloated I'm not at all surprised that it has since devolved into base circlejerking in the years since I abandoned it. And eventually all the closest ties I had within the pony fandom wandered away.

I think it was about season 6 or 7 that I stopped watching every new episode, instead opting to pick and choose what to watch. And I completely passed on Equestria Girls (because ew humans). It was only within the past month that I even watched the show's finale (or any of season 9 to be honest) when I noticed a fic tagged with Luster Dawn and had look up who that even is.

The "young six" were such a breath of fresh air. I'm really sad there wasn't more of them.

It's only been this year that I've started reacquainting myself with the pony fandom. Specifically, seeking out fics and authors here that manage to capture the sort of thing I guess I feel like I've been missing, but also finding other things I didn't know I was looking for. I've been discovering a lot of good stuff that I'm sorry I was too far up my own ass to see when it was new. At the same time, I'm seeing a lot of stuff that just makes me question... I don't know. My impulse is to say "if this is the right space for me" but that's wrong; I feel more at-home here now than anywhere else I've ever been on the internet. Maybe more accurate would be "do I understand why people are here anymore?"

All of this is to say I feel a little out of touch, and I'm trying to figure out how to process that.

I came here to write fanfiction about talking horses.

I stay for the friends I've made, and to keep writing more fanfiction about talking horses.

My experience is that it's best not to make it more complicated than that.

7520782
Fair point.

The feeling turned out to be pretty fleeting, and I guess I was just caught off guard by it.

oldmanyellsatcloud.jpg

7520768 I'm here because of the sunken cost fallacy. I spent a decade of my life here.

7520768
Personally I find myself feeling increasingly out of touch as time goes on, so I think it's a normal feeling. I feel like the standard of communication and discourse has just gotten ridiculously bad on the internet in general.

But there's plenty that I still enjoy in the fandom, and people who are keeping the fire burning strong - one highlight over the past troubling year has been the online conventions that sprang up to fill the void left by the cancelled real life cons. There's still a few coming up this year - Trotcon Online on July 16-18, PonyFest 5 on October 2nd (and there's even a PonyFest concert this Saturday, if you're into music). The pony music scene in particular is something I've really enjoyed getting into over the past year.

And I completely passed on Equestria Girls (because ew humans).

I doubt that I can convince you differently :) I will admit, EQG as a show is extremely variable (not helped by the show's complete lack of consistent direction). However, it does have its high points. The series has some of my favorite music in all of G4, and Rainbow Rocks is a really excellent movie, with Forgotten Friendship an unexpectedly good runner-up. There are also many wonderful fanfics that wouldn't be possible without EQG (mostly because they take the premise of EQG and just do it better).

The "young six" were such a breath of fresh air. I'm really sad there wasn't more of them.

I loved the Young Six :) Honestly, I loved the whole idea of the school and wouldn't have minded if they'd gone full Harry Potter with the show, but they wouldn't commit to that either. :p

I've been discovering a lot of good stuff that I'm sorry I was too far up my own ass to see when it was new.

I think most people feel this way :) I always feel like I'm discovering things too late after the fact.

7520890
You and me both.

Also... I have nowhere else to gooooo...

7520890
7521007
🎶Sometimes you wanna go
where everybody knows your name🎶

7520891
Cons have never been my thing. I went to Bronycon 2012 with a couple friends from college and had an okay time, but there was nothing about it that made me want to ever do it again.

I can believe that EQG is fine. But one of the things that I always really liked about FiM is that there are no humans in it, and I think it's important to have things like that (kids' shows especially) because if an audience can empathize with non-human characters, it can teach them to empathize with non-human animals. And I believe that's important, and something we need more of. Introducing humans into the pony world sours that little bit of the magic it has for me.

It's nice to know that feeling out of touch isn't so unusual. I think I had always assumed that part of being out of touch was never being aware of it—"No. It's the children who are wrong."