My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic 8th Anniversay Celebration Thread!

[Oleks 1,993]

Happy anniversary, everyone!

My own story is simple: I found out about MLP and bronies in 2012 or so, but didn't take it seriously back then. I finally decided to give the show a try in 2015 when the atmosphere around me was filled with hatred, hostility and anxiety, and I needed something cheerful and positive. It took me 5 episodes to get hooked, and I've been a fan ever since.

I discovered this forum two years ago and, despite not being very sociable, decided to join. Can't say I regret it.

[Rixton 1,105]

By the way, I uploaded something for this moment:

Spoiler

 

This is a piece from an old project, I guess it will fit here.

Edited October 10, 2018 by Rixton

[Will Guide 21,360]

Here's a little extra bit I wanted to say before getting into MLP:FiM. Back in 2010, I heard of and joined the Ace Attorney franchise of games in Spring via WiiWare ports then I got into Professor Layton series in Fall 2010 when I heard there was going to be a crossover between the two game series coming sometime in the future. Little did I realize that as I was solving puzzles with Professor Layton, another interesting media of show was debuting. 

Later after returning home from a excellent Hawaiian Vacation in 2011, I was watching one of Cartoon Network's Mad parody episode "Cowboy and Alien Force" involving what appears to a mashup of the film "Cowboys and Aliens" with the appearance of Ben 10's Onimitrix. The punchline was that so many other shows were invading the town, that the title kept changing to "Cowboys and Equestrians" and "Cowboys and Silly Bands" The characters lampshade they did the title already . And guess what characters showed up during the chaos? Yup, MAD's version of the ponies from the recent MLP show. Particularly Applejack, who tells the Cowboy Hero they were trying to figure out what's been going on as well. That's when I learned about MLP's return into recent media

Then in Summer 2012, a man named Doug Walker shared a funny story about how when he went to Canada without his passport easily, but he would have been stuck there. He had to tell something funny to the guy in charge of the paperwork or no re-entry into U.S.A. Doug's mind come up with something. "Do you know what a Brony is?" Border agent says "No". Doug then described about the recent MLP show and how it became such a phenomenon, especially with grown men. He got so passionate into talking about Bronies, the agent "slowly back away with [Doug's] paperwork and information and started stamping the papers while giving a little smile" The agent handed Doug's info with "Okay, I believe you. No one can make that up. Go!" In short, thanks to the existence of Bronies, a man was able to get back into the United States.

Later in August 2012, I saw that MLP: Friendship is Magic was on Netflix. I ended up watching the first 2 episodes. My verdict: Better than I thought, considering I still had the image of their "girly" commercials from around 2003 (G3 toys) in my mind. I could have joined the herd right there and followed along with Season 3, but.....

It wasn't until April 9, 2013 after Season 3 finished airing that I decided oh, what the hey and sat down to binge watch the 3 seasons on Netflix. By the time, I finished on April 16, 2013. I declared myself a Brony!  Two months later in May, I found this MLP FORUMS website and joined the herd here too. And it remained this way to this very day.

A few more things before I go. I didn't realize how big the fanbase was until I went to see the first (and universally weakest) Equestria Girls spinoff movie in theaters. I expected a less than full house with mostly children with their parents, but imagine my genuine surprise when most of the people line up at the ticket booth were grown men and women my age wearing MLP merch. My theater was mostly full of Bronies, male and female. with only a quarter being kids with parents. I realized I underestimated the size of the fandom and thought the stories about Bronies were exaggerated a little. Boy was I wrong!  I even got to see Rainbow Rocks in theaters alongside my buddy I brought along with a full house of Bronies and families with kids. The reception was great to excellent

When the 2017 MLP Movie premiered in theaters, I actually attended an early Thursday night showing as opposed to Friday release the day after. Sadly, unlike EQG 1, there was only and a few Bronies and a family or two in the viewing I personally saw. Maybe I should have attended a Friday night showing when the crowds would be more likely to come. I'll be wondering for the rest of my life how much I would have enjoyed seeing hyped up movie with a full crowd if I hadn't made the decision to come so early. For my personal experience, it was ironic that the EQG1 that many fans complained about from seeing the trailer got a full house of viewers while the hyped up MLP MOVIE was mostly empty when I saw it. Anyone else out there had a similar experience?

On a sidenote, because I was a fan of Ace Attorney, I eventually found the fan made crossover with MLP and AA, "Turnabout Storm" in Summer 2013 with the final episode released on YouTube the day after Ace Attorney 5: Dual Destinies was released to the Nintendo eShop later that year. It was fun.

Edited October 10, 2018 by Happy Yoshi

[PinkiePieSuperFan 23]

Happy anniversary, MLP:FIM!

As for my story...

It was the middle of April 2012 (because I remember A Canterlot Wedding being the newest episode at the time). I heard about this wonderful pony show from... sadly, I forgot, but it might've been somebody mentioning it on a forum. I searched for it on Google and picked a random episode (Bridle Gossip). Since I already love TV shows like MLP which are for both grown-ups and kids (like Arthur and Dragon Tales), I was destined to love this show and so I was hooked. My second episode was Green Isn't Your Color. I remember going to EQD and watching the 15-minute preview of The Crystal Empire.

Like many others, I used to find Pinkie Pie annoying when I first started; instead, my favorite was Fluttershy. I warmed up to her after watching Party of One and reading some fanfiction on FIMfiction (I knew about Cupcakes, but I only read it AFTER Pinkie became best pony because I was too squeamish) and seeing pictures on deviantART, and now, Pinkie Pie is Best Pony, with Fluttershy and Twilight in 2nd and 3rd place.

I wasn't exactly at a dark place in my life when I started watching, but it did change my life. I am now less shy (at least on the Internet), more open-minded, and more positive.

I discovered these cool forums by searching for MLP forums on Google after becoming a fan of the show. I joined them five years after I became a brony in 2012 (due to my age when I discovered the forums being too young to join) and my first post was on Jan 2017.

[Barpy 2,225]

Ay, I didn't realise this, 10/10/2010 is a nice date  

Also TF2 is celebrating 11 years!

Edited October 10, 2018 by Barpy

[Chronicplane 58]

Happy ponyversary everypony 

I was introduced to the world of ponies back in high school about two years ago (I'm currently in college), I watched most of season one and enjoyed it surprisingly at the time. I dabbled a bit into the series, became a full fledged fan about six months ago or so, that's when I started joining MLP Forums.

Now I've watched every single episode of MLP: FIM, EQG/specials and of course the movies. I really like the series, artwork, community, soundtrack and merch. 

 

Edited October 10, 2018 by Chronicplane

[Applejack 119]

Hey there Sugarcubes. How about we share our favorite episodes over the last eight years? Thank ya kindly for the support along the way. 

 

[Steve Piranha 29,421]

Holy motherfuckers, me forgets today is the anniversary of poneh 

[AJ2489 2,855]

Howdy! Happy anniversary folks! Love Ya'll! 

I first watched the show in June of this year, I decided to give the show a shot. Lets just say I was hooked! My addiction was then reinforced by the discovery of these here forums, the one place I truly feel I can be myself!

Favourite episode? Hard question with no easy answer but I'm gonna have to go with "the perfect pear" from season 7 

[Twilight Luna 31,355]

@Twilight Sparkle Everypony here thanks you and your friends for showing all of us how magical friendship really is.  

[SDP40F amtrak 2,447]

Well happy birthday mlp 

Sorry I was late

[Misty Shadow 7,861]

I wish everyone the best anniversary possible! My story is something I've already shared a lot, but I'll tell it again just because I love you all that much...

I became a brony way back in 2011, when the MLP fad was at the peak of its popularity. The craze hit the old forum I used to frequent before I moved onto this one, and at first, like many, I didn't understand the appeal initially. My first thought was that they were just joking around and when I later learned that they legitimately did like the show, I thought it had something to do with the franchise becoming "darker and more serious". But to my surprise, the Friendship is Magic show was still fairly lighthearted and cute for the most part, so I was still confused for a while. Eventually, however, I started to see something unique in the show that kept me attached to it and got me to become invested in the characters. It was optimistic, it inspired me to be a better person, it reminded me of early SpongeBob with talking ponies ( ), and it opened me up to an amazing new experience with an amazing new community. I joined here in 2012, but I didn't get really engaged with the site until 2013-2014, and by then, as we all know, MLP was nowhere near as popular as it used to be. I wasn't feeling the same spark, so I started only stopping by at an infrequent pace, eventually only coming to post my thoughts on the new episodes in 2017 for the most part. However, a fallout with some of my old friends earlier this year caused me to have somewhat of an epiphany, that being that if I want to be happy, I need to be willing to put my 100% into what I love. I can't wait for love from this community to come to me. Even if things were to not work out here, I'd still be proud of what I did for the community that gave me my spark. 

But I have to point out that "anniversary" is misspelled "anniversay" in the title.  Still love you all though. 

 

[Ganondorf8 11,297]

Now I feel even older than I do now but I suppose this is to be expected given that I was only 31 when I joined the fandom at the time. Coincidentally, my five year anniversary of being in the fandom was roughly a couple of days ago--the exact day is blurry to me due to other things that were happening in my life--so I have a double celebration of sorts. Granted, it was Equestria Girls that got me here so I suppose I can also celebrate five years of that--albeit late as the fifth anniversary for EQG was back in June.

[Sunlight Glisten 368]

My daughter found the show because it was one of the only ones on the child friendly Netflix list. She loved it as a 4 year old and I would notice it on and watched a few. It was when applejack and rarity had a sleepover at twilight's that got me hooked. I'm new to the forum and just joined this past summer. Facebook was getting old and rather upsetting to be on, then all of a sudden ponies became the beacon of hope in our dark world. Love the energy of the forum and how encouraging everyone is. I self identify as big mac. I don't like talkin, I run a farm, and yes I do own apple trees. 

[DonMaguz 1,023]

I started watching FiM the last week of 2016, it hook me at 'The Ticket Master' episode and started to really love the show watching 'The Cutie Mark Chronicles' (when I realized that I loved the characters).

I started to search for fandom pages once I caught up with S6 finale and have been watching regularly from S7 premiere.

Congratulations to FiM for 8 years of pone madness. 

[Rarity 262]

Good afternoon Darlings. Eight whole years already? What is your favorite pony outfits? Do you have clothing you could show off that is MLP in nature? We'd love to see it. 

 

[Acons 43]

I don't remember the exact day when I became a brony, but I think it was in Spring of 2013 (April, I think). But I knew of MLP long time ago, maybe in 2011 (but then MLP didn't caught my attention). I used to see some MLP-related things while searching and looking things (I don't even remember what) in Deviantart, some wikias, forums, etc... But it was in Early 2013, when lurking some forums, MLP and its fandom started to caughting my attention. I started watching episodes and the fandom, I loved them and from then to now... Here I am

Have a Happy Anniversary, MLP:FiM! 

[The Recherche 29,968]

2 hours ago, Rarity said:

Do you have clothing you could show off that is MLP in nature? We'd love to see it. 

I do! Appropriately enough, they are both based on yours truly.

Spoiler

 

Spoiler

Needless to say, these are my go-to loungewear, whenever I am feeling like a couch potato.

[Sparklefan1234 170,285]

5 hours ago, Twilight Sparkle said:

Hey Everypony. Thanks for celebrating the 8th anniversary.  I really can't believe it's been that long since I started to learn the magic of friendship.  

 

You're Welcome, Princess Twilight! 

 

3 hours ago, Applejack said:

Hey there Sugarcubes. How about we share our favorite episodes over the last eight years? Thank ya kindly for the support along the way. 

 

1. Look Before You Sleep
2. Sisterhooves Social
3. Magical Mystery Cure
4. Testing, Testing 123
5. Amending Fences
6. Gauntlet of Fire
7. The Perfect Pear 
8. On the Road to Friendship

 

18 minutes ago, Rarity said:

Good afternoon Darlings. Eight whole years already? What is your favorite pony outfits? Do you have clothing you could show off that is MLP in nature? We'd love to see it. 

 

Easy!  

[BornAgainBrony 2,397]

If I could change one thing about my past, it would be the thing that kept me away from all of this until 2018. My life would be a vastly different story. That sounds as weird to me as it does to all of you, and if anyone had even told me two years ago that I would be involved in this, I would've said they were crazy. Some of you may have heard this tale before but I wrote it during a dark turn filled with regret about how much I missed out on. I hope you're ready for a bit of Twilight Zone (no, not the Pony... the other Twilight... no, not the Vampire either... the other OTHER... Twilight)

*************************************************************************

A year ago I was in nearly the worst place imaginable. Ten years of taking care of a (seemingly) terminally ill and abusive wife, who then abandoned me after she got involved in a religious cult. I was pretty much done. I had already gotten heavily into drinking because of her, and being dumped after everything I did for her was pretty much enough to convince me that all love was ultimately a hoax. The drinking only got worse and I really didn't care what became of me anymore. After decades of searching for an elusive idea that constantly beckoned me, and finding nothing, I had no reason to be around anymore.

But there was this friend... someone I only knew online. It's strange thinking back on it now because this friend; I only met because I once saw a bizarre rainbow in 2005 that didn't fit with the physics of any atmospheric phenomenon I've researched. Yeah, I know. I wish I was kidding about that. No, there wasn't a sonic blast . I've made the joke though that we got simultaneous cutie marks, and for how much we've helped each other out of the darkest of times, the metaphor actually works. But... I had lost contact with her when I got involved with the demon spawn who I eventually married. Nearly ten years later, she managed to track me down without either of us ever having known the real name of the other. It was like nothing had changed. We were exactly as we had been all those years ago, and just picked up where we left off. One of our big things was always writing interactive stories, and we jumped right into that again with a rewrite of Kindgom Hearts where we could pick the crucial dimensions from any IP's we wanted. One of the ones she really said she wanted to do was Equestria. I was like... "Seriously?" I didn't say anymore about it, almost dreading since it was one of the last places we were going to get to, and I said, "You realize I've never seen this show, right?" She said, "That's alright, we'll have it take place after the first couple episodes."

...yeeeeah. Here's the part of the story that ALL of you know automatically.

So I watched the first couple of episodes seasons.

It started to get interesting. I had frozen my heart to everything, thinking I had lost the capacity to feel any deep emotions without it calling up all the pain I had already gone through, like any time I tried to feel, all of the bad memories would come creeping in and begin a relentless assault. But somehow I felt myself caring again. Feeling true, deep emotions, for these little pastel ponies, along with one very insane crush. I've been a fan of countless shows before, some that I was hardcore into for years, and never experienced anything like this. And the weirdness wasn't done yet.

May 3, 2018 was when I met Tirek. It started out entertaining and dramatic like any of the heavier episodes, and then it turned scary. The three tribes losing their power one at a time, loss of control over weather and land leading to widespread famine. 5 of the 6 captured. Dammit, he made Fluttershy cry! Discord captured. Celestia, Luna, and Cadence, all powerless. It felt real, like it really mattered. I was genuinely afraid, sad, and angry. This was something I hadn't experienced since I was very little. It wasn't a show anymore. In classic "not knowing what you have till you're about to lose it" fashion, I suddenly felt like it was my own home that was being threatened. The logical rules of storytelling that I'd known for decades flew out the window, and I was fully immersed, which just set the stage flawlessly for everything that came next.

Coming down off the crazy rollercoaster of emotions, I went to sleep and sometime in the mid-morning, I remember dreaming that I saw a full moon, with brilliantly-lit clouds in the sky, and one of the clouds morphed into the shape of an Alicorn. With how I felt the rest of that day, I have very little doubt that there was a lot more to that dream than I remember. I felt lost. Displaced in reality, time, and space. A feeling I hadn't experienced in quite a while with all the chaos of the past decade, but something I knew all too well from my childhood and teen years. I had already seen that FMV of Luna singing, "Come Little Children," and I must've played it ten times that day with this very simple feeling of wanting to go home.

The events that followed over the next couple weeks and months are somewhat of a blur, and it was something that would've taken psychological counseling decades to unravel. Answers to all of the internal struggles I had. Some things about myself I even figured out or resolved through listening to Brony music. "Pink Side of the Moon" became my big mistake in losing contact with my best friend, and all the damage done by that mistake, into crystal clarity. "Fall of an Empire" somehow got me over my failed marriage. Emotionally, mentally, I was completely overwhelmed by everything that was happening. I felt twenty years younger. I had nearly infinite energy. For once, the first time I can recall in MANY years, I felt excited for the future, or even just the idea that there could be one worth having.

Possibly the most crucial part of all though? As a child, growing up on similar cartoons with similar lessons, I always felt like an alien in this world. There was no internet, and there wasn't much but a microcosm of bullies where everything that didn't conform to the strict gender norm was a thing to be destroyed. For all I knew, I was the only one who took any of those cartoon lessons to heart. And that impacted my entire life, this feeling of being the only one. I found no deep compassion and nobody who knew how to just have silly "Pinkie" fun (except my wife who proved to be a phony). It took a long time but my real self slowly retreated into a hole in the ground and put a rock on top, since it had found no place to be. I started realizing what Ponies was about, and what the Brony thing was all about. It was the world I had been seeking for the greater part of my life and had become convinced could never, EVER exist on this screwed up planet. The traumas and burdens that I had carried with me, some since early childhood, all slowly melted away. There was an inner peace and tranquility that was entirely new to me, "Have to's" were replaced with "want to's." I felt "reborn," hence my selection of a username. I had sampled numerous flavors of religion and spirituality throughout life, hearing all the stories of how people felt when they converted. I never got that feeling, and not through lack of trying. And then of all bizarre things, it happened completely by accident, with freaking PONIES!

Fast forward a couple more months and it's all amazing. After my teen years, I always thought I was anti-social and introverted and it turns out the opposite was always true and I was just far-too-often surrounded by toxic people. For a nerdy kid who used to be afraid of his own shadow, I now work in customer service and interact with hundreds of people per day, trying to help make their lives easier and hopefully get a smile out of them. The idea of romance is no longer a necessity because I can feel love and affection without it. In 'another world' I have leaders I would be proud to march with into Valhalla; I have friends there I care infinitely deeply for, and I hope the same will happen with friends I make within this community. Emotionally, I get almost as much from having a Pony waifu as I ever did with dating anyone (not like that, ya perv ). I have projects to work on and stories to write, and something I truly deeply care about and will fight for until the end. I'm going to my first convention at the end of this month, to join a party the likes of which I've never been to before. There isn't a single facet of my life that hasn't been made better by this and I will gladly repay the Ponies and this Community for all that they've given to me. My biggest regret now, is getting here so ridiculously late. Oh, how much better the past 8 years could have been.

Just feel like dropping this here because this song deserves all the attention it can get. Doesn't matter that I've only been here such a short time. It means just as much to me.

Viva La Equestria /)
 

 

Edited October 10, 2018 by bornAgainEquestrian

[MangoFoalix 24,951]

34 minutes ago, Rarity said:

Good afternoon Darlings. Eight whole years already? What is your favorite pony outfits? Do you have clothing you could show off that is MLP in nature? We'd love to see it. 

 

Is rarity secretly a hipster?

On a serious note, I wish I had MLP clothing, but I got rid of them years ago.

[BornAgainBrony 2,397]

3 minutes ago, Bas said:

My thoughts exactly! He is sexy and he knows it.

[O-78 28,606]

I knew about MLP:FiM's existence back when it first premiered in 2010. I was but an eight-year-old boy back then, and back then my favorite shows on TV were SpongeBob SquarePants and some other Nickelodeon shows. Despite the fact that MLP didn't actually air on Nickelodeon, that channel showed lots of commercials for pony toys. My eight-year-old self quickly lumped it in with all the other lame, gross girly toys.

Years passed and I gradually grew out of the Nick shows I'd loved as a little boy. I quickly forgot all about MLP's existence (let's face it, I never really cared about it in the first place), until late 2015 when I was browsing some obscure social media site. i don't remember what site it was, but I came across one user who had the word "brony" in his username, and Trixie as his profile picture. I was curious as to what the word "brony" meant, so I looked it up and discovered that there were actually tons of guys out there who were fans of My Little Pony. I found this... weird, to say the least. I couldn't see why a grown-ass man would like such a girly show. It's safe to say that my 13-year-old self had no interest in joining this "fandom" or whatever it was called.

The websites that I usually spent my Internet time on in 2015-2016 weren't inherently MLP-related, but they were places where a lot of bronies hung out. I saw more and more bronies in my journeys across the World Wide Web, and by late 2016 I'd actually memorized the names of all six main characters. Still, I had no interest in actually watching the show. I figured there must be some reason why this pony show is so popular, but I just didn't feel like taking the time to find out what it was. Besides, I had no need for fictional females in my life. I'd had a real-life crush for more than a year at that point, and I was about ready to ask her out.

So on the 21st of November in 2016, I asked this girl out, and she rejected me and then never really spoke to me again. I was crushed. I felt like crap for about a month, and only really became my usual self again when Christmas came around. During early 2017, I developed another real-life crush, but never came close to even becoming friends with her, because it was obvious that she didn't really like me. This got me thinking - if no real girls want me, maybe I should get to know some fictional girls. Yeah, I was more than a bit girl-crazy back then, and now that I look back on it, kind of stupid in some ways. Seriously, you don't need to have a girlfriend in middle school.

So in May of 2017, sometime during Memorial Day weekend, I found the first episode of MLP:FiM online and watched it in its entirety. Then I moved on to the second, and then the third, and then the fourth, and so on. By the seventh episode I knew there was no turning back.

Right from the first episode, I liked Fluttershy immediately. Her demure, natural beauty and adorableness, her soft, angelic voice, and her love for animals really spoke to me. Going in, I was actually expecting Pinkie Pie to be my favorite, as most of my crushes up to that point had had personalities similar to Pinkie. It was close between her and Fluttershy in the beginning, but Fluttershy's cutie mark story and her song in Episode 23 was what sealed her place as my favorite pony. And she was even more than just that - I started having deeper feelings for the yellow pegasus. Feelings that I had experienced with my real-life crushes. Feelings that made me just want to never stop looking at her and listening to her beautiful voice. Feelings that made me want to hug her and kiss her and just feel her warm body against mine. Feelings that made me jealous whenever I saw fanart of her and a stallion. I'd heard about "waifus" in passing, and never saw the point of them. But thinking about Fluttershy, I realized that "Oh my gosh. I have a waifu now."

Identifying myself as a brony felt strange at first, but I soon grew comfortable with the term, and I'm so glad I did. Becoming a brony has bettered me in so many ways. I discovered an amazing show that I never thought I would enjoy, I've learned not to sweat the small stuff, and I'm just a much happier person from having found these adorable little ponies. I've had many favorite shows and favorite characters in the past - Donald and Douglas from Thomas the Tank Engine being the most prominent example (Seriously, I've known these two my whole childhood and I love them to bits! I actually named my YouTube account after Douglas.) - but as far as forming a deep, unbreakable bond with the character and the show they live in, Fluttershy has been unlike any other. She brought me out of a relatively barren time in my life, and the feelings I have for her are stronger than any I've ever felt for any of my real-life crushes. Fluttershy filled a hole in my heart, and for that I will always love her. Even if I'm 16 and I'm supposed to be a horny teenage boy trying to hook up with teenage girls, that really doesn't matter to me now. As long as I have Fluttershy, I'll be happy just the way I am.

[NathanW200 306]

@shyabetes3939 Wow, you wrote a long post.

 

[O-78 28,606]

Just now, NathanW200 said:

wow you wrote a long post

Well, I do have a pretty long story when it comes to MLP. Funny how I've only been a brony for about a year and a half, and yet I've known about it ever since it first premiered.