Nas

3 hours ago, cuteycindyhoney said:

@TheRockARooster

Glad to have met you here!

Happy Anniversary MLP Forum!

Oh dang I forgot, I definitely remember you from way back! Nice to have even a couple of oldies still here after all these years 

I already made a ton of gushy words in my blog entry earlier yesterday, but I'll try ta paraphrase it all here.

I joined this place on April 24, 2012, after searching for a forum to expand and enhance my 3-week-old passion of colorful horses, admiring how clean and active everything looked, and eventually saw this place thrive big in those first few years, until 2014, a year before I started to fall out of following pone stuff, but I had more memories here than I could fill a little book with. On the list of sites that were most instrumental in carrying my love of paste; horses, EQD, derpibooru, tumblr, the MLP memebase page etc, this one easily stands on the top, especially since it bookended my earliest and final G4 experiences.

It led to me making so, so many friends, some that I still talk with today (love y'all and hope y'all are doing well and maybe come back to post on this topic, maybe ), and seeing many at my first convention, BronyCon in 2013, was a feeling I'll never be able to replicate. I loved being on the Poniverse/EQTV staff as well, and hosting/watching EQTV movie nights. I remember having a sig of my favorite bg pones at the time, getting into roleplaying, making a ponysona (which was my first real animal sona thingy in general), discussing pone show and EQG stuffs, having fun with blogs, enjoying the funny unique emotes, having an "Ask Lyra" thread (I particularly loved that), learning about how to make fancy signatures, I even remember that guy who impersonated me with my name and then-profile picture! I'll never figure out who that was...

I often talked lots, LOTS with my friends and making more on Skype, seeing them in multiple BronyCons, including M.A. Larson photobombing a group photo of us and just disappearing without a trace, and our resident graphic design mod made it the new banner on the spot, great times... Woof, how the years go by.

I didn't use this place a lot between 2014 and 2019 but I did come back a tiny bit for the final season, and was happy I was on the BronyCon-themed banner once again for the final year. 

Since my early horse days I've delved into Pokémon and the greater furry side of stuff in terms of online groups and fandoms and have been going to more cons and being in more awesome friend groups, but horse stuff was where it all started for me, and this place was the most instrumental in that, I'll never forget what an awesome experience it all was, and I'm still willing to hang out here some time now that Gen 5 is a thing now, and go to a few more horse cons in the future. Speaking of Gen 5, anyone else find it neat that it started just short of this place's 10th birthday?

Here's some cool forum-related stuff from over the years, first a screencap of the home page two days after the initial launch, the home page layout a bit after when I joined (~January 2013, the previous ones on Wayback Machine are borked), and a handful of banners (the rest are in my blog) that I've saved over the years, I always loved to see the new ones every week, and for preservation's sake, the home page on the beginning of Gen 5 just a couple weeks ago.

(Banners)

I'd ping all my old friends (if I can even remember them all), but I'd hate to bother anyone, so I'm just hoping they end up seeing this topic, haha. Happy to 10 awesome years you guys, and thanks to the mods and members for keeping this place afloat and kicking, and here's to 10 more, or however long pony thrives! And heck, would be nice to watch pony stuff with my old friends again like old times, it and this place will always be crazy nostalgic to me.

Last little bit, I found something from back then that's funny and extremely, eerily relevant to right now. 

43 minutes ago, ShadOBabe said:

It was started in Oct 2011. So it would be 1 year old in Oct 2012. And so on.

It’s like my birthday. I was born in 1990, but it was December. So even though I will be 31 in December, I spend most of 2021 at 30.

I mean, I was born in '96, my 10th birthday was in 2006, and I turned 25 this year, that's how that works I think 

Now that it turned 10, it's currently in its 11th year, and will turn 11 next October 3, etc

Wait, I'm pretty sure it turns 10, since it started in 2011. 

Since it's starting from a completely blank slate I don't know what to say except for the show to be in 3D. As much as I've warmed up to the characters and how they look in the movie, I don't think I'll be able to fully enjoy an entire generation of it as opposed to 2D animation like gen 4. I kinda assume it'll be, though.

Other than that I hope the worldbuilding stuff isn't entirely gone. I know gen 4 did bring back some lore stuff from previous gens and I hope they do that here as well. Some of the creatures and stuff they introduced were awesome, even if some weren't quite fit for a children's pony playset, haha.

Well, 11 years later, here we are, finally with the first batch of next era of horse content to enjoy and comment on. And so begins a new several years of countless art, music, cons, memories, and most of all, adorable colorful horses. And I did say for months that I was remotely interested in the new generation of pone, since G4 had been such a big part of my life and done and led to so many wonderful things for me, and watching the old episodes I started off with will always bring back warm fuzzy memories, and despite not following the show much between season 4-8 I still and will always love the show and the general stuff that comes from it, like the fanart and cons, the latter I'll still go to one day, and just knowing it'll be touching countless amounts of people and inspiring tons of more new minds for years to come as it did me, and all the friends I had on here. (Also, it was neat seeing some friends and horsefamous peeps move on to bigger or other things, but I do wonder how many of them will come back for this!)

In short, I think what turned me off from being interested if anything was the 3D characters...I couldn't get into the idea of the whole era of horse being defined by 3D stuff, it just didn't sit well with me and reminded me of, idunno, generic CG cartoon horse stuff I've seen. But silly me, here I am, 2 years after G4 ended, once more writing up on a Saturday morning how I feel about the latest horse stuff like I used to. And that's cause, well, the charm that won me over back then, was very prevalent here, enough for me to forget about how odd I thought the 3D stuff looked...mostly! Enough for me to say, yep, I'm definitely on board once again. These new pastel equines are filling my idle thoughts much like the previous ones did when I started watching. I don't intend to be AS active as I once did, probably. But definitely tuning into whatever the next ep/movie/whatever will be for the time being. Especially if the show or whatever the main stuff'll be will be in 2D.

Anywho, the movie itself... Wow, the budget is obvious, this gen got off to a great start in terms of visuals. One of the things that made the 3D characters more tolerable for me is how well they were animated. Everything was so smooth, I was blown away by how well everything was animated like the show of yesteryear. Like I said, I still hope the show is 2D, but it was still all beautiful here. The pacing felt a bit odd in places, though I doubt that was a result of it introducing the characters and having one big adventure with them in one movie. Like everything else that I didn't find amazing in it, it wasn't bad enough to ruin my enjoyment though.

Some of the lines and line deliveries and even some song lyrics kinda missed that punch that was in most of gen 4. I don't know, there were a bit more deliveries and lines that felt awkward and not really funny than I can count on my fingers, but it was mostly alright. The music and lyrics that we good were VERY good though. The best songs far and away were Izzy's song and the first half of Scout's song, they're both super catchy. And some of the lines and gags were legit hilarious.

The plot? For the most part it was a nice fun way to start the new gen, and honestly if you don't take it as seriously as FiM, it's great, and I think I was able to quickly adjust, especially-

And yeah, I felt it had a lot of high points and was a pretty satisfying ending. I do look forward to how all the stuff at the end will translate or hint at what's to come, whenever we even hear about the show.

And finally, of course, the ponies were cute. Sans the 3D template they all had which definitely still looks weird at some angles, are still adorable and charming as heck most of the time thanks to their designs and voices. Izzy won me over even when I wasn't planning to see this movie before, her silliness and sometimes obliviousness are adorable and remind me of my inner self a bit. Sunny and Pipp are a definite second. It'll be interesting having a boy as part of the main cast from now on, I'm totally for that. I don't doubt these characters willl win over tons and tons of people for years to come, I'm already looking forward to all the art, especially at cons. And like I've said, this whole package despite some flaws, has lots of funny stuff, emotional moments, great music, just a well balanced horse movie that's packed with the charm of G4. Here's to another some years of heartwarming life morals that even we can learn from again sometimes. (And hopefully we get an announcement for the show soon!!)

My final word, I think the amount of G4 was comforting, and a great way to bookend the old and start the new. How fitting, most of all, that G5 is beginning just a week short of this forums' 10th birthday, too.

Oh, and Izzy is best pony. 

Besides the premiere for this final season, I don't remember the last time I made a post in an episode thread. Though fitting, since this was the last episode ever before the finale, and the last morning premiere.

Other than the episode itself, which I did enjoy a good bit, I can't stop thinking about this.

The instant I saw this after the premiere (it was a background event that I missed so I had to first catch it when people were posting about it after), I about damn near cried. Way back in the beginning of my time obsessed with this show in 2012, Lyra- as well as Minuette and Berry Punch- were my favorite BG horses. Even had all 3 of them on a signature early on. 7 years later, after many years of being into pony, then out of pony, then sorta into pony again, this happens. Not only is a secondary proposal going on alongside the first one, one of the fandom's biggest ships from over the years was made canon, not to mention a gay couple is confirmed for the show (makes sense to including in a show like this, and it's perfectly subtle)! Quite a lot to take from this little scene, and for a little background event (that foreshadowed the ending of the episode, at that), it surely is huge. What an awesome thing to pull towards the end of the final regular episode of the show, all of the stuff I just mentioned really show how far the show has gotten over the decade. Background events are usually unimportant, and casual stuff going on amidst crazy stuff like the apple invasion are usually played for laughs, but this was both important and sweetly heartwarming, and really satisfying to see at the end of this show's incredible run. After all this time, one of the ponies that stole my heart when I was first watching the show back in 2012 ends up getting canonically, genuinely married. I never would have believed it if you told me that back then, but I wouldn't have believed a good number of incredible things that has happened in the show and fandom since then. This moment in particular fills my 2012 self with joy and tears, and I'll never stop being giddy that it's real.

They're really pulling out all the stops towards the end in this and many other ways. The big journey ends this week, I can't believe it. But I'm going to enjoy every single last bit of it.

Short guy on the front row loaded with badges and buttons and the green scarf and cap over here.

Dang, is this ever a pleasantly unexpected allusion to the impromptu banner this place had during BC 2013; the MLP Forum peeps were taking a photo like this one, and just a few minutes after taking it did we realize M.A. Larson photobombed it, which inspired the sudden banner change! Good damn times. Much like the con itself, this picture, and the fact that it's being used as the banner, is a very satisfying bookend to many of our experiences dabbling in ponies. What a near perfect weekend it was.

Oh, is it too late to still get one, even if we were there? ^^;

EDIT: Somehow didn't notice until I literally made this post, whoops! 

3 hours ago, Senko said:

My new plushies safe at home and the final image from me.

This image made me tear up for like the 10th time that I have this weekend, very moving.  Any chance you remember the name of the artist for that drawing? I'd love a print like that.

I'm happy to say that I'm going to be at my first BronyCon since 2015, for multiple reasons. My first BronyCon in 2013, and the show itself, have kickstarted my foray into online communities like nothing else had done before or ever since, acquiring numerous priceless things like friends and memories, delving into things like art and conventions that helped me feel more comfy and established in the communities I thrive in and enjoy now. My first BronyCon was my first convention ever, and my first of many times of seeing my online friends in person. It was last second, rough, and brief, but the feeling of seeing my online friends and interacting with them in the flesh changed my life, and that first time taught me a lot about how to improve my subsequent trips to conventions. I owe way too much of my friends and memorable moments these past seven years to the show, and I'd personally have been upset if I didn't go to the final one of these events, to personally make that final big memory during the show's run, other than the finale itself.

This last time I will not be going with as many friends as in the past, but I do plan to make this trip one of reminiscence, to remember all the great times I had in the three Bronycons I'd gone to in the past, and to try to rekindle the indescribable joy I was introduced to with my first BronyCon. I don't know how many of my old friends are going, or people that I've known in this fandom but never saw at a con, but I'd love to see each and every one of them and make the most out of this final big meeting, and I wish everyone that strives to keep going to others around the country/world and keep making memories can do so with ease. 

Firstly, I think this was one of the funniest episodes ever. (At least in terms of all S1-4, and bits of 5-8) Twilight and Spike at their funniest, and Twilight at her cutest.

The montages were probably meant for padding out the length of the episode, and I felt they were kind of pointless. Was great to see a S1E1 flashback and Moondancer again but I'm a little confused as to why they said Dusty was forced out when she wasn't. Though perhaps it could've been just a rumor. The actual reason why she left makes for a great moral to this episode. Really feels like an early season ep with Twilight being cutely nervous over something that turns out to be a simple happy solution in the end. Really enjoyed this one!

Hoo boy it's been a long while- my last post was mid 2015.  The last episode I watched live was some time during Season 5. I've been pretty much out of the fandom and exploring new communities and other things in my life the past 4-5 years, but I've decided to hop on the pony wagon for the last ride. My 4ish year time in the fandom that seemed to last for a decade was so powerful and memorable that I wanna rekindle those memories in the final season of the show, that we all knew was inevitable at some point, by following the final season on live streams, going to the last Bronycon and my first one since '15, and maybe meeting old friends again. I may suffer from being unfamiliar with a few things and characters that I've missed but, eh, I'm just here to enjoy the last chapter of this incredible journey we've all had, and hope that I can spend it with some of the old friends I'd made along the way.

Hope everyone can enjoy these final, bookending last episodes to the fullest! It's been a great run. 

Been here since April 2012. Stopped frequenting this place a lot in late 2013, I've just simply lost interest in how much it's changed.

But I still exist, so yeah.

Happy to remember a lot of the older names, and it's good to hear that some of you guys are still active on here.

Nas is best rapper. Hands down.

It's been great having you here for so long, Shy. Sad to hear that you're leaving the team, but with great memories behind all of us.

Thank you for your time here as a community staff member.

Congratulations, you two! Good luck with your new positions!

Oh, damn...  I haven't posted or visited here much at all lately, but I have to give my two cents here.

Auriety, I've known you for nearly as long as I've been a member of this fandom. I remember a lot of my early memories of this place involving you, mostly from the ask Applejack and Rainbow Dash threads. I posted quite a lot in them, and I every much enjoyed your responses. As I see, you are apparently had recently made a post in one of them, which I'm glad to see. Maybe I'll post in there again for ol' times' sake one of these days, but I have pretty much departed from this place for the most part. I had tons of awesome and unforgettable memories, and you are one of the many people I want to thank for it. You always seemed like a great, cool, happy guy, and to me, that's what you'll always be, and a good friend.

I don't think I regularly visited here much during the time of your moderation, but I am glad to see that you have been a part of our staff team for a little while. And as I have said, I, too, have almost grown out of ponies completely. My "phase" is actually pretty much around yours, it started and peaked in 2011, then sorta died off around late 2013, after BronyCon. I can not count the unbelievably amazing memories and experiences the fandom and show have given me, and I will never stop loving ponies. I just think, though, that I am simply just not that much into it anymore than I once was. I visited this place every day, followed countless threads, tuned in to the Friday movie nights and episode streams, started using Skype and gained many friends from it. All in all, pony has been one of the best times of my life, and I'll never forget it, or the wonderful people I shared these great times with like you. This place holds a lot of great memories for me, and I'll always be happy that I have them.

I thank you both for being such a good friend and doing your part to help the forum community. A great big hug to you, Auriety, and I wish you well on your future adventures. *hugs*

<facehoof> I... I forgot his wings ... ;  ; </facehoof>

Yeah I noticed x3 I'm alright with that, no worries ^-^ I'm still more than happy with it :3

Here we go, next sketches done!

Scan_0262.jpg

Thank you so very much! He looks perfect! 

Okay im back, had a really rough few weeks. Who still needs their request done?

I hope you're alright now, I'm sorry to hear about that. *hugs*

And me!

The second poll is over, Marco wins with a caption "Who put this word bubble here?"

This week's new drawing is currently pending, we might have to skip this week. Sorry!

Poll #2 is up! We're ready to receive your votes, guys! Pick the caption which you think is best!

And here is the previous picture with the winning caption by @@Chigens and Kay.

The winner of the first poll is @@Chigens and Kay with the caption "Butts."!

The picture with the winning caption will be posted later today. For now, here is this weeks image. Caption away!

Today's Image - Artist: Ashley/Art Streak