Equus

To be honest, my advice would be, if you're not interested in the show or the fandom at the moment, don't try to force yourself to be. We all need a break and even I have had moments when I'm not as obsessed as I usually am. Spend some time in the community, watch your favorite episode, whatever - if that helps, great! If you're still not back into the poni, that's fine too. No one says you have to be in the fandom forever, and if you don't feel happy here, find something else that makes you happy. There's no shame in that.

I personally have nothing at all against either - not too fond of gore (I hate even the CONCEPT of Cupcakes and Rainbow Factory) but dark is great (Story of the Blanks is one of the fandom's best achievements) ; most of the fics I've read are of the shipping type, as I'm a huge fan of Sensual Fiction General. So I wouldn't feel too bad.

Sign me up! Now I just need to get aroud to designing my Fluttercoaster and the Discord Drop, and we'll be all set! WATCH OUT WORLD, HERE COMES TOM!

Once I started getting poni merch a year and a half ago, I very quickly realised that I was way more into collecting than I thought, and since then I've left almost every piece of merch (nearly a thousand bucks worth mind you o__O) in its package. I do this both to preserve packaging in hopes that they'll be worth money someday (though I never plan to sell any of it!) AND to allow for easier display... I just think things look better still in their original packaging haha. To each their own though! I do think that figurines won't be woth much for a LONG time - while some earlier-gen MLP figurines and brushables are worth money now, it's because very few were kept in their packaging and most wound up getting haircuts or marker/crayon paint jobs or whatever; Gen4, I think, has made FAR more figurines and toys than earlier gens, and FAR more are being preserved. Same concept as in coin collecting: Very few if any people thought of preserving small-mintage coins in the early 19th century, so there are very few of them to begin with and nearly all of them are heavily circulated - they're worth insane amounts of money today, especially in higher grades; recently, state quarters have been minted in HUGE numbers, and there are literally tens of millions that are being saved in mint state from each issue. They're not going to be worth insane amounts of money anytime soon, though their value IS rising somewhat because demand is pretty high. But we're talking four to six figures for early 18th century coinage versus $1.25 for mint-state modern quarters. That said, I do have several figurines out of packaging though; several brushables I bought off people or whatever, including a Fluttershy that I obsessively groom LOL.

Yeah, I saw that. I know plenty of people in AL that are like that, and plenty that aren't, but I do believe that the segment was legit. It was amusing yet sad. True true on the pre-G4 thing. G3 for example is one of the most cringe-worthy things I've ever seen, and that was only a few years back, so I can see how people would be skeptical that G4 would be anything worth watching. Plus, My Little Pony has always been a girls' show and toyline, so there are just so many things that work against people thinking 'hey, this could be cool, let's go watch it'. I was a bit skeptical that it would be worth watching until I finally bit the bullet and did so. Glad I did. But people aren't going to understand - not anytime soon. There is hope for the future if the fandom stays sane and the public takes notice though!

There are times that I think the fandom goes a liiiittle too far in their obsessive yet strangely amusing antics. This is one of those times. Although, I would love to see the both the official and public reaction to this. Now THIS, my good man, I could get behind. It would be quite an improvement on what our coinage has at the moment. I for one welcome our new pony overlords.

I think it's already quite mainstream, but I can think of a few other things not far off from MLP in terms of fandom size that are far more mainstream: Angry Birds and Spongebob come to mind, with the former becoming WAY more of a sensation than I ever could've expected. And Spongebob even has its own Gerstlauer coaster in a theme park!! If those two can get that popular in the mainstream, why can't ponies? I think it might, IF the show stays good and the fandom stays together. Our music and fanart community is far more vibrant, I'd reckon, than any others at the moment, and our dedication is far deeper than other fandoms - I think it'll keep growing and growing. It would also give me quite a bit of glee to see a certain handful of sub-human scumlords who constantly decry the fandom and wish/predict the show and its following to die off rapidly be brought to their knees by the rapid INCREASE in poni poni poni. Then again, maybe I'm just evil. Tl;dr, I don't care either way. I like the underground feel and the sense of community, but it would be awesome to see those who hate the fandom with a passion be constantly beseiged by ponies wherever they go and whatever they do, just to make their lives a living hell. MUAHAHA

I feel like I missed something rather important here, but since I don't like getting into fierce and bitter back-and-forths, I don't feel like jumping in. The dark side of the fandom to me includes: 1 - Those who obnoxiously push ponies onto EVERYONE they meet, EVERYWHERE 2 - Those who whine about every little thing that they don't like about the show and scream that the show is jumping the shark and WHY CAN'T WE HAVE LAUREN FAUST BAAACK 3 - Those who consider fanon = canon and flip their shit when their favourite pairing isn't explicitly endorsed by everyone ever, or when a background character gets a canon role that doesn't match their headcanon, or whatever And even then, I hope we don't see any of these groups leave the fandom, because even as annoying as they are to me, a fandom has to me made up of incredible diversity, therefore we need all kinds of people to keep it strong. I'm 100% fine with fetishists and cloppers; I have weird fetishes myself but I'm NOT gonna go into that here.

This is what I find pretty sad about society. I know gender roles are well-established, unfortunately, but it's harmless, I don't see why people are so against people liking innocent and cute things. Shouldn't be way too afraid though; I'm in even more conservative Alabama, and I wear shirts, pins, necklaces, etc out and about, and I've yet to have a negative reaction. Not to say that I won't have one, though. I think most people are too afraid that my brother would come after them if they harassed me ahaha.

I think the best reasoning anyone could come up with for Hasbro to consider branching out into rides, is that they could be able to compete with Disney and Universal on that front as well, wedging themselves into that monopoly (which, ironically, if I recall, the rights to the board game belong to Hasbro LOL) Should they build a park, on their own, using Hasbro characters for theming? No, not at all. What they SHOULD do is team up with a major chain, be it Six Flags, Cedar Fair, or whatever (both of whom, I might add, already have licenses for tons of cartoon characters; notice all the superheroes, classic cartoon characters, and Thomas the Tank Engine themes in Six Flags, and all the characters such as Woodstock at Cedar Fair parks) and license their characters for use in these chains' rides. That's a win-win for BOTH companies, allowing Hasbro effective advertisement on a whole new front, and allowing the chain parks to use another established and popular theme to draw attention to their new rides. We might even need to bring this to Hasbro's attention, as it does seem a relatively viable business proposal, considering how well-established Hasbro is, even if they're making some shitty executive decisions over a few shows as of late. Is any of this juicy park goodness likely to happen? Nope. But we can dream. It'd be nice to ride a Fluttershy themed B&M Hyper, or a Wonderbolts themed Wingrider, or a Discord-themed Intamin giga - and I would kill to be able to enjoy myself on an Apple Family-themed GCI woodie (sorry, you just can't beat wooden coasters for awesomeness IMO) - but I can guarantee that if Hasbro licensed ponies to parks, they sure as hell wouldn't theme bigger rides after them; they would use it on kids' rides, since despite our periphery demographic being very vocal we're still only a vast minority, and ponies are still considered young girls' toys. Transformers or another more 'male-oriented' property? Yeah, it could happen. But I'd rather have pony themed thrill rides. We can dream.

Let me tell you a coule of stories! They both come from the same vacation, last September, in Tennessee. I have several pony shirts, but this one is my favourite, and the one I wear most often. The first one - and the most touching one - happened the day we went to Dollywood in Pigeon Forge. I was wearing this shirt. A ride op on the Tennessee Tornado had commented briefly on it, but I didn't think much of it. The awesome thing happened when I was riding Barnstormer - the $5.5m S&S Screamin' Swing built in 2011, for you thrill junkies out there - again. There were no lines anywhere all day and I walked right on. On the ride in the seats next to me was a little girl - maybe 5 or 6, it's hard for me to tell, but she was barely tall enough to ride! - and her father. She saw me take a seat and fasten my restraint, and I swear, when she saw my shirt, the glow on her face is one of the most adorable things I've ever seen in my life. "FLUTTERSHY! IT'S FLUTTERSHY!!" She was virtually screaming it, pointing at it, and me, with the biggest smile I've ever seen on a kid's face ever. Oh lord, she LOVED the shirt and Fluttershy! Once the ride was over and I, of course, looped back around and boarded yet again, my brother decided to join me once more. When we got back, guess who was back on the ride. It was the girl, but this time with her mother. When she saw me, she started pointing and squealing, and went, "MOM! MOM! There''s the man with the Fluttershy shirt! I love Fluttershy!" Her mom smiled at me and said, "She hasn't stopped talking about that since she got off the ride." Then the girl saw my brother's triforce shirt, she exclaimed, "Zelda!!!" This little girl loves ponies and Zelda. I had two thoughts: One, these parents are rasing this kid right. Two, does she have an older sister I can date? Once the ride was over, and I was leavig the ride, she came up to me and asked if she could trade her shirt (It was a Disney princesses shirt) for mine! I simply replied that I didn't think her shirt would fit me well, haha. I met up back with my own little group (well, my parents) and started to head back towards the coasters again, but before I left, I noticed the little girl was still staring and pointing at me as her parents were trying to head somewhere else as well. That little girl's happiness and enthuisiasm made the entire day, and my wearing of the shirt, completely worth it. And this from someone who doesn't even like kids that much! It was just so heartwarming seeing her huge smile and knowing that at leat some of the target audience likes the show. The second experience happened either the following day or two days after that, back near in our room in Gatlinburg. I was at the CD store in Mountain Mall (best selection of metal I've ever seen anywhere, by the way, if a bit pricey) browsing CDs when a teen walked up to me from across the store. "Okay, I saw your shirt [i had on a RD 'deal with it' tee at the moment] and I just had to come over here..." she said, and then lifted her fist. It was the first IRL brohoof I've ever received and I told her that, elated to have finally met a fan in my own age class (turns out she was a young teen, but still) on the street. We gushed over the show in the metal section of that cramped little CD store for the better part of half an hour, talking about the fandom, episodes, whatever. It's the first show chat I've had with anyone outside a meetup group or a friend of mine that moved to Florida recently. We exchanged Deviantart account names and I found out she lives not way too far from me; I'm from Alabama but not that far from Tennessee, where she lived and I was vacationing in at the moment, so we were 'kind of' locals, LOL. Her mom came in and she was telling her about how she'd met another fan and she wasn't crazy because there are lots of others, etc, and her mom just shook her head and told me that her daughter frequently attended cons and the like and was quite obsessed with ponies; I think she cosplayed as Pinkie from what I was told. She seemed frazzled and somewhat exasperated with the girl's obsession, but took it well. My parents are like that too, which is awesome. They left after an hour or so. My brother was face-palming about the whole issue haha. Her favorite pony is Pinkie Pie, by the way. ... so there are my stories. Both are pretty special stories to me, especially the first, which has stuck with me and reminded me how this show has the potential to change the world for the better (as long as pedophiles don't take advantage of the situation <_< ) . Though this falls outside t-shirt territory, I have had reactions from other merch as well. I own a RD pin and a RD necklace I got from Hot Topic a while back (they seem pretty heavy on Dash merch, not that I'm complaining at all) ; I was at the grand opening of the new CD store in the Jasper Mall - in fact I was their very first customer - and a daughter of a co-worker of mine wandered in. She's either 16 or 18, I can't recall. But anyway, she saw my pin, and just started "Ooooh, I just found me a new friend!" And we went on to talk about ponies and the show and whatnot in that store for a few minutes before she bid me farewell and left. I've been working with her mom at a fast-food place in that very mall for a year (I've been there 4.5 years, her mom joined last year) and I've made my pony fan-ness pretty clear, and seen her daughter around a lot, and I never knew she was a fan. She didn't even know who I was or that I worked with her mother! Crazy stuff Her favourite appears to be Rainbow Dash. Not a bad choice if I do say so. And finally, the necklace I wear everywhere - last Sunday morning at services (yeah, I know; see, my dad's a pastor, so even though I'm a closet agnotsic-athiest-misotheist-freethought-heretic thing I tag along every Sunday so I don't get disowned, lol) I was taking up the offering and a little girl that's the granddaughter of a parishoner saw my necklace and started squealing "RAINBOW DASH! RAINBOW DASH! LOOK, IT'S RAINBOW DASH!!!" really loudly. Made a bit of a scene. I had better be careful where I wear that from now on. XD OKAY now that I've written a novel, I'll shut up And on another note, in looking for the link to that Fluttershy shirt on WeLoveFine to post here, I found half a dozen more Fluttershirts I must have. OH GOD MY WALLET

Let me be honest. When I read the synopsis, I thought "Oh lord, this could be either really great or an unprecedented disaster" - but I was kind of excited, as Fluttershy is my fave of the Mane Six and Discord is my favourite villain. When I actually saw the episode, it became clear that it was going the 'really great' route - not that the FiM crew has ever let me down once, of course. Discord was in-character and provided PLENTY of amusing moments, and Flutters piled on the d'aww factor insanely high. My only criticism of the episode: It should've been a two parter. No ifs ands or buts. It's the ONLY episode with a major villian that's not a two-parter thus far. The pacing was rushed all the way, but the ending was so forced and rushed that, while still great, it lost so much potential. The resolution was far too quick; friendship is magic and power, yes, but the thought that an ancient evil entity deity-thing embodiment of chaos and disharmony itself that's presumably been around for way over a milennium (though stoned most of the time. c wat i did thar) that has power equal to or greater than the princesses can be converted to good by a few lines of calm dialouge and a few days of friendship with a gentle pegasus (Element of Kindness, yes, but I disgress) seems slightly absurd. Now, I can see how it would work given a little more time and more little moments of clarity like the first heart-warming "We're... friends?" moment at the dinner table, but he went from "I'm FREE! I can do WHAT I want, WHEN I want!" to "...losing the only friend I ever had ;-; Imma be good now" in under a minute. Then again, that is pretty chaotic - quite in-character - and our Flutters could melt ANY heart by saying "we're friends". All in all, could be my favourite of the season, along with Sleepless in Ponyville and a couple others, but we'll have to give it some time to see how well it holds up. I'm guessing it'll hold up well.

I can one-up that, even. These guys actually have an album out, they're on Metal Archives, and apparently actually published this as a track on their new release. Fo reals.

Hoboy. Most of my stuff is packed at the moment for a move, but I did recently drag a bunch of it out and pile it on my bed to photograph for the Bronies of Alabama group on Facebook; it covered my entire bed in a stack several items thick, overflowed to atop my TV and desktop, and I STILL forgot to add some other stuff I had (DVDs, Rainbow Dash backpack, posters, several shirts, wrapping paper, xmas stocking, etc) in the photo - which took two photos to actually get everything in. And it's grown substantially since then. How I'm gonna fit all that stuff on shelves in our new place is a mystery. MY PRIDE AND JOY HOWEVERRRRR, would include these lovelies: That's Two Best Ponies (aka Flitter and Cloud Chaser), lovingly made by Renchan-Marimo (Rens-twin on deviantART) , bought last summer! So soft and cuddly and awesome and SPLEEE And now! Once again, commissioning Rens once more, comes this! http://th06.deviantart.net/fs71/PRE/i/2013/034/6/6/applejack___made_for_commission_by_rens_twin-d5tou2m.jpg (Large photo, linked so I don't kill the page) Seriously, she does AMAZING work, though shipping from Russia takes forever, and a lot of packages were lost over holidays; she's sending me a free replacement, and AJ should arrive in a month or so. I CANNOT WAIT! The photo there suggests the ultimate in soft-ness and adorable-ness and the wait is going to kill me. Asdfghjkl <3 For 80 bucks (115 including shipping) you can't get much better plush quality than that, that I know of. [/plushieholic]

No shame here, I just roll with it and if I get weird stares I pretend I'm texting and don't pay them any mind. Funny story, though. A co-worker/friend that knows I'm into ponies actually went out and bought me a talking Princess Cadance for our xmas gathering at work - I can hardly fathom how he felt walking around the store!

Ahaha. Death metal and ponies, my two favourite things. Throw Winter Wrap Up on a playlist of Dismember, Nile, Cannibal Corpse, Deicide, Possessed, Death, God Dethroned, Autposy, Malevolent Creation, and Vital Remains, and you've got some really confused onlookers from both sides of the issue.

AWESOME! It's amazing how many places I meet people from other sites I'm on haha! Though admittedly I'm not very active there, basically a forums-only participant at the moment, and just joined this forum several hours ago haha. And an ACE membership is definitely in the cards one day, once I can get out more often lol. Aw man, next time I'm on Wild Eagle at Dollywood I'm totally going to be thinking of Dash and the Wonderbolts when soaring through that Immelman at the far end of the track. XD Thanks for the add btw!

HAH OHMYGOD. I thought I was the only person who imagined something like this. Seriously, I built a scenario in RCT2 a while back called Friendshipland, themed around... you guessed it, we're on a pony forum after all. I'll dig up some screenshots sometime and show everyone the various parks I've built off that base... was fun theming rides around characters and episodes (Tuesday Morning, Twilightning, Fluttercoaster, The Fear of Flight [not far off the real-world Flight of Fear line of coasters, actually] , Discordian Empire, Dodge Junction Express, Sombra's Revenge, Celestial Reign, Atomic Rainboom, Derpy's Postal Coaster... among other highly unconventional coaster names XD) In seriousness, I think a pony-themed park for the kids (e.g., target demographic) could theoretically pay off for Hasbro in the long run if location is good, though the initial cash output would be enormous, and the risks would be very high. They would need to build the park around their other franchises too, as ponies alone wouldn't suceed as well as a more balanced approach. A much better option would be to license character rights for use in theming rides to, say, Cedar Fair or Six Flags. They already use all kinds of animation themes, so it wouldn't be too out of place. Unfortunately, I see the thrill ride and coaster part of the equation as being a very unsuccessful proposition; I would wager that 99% of the general thrill ride junkies and coaster enthusiasts are not bronies, and as tempting as that brand new $20 million B&M hyper is sitting there behind the front gate, very few people would risk ridicule to go on it, since it's painted pink and yellow and is themed after a cartoon pony. Then again, I could be wrong, and even detractors of the show could ride and enjoy it... but no one would spend that kind of money theming really expensive and thrilling rides to our little demographic, as the rest of the public would find it off-putting to say the least. Their loss! [/incurable roller coaster dork] That's what I'm thinking; plus with that Hasbro could compete with Disney and other major studios on that front by having their characters at parks also. Would be much easier to go in with one of the established chains and do licensing. You wouldn't happen to be on TPR, would you?