Nine Years of Friendship

[Jedishy 3,542]

The 9 year anniversary of My Little Pony FIM is today. We have spent a long time as a fandom loving these characters and soon their stories will be over as far as the show is concerned. But for us this fandom lives on as long as we are here to share the friendship and moments that made it great. 

So today please share what moments, characters, fellow fans, and even fanfiction that made you love these ponies. 

[ExplosionMare 18,007]

I was wondering when someone would say this cause I thought I was the only one who remembered.

 

Happy 9th, MLP!

[Will Guide 21,325]

Here's a nice recap that goes up to the Season 9 premiere.

 

[Rikifive 23,469]

What made me love ponies?

The first Equestria Girls movie that was randomly aired on tv...

... I watched it without even knowing what ponies are about and loved it...

... A year later my pc broke and out of boredom I was browsing yt....

Random parodies eventually led me to 'Batman meets My Little Pony', it made me curious, I watched it, laughed, searched for more... Also saw Snowdrop and my little Dashie in meanwhile... And....

... I ended up watching Equestria Girls again, then second movie, then again both, and again, eventually getting into ponies.

The first episode i found and tried was 'winter wrap up' and... Oh.. there was no hope for me to escape, had to get into it from the very beginning. ;P Binge watched all 4 seasons that were available back then. I was jobless at that time, so i literally spent ALL day everyday watching mlp...

Good times. 

PS Poor grammar and stuff? I blame typing on phone. 

[Sparklefan1234 161,556]

Even though it took me until episode three to become a fan of FiM, the thing that drew me in was how likable all of the characters were. 

 

My first BIG moment as a fan after catching up with the series was Twilight Sparkle becoming an Alicorn &

 

seeing her "earn her wings" made me feel very proud.

Edited October 10, 2019 by Sparklefan1234

[Lucky Bolt 34,914]

The very first episode I watched from start to finish of MLP FIM was The Mysterious Mare Do Well back when it premiered in 2011. Little did I know, that show was the start of a journey that changed my life for the better. It wasn't until 2014 when I officially joined the fandom and started watching more episodes, and then two years after that I joined MLP Forums. Since then, I've met some wonderful people through this fandom who are now the most important people in my life.  

Since I watched that episode back in 2011, to now, I've grown older, wiser, transitioned from a child to a young adult. MLP FIM has been with me every step of the way. And with that, I give a big thank you and congratulations to the show. Happy birthday MLP FIM! Thanks for keeping these past 9 years the happiest. 

[Prince Doopliss 2,350]

This video made me first love the show! Well other than Friendship is Magic 1&2 and well season 1 as a whole. Though Return of Harmony 1&2 what actually truly started it as obsession of mine! Though I first interacted with the fandom on November 21, 2011!

Happy 9 Year Anniversary MLP: FiM!

Edited October 10, 2019 by Prince Doopliss

[Ganondorf8 11,117]

As I've always said, if not for Equestria Girls, I wouldn't have become a part of the fandom. Some accidents can end up being a real pleasure.

[Dawn-Sunlight 1,228]

Well, it was a show on Netflix I was into when I was younger my first episode was season 1, episode 7 Dragonshy, and then I had no way of watching MLP for a while because back then I lived under a rock and my family got rid of Netflix, and then I rediscovered MLP on Netflix again when we got it back, and my little brother started watching EQG and while at first I was strongly against seeing it, as I thought the humified ponies looked weird, he eventually pulled me into watching Rainbow Rocks, and I said, "Hey, I actually like this, and this sin't the first movie, can we watch the first movie?"  OK, that's not actually what I said, but it was something close to what I thought at the time.  Believe it or not, I actually could not remember Sunset's name at first and I kept getting it confused with Starlight, who at the time I had seen a little bit of but not much.  I left MLP at season 3 and came back in the middle of season 8, and slowly but surely I got around to watching all of the episodes.  I'm glad I came back, or I would have never seen Cozy Glow, Sunset Shimmer, Smolder, The Dazzlings, or cute puppy Spike.  This is really the first fandom thing I've interacted with.

[Cash In 21,465]

I've known about the show since 2015, due to liking some fanwork that was up on YouTube. Though it wasn't until two years later where I actually began watching it. It was all due to curiousity on my part, after seeing clips from the first Equestria Girls film. I was very surprised at how much I enjoyed it and found myself connecting to the central character a lot more than I had imagined -- that would be Twilight Sparkle of course. 

[Oleks 1,983]

I decided to give MLP a try in 2015 when I needed something positive and cheerful in my life. I got hooked after watching 5 first episodes, and binged the whole 4 seasons in a few weeks. I loved the characters, the world, the animation, the humor and lessons of the show, and I particularly enjoyed all the references and hidden jokes meant for older audience. MLP FiM restored my faith in modern animation and helped me discover many more great cartoons. And then I discovered the fandom and all its amazing creations. I know I joined after the fandom passed its peak, but I witnessed some great things anyway. So, ponies – and their fans – made my life a little better, I’m happy I’m a brony, and I’ll never forget all the great things that My Little Pony brought into my life. Happy anniversary, everyone! Stay awesome! And long live MLP!

[Ganaram Inukshuk 3,679]

I got introduced to the show by a YTP, so it's a smattering of S1 all at once, and this was in 2011, too!!

Episodes I can recall not necessarily by name (not exhaustive):

• S1
  • S01E01, S02E02
  • The one with the Cutie Mark Crusaders
  • The one with the phoenix
  • The one with the hydra
  • The one with Pinkie Pie being all alone
  • The one with the tickets to the gala
  • The one with the parasprites
  • The one with Gilda
  • The one where the mane six met each other before they met each other
  • The one where Applejack refuses help
  • The one where they clean up winter
  • The one with... I forgot her name so I've been calling her the Lady Gaga pony
  • The one with Zecora
  • The one with Trixie
  • The one with Braeburn
  • The one with the gala itself
• S2/S3?
  • S02E01, S02E02
  • The one with the Cake twins
  • The one where Applejack runs away
  • The one where Twilight goes absolutely nuts
  • The one where Pinkie Pie clones herself
  • The one with Babs Seed
  • The one with the bugs
  • The one with Candy Distribution Night
  • The one where Twi becomes a princess
• S8/S9
  • The one where I thought Fluttershy replaced her personality with a goth version of herself but as it turns out, she did, but with two additional Fluttershys (this got me back into the show for real)
  • The one with the kirins
  • The one where Starlight and Trixie go on a road trip
  • S09E01, S09E02
  • The one where the students investigate the remains of the tree
  • The one where Starlight gets a houseplant
• Episodes I only have fragmentary knowledge about
  • The one where the students face their fears
  • The cheerleading episode
  • The student six holiday special
  • The one with Maud Pie
  • The one with Mudbriar
  • The one with Thorax and Ember
  • The one with Thorax and Pharynx
  • S08E01, S08E02
  • The one with Thorax facing off against Chrysalis
  • The one with the backstory behind Applejack's parents
• Episodes I'm generally curious about
  • The aforementioned episodes from the previous category
  • The one(s) with Gabby involved
  • The one(s) involving the greater Apple-Pie family

I still wanna give Gally-birb a hug.

[Early Sunsets 2,106]

I'm not actually sure what makes me love MLP and its community. To quote an anime, "The only thing I understand is the result, not the reason." All I know is it makes me feel incredibly happy, and that's all I need to understand.

I started watching MLP because of a long series of barely related events. My freshman year of high school marching band (summer of 2014, if I can count correctly), someone introduced me to the show. We'd never talked before hand so I had no idea why he asked if I'd ever seen it, but I gave it a shot anyway and watched three or four episodes on Dailymotion. I stopped after that, though, partially because episodes were hard to find and partially because it was only mildly interesting to me at the time (I deeply regret not giving it more of a chance back then).

A few years later, I found out a close friend of mine on a different forum watched MLP, and while I didn't try watching the episodes again, I think it at least improved my opinion of the show and its audience.

Fast forward to late last summer, and my half-sister gave me the login to her Netflix account and said I could use while I was at ODU. I found a few good shows and movies on there, and even saw MLP once while browsing my recommended shows (I think it showed up because I watched a few episodes of Skylanders and a bunch of Disney movies). I didn't think too much of it and went on with my life, but I subconsciously filed that away in the back of my mind.

November of 2018 was when the old football stadium at ODU got torn down. When we moved out the instruments and stuff, all of the band members signed the walls in the tiny space under the stands where we kept all the instruments and uniforms (roughly 1k square feet to hold 200 instruments, uniforms, and band members. It was cramped), and on one of the walls in silver sharpie was a giant drawing of Pinkie Pie. I didn't want to stare at it and make people to think I watched MLP or anything, so I nonchalantly took a picture of that entire half of the room, went home to my dorm, and looked at the drawing more closely. I don't remember what was written next to the drawing and I'll never know since that phone died in a puddle and I didn't back up my data like an idiot, but what I do know is I decided to give the show another shot because of that, and I'm so glad I did.

Over the next month I quickly became obsessed with the show. I'd watch episodes whenever my roommate wasn't around (I think we said maybe twenty words total to each other the entire year), and when winter break came around, I binged almost six entire seasons in one week, I think. I basically woke up, watched MLP in the background while I worked on my saxophone the entire day, then went to sleep at night. It was during that break when I also joined the forums (I was sad the show had one season left and I wanted other people to share my sorrows with), so those few weeks were just a massive life-changer for me, and I'm so glad that it all happened.

[Splashee 28,537]

My memory will always be the megathreads on every forum I went to at the time. Only one thread was needed, and there were so many pages even the poor moderators were like "come on, we can't read through all of this, you gotta find another place to talk about ponies, this is a forum about blah blah".

And all the rainbow dash avatars. Just wow, everywhere, not only for bronies, but random people using them as well. Take this, a default pony-pega-whatever with rainbow mane! That's unique right?

And the Youtube-comments battles. In every mlp video, there were haters, and there were intense debates.

 

I was hooked after I was told by a Youtube video why I should accept MLP. I think when I saw Q from Star Trek was in it, and the live Reacts to Season 2 Finale that seemed somewhat popular and intense, I started watching the show myself from the start. And by "Winter Wrap Up" song, I was emotionally connected to the show. And with CMC episodes, I had some continuity to look forward to.

 

But, over the cause of 9 years, I would only count the big events as Twilight getting wings, Bonbon and Lyra playing piano together closely, and me joining this forum. Anything else is just a blur

[TBD 17,226]

Man, it has been a great run for MLP show, hate to see it end. But hey, now we will all look forward to G5 and hell, MLPF will still be here so what's to be sad about? 

[Denim&Venöm 16,438]

I'd like to thank this character for inspiring me to give this show a chance. 

You're still a queen to me. 

[Brony Number 42 9,884]

Here is chapter 1 of my fan fic. I'm so busy and lazy and I don't work on it as much as I need to. 

 

[Patty Thundersnow 4,129]

Rainbow Dash, weirdly enough, got me interested in this show. Started off with a quick little video of Rainbow laughing at Twilight in the series premiere that got me interested in the show. But, it's been the fandom that has kept me loving this show. I've read some great fanfiction, such as Fallout Equestria, that has inspired me to write my own fallout crossover. 

[KH7672 1,604]

@Ganaram Inukshuk you have no idea how much I laughed at your reply. Are you sure you weren't watching FRIENDS(hip is Magic) ! I love it as it brings back the comparisons between the two shows that were prevalent in the early seasons of the Mane 6 and in the spirit of yours I want to just say my experience and favorites in the same style for fun.

I got introduced to the show by:

The One With the Pastery Mystery was the first episode I saw followed by The One With Twilight's Brother's Wedding (Part 1&2). I was intrigued but wasn't ready to admit I liked it yet. Then the summer hit and I turned it on again to watch The One Where Spike Pet-sits and it's sister episode The One With the Wrong Inspector. Then I watched The One Where Twilight Becomes a Princess. And finally The One (Movie) Where They're in High-School.  It's crazy to think that was one of the first things I watched and wasn't turned off. Although I didn't dare watch anymore going off to college soon. But when I came back one break I turned it back on to see The One With The Breezies and The One Where Apple Bloom is Home Alone. I was hooked and when I officially came back for summer I watched the rest.

And as the years went by I grew to love the show and get really involved in the fandom and some specific characters grew on me like Sweetie Belle with a previous favorite of mine being The One With Sweetie Belle's Dreams. Pinkie Pie who I latched on immediately with the first episode but also subsequent episodes like The One With Pinkie Being All Alone and The One With The Other Party Pony. Also for the first several seasons I grew to love the Antagonistic behavior of Diamond Tiara especially in episodes like The One With The School Newspaper and The One Where Scootaloo Can't Fly. Of course season 5 was when I started watching the show as it aired starting with The One With The Friendship Cult (Part 1&2) and was permanently enamored with Starlight Glimmer. Actually that wasn't until Season 6 because even I was kinda neutral on The One With the Time Travelling Revenge. But once I saw The One Where the Alicorn Baby Destroys the Crystal Heart and The One With Starlight's New Friend I was sold on her especially after The One With The Brainwashing Spell and The One With Secondary Characters Rescue Party which I still defend to this day along with her character.

I can't wait to see what's next in the franchise and hopefully will enjoy what still to come as well, but hey there's always fan works.

Edited October 11, 2019 by KH7672

[Live Spark 163]

Happy 9th Birthday Friendship is Magic! Even though your time on our screens is coming to an end in a couple days, I just wanna say thanks for all the memories you have given me over the years!

[Jeric 46,834]

The moment rarity became by favorite character

 

 

Good times good times. 

[Deae Rising Shine~ 52,283]

My first real interaction with them pones was somewhere between 2010 and 2013. little brother watching nickelodeon who showed mlp in german. of course i didnt really cared and did my stuff.

Around end 2012-Begin 2013, i was for a while in a german trophyhunter forum. One of my best online pals - dunno how he is nowadays, hes not really on anymore - who is/was a big fan of Rockstargames(He even platinumed all of there games that existed at the time, from midnight club over RDR1, i think even max payne 3) and was visually known for the R* Games logo he had as a pfp ... well until one day, when he came to the spam-thread...with a Flutters pfp.

As imaginable, lotta jokes and stuff happened, some more serious, others not so, like me. He knows it's all jokes and never went mad or anything.

This escalated to a point, that the thread became like a semi-RP where we tried to ight thhem characters to save him and stuff. long story short, as a plan, i said i want to make peace and started watching from the beginning to find there weaknesses - in english as he mentioned its much better - - in a time you easily could watch all episodes in 1080p on YT - but after few episodes, i realized, this wasn't so bad afterall and i liked it. so i ended up watching secretly all 3 seasons, with best rainbow pone becoming best pone.

And so i had my ups and downs

Spring-Winter 2013: Also finding EQG, reading my first mlp fic, whiich i think where the My little dashie ones and getting in the forum into trouble with 3 -ahem- not so nice user, literally bullying me for months

22nd november 2013: Big brother comes back after yeears on the trophy forum and notices my pony pfp, deciding to make it open that im a fan

4th february 2014: Joining here

and probably more im lazy to think up too, lol

tomorrow or sunday is the day, one last time new episode(s)...

[Will Guide 21,325]

To be honest, most of the post I made for How and When You First Became a Brony topic around the time I started using this site contains some of my thoughts on this:

Huge response so I shall use quote boxes

First about my reaction to the opening Season 1 episodes:

Quote

In the Summer of 2012 between Seasons 2 and 3 of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, all the available episodes were viewable via Netflix. I decided back then to watch the first few episodes. Before even watching, I only knew of it from what MAD parodied of it on Cartoon Network (Cowboys and Alien Force, My Little War Horse, and My Little PWNY episodes) and only barely remember that forgettable theme song of the older generation from a single commercial that aired long before 2010.

 

So when I started with the first 2 episodes via Netflix, I didn't know what I was going to expect of it! -_- After seeing the opening story that Twilight was reading, the theme song started to play and when I heard the words "My Little Pony, My Little Pony" the same way as that old commercial, I expected myself to be turned off by it! Buuuuuuuuuuuuut... as soon as that 30 second theme song took a more upbeat tone compared to what I barely remembered from the commercial, I smiled a little, thinking "I'm going to give this a chance!"

Almost instantly, I related to Twilight Sparkle, as the other ponies established that it seems she'd much rather study than make friends. When Spike was introduced, especially with his flame breath ability to send and receive letters, I realized that this show might not be as girly as I thought.

 

When Twilight (and I) first met Fluttershy and Pinkie (officially at the party), I immediately found most of myself within Fluttershy's quiet withdrawal (esp. when Spike showed up and she excitedly opened up) and Pinkie's long-winded, excited explanation for throwing Twilight a "Welcome to Ponyville Party" (We're both Motor Mouths at times)

 

After Nightmare Moon showed up and the Mane 6 had to go through the Everfree Forest to find the Elements of Harmony to stop her, I didn't want to stop. I wanted to know if and how they'll succeed! 

Eventually When it was just Twilight and NMM facing off each other alone and it seemed that the spark didn't work and NMM apparently destroyed the Elements, I--as was Twilight--was in a brief state of hopelessness until the Mane 5 arrived. As Twilight gave her speech to NMM, my mind was thinking, "Awww, Twilight you've learned so much in one day"  and "Something awesome is going to happen!"  When the Elements of Harmony were restored and used by the Mane 6 to defeat Nightmare Moon, I was greatly satisfied! When Celestia showed up, told Twilight about how making friends really did saved Equestria, and asked a restored Luna to come back (which of course, she did), I had to officially say that this show was better than I thought!

And so throughout a week in mid April 2013 I binge watched the rest of the show up to the end of Season 3 via Netflix. When Twilight became an Alicorn Princess, I was hooked even more despite the drama going on in the fanbase at the time. I offically called myself a Brony and have been one to this day. 

Every time a new season played out I thought it was going to be the last season. Like, I thought the show was going to end after 4 seasons. Now imagine my surprise today that the show has run for 9 seasons, meaning I've been a Brony for 2/3rds of the show's entire run. That is the surprise that impressed me the most right now. It's been a long but fun ride spending time with all these charcters in these worlds every week. I would thank them all.

[Flutterstep 46,169]

The first episode I watched was Secret of My Excess, and honesty, I never found it weird that older people watched the show. Cartoons are designed for adults as much as they are for kids nowadays, since they usually have to watch them in company. I knew Edd Gould and TomSka were fans of the show so I had to check it out.

Anyway, what got me hooked was this strange nostalgic parallel. The red heart-shaped gem Spike gives to Rarity was very familiar... it reminded me the red heart-shaped gem used in Church the Rockdog, an episode from My Little Pony 'n Friends that I watched as a kid. A 1986 reference shown in a 2011 episode seemed far fetched, but regardless it got me to watch the show.

Dispite Dragonshy almost turning me right off, I got though it and next thing you know it, I had finished the whole season. I really enjoyed the show, so I continued watching.

I don’t really know why I joined a forum for this. I guess I wanted to talk about the show to others since I don’t know anyone who would openly talk about it without feeling embarrassed. It’s a good thing I did though. This place has to be the most friendly environment on the internet! Even now that I don’t watch the show anymore as it’s not available to me, I still come on here to interact with people.

I’m glad this show has lasted as long as it has. I still have so much to look forward too and then there’s the next generation which I’m sure will be great. 

[Prince Doopliss 2,350]

Also these fan made AMV of FiM with Weird Al's polka mixes. Little did I know back in 2011 how much I would love the show and how much I  this show. Nor did I know Weird Al would eventually actually appear as a voice on the show either.