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[[Image:FIM.jpg|right|350px|thumb|I think this is triggering my epilepssdffshaghahtaj]]
[[Image:FIM.jpg|right|350px|thumb|I think this is triggering my epilepssdffshaghahtaj]]
The '''My Little Pony''' franchise consists of a series of toys and cartoons created and owned by [[Hasbro]] (yes, [[Wizards of the Coast|that Hasbro]]). As anyone with even a passing familiarity with the subject will know, the target demographic is [[loli|small girls]], and Hasbro generally regards the animated component as an advertisement for the line of toys (just like with [[Transformers]]). The franchise has been around since the eighties and was beginning to lose traction with the economic downturn, but the most recent revision, begun in 2010, has seen an explosion of popularity on the internet, amassing a cult following of adult (or semi-adult) men. There's also a healthy female audience, but they're largely not spoken of, since it's not viewed as weird when girls enjoy lovable, marshmallow horses.


Pony fans are called or refer to themselves as '''bronies''', ponyfags, and a variety of other monikers, and while every enthusiastic fanbase on the Internet tends to sow [[rage|drama]] everywhere they go, the bronies have had their notoriety given a leg up by [[mod|moderator]] temper tantrums and mass banning across 4chan.
{{Topquote|When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.|I Corinthians xiii, 11}}


The '''My Little Pony''' franchise consists of a series of toys and cartoons created and owned by [[Hasbro]] (yes, [[Wizards of the Coast|that Hasbro]]). As anyone <s>with even a passing familiarity with the subject</s> hearing the name will know, the target demographic is [[fa/tg/uy|small girls]], and Hasbro generally regards the animated component as an advertisement for the line of toys (just like [[Transformers]] and <strike>[[Black Library]] books</strike>{{BLAM}}{{BLAM}}{{BLAM}}). The "brony" (an oh-so-clever portmanteau of "bro" and, well, yeah) is a recent(ish) term for, in the strict sense, a male fan of the show. These fans, who originated on and have since gathered considerable infamy on the Internet, are also called or refer to themselves as ponyfags, horsefuckers, and a variety of other monikers, and while every enthusiastic fanbase on the Internet tends to sow [[rage|drama]] everywhere they go, the bronies have had their notoriety given a leg up by [[mod|moderator]] temper tantrums and [[Exterminatus|mass banning]] across 4chan, not to mention the occasional mention in the mainstream media.
[[Image:MyLittlePwny.jpg|left|400px|thumb|Accurate depiction of the reaction of much of the Internets when encountering ponyfags. Why it had to be an [[Ultramarines|ultrasmurf]] though [[Spiritual liege|God only knows]]. I'd dispatch the [[Deathwatch]]. Just to be safe. They are technically [[Xenos]], after all...]]The MLP franchise as such has been around since the eighties and was beginning to lose traction with the economic downturn, but the most recent revision, begun in 2010, has seen an explosion of popularity on the internet (although there was at least one very famous [[Chris-chan|early adopter]]), amassing a cult following not only among ironic hipster young women but of "adult" (or at least putatively adult) men.
Strangely, 40k fans have a strong presence in My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic fandom.  Perhaps simply as a break from grimdark, but often encouraging the purging of heresy and humanity curbstomping ponies.  Basically, the MLP:FiM version of Humanity, Fuck Yeah! is Warhammer 40,000 or its mentality embodied by humans plopped in Equestria.


==A Legacy Typical to 4chan==
==A Legacy Typical to 4chan==
[[Image:MLP01.jpg|right|thumb|This is the true face of the 80s.]]
[[Image:MLP01.jpg|right|200px|thumb|This is the true face of the 80s.]]
When the fourth generation of the My Little Pony Show, led by Lauren Faust, who had a hand in the creation of works like Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends and The PowerPuff Girls, first aired on television, it found itself being discussed on /co/. Whether the first people to talk about the show were male or female is a mystery, but the fact remains that the show itself was vibrant, colorful, and contained some essential elements that have been present in a lot of big cultural phenomena since jobs and money have become more scarce. Namely escapist and romantic themes, including a society where everyone has a role in life thanks to their most prolific talent being stamped on every pony's butts - they almost always wind up working in the right jobs, with unemployment being all but unheard of.
When the fourth generation of the My Little Pony Show, led by Lauren Faust (who had a hand in the creation of works like Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends and The PowerPuff Girls), first aired on television, it found itself being discussed on [[/co/]]. Whether the first people to talk about the show were male or female is a mystery, but the fact remains that the show itself was vibrant, colorful, and contained some essential elements that have been present in a lot of big cultural phenomena since jobs and money have become more scarce. Namely escapist and romantic themes, including a society where everyone has a role in life thanks to their most prolific talent being stamped on every pony's butts - they almost always wind up working in the right jobs, with unemployment being all but unheard of.


However, the show also featured some (possibly unintentional) dark undertones starting off. There were hints of political dissent, infidelity, ponies who couldn't find their talents doomed to a life of carting manure, and an episode that strongly hinted one of the ponies was a lesbian with an inter-species girlfriend. Most of these undercurrents have been all but lost as of the third season, but at the time, these niggling strings proved hilarious for adults to grab hold of to unravel the sweater of the show. An animation error even led fans to invent a character with strabismus, who was later formally adopted into show canon and then subsequently banned by Hasbro corporate - until Hot Topic pointed out tons of money could be made by lifting the character idea from the fans.
[[Image:GrimdarkMLP.jpg|left|250px|thumb|My Grimdark Pony]]
However, the show also featured some (possibly unintentional) dark undertones starting off. There were hints of political dissent, infidelity, ponies who couldn't find their talents doomed to a life of carting manure, and an episode that strongly hinted one of the ponies was a lesbian with an inter-species girlfriend. Most of these undercurrents have been all but lost as of the third season, but at the time, these niggling strings proved hilarious for adults to grab hold of to unravel the sweater of the show. An animation error even led fans to invent a cross-eyed character, who was later formally adopted into show canon and then subsequently banned by Hasbro corporate - until Hot Topic pointed out tons of money could be made by lifting the character idea from the fans.


Growing interest in the show, coupled with a range of expressive screen caps, caused My Little Pony to spill out of /co/. People began using MLP for reaction images, and naturally, this raised a few eyebrows. Threads wound up being derailed as people demanded to know what in the hell they were looking at, and board regulars got tired of seeing it explained all the time. It interrupted discussion because it was confusing and new - some began to get angry for this reason, and others got mad because they simply didn't like seeing a cute girls' cartoon becoming a popular cultural thing on a site known as a den of racism and hatred. It kind of screwed up the rep.
Growing interest in the show, coupled with a range of expressive screen caps, caused My Little Pony to spill out of /co/. People began using MLP for reaction images, and naturally, this raised a few eyebrows. Threads wound up being derailed as people demanded to know what in the hell they were looking at, and board regulars got tired of seeing it explained all the time. It interrupted discussion because it was confusing and new - some began to get angry for this reason, and others got mad because they simply didn't like seeing a cute girls' cartoon becoming a popular cultural thing on a site known as a den of racism and hatred. It kind of screwed up the rep.


[[Image:InsanePinky.jpg|right|150px|thumb|Had the regulars of /mlp/ actually been [[loli|cheery-eyed schoolgirls]], the clusterfuck that has engulfed the entire Internet would never have come to pass.]]
[[Image:InsanePinky.jpg|right|150px|thumb|Had the regulars of /mlp/ actually been [[loli|cheery-eyed schoolgirls]], the clusterfuck that has engulfed the entire Internet would never have come to pass.]]
 
Ultimately, MLP probably would have come and gone in the natural order of things, rising up then waning again between seasons. However, 4chan has, for years now, tolerated increased moderator activity, including overhauls to mod power which allows them to ban larger crowds for smaller infractions; this wouldn't have been a problem if the moderators weren't so bad at using their increased power. 4chan's mods are dumbasses - it is not a secret - and sadly, they felt it was their sacred, sworn duty to make an ultimate decision on whether or not My Little Pony should be discussed on the website. They arbitrarily decided the answer was "no."  
Ultimately, MLP probably would have come and gone in the natural order of things, rising up then waning again between seasons. However, 4chan has, for years now, tolerated increased moderator activity, including overhauls to mod power which allows them to ban larger crowds for smaller infractions; this would haven't been a problem if the moderators weren't so bad at using their increased power. 4chan's mods are dumbasses - it is not a secret - and sadly, they felt it was their sacred, sworn duty to make an ultimate decision on whether or not My Little Pony should be discussed on the website. <strike> They arbitrarily decided the answer was "no". </strike> (They made an MLP board. Admittedly though it has too much porn which makes it close to unbearable for normal fans to post.)


Thus began the show's meteoric rise, with the conflict between mods and the show's growing fanbase attracting all the more attention and sparking up debates across multiple boards. Posting Pony-related content of any type became a bannable offense everywhere and users began to take sides; ponies quickly became a tool for trolling mods and those in the opposing camps, and needless to say, it all became a complete clusterfuck. It was essentially 4chan moderation at its finest, and the final result is a lingering, yet slowly passing aftertaste where many remember a time that they could not get away from My Little Pony if they visited 4chan at all.
Thus began the show's meteoric rise, with the conflict between mods and the show's growing fanbase attracting all the more attention and sparking up debates across multiple boards. Posting Pony-related content of any type became a bannable offense everywhere and users began to take sides; ponies quickly became a tool for trolling mods and those in the opposing camps, and needless to say, it all became a complete clusterfuck. It was essentially 4chan moderation at its finest, and the final result is a lingering, yet slowly passing aftertaste where many remember a time that they could not get away from My Little Pony if they visited 4chan at all.
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My Little Pony was allowed a ''single'' thread on /co/. It was not the first time that a general thread was used to contain something the moderators did not like to see, but it is a notable landmark in 4chan history, since the use of general threads for the mods' benefit has expanded greatly as a practice afterward. Users went along with it, since it was better than a universal ban; a script was created that directed people to the general threads, which were very active and populated by numerous artists, including /tg/'s own Weaver, the man responsible for Ruby Quest, then going by the name "Glitter Glue".
My Little Pony was allowed a ''single'' thread on /co/. It was not the first time that a general thread was used to contain something the moderators did not like to see, but it is a notable landmark in 4chan history, since the use of general threads for the mods' benefit has expanded greatly as a practice afterward. Users went along with it, since it was better than a universal ban; a script was created that directed people to the general threads, which were very active and populated by numerous artists, including /tg/'s own Weaver, the man responsible for Ruby Quest, then going by the name "Glitter Glue".


[[Image:FurryInANutshell.jpg|left|thumb|This cartoon is about [[furries]], but pretty much describes Bronydom just as well, which is sort of a sister or subsidiary fandom, but one that's a rung or three even lower in the spergy social hierarchy than the [[Chakat|Kirk-as-an-Erotic-ocelot]] crowd]]
Unfortunately, the mods were still idiots. Occasionally, 4chan staff would pop in and delete the general thread, which caused chaos. The only possible result was that countless new threads would pop up and almost the entire front page of /co/ would be attempts to recreate "MLP General". 4chan staff would go on banning the new threads ad nauseum, and users would find it impossible to establish a proper, organized thread that followed the rules. This caused various forms of rebellion - sometimes the general thread would be completely relocated to a different 4chan board where mods didn't seem to be as active. There the new general would stay, irritating the locals, until the mods left and the people were allowed to reorganize again.
Unfortunately, the mods were still idiots. Occasionally, 4chan staff would pop in and delete the general thread, which caused chaos. The only possible result was that countless new threads would pop up and almost the entire front page of /co/ would be attempts to recreate "MLP General". 4chan staff would go on banning the new threads ad nauseum, and users would find it impossible to establish a proper, organized thread that followed the rules. This caused various forms of rebellion - sometimes the general thread would be completely relocated to a different 4chan board where mods didn't seem to be as active. There the new general would stay, irritating the locals, until the mods left and the people were allowed to reorganize again.


This ongoing strife of argumentation, kicking the fandom hive, and the growing size of the fandom itself eventually forced the mods to come up with a plan so that they could have things their way while still resolving the problem. Unwilling to admit that their actions were at odds with 4chan itself due to the numerous effects of the abuse, Moot and the moderators once again established a global ban on My Little Pony. But this time, Moot offered an apology which proved empty over time, and he created a new board where the show was to be discussed exclusively. The board was called /mlp/.
This ongoing strife of argumentation, kicking the fandom hive, and the growing size of the fandom itself eventually forced the mods to come up with a plan so that they could have things their way while still resolving the problem. Unwilling to admit that their actions were at odds with 4chan itself due to the numerous effects of the abuse, Moot and the moderators once again established a global ban on My Little Pony. But this time, Moot offered an apology which proved empty over time, and he created a new board where the show was to be discussed exclusively. The board was called /mlp/.


So surprisingly, the pony fandom has had a huge impact on 4chan in general and can be inferred to have caused Moot to rethink the way he runs the site in some degrees. Not in a positive direction - he merely works on ways to slow 4chan down to make it easier for his staff to control everything so that he'll never have to admit a tactical loss to his userbase again.
So surprisingly, the pony fandom has had a huge impact on 4chan in general and can be inferred to have caused Moot to rethink the way he runs the site in some degrees. Not in a positive direction, sadly - he merely works on ways to slow 4chan down to make it easier for his staff to control everything so that he'll never have to admit a tactical loss to his userbase again.


==On [[:/tg/]]==
==From Meme to Subculture==
[[Image:NothingIsSafeFromTheirTaint.jpg|left|350px|thumb|{{BLAM|Where to even begin with this... [[Extra Heresy|I simply have no words.]]}} {{BLAM}}]]In terms of "mainstream" reception, the MLP fandom and bronydom in particular have been... somewhat mixed. Naturally, like most fandoms involving children's media, it inevitably contains a [[Star Wars|wretched hive of scum and villany]] full of shit ranging from innocuous-but-eyebrow-raising works, to outright pornography, to not-infrequently-blatant pedophilia... though how many such fandoms have articles, a documentary, and an off-Broadway play as WELL as sites dedicated to exposing the worst of them is [[Skub|another matter entirely]]. Somewhat in contrast to the way [[furry|furries]] were received when they (initially) came to the public's attention, people generally viewed them in an odd-at-best sexual sort of way, while bronies are generally regarded as a harmless, even endearing phenomenon. As should be obvious by now, online it's a different story, and no matter how you spin it, a lot of similar fandoms haven't had the impact on shit the way MLP's has - having their own convention certainly counts for something, your guess as to what.
 
[[Image:Brony1488.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Oh for fuck's sake, of course... you know the two fandoms would overlap ''somewhere''...]]
Like many things on 4chan (parts of /tg/ by no means excluded), what began as a wildly unserious community with little claim to relevancy has expanded to encompass some undeniably talented people, not unlike the furries. Also like the furfags, some of the Brony artists actually generate a fair bit of income out of their manchild fellows; and of course, there are those non-Brony and non-furry artists are willing to [[Erebus|sell their souls]] and take commissions of [[Beastmen|fur]] and [[Daemon|hoof]] for coin. All in all, it's basically [https://1d4chan.org/wiki/File:FurryInANutshell.jpg like in that classic cartoon about furries]. (In fact, a lot of online artists taking commissions state right front and center 'no anthro' or 'no ponies' or the converse, or even 'ponies OK but nothing NSFW', etc.) The tide of momentum it once possessed has long begun fading, of course, but for better or worse it's hard to forget a big first impression.
 
As far as conventions go, attendance is down, which means casuals are departing, which usually means only the most hardcore fans (usually including the degenerates) are left.
 
A subject of [[skub]] among the fandom is if the show got better or worse after Lauren Faust left. However one can look forward to laughing at both the [[rage]] and [[butthurt]] that will come when the show is replaced by a full season of 30 minute episodes of the Equestria Girls spin off after Season 9. Or whenever MLP GEN 5 is ever released.
 
But you know Hasbro. They like to find the dumbest way to do things.
 
==On [[/tg/]]==
[[File:Pony rape.png|250px|thumb|This [[Pretty Marines]] Dreadnought was jealous of Pinkie Pie's color scheme. Either that, or it mistook her for a [[Dwarf|Leprechaun]] and thought [[Cake|Lucky Charms]] would fall out if it [[Fist of the North Star|ripped it open]]. [[/tg/|Experts]] are not entirely sure which; draw your own conclusions.]]
[[File:Pony rape.png|250px|thumb|This [[Pretty Marines]] Dreadnought was jealous of Pinkie Pie's color scheme. Either that, or it mistook her for a [[Dwarf|Leprechaun]] and thought [[Cake|Lucky Charms]] would fall out if it [[Fist of the North Star|ripped it open]]. [[/tg/|Experts]] are not entirely sure which; draw your own conclusions.]]
Fa/tg/uys have a historical record of wishing to be the little girl, but the days when /tg/ stood for /totally gay/ and/or /[[Touhou|touhou games]]/ have long since passed and are merely a happy memory now, so our beloved board responded to the Pony plague in much the same way that /tg/ responds to everything it doesn't know how to feel about: [[RAGE|violent anger]].
Fa/tg/uys have a historical record of wishing to be the little girl, but the days when /tg/ stood for /totally gay/ and/or /[[Touhou|touhou games]]/ have long since passed and are merely a happy memory now, so our beloved board responded to the Pony plague in much the same way that /tg/ responds to everything it doesn't know how to feel about: [[RAGE|violent anger]].


For serious, it's just another iteration of the same thing. We saw it before with [[Touhou]], we'll see it again some other time and wish that Ponies were the least of our problems. Regardless, /tg/'s mods never learn from their past mistakes, and fired up the [[Commissar|Commissariat]] - discussion of ''My Little Pony'' on /tg/ is now [[Extra Heresy]] and will be responded to with bans.
For serious, it's just another iteration of the same thing. We saw it before with [[Touhou]], we'll see it again some other time and wish that Ponies were the least of our problems. Regardless, /tg/'s mods never learn from their past mistakes, and fired up the [[Commissar|Commissariat]] - discussion of ''My Little Pony'' on /tg/ is now [[Extra Heresy]] and will be responded to with bans. Because much like with [[chakat]]s before them, /tg/ has a built-in excuse [[Warhammer Wednesday|literally as old as /tg/ itself]]; ''suffer not the furry to live.''


Ponies are still common-as-hell on /b/, /f/, and /co/, but they're infrequently brought up on the other boards anymore, /tg/ included. The addition of the /mlp/ board gave ponyfags a general board to post their content. The mods make it too much trouble to fight for it anywhere else, as the global ban is still in effect and the chances of it being lifted before the fandom dies out is slim.
Ponies are still common-as-hell on /b/, /f/, and /co/, but they're infrequently brought up on the other boards anymore, /tg/ included. The addition of the /mlp/ board gave bronies a general board to post their content. The mods make it too much trouble to fight for it anywhere else, as the global ban is still in effect and the chances of it being lifted before the fandom dies out is slim.


The general reaction to any mention of ponies on /tg/ varies between simple exuberance, to indifference and apathy, to [[Khorne]]-pausing [[RAGE]] depending on how well you roll, though the second scenario is more prevalent overall. Even with the bans in place, fans on /tg/ have proven their time-honored ability to [[/tg/ gets shit done|get shit done]] and produced a veritable arsenal of Pony-flavoured [[RPG]]s, including titles like [[Don't Rest Your Hooves]], [[Ponyfinder]], [[Poor Unfortunate Foals]] and other things that can be found on the internet and had their genesis in /tg/. It just goes to show that even when something's completely ridiculous, /tg/ won't be prevented from dicking around with it and trying to make some win in the process, or at least prying some laughs and mockery out of it. If you go looking around the seven Internets, you can even find fanfiction about the main cast playing [[D&D]], which is like product-placement inception when you remember ''it's all owned by [[Hasbro]] now''. [[Just as planned]]. While 40K has fallen to the filthy plague of pastel-coloured horse loving man-children, regular Warhammer has not, owing to the fact that WHFB has largely into obscurity outside the Tabletop scene due to being overshadowed by it's futuristic, grimdark counterpart.
The general reaction to any mention of ponies on /tg/ varies between simple exuberance, to indifference and apathy, to [[Khorne]]-pausing RAGE depending on how well you roll, though the second scenario is more prevalent overall. Even with the bans in place, fans on /tg/ have proven their time-honored ability to [[/tg/ gets shit done|get shit done]] and produced a veritable arsenal of Pony-flavoured [[RPG]]s, including titles like [[Don't Rest Your Hooves]], [[Ponyfinder]], [[Poor Unfortunate Foals]] and other things that can be found on the internet and had their genesis in /tg/. It just goes to show that even when something's completely ridiculous, /tg/ won't be prevented from dicking around with it and trying to make some win in the process, or at least prying some laughs and mockery out of it. If you go looking around the seven Internets, you can even find fanfiction about the main cast playing [[D&D]], which is like product-placement ''Inception'' when you remember ''it's all owned by [[Hasbro]] now''. [[Just as planned]]. While 40K has "fallen" to the filthy plague of pastel-coloured horse loving man-children, regular Warhammer has not, owing to the fact that WHFB has largely launguished in obscurity outside the tabletop scene in comparison to its futuristic, grimdark counterpart.


Overlapping fanbases have resulted in large amounts of crossover fiction and fanart - including the somewhat bizarre meeting of MLP and [[Warhammer 40,000]], amongst others - and they are guaranteed to incense at least a few people every time they rear their mutated heads. Including you, once you reach this page's gallery section. Look out, here it comes!  
Overlapping fanbases have resulted in large amounts of crossover fiction and fanart - including the somewhat bizarre meeting of MLP and [[Warhammer 40,000]], amongst others - and they are guaranteed to incense at least a few people every time they rear their mutated heads. Including you, once you reach this page's gallery section. Look out, here it comes!  


Oh yeah most of the Dawn of War cast also did VA work on FIM, most notably Farseer Taldeer's who voices Princess Celestia and [[Firaeveus Carron]] who voices Chief Thunder-nuts. In the exact same voice.
Oh yeah, most of the Dawn of War cast also did VA work on FIM, most notably Farseer Taldeer's VA (Princess Celestia) and [[Firaeveus Carron]] (Chief Thunder-nuts, done in the exact same voice even). Meanwhile, Shas'O Kais is done by the same guy who does a gay sea serpent and an annoying little kid on the show.


==/mlp/==
==/mlp/==
[[File:Mlp_in_a_nutshell.png|thumb|180px|right|A short glimpse into the ride that never ends.]]
[[File:Mlp_in_a_nutshell.png|thumb|180px|right|A short glimpse into the ride that never ends. The dirty bastard didn't even give us the name of the girl!]]
/mlp/ is one of 4chan's more active boards. It's also probably the most tragic.
/mlp/ is one of 4chan's more active boards. It's also probably the most tragic.
===Early tragedy===


During seasons one and two of My Little Pony, the board was populated with a huge number of fans discussing the show. A few of /tg/'s old artists, who haven't been seen around /tg/ proper since the great content purge of 2009, were there on a regular basis producing hilarious comics, stories, and drawings for the young fandom. The extreme proliferation of materials led to the creation of a website called Equestria Daily, as well as numerous others, and thousands of Youtube parodies and song remixes which range from very good to inconceivably terrible.
During seasons one and two of My Little Pony, the board was populated with a huge number of fans discussing the show. A few of /tg/'s old artists, who haven't been seen around /tg/ proper since the great content purge of 2009, were there on a regular basis producing hilarious comics, stories, and drawings for the young fandom. The extreme proliferation of materials led to the creation of a website called Equestria Daily, as well as numerous others, and thousands of Youtube parodies and song remixes which range from very good to inconceivably terrible.
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The board also had a terrible janitor who was so bad at his job that he became a joke around the site. He was often apathetic, deleted threads inexplicably, and didn't seem to have a purpose beyond wasting everyone's time. Eventually, the board named him "Scruffy", after the janitor from Futurama who seems to have no purpose or positive influence on anything. After that, he was always depicted as the character, and Scruffy's face was sometimes plastered over questionable or NSFW content as a kind of jab at the guy. He wasn't exactly liked, but he wasn't a scourge. Yet.
The board also had a terrible janitor who was so bad at his job that he became a joke around the site. He was often apathetic, deleted threads inexplicably, and didn't seem to have a purpose beyond wasting everyone's time. Eventually, the board named him "Scruffy", after the janitor from Futurama who seems to have no purpose or positive influence on anything. After that, he was always depicted as the character, and Scruffy's face was sometimes plastered over questionable or NSFW content as a kind of jab at the guy. He wasn't exactly liked, but he wasn't a scourge. Yet.


Eventually, that changed. For unknown reasons, possibly the visiting of Lauren Faust, Scruffy began a crackdown and /mlp/ got to re-live the days of bans and fighting for the right to post content on their own board. He arbitrarily chose a number of the generals to die, some because of racy content and others just because he didn't like them and Global Rule #6 allows a mod to delete anything he feels falls outside of "positive contributions" (which means w. He rapidly went from a character teasingly thought of as someone who couldn't do a job to someone who was actively doing his job very badly. Further outrage ensued when screen caps from the hidden janitor board, /j/, revealed Scruffy to be a total dick hole who obviously kind of hated the board - maybe all of 4chan while we're at it, but that's our moderators for you.
Eventually, that changed. For unknown reasons, possibly a visit by Lauren Faust, Scruffy began a crackdown and /mlp/ got to re-live the days of bans and fighting for the right to post content on their own board. He arbitrarily chose a number of the generals to die, some because of racy content and others just because he didn't like them and Global Rule #6 allows a mod to delete anything he feels falls outside of "positive contributions". He rapidly went from a character teasingly thought of as someone who couldn't do a job to someone who was actively doing his job very badly. Further outrage ensued when screen caps from the hidden janitor board, /j/, revealed Scruffy to be a total dick hole who obviously kind of hated the board - maybe all of 4chan while we're at it, but that's our moderators for you.


Around this same time, Hasbro realized they were sitting on a money printing machine, and instead of standing back and leaving it alone to just print money, they began hitting it with a sledgehammer in the hopes that the machine would produce some kind of totally new money with a more enticing scent that would be more valuable.  
Around this same time, Hasbro realized they were sitting on a money printing machine, and instead of standing back and leaving it alone to just print money, they began hitting it with a sledgehammer in the hopes that the machine would produce some kind of totally new money with a more enticing scent that would be more valuable.  
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It didn't.
It didn't.


Lauren Faust left the show by the middle of season two. This is one of the few truly [[skub]] things discussed between bronies: some claim it really was free will, as she is working on other shows now and has stood by the claim that it was her decision, whereas others claim that she was, in fact, pushed out, as she poured her heart and soul into it and made it clear that she had a plan for where it was going, plus you wouldn't exactly openly say you were kicked off of your own show, now would you?
Lauren Faust left the show by the middle of season two. The exact reasons have been left to speculation, but it probably a variety of causes. MLP has been noted for dealing with constant executive interference, and its writers have complained that there are frequently "too many chefs" in the kitchen. But there's also evidence of some events in Faust's personal life which may have led to her resignation.
 
===Later development===


Anyway, by the end of season two and all of season three, Hasbro was actively injecting lame ideas into new episodes, culminating with the release of a brilliant plan: clutter the main character up with a pair of wings and call her a princess. Disney is making tons of dosh on princesses! How could this go wrong?
Anyway, by the end of season two and all of season three, Hasbro was actively injecting lame ideas into new episodes, culminating with the release of a brilliant plan: clutter the main character up with a pair of goose wings and call her a princess. Disney is making tons of dosh on princesses! How could this go wrong?


Then they took their next step. They introduced a spin-off called Equestria Girls. It was a novel concept in the way that it took a bunch of young adult characters with clear future prospects, an open world full of magic, and a friendly, colorful atmosphere, and then completely obliterated all of that by making the ponies into human, teenage girls trapped in motherfucking high school. It was a movie, and the entire plot revolved around how much the high school basically sucked compared to the pony universe. To the total, utter, unparalleled shock of Hasbro's astounding marketing teams, somehow, a show about pastel girls in the shackles of a tired, stressful cliche of a system did not capture quite the same audience.
Then they took their next step. They introduced a spin-off called Equestria Girls. It was a novel concept in the way that it took a bunch of young adult characters with clear future prospects, an open world full of magic, and a friendly, colorful atmosphere, and then completely obliterated all of that by making the ponies into human, teenage girls trapped in motherfucking high school. It was a movie, and the entire plot revolved around how much the high school basically sucked compared to the pony universe. To the total, utter, unparalleled shock of Hasbro's astounding marketing teams, somehow, a show about pastel girls in the shackles of a tired, stressful cliche of a system did not capture quite the same audience.


So /mlp/ is now [[Grimdark|a board of dying hope]] when it talks about the show, and the fandom is on the decline. When it's doing other things, /mlp/ is completely in its own little world. Nobody really knows what will come from season four, but many fans have had their expectations all but crushed. In the end, it just goes to show that My Little Pony was destined to be a fad thanks to its bumbling financiers, and had it simply been allowed to run its course, it would doubtlessly be a fading memory, rather than one of the most common ban excuses on 4chan.
Season 4, 5, and 7 were heralded as [[Awesome]] by the show's fans, while Season 6 was much more skubby, as many felt that [[Kaldor Draigo|the creator's OC was taking up too much screentime and wrecking the lore.]]
 
Season 4 gave us a huge fight between [[Khorne|Tirek]] and Twilight ([[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXXU41qGbPg |viewable here), 5 introduced a [[Communism|cult of equality]] dedicated to erasing cutie marks, [[Advancing the Storyline|the Cutie Mark Crusaders get their cutie marks]], and time travel. Twilight gets a student of her own who is [[Elminster|obscenely powerful and might be the creators' pet]].
 
Season 6 had several sweeping changes to the Equestria, the biggest being the overthrow of [[Succubus|Queen]] [[Doppelganger|Chrysalis]].
 
Season 7 has the return of six legendary heroes from pony history, including a wizard named [[Mordenkainen|Starswirl]].
 
Season 8 and the final one, Season 9, made even more skub as the series came to a close. Season 8 had the main character teach lessons to several students from other lands: a yak, a changeling, a hippogriff, a pony, a dragon, and a blue griffon whose name literally means "[[Derp|chicken]]". Some /mlp/ fans condemned this with the usual complaints of "diversity", while others went on the usual business of fawning over the new characters and doing worse.
 
Season 9 ended the franchise with a bang: the "bang" being several outbursts of skub that complained about the treatment of the villains.
 
As for [[Extra Heresy|Equestria Girls <s>2</s> <s>3</s> '''4''']], they were near-universally despised. The pony movie was very much [[Skub]]. Some loved it, some hated it, and aside from being a musical fest, it was almost [[furry]] with some walking cat guy from a shantytown. The Equestria Girls movies were followed by several web series covering the further adventures of the pastel high-schoolers, only to end after a Christmas special because it was not as popular as it used to be. Like its series, there were some fans who still relished themselves with those colourful xenos, but most have moved on to greener pastures.
 
After the show ended, Hasbro made a new movie that took place some time after the end of season 9. The setting has been modernised, and the pony races were split into three hostile communities. While it led to some RAGE over its alleged leftist influences, much of /mlp/ was rather chill about it.
 
==The Forgotten 80s MLP (1986-1987)==
One of the big reasons why "Friendship is Magic" took off was because it decided to mix girly, slice of life stories with surprisingly decent (well, sometimes) action-fantasy stories. In fact, the original draft of the show was literally more or less a [[Dungeons & Dragons]] show being told in a world of cute pastel-colored ponies, but that was too expensive, so the emphasis was shifted to the cute slice of life stuff. But what few remember is that this wasn't so much a novel idea as a legacy...
 
See, way back in the 80s is when the very first MLP animation showed up, in a direct-to-tv special called "My Little Pony: Rescue at Midnight Castle" (or "My Little Pony: Firefly's Adventure", depending on where you saw it). Kids watched this, often reluctantly, expecting cutesy stuff suitable for little girls. Instead, two minutes in, our cutesy pastel-colored ponies are attacked by an army of flying snake-dragon things called "Stratodons", whose presence is announced by a lightning storm out of nowhere. They kidnap two of them and drag them to a nightmarish castle that looks like a little chunk of hell straddling a rocky cliff high above a storm-lashed ocean, where the demonic leader of the Stratodons is made to kneel before the bastard lovechild of a [[centaur]] and Satan, who pets an ominous sack that pulsates with an audible heartbeat and has a voice straight out of any boys-oriented 80s fantasy cartoon. This is Tirek, our big bad for the special. His goal? To kidnap four of the ponies and ''painfully'' transform them into monstrous dragon-things to pull his flying chariot, so he can use the magical "Rainbow of Darkness" to snuff out all light in the world and create a Night That Never Ends. And the special plays all of this ''completely fucking straight'', no punches pulled, even going so far as to end with Tirek being ''blown to bits'' by a magical rainbow.
 
How did they follow this up? With a second special, "Escape from Catrina" (or "Katrina", again), where our pony heroines are captured by a mad [[catfolk]] [[witch]] who intends to work them to death to provide her with an endless supply of her power-augmenting drug of choice, Witchweed Potion.
 
And then came the movie, where the ponies are driven from their home, which is ''permanently'' destroyed, by a trio of witches who unleash the Smooze- an ocean-sized [[slime]] with a sadistic hunger to devour all life it can encounter, and whose touch sucks the positive emotions out of you.
 
Then came the TV series, explicitly set after all of this, so you'd think they'd ease up and make it more "girl friendly", right? Wrong. The series continued the tradition of trying to be a typical action/adventure fantasy show of the era despite its cast of pastel pony protagonists, with pretty much every episode involving some kind of monster or disaster. Even the "cutesy" episodes included things like a poorly chosen wish creating droughts and wildfires that nearly kill the ponies, or an uprising of [[Animated Object|now-sapient furniture]]. Other episodes included a [[bard]] forced to steal shadows to feed the hunger of a demonic master, a giant stone dog trying to petrify the world, an icy [[Nazi]] penguin [[Elementalist]] trying to freeze the world, a vain pig sorceress kidnapping ponies to turn them into glass statues so she could admire herself in them, living weeds trying to suck the life out of the forest (with a guest voice of [[Transformers|Optimus MOTHERFUCKING Prime]] as a giant crab cop!), a goat [[necromancer]] sealed away in a time-lost city, a lava demon that wanted to burn the world to ash...
 
Don't get us wrong, there were some cutesy slice of life stories in there, but for the most part, this was actually a pretty decent (by 80s standards) fantasy adventure show. So it developed something of a hidden cult following amongst boys who watched it alongside their sisters because it actually held up decently well alongside other toons of the era. It wasn't until the 3rd generation of toys (and their attendant tie-in cartoons) that the emphasis shifted to focus exclusively on "cute girly stuff" and the guys drifted away.
 
==My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic (2010-2019)==
 
[[File:Ashlands_Timeline.png|350px|thumb|Who says ponies can't be grimdark?]]
 
Spoilers, obviously.
 
===History===
 
In the ultra-distant past, King Grogar invented countless monsters who took whatever they wanted and destroyed the rest. He's called the Father of Monsters, and it's implied he created dragons, manticores, windigos, and other horrors.
 
In the distant but not quite as distant past, the three tribes of ponies ([[Horse|earth ponies]], [[Pegasus|pegasi]], and [[Unicorn|unicorns]]) live in their own nations. They aren't quite at war, but they all hate each other. A terrible winter storm blows in, freezing and starving them and worsening relations. So all three tribes set out to find a new home. Turns out the winter storm was caused by creatures called windigos (not to be confused with [[Wendigo|Wendigos]]), who feed on hatred and are repelled by friendship. So the three tribes become friends and drive the windigos away, and found a new country called Equestria.
 
[[File:Slaanesh_by_baklaher-d7dvohn.jpg|300px|thumb|left|Princess Celestia's true form. She Who Thirsts even fits the color scheme, more or less...the background is dark after the bright green grass and blue sky fade away as more [[Daemonette|colorful creatures]] arrive...]]
Two immortal god-princesses are crowned rulers of this new nation: Princess Celestia, who rules the sun, and Princess Luna, who rules the moon. Shortly thereafter, Equestria is menaced by a variety of threats: the Sirens and the Pony of Shadows are two of the biggest threats, though it's a dangerous world and there's the occasional pissed off dragon or cruel sphinx. The banishment of the Pony of Shadows leads to the creation of Equestria's most powerful magical artifacts: The '''Elements of Harmony'''. These are the win button in Equestria; not even the most powerful reality warpers are immune to these things.
 
Several more threats menace Equestria, and the princesses fight them all off with the Elements of Harmony: Discord, Tirek, and King Sombra most notably, but it seems likely there were more. This culminates in MLP's own version of the [[Horus Heresy]]: the corruption of Princess Luna into Nightmare Moon, and her subsequent [https://sonichu.com/cwcki/The_Moon banishment to the moon] (which is clearly stolen from the TRUE AND HONEST story of the fate of Sylvana in the classic webcomic [[Chris-chan|<i>Sonichu</i>]], just like the unicorn sacrifices totes are stolen from the psyker sacrifices in 40K.)
 
The show starts a thousand years after Nightmare Moon's banishment. An upper-class shut-in nerd named Twilight Sparkle is sent to a rural backwater town to make friends. Despite initial misgivings, she makes them, and six ponies reactivate the Elements of Harmony and become their new bearers.
 
Most of the show is about these six ponies' everyday problems and how they're resolved, but season premieres and finales often are heavier on the lore and adventure. This culminated with the defeat of several villains by turning them into stone statues, and with Twilight becoming the next princess after Celestia and Luna retire for [[Skub|whatever the hell went on]].
 
And then, years later, the magic was lost and the three pony races went back to fighting each other. Another nerd had to start all over again, getting her own Elements of Harmony against [[Magnus the Red|some red tyrant]].
 
===Races===
Ponies, obviously. Unicorns, earth ponies, and pegasi make up the vast majority of pony races. Earth ponies are natural farmers, and provide almost all of Equestria's food and lumber. Pegasi can move clouds around, and are in charge of the weather. Unicorns once raised and lowered the sun, [[Grimdark|but that required 10 of the tribe's young men and women to give up their magic for life, every day]] (sounds <s>[[Golden Throne|awfully familiar]]</s>totally <s>stolen</s><em>it's not stolen it's all Hasbro</em> from 40K) Since Celestia and Luna took on the burden of raising and lowering the sun, the unicorns' niche hasn't been as clear. One might say their role is to advance the study of magic and technology, though a lot of them don't have magic beyond telekinesis.
 
A few of the notable other races are described below:


...Then season 4 came out. And it was awesome. Well, not by TG standards more by brony standards but till now bronies were certain season 2 would be the best, and last, great season of the show, yet people are both shocked and surprised that this season is not just more original, but also generally more interesting! You still got the predictable lame episode but you get three kick ass ones in return. The biggest difference seems to be slowly getting away from the slice of life plots of the previous series and becoming much more adventuress. Another thing is they kinda put some mystery into the series while taking away the cheeziest, but also most useful items the characters had, the element of harmony, that used different parts of friendship to make, a kid you not, the exact same beam from "IMMA FIRIN MA LAZOR!" meme. Yeah it was groan worthy that friendship LITUALLY helped win the day but many bronies brushed it off as "WHO CARES? ITS A FRICKIN LAZER BEAM!!!" Start of season 4, its gone. For good. Now their defenceless, and it means they actually need to DO stuff to beat the big bads as opposed to "WITH OUR POWERS COMBINED!" them.
* '''[[Griffon|Griffons]]''' - Greedy, selfish creatures. Were once a proud warrior race, now they live in straw shacks and [[Blood Ravens|grab every bit they can]]. Currently allied with ponies.
* '''Buffalo''' - Pretty much the setting's Native American equivalent. Share territory with ponies.
* '''Crystal Ponies''' - A kind of pony that lives in the Crystal Empire. Have translucent skin and polygonal pupils.
* '''[[Dragons]]''' - Pretty close to D&D's dragons, but not as evil. One of them falling asleep near Equestria is a major threat, as their snores produce unbreathable smog. Currently allied with ponies.
* '''Changelings''' - Love-eating shapeshifters. Think [[Succubus|succubi]] and [[Doppelganger|dopplegangers]] rolled into one. Went through a civil war, most of them mutated to be non-parasitic. Currently allied with ponies, aside from their rogue queen Chrysalis.
* '''Yaks''' - [[Barbarian|Rugged, Tibetan culture based around smashing things that aren't perfect.]] Currently allied with ponies.
* '''Hippogriffs''' - A race of pony-birds/pony-fish (they can switch between these forms) who were once hiding from a villain known as the Storm King. Currently allied with ponies.
* '''Breezies''' - [[Fey|Tiny butterfly-ponies who live in a magical land only accessible through special portals.]]


They still use the power of friendship of course, most notable making [[Tzeetch| Discord]] good, just less rainbow lasers.
===Other Setting Tidbits===


No one is sure HOW THE FUCK THIS HAPPENED! There was no major changes, the directors the same, as far as this TGer knows the writers and staff is the same...Maybe they got their shit together? Maybe they decided to do their own thing, since season 3 did seem like they were trying to emulate Lauren's style...Whatever the reason, it seems the brony fanon is still going. While this means growth would be slow at beast, problem for TG is now not only will the fans become MUCH more loyal to the show, even during ruff patches thy can always say "OH this happened during season 3 too and look at season 4! It'll all blow over."
[[File:Seekers of Slaanesh.jpg|350px|thumb|Applejack's true form as a Steed of Slaanesh.]]The show's tech level is very weird. Guards carry spears while videogames and LED screens exist. The simplest explanation is that as Equestria has never fought a real war, there hasn't been a necessity to innovate better weaponry, and thanks to a reasonable prevalence of magic, it's often easier to rely on the fact that 1/3 of the population can use their forehead as a gun. Though they do apparently know what tanks are, so make of that what you will. (It could be referring to a <i>water</i> tank, or it could just be the creators not fully thinking through the implications of everything.)


Or most likely the real reason was Season 2 and 3 was trying to market directly to Bronies rather than the show's real target little girls. This plan rarely works ever since bronies despite what how they act are still only a minority in the fandon, the adventuress parts were also Lauren Faust's original ideal as well.
Magic is an everyday thing at a low level, with roughly 1/3 of the population being basic casters and the other 2/3 having passive magic. Powerful spellcasters are very rare, with Twilight Sparkle and Starlight Glimmer the two most notable ones.


==Post-Mortum Analysis==
Being attacked by monsters has become an everyday thing for the town of Ponyville, as they border the Everfree Forest. Everfree is a very strange place to the ponies, where nothing works as it should: the clouds move on their own, for example.
Many things can be gleaned from the rise and subsuquent fall of [[/mlp/]], and not just crass observations by [[/tg/]] that [[Hasbro]]'s marketing division either has or every soon will be [[Squats|undergoing some downsizing]]. Indeed, one can compare it to the rise and fall of [[Flare|many]] [[AnonTalk|other]] [[Evony|diseases]] that swept through 4chan, and were similarly fucking loathed - but as the MLP fandom, disjointed mess that it is, had a lot of legitimate fans, one can make the argument that you can't really compare it to these embodiments of failure.


...But we all know which fandom it was that brought us [[FATAL|horse-fucking]], so [[butthurt|fair enough]].
Around puberty, every pony figures out their special talent, which is represented as a mark on their butt. There was a [[Communism|cult of equality]] that removed ponies' cutie marks.
 
== Side Note: So, What's the appeal? ==
 
More seriously, if you want to know how to make something with roughly the same appeal as MLP, there are a few possible suggestions:
 
*Roughly the same idea as [[Bunnies and Burrows]], in that on one side you have harmless creatures who mean very little harm to most people, and on the other you have a deathworld intent on destroying their community. That the Ponies are more powerful than the Bunnies doesn't change much of the appeal, because most of their powers are usually only combat-useful with some creativity.
*'''Mild''' utopianism. In the same way as [[Star Trek|ST:TNG]]'s Federation, while they are (usually) better as a society than their enemies, they have flaws, weaknesses, and constraints that they are aware of and try to make the best of.
*Xenofiction. They're not human in many ways, and that effects many things in the way they see the world.
*For the many seasons of Friendship is Magic, low-key slice of life fantasy. It initially was a series where the apple harvest is, in its own way, as (or, depending on who you ask, '''more''') important than that dragon over in the mountain, since the dragon is more or less keeping to himself, and can be negotiated with, while those apples aren't going to harvest themselves. Not much fantasy focuses on this low a power level.
*Nonviolent resolution as the default preferred option. If you've played with enough murderhobos, you'll see the appeal. If you haven't, you might not, but trust us, it's quite real.
*<strike>Gay furry shit</strike>
*And, for /tg/, there's always that one dude who wants to stat out everything, because he ''desperately needs to know'' how many unicorns you'd need to take out a Dragon, and, depending on the dude, what tactics would work best for each side, and/or whether a rocket launcher would change that number. And MLP:FiM, at least initially, provided enough Loremeat that statting up generic ponies and monsters wasn't that hard if you made a few assumptions.
 
== See Also ==
;/tg/ Related:
Official games:
* [http://enter-play.com/products/mlpccg.html|My Little Pony CCG] - A pretty fun variation of [[Magic: The Gathering|MtG]] which stresses multi-color decks and solving friendship problems instead of killing each other.
* [[Tails of Equestria]] - Official P&P role-playing game, written by [[Alessio Cavatore]] of Games Workshop fame. Aimed at younger players.
* [https://renegadegamestudios.com/my-little-pony-roleplaying-game-core-rulebook/ My Little Pony Roleplaying Game] - Released almost four years after the show ended, it's somehow still getting content. This one is aimed at players 14 and over.
Fan made content:
* [[Ponyfinder]] - the [[Pathfinder Roleplaying Game|Pathfinder]] splatbook for MLP races and classes
* [[Don't Rest Your Hooves]] - the [[Don't Rest Your Head|horror]] of Saturday-morning cartoons
* [http://giftkrieg23.deviantart.com/art/The-Savage-World-of-My-Little-Pony-4th-Edition-347963248 Savage World of MLP] - the [[Savage Worlds]] splatbook for MLP
* [[Rainbow Warriors]] - A [[Space Marine]] chapter whose colours are disturbingly similar to Rainbow Dash.
* [http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=80240.0 My Little Dwarf Fortress] - use your hooves to [[Dwarf Fortress|strike the earth!]]  Now with 441 different pony hairstyles.
* [[Poor Unfortunate Foals]] - A completely homebrewed system for horror roleplaying as fillies and colts lost in the Everfree Forest of the MLP setting.
* [http://fav.me/d8493z3 MLP 45E] - the [[Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition|D&D 5E]] splatbook for classes, races, feats, etc.
* [https://www.gmbinder.com/share/-L-eIZ1r24Au11YfQBZC Planeshift: Equestria] - another, more balanced splatbook covering pony characters
* [http://ponyglue.ytmnd.com/ /tg/'s general outlook on the My Little Pony phenomena can be accurately portrayed thus.]
* [http://anonpone.pineapplecomputing.com/ Quest Archive] - /mlp/'s quest archive.
* [http://www.roleplayingismagic.com/ Roleplaying is Magic] - Fan made game inspired from the first four seasons of the show
* [https://shop.projectdeadtree.com/products/3-book-game-masters-special-digital-download Fallout Equestria] - A d10/d100 game  based on a fanfic that also crosses over with [[Fallout]] to make a post-apocalyptic wasteland setting.
 
;Elsewhere
* [http://boards.4chan.org/mlp/ 4chan's pony board] - The dedicated board for ponyfags and is SFW (most of the time). Has surprisingly copied /tg/'s ability of being immune to trolls. Simple explanation really, they have both endured so much misunderstanding in the past (both having the fat,basement dwelling stereotype) that any hate is just background noise.
* [http://derpibooru.org/ derpibooru]- Pretty much /mlp/ lite and more pictures and not fully there on the trolling part (most have a "don't like it, filter it" mindset)
* [http://broniepologist.deviantart.com/art/Bronie-Sociological-Analysis-Flowchart-267486038 Behold as a DeviantArt sperglord completely ruins any fondness you may or may not have for the series]
;Video Review
* [https://sfdebris.com/videos/animation/mlp01.php Opinionated review of My Little Pony FIM]
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWRPNLrrzSc A fairly accurate depiction of a archetypical brony.]
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOX_PF4PBH8 A fairly accurate portrayal of Equestria-Imperium relations]


==Gallery==
==Gallery==
<gallery>
<gallery>
File:GrimdarkMLP.jpg|My Grimdark Pony
File:pony_defeat_at_stalliongrad_by_curtsibling-d4rqbg1.jpg|Comrade Curt Sibling Provides.
File:Most_bizarre_heresy_ever.jpg|I don't even know what is happening anymore.
File:Most_bizarre_heresy_ever.jpg|I don't even know what is happening anymore.
File:My Little Captain.jpg|A [[Derp|SPEHSS MARE-EEN]] mini.
File:My Little Captain.jpg|A [[Derp|SPEHSS MARE-EEN]] mini.
File:Spacemare-ens.JPG|''".....We stood at the end of discord and would have fallen, if it were not for the God-Princess and her Ponies of Friendship. Forged in love, tempered in tolerance, we are the living weapons of friendship: The Space Mare-eens."''
File:Spacemare-ens.JPG|''".....We stood at the end of discord and would have fallen, if it were not for the God-Princess and her Ponies of Friendship. Forged in love, tempered in tolerance, we are the living weapons of friendship: The Space Mare-eens."''
File:Borealemlp.jpg|Hereseh my Batul brothars, hereseh!
File:Borealemlp.jpg|Hereseh my Batul brothars, hereseh!
File:Ultramarine_claims_Princess_Celestia.png|Yep. Celestia just got claimed by the [[Ultramarines|Ultrasfmurfs]]. Probably to get <s>purged</s> a better spiritual liege.
File:Ultramarine_claims_Princess_Celestia.png|Yep. Celestia just got claimed by the [[Ultramarines|Ultrasfmurfs]]. Probably to get <s>purged</s> a better spiritual liege.  
File:Boreale_clehms_Celestia.jpg|[[Indrick Boreale|Brotha Boreale]] clehmed Princess Celestia from teh [[Ultramarines]]!
File:Ponyified Wardian Heresy.png|Heresy unending within heresy.
File:Ponyified Wardian Heresy.png|Heresy unending within heresy.
Image:SPESS MARE-EENS.jpg|Even /tg/ has not been immune.
Image:SPESS MARE-EENS.jpg|Even /tg/ has not been immune.
Image:40k Ponies.jpg|In the grim darkness of the far future, there are only ponies.
Image:40k Ponies.jpg|In the grim darkness of the far future, there are only ponies.
Image:more40kponies.jpg|Ridiculous amount of ponies, that is.
Image:more40kponies.jpg|Ridiculous amount of ponies, that is. Somehow Slaanesh, responsible for the whole thing, isn't present. (S)he/it's probably watching, lying in wait.
File:Evil ponies.jpg|Nothing must be spared.
File:Evil ponies.jpg|Nothing must be spared.
File:Forever_alone_pony_brony_luke_is_the_new_meme_myoc.jpg|Typical constituent of the 'expanded demographic'. Note the eerie resemblance to fa/tg/uys.
File:Forever_alone_pony_brony_luke_is_the_new_meme_myoc.jpg|Typical constituent of the 'expanded demographic'. Note the eerie resemblance to fa/tg/uys.
Line 110: Line 234:
File:Terminator Fluttershy.jpg|I LOVE NO EVIL FOR I AM LOVE INCARNATE!
File:Terminator Fluttershy.jpg|I LOVE NO EVIL FOR I AM LOVE INCARNATE!
File:Pinkie Pie flamer.jpeg|Initiating party protocol 23.
File:Pinkie Pie flamer.jpeg|Initiating party protocol 23.
File:The_rainbow_chapter_by_laaseensld-d4sc0sn.jpg|Consolidating friendship on the objective!
File:Assault Marine dash.jpg|Eat powerhooves!
File:Assault Marine dash.jpg|Eat powerhooves!
File:Collection.jpg|The Emperor's Ponies of Death.
File:Collection.jpg|The Emperor's Ponies of Death.
Line 130: Line 255:
File:MyLittleMagesExpanded.jpg|Have to give 'em credit. Foul as the underlying concept might be, its presentation was carried out well.
File:MyLittleMagesExpanded.jpg|Have to give 'em credit. Foul as the underlying concept might be, its presentation was carried out well.
Image:Boardponies.jpg|what is this I don't even
Image:Boardponies.jpg|what is this I don't even
File:MyLittlePwny.jpg|Suffer not the furry to live.  Note that this is the actual result of being hit by a power weapon.
File:WTF_chart_bronie_sociological_analysis_flowchart_by_broniepologist-d4f95jq.jpg|tl;dr "bronies do it for the lulz".
File:WTF_chart_bronie_sociological_analysis_flowchart_by_broniepologist-d4f95jq.jpg|tl;dr "bronies do it for the lulz".
File:Warhammer 40k pony angry marines HERESY mlp fim by yourou-d3asnso.jpg|<s>Anyone still not convinced the faggots have gone too far?</s> [http://1d4chan.org/images/1/1f/Animated_yiff_furry_marines_1211613516571.gif There are worse abominations.]
File:Warhammer 40k pony angry marines HERESY mlp fim by yourou-d3asnso.jpg|<s>Anyone still not convinced the faggots have gone too far?</s> [http://1d4chan.org/images/1/1f/Animated_yiff_furry_marines_1211613516571.gif There are worse abominations.] Do ''not'' click if you have epilepsy or the like.  Genuinely serious safety warning.
Image:Fire_everything_brony.jpg|I'm... uncertain.
</Gallery>
</Gallery>


== See Also ==
[[Category:Heresy]]
;/tg/ Related:
[[Category:RAGE]]
* [[Ponyfinder]] - the [[Pathfinder Roleplaying Game|Pathfinder]] splatbook for MLP races and classes
[[Category:Television]]
* [[Don't Rest Your Hooves]] - the [[Don't Rest Your Head|horror]] of Saturday-morning cartoons
[[Category:FAIL]]
* [http://fav.me/d4chl14 Savage World of MLP] - the [[Savage Worlds]] splatbook for MLP
[[Category:Not related]]
* [[Rainbow Warriors]] - A [[Space Marine]] chapter whose colours are disturbingly similar to Rainbow Dash.
* [http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=80240.0 My Little Dwarf Fortress] - use your hooves to [[Dwarf Fortress|strike the earth!]]  Now with 441 different pony hairstyles.
* [[Poor Unfortunate Foals]] - A completely homebrewed system for horror roleplaying as fillies and colts lost in the Everfree Forest of the MLP setting.
* [http://ponyglue.ytmnd.com/ /tg/'s general outlook on the My Little Pony phenomena can be accurately portrayed thus.]
 
;Elsewhere
* [http://boards.4chan.org/mlp/ 4chan's pony board] - The new dedicated board for ponyfags and is SFW(Most of the time). Has surprisingly copied /tg/'s ability of being immune to trolls.
* [http://derpibooru.org/ derpibooru]- Pretty much /mlp/ lite and more pictures and not fully there on the trolling part (most have a "don't like it, filter it" mindset)
* [http://broniepologist.deviantart.com/art/Bronie-Sociological-Analysis-Flowchart-267486038 Behold as a DeviantArt sperglord completely ruins any fondness you may or may not have for the series]
 
;Video Review
* [http://blip.tv/sf-debris-opinionated-reviews/my-little-pony-friendship-is-magic-review-5658418 Opinionated review of My Little Pony FIM]
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWRPNLrrzSc A fairly accurate depiction of a archetypical brony.]
 
[[Category:Heresy]][[Category:RAGE]][[Category:Television]][[Category:FAIL]][[Category:Not related]]

Latest revision as of 08:11, 22 June 2023

This article is about something that is considered by the overpowering majority of /tg/ to be fail.
Expect huge amounts of derp and rage, punctuated by /tg/ extracting humor from it.
I think this is triggering my epilepssdffshaghahtaj

"When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things."

– I Corinthians xiii, 11

The My Little Pony franchise consists of a series of toys and cartoons created and owned by Hasbro (yes, that Hasbro). As anyone with even a passing familiarity with the subject hearing the name will know, the target demographic is small girls, and Hasbro generally regards the animated component as an advertisement for the line of toys (just like Transformers and Black Library books*BLAM**BLAM**BLAM*). The "brony" (an oh-so-clever portmanteau of "bro" and, well, yeah) is a recent(ish) term for, in the strict sense, a male fan of the show. These fans, who originated on and have since gathered considerable infamy on the Internet, are also called or refer to themselves as ponyfags, horsefuckers, and a variety of other monikers, and while every enthusiastic fanbase on the Internet tends to sow drama everywhere they go, the bronies have had their notoriety given a leg up by moderator temper tantrums and mass banning across 4chan, not to mention the occasional mention in the mainstream media.

Accurate depiction of the reaction of much of the Internets when encountering ponyfags. Why it had to be an ultrasmurf though God only knows. I'd dispatch the Deathwatch. Just to be safe. They are technically Xenos, after all...

The MLP franchise as such has been around since the eighties and was beginning to lose traction with the economic downturn, but the most recent revision, begun in 2010, has seen an explosion of popularity on the internet (although there was at least one very famous early adopter), amassing a cult following not only among ironic hipster young women but of "adult" (or at least putatively adult) men.

Strangely, 40k fans have a strong presence in My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic fandom. Perhaps simply as a break from grimdark, but often encouraging the purging of heresy and humanity curbstomping ponies. Basically, the MLP:FiM version of Humanity, Fuck Yeah! is Warhammer 40,000 or its mentality embodied by humans plopped in Equestria.

A Legacy Typical to 4chan[edit]

This is the true face of the 80s.

When the fourth generation of the My Little Pony Show, led by Lauren Faust (who had a hand in the creation of works like Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends and The PowerPuff Girls), first aired on television, it found itself being discussed on /co/. Whether the first people to talk about the show were male or female is a mystery, but the fact remains that the show itself was vibrant, colorful, and contained some essential elements that have been present in a lot of big cultural phenomena since jobs and money have become more scarce. Namely escapist and romantic themes, including a society where everyone has a role in life thanks to their most prolific talent being stamped on every pony's butts - they almost always wind up working in the right jobs, with unemployment being all but unheard of.

My Grimdark Pony

However, the show also featured some (possibly unintentional) dark undertones starting off. There were hints of political dissent, infidelity, ponies who couldn't find their talents doomed to a life of carting manure, and an episode that strongly hinted one of the ponies was a lesbian with an inter-species girlfriend. Most of these undercurrents have been all but lost as of the third season, but at the time, these niggling strings proved hilarious for adults to grab hold of to unravel the sweater of the show. An animation error even led fans to invent a cross-eyed character, who was later formally adopted into show canon and then subsequently banned by Hasbro corporate - until Hot Topic pointed out tons of money could be made by lifting the character idea from the fans.

Growing interest in the show, coupled with a range of expressive screen caps, caused My Little Pony to spill out of /co/. People began using MLP for reaction images, and naturally, this raised a few eyebrows. Threads wound up being derailed as people demanded to know what in the hell they were looking at, and board regulars got tired of seeing it explained all the time. It interrupted discussion because it was confusing and new - some began to get angry for this reason, and others got mad because they simply didn't like seeing a cute girls' cartoon becoming a popular cultural thing on a site known as a den of racism and hatred. It kind of screwed up the rep.

Had the regulars of /mlp/ actually been cheery-eyed schoolgirls, the clusterfuck that has engulfed the entire Internet would never have come to pass.

Ultimately, MLP probably would have come and gone in the natural order of things, rising up then waning again between seasons. However, 4chan has, for years now, tolerated increased moderator activity, including overhauls to mod power which allows them to ban larger crowds for smaller infractions; this wouldn't have been a problem if the moderators weren't so bad at using their increased power. 4chan's mods are dumbasses - it is not a secret - and sadly, they felt it was their sacred, sworn duty to make an ultimate decision on whether or not My Little Pony should be discussed on the website. They arbitrarily decided the answer was "no."

Thus began the show's meteoric rise, with the conflict between mods and the show's growing fanbase attracting all the more attention and sparking up debates across multiple boards. Posting Pony-related content of any type became a bannable offense everywhere and users began to take sides; ponies quickly became a tool for trolling mods and those in the opposing camps, and needless to say, it all became a complete clusterfuck. It was essentially 4chan moderation at its finest, and the final result is a lingering, yet slowly passing aftertaste where many remember a time that they could not get away from My Little Pony if they visited 4chan at all.

Eventually the moderators had to cede some ground because, as they still have yet to learn, crowds are governed by consent, and the mods didn't have the resources to ban enough dissenters to gain consent by the majority remaining. In a rare moment of Pyrrhic victory, 4chan had actually defeated the site's largest moderator rampage to date. However, although ponies were once again permitted on /co/, a terse stand-off remained, as the mods do not like to lose and they weren't willing to call it quits on the fight.

My Little Pony was allowed a single thread on /co/. It was not the first time that a general thread was used to contain something the moderators did not like to see, but it is a notable landmark in 4chan history, since the use of general threads for the mods' benefit has expanded greatly as a practice afterward. Users went along with it, since it was better than a universal ban; a script was created that directed people to the general threads, which were very active and populated by numerous artists, including /tg/'s own Weaver, the man responsible for Ruby Quest, then going by the name "Glitter Glue".

This cartoon is about furries, but pretty much describes Bronydom just as well, which is sort of a sister or subsidiary fandom, but one that's a rung or three even lower in the spergy social hierarchy than the Kirk-as-an-Erotic-ocelot crowd

Unfortunately, the mods were still idiots. Occasionally, 4chan staff would pop in and delete the general thread, which caused chaos. The only possible result was that countless new threads would pop up and almost the entire front page of /co/ would be attempts to recreate "MLP General". 4chan staff would go on banning the new threads ad nauseum, and users would find it impossible to establish a proper, organized thread that followed the rules. This caused various forms of rebellion - sometimes the general thread would be completely relocated to a different 4chan board where mods didn't seem to be as active. There the new general would stay, irritating the locals, until the mods left and the people were allowed to reorganize again.

This ongoing strife of argumentation, kicking the fandom hive, and the growing size of the fandom itself eventually forced the mods to come up with a plan so that they could have things their way while still resolving the problem. Unwilling to admit that their actions were at odds with 4chan itself due to the numerous effects of the abuse, Moot and the moderators once again established a global ban on My Little Pony. But this time, Moot offered an apology which proved empty over time, and he created a new board where the show was to be discussed exclusively. The board was called /mlp/.

So surprisingly, the pony fandom has had a huge impact on 4chan in general and can be inferred to have caused Moot to rethink the way he runs the site in some degrees. Not in a positive direction, sadly - he merely works on ways to slow 4chan down to make it easier for his staff to control everything so that he'll never have to admit a tactical loss to his userbase again.

From Meme to Subculture[edit]

Where to even begin with this... I simply have no words. *BLAM*

In terms of "mainstream" reception, the MLP fandom and bronydom in particular have been... somewhat mixed. Naturally, like most fandoms involving children's media, it inevitably contains a wretched hive of scum and villany full of shit ranging from innocuous-but-eyebrow-raising works, to outright pornography, to not-infrequently-blatant pedophilia... though how many such fandoms have articles, a documentary, and an off-Broadway play as WELL as sites dedicated to exposing the worst of them is another matter entirely. Somewhat in contrast to the way furries were received when they (initially) came to the public's attention, people generally viewed them in an odd-at-best sexual sort of way, while bronies are generally regarded as a harmless, even endearing phenomenon. As should be obvious by now, online it's a different story, and no matter how you spin it, a lot of similar fandoms haven't had the impact on shit the way MLP's has - having their own convention certainly counts for something, your guess as to what.

Oh for fuck's sake, of course... you know the two fandoms would overlap somewhere...

Like many things on 4chan (parts of /tg/ by no means excluded), what began as a wildly unserious community with little claim to relevancy has expanded to encompass some undeniably talented people, not unlike the furries. Also like the furfags, some of the Brony artists actually generate a fair bit of income out of their manchild fellows; and of course, there are those non-Brony and non-furry artists are willing to sell their souls and take commissions of fur and hoof for coin. All in all, it's basically like in that classic cartoon about furries. (In fact, a lot of online artists taking commissions state right front and center 'no anthro' or 'no ponies' or the converse, or even 'ponies OK but nothing NSFW', etc.) The tide of momentum it once possessed has long begun fading, of course, but for better or worse it's hard to forget a big first impression.

As far as conventions go, attendance is down, which means casuals are departing, which usually means only the most hardcore fans (usually including the degenerates) are left.

A subject of skub among the fandom is if the show got better or worse after Lauren Faust left. However one can look forward to laughing at both the rage and butthurt that will come when the show is replaced by a full season of 30 minute episodes of the Equestria Girls spin off after Season 9. Or whenever MLP GEN 5 is ever released.

But you know Hasbro. They like to find the dumbest way to do things.

On /tg/[edit]

This Pretty Marines Dreadnought was jealous of Pinkie Pie's color scheme. Either that, or it mistook her for a Leprechaun and thought Lucky Charms would fall out if it ripped it open. Experts are not entirely sure which; draw your own conclusions.

Fa/tg/uys have a historical record of wishing to be the little girl, but the days when /tg/ stood for /totally gay/ and/or /touhou games/ have long since passed and are merely a happy memory now, so our beloved board responded to the Pony plague in much the same way that /tg/ responds to everything it doesn't know how to feel about: violent anger.

For serious, it's just another iteration of the same thing. We saw it before with Touhou, we'll see it again some other time and wish that Ponies were the least of our problems. Regardless, /tg/'s mods never learn from their past mistakes, and fired up the Commissariat - discussion of My Little Pony on /tg/ is now Extra Heresy and will be responded to with bans. Because much like with chakats before them, /tg/ has a built-in excuse literally as old as /tg/ itself; suffer not the furry to live.

Ponies are still common-as-hell on /b/, /f/, and /co/, but they're infrequently brought up on the other boards anymore, /tg/ included. The addition of the /mlp/ board gave bronies a general board to post their content. The mods make it too much trouble to fight for it anywhere else, as the global ban is still in effect and the chances of it being lifted before the fandom dies out is slim.

The general reaction to any mention of ponies on /tg/ varies between simple exuberance, to indifference and apathy, to Khorne-pausing RAGE depending on how well you roll, though the second scenario is more prevalent overall. Even with the bans in place, fans on /tg/ have proven their time-honored ability to get shit done and produced a veritable arsenal of Pony-flavoured RPGs, including titles like Don't Rest Your Hooves, Ponyfinder, Poor Unfortunate Foals and other things that can be found on the internet and had their genesis in /tg/. It just goes to show that even when something's completely ridiculous, /tg/ won't be prevented from dicking around with it and trying to make some win in the process, or at least prying some laughs and mockery out of it. If you go looking around the seven Internets, you can even find fanfiction about the main cast playing D&D, which is like product-placement Inception when you remember it's all owned by Hasbro now. Just as planned. While 40K has "fallen" to the filthy plague of pastel-coloured horse loving man-children, regular Warhammer has not, owing to the fact that WHFB has largely launguished in obscurity outside the tabletop scene in comparison to its futuristic, grimdark counterpart.

Overlapping fanbases have resulted in large amounts of crossover fiction and fanart - including the somewhat bizarre meeting of MLP and Warhammer 40,000, amongst others - and they are guaranteed to incense at least a few people every time they rear their mutated heads. Including you, once you reach this page's gallery section. Look out, here it comes!

Oh yeah, most of the Dawn of War cast also did VA work on FIM, most notably Farseer Taldeer's VA (Princess Celestia) and Firaeveus Carron (Chief Thunder-nuts, done in the exact same voice even). Meanwhile, Shas'O Kais is done by the same guy who does a gay sea serpent and an annoying little kid on the show.

/mlp/[edit]

A short glimpse into the ride that never ends. The dirty bastard didn't even give us the name of the girl!

/mlp/ is one of 4chan's more active boards. It's also probably the most tragic.

Early tragedy[edit]

During seasons one and two of My Little Pony, the board was populated with a huge number of fans discussing the show. A few of /tg/'s old artists, who haven't been seen around /tg/ proper since the great content purge of 2009, were there on a regular basis producing hilarious comics, stories, and drawings for the young fandom. The extreme proliferation of materials led to the creation of a website called Equestria Daily, as well as numerous others, and thousands of Youtube parodies and song remixes which range from very good to inconceivably terrible.

However, in the time between seasons, /mlp/ finds itself struggling to discuss new content. The board was made mainly to satisfy 4chan's moderators, not because the fourth generation of My Little Pony had so much going on that an entire board to itself was really necessary. During these times, the site discusses or sometimes destroys fandom artists, official show staff, or Hasbro's corporate politics. In time, the fandom had also developed a number of ongoing sub-cultures that were entirely sustained by fan artists. Notable examples include or included fluffy ponies, Milky Way, Flutterrape, Anon in Equestria, Ponies on Earth, Satyr Abomination, ass worship, bat ponies, and whatever else can be made into a series during the hiatus. In other words, the board is active, but somewhat starving for material related to the actual show.

The board also had a terrible janitor who was so bad at his job that he became a joke around the site. He was often apathetic, deleted threads inexplicably, and didn't seem to have a purpose beyond wasting everyone's time. Eventually, the board named him "Scruffy", after the janitor from Futurama who seems to have no purpose or positive influence on anything. After that, he was always depicted as the character, and Scruffy's face was sometimes plastered over questionable or NSFW content as a kind of jab at the guy. He wasn't exactly liked, but he wasn't a scourge. Yet.

Eventually, that changed. For unknown reasons, possibly a visit by Lauren Faust, Scruffy began a crackdown and /mlp/ got to re-live the days of bans and fighting for the right to post content on their own board. He arbitrarily chose a number of the generals to die, some because of racy content and others just because he didn't like them and Global Rule #6 allows a mod to delete anything he feels falls outside of "positive contributions". He rapidly went from a character teasingly thought of as someone who couldn't do a job to someone who was actively doing his job very badly. Further outrage ensued when screen caps from the hidden janitor board, /j/, revealed Scruffy to be a total dick hole who obviously kind of hated the board - maybe all of 4chan while we're at it, but that's our moderators for you.

Around this same time, Hasbro realized they were sitting on a money printing machine, and instead of standing back and leaving it alone to just print money, they began hitting it with a sledgehammer in the hopes that the machine would produce some kind of totally new money with a more enticing scent that would be more valuable.

It didn't.

Lauren Faust left the show by the middle of season two. The exact reasons have been left to speculation, but it probably a variety of causes. MLP has been noted for dealing with constant executive interference, and its writers have complained that there are frequently "too many chefs" in the kitchen. But there's also evidence of some events in Faust's personal life which may have led to her resignation.

Later development[edit]

Anyway, by the end of season two and all of season three, Hasbro was actively injecting lame ideas into new episodes, culminating with the release of a brilliant plan: clutter the main character up with a pair of goose wings and call her a princess. Disney is making tons of dosh on princesses! How could this go wrong?

Then they took their next step. They introduced a spin-off called Equestria Girls. It was a novel concept in the way that it took a bunch of young adult characters with clear future prospects, an open world full of magic, and a friendly, colorful atmosphere, and then completely obliterated all of that by making the ponies into human, teenage girls trapped in motherfucking high school. It was a movie, and the entire plot revolved around how much the high school basically sucked compared to the pony universe. To the total, utter, unparalleled shock of Hasbro's astounding marketing teams, somehow, a show about pastel girls in the shackles of a tired, stressful cliche of a system did not capture quite the same audience.

Season 4, 5, and 7 were heralded as Awesome by the show's fans, while Season 6 was much more skubby, as many felt that the creator's OC was taking up too much screentime and wrecking the lore.

Season 4 gave us a huge fight between Tirek and Twilight ([[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXXU41qGbPg |viewable here), 5 introduced a cult of equality dedicated to erasing cutie marks, the Cutie Mark Crusaders get their cutie marks, and time travel. Twilight gets a student of her own who is obscenely powerful and might be the creators' pet.

Season 6 had several sweeping changes to the Equestria, the biggest being the overthrow of Queen Chrysalis.

Season 7 has the return of six legendary heroes from pony history, including a wizard named Starswirl.

Season 8 and the final one, Season 9, made even more skub as the series came to a close. Season 8 had the main character teach lessons to several students from other lands: a yak, a changeling, a hippogriff, a pony, a dragon, and a blue griffon whose name literally means "chicken". Some /mlp/ fans condemned this with the usual complaints of "diversity", while others went on the usual business of fawning over the new characters and doing worse.

Season 9 ended the franchise with a bang: the "bang" being several outbursts of skub that complained about the treatment of the villains.

As for Equestria Girls 2 3 4, they were near-universally despised. The pony movie was very much Skub. Some loved it, some hated it, and aside from being a musical fest, it was almost furry with some walking cat guy from a shantytown. The Equestria Girls movies were followed by several web series covering the further adventures of the pastel high-schoolers, only to end after a Christmas special because it was not as popular as it used to be. Like its series, there were some fans who still relished themselves with those colourful xenos, but most have moved on to greener pastures.

After the show ended, Hasbro made a new movie that took place some time after the end of season 9. The setting has been modernised, and the pony races were split into three hostile communities. While it led to some RAGE over its alleged leftist influences, much of /mlp/ was rather chill about it.

The Forgotten 80s MLP (1986-1987)[edit]

One of the big reasons why "Friendship is Magic" took off was because it decided to mix girly, slice of life stories with surprisingly decent (well, sometimes) action-fantasy stories. In fact, the original draft of the show was literally more or less a Dungeons & Dragons show being told in a world of cute pastel-colored ponies, but that was too expensive, so the emphasis was shifted to the cute slice of life stuff. But what few remember is that this wasn't so much a novel idea as a legacy...

See, way back in the 80s is when the very first MLP animation showed up, in a direct-to-tv special called "My Little Pony: Rescue at Midnight Castle" (or "My Little Pony: Firefly's Adventure", depending on where you saw it). Kids watched this, often reluctantly, expecting cutesy stuff suitable for little girls. Instead, two minutes in, our cutesy pastel-colored ponies are attacked by an army of flying snake-dragon things called "Stratodons", whose presence is announced by a lightning storm out of nowhere. They kidnap two of them and drag them to a nightmarish castle that looks like a little chunk of hell straddling a rocky cliff high above a storm-lashed ocean, where the demonic leader of the Stratodons is made to kneel before the bastard lovechild of a centaur and Satan, who pets an ominous sack that pulsates with an audible heartbeat and has a voice straight out of any boys-oriented 80s fantasy cartoon. This is Tirek, our big bad for the special. His goal? To kidnap four of the ponies and painfully transform them into monstrous dragon-things to pull his flying chariot, so he can use the magical "Rainbow of Darkness" to snuff out all light in the world and create a Night That Never Ends. And the special plays all of this completely fucking straight, no punches pulled, even going so far as to end with Tirek being blown to bits by a magical rainbow.

How did they follow this up? With a second special, "Escape from Catrina" (or "Katrina", again), where our pony heroines are captured by a mad catfolk witch who intends to work them to death to provide her with an endless supply of her power-augmenting drug of choice, Witchweed Potion.

And then came the movie, where the ponies are driven from their home, which is permanently destroyed, by a trio of witches who unleash the Smooze- an ocean-sized slime with a sadistic hunger to devour all life it can encounter, and whose touch sucks the positive emotions out of you.

Then came the TV series, explicitly set after all of this, so you'd think they'd ease up and make it more "girl friendly", right? Wrong. The series continued the tradition of trying to be a typical action/adventure fantasy show of the era despite its cast of pastel pony protagonists, with pretty much every episode involving some kind of monster or disaster. Even the "cutesy" episodes included things like a poorly chosen wish creating droughts and wildfires that nearly kill the ponies, or an uprising of now-sapient furniture. Other episodes included a bard forced to steal shadows to feed the hunger of a demonic master, a giant stone dog trying to petrify the world, an icy Nazi penguin Elementalist trying to freeze the world, a vain pig sorceress kidnapping ponies to turn them into glass statues so she could admire herself in them, living weeds trying to suck the life out of the forest (with a guest voice of Optimus MOTHERFUCKING Prime as a giant crab cop!), a goat necromancer sealed away in a time-lost city, a lava demon that wanted to burn the world to ash...

Don't get us wrong, there were some cutesy slice of life stories in there, but for the most part, this was actually a pretty decent (by 80s standards) fantasy adventure show. So it developed something of a hidden cult following amongst boys who watched it alongside their sisters because it actually held up decently well alongside other toons of the era. It wasn't until the 3rd generation of toys (and their attendant tie-in cartoons) that the emphasis shifted to focus exclusively on "cute girly stuff" and the guys drifted away.

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic (2010-2019)[edit]

Who says ponies can't be grimdark?

Spoilers, obviously.

History[edit]

In the ultra-distant past, King Grogar invented countless monsters who took whatever they wanted and destroyed the rest. He's called the Father of Monsters, and it's implied he created dragons, manticores, windigos, and other horrors.

In the distant but not quite as distant past, the three tribes of ponies (earth ponies, pegasi, and unicorns) live in their own nations. They aren't quite at war, but they all hate each other. A terrible winter storm blows in, freezing and starving them and worsening relations. So all three tribes set out to find a new home. Turns out the winter storm was caused by creatures called windigos (not to be confused with Wendigos), who feed on hatred and are repelled by friendship. So the three tribes become friends and drive the windigos away, and found a new country called Equestria.

Princess Celestia's true form. She Who Thirsts even fits the color scheme, more or less...the background is dark after the bright green grass and blue sky fade away as more colorful creatures arrive...

Two immortal god-princesses are crowned rulers of this new nation: Princess Celestia, who rules the sun, and Princess Luna, who rules the moon. Shortly thereafter, Equestria is menaced by a variety of threats: the Sirens and the Pony of Shadows are two of the biggest threats, though it's a dangerous world and there's the occasional pissed off dragon or cruel sphinx. The banishment of the Pony of Shadows leads to the creation of Equestria's most powerful magical artifacts: The Elements of Harmony. These are the win button in Equestria; not even the most powerful reality warpers are immune to these things.

Several more threats menace Equestria, and the princesses fight them all off with the Elements of Harmony: Discord, Tirek, and King Sombra most notably, but it seems likely there were more. This culminates in MLP's own version of the Horus Heresy: the corruption of Princess Luna into Nightmare Moon, and her subsequent banishment to the moon (which is clearly stolen from the TRUE AND HONEST story of the fate of Sylvana in the classic webcomic Sonichu, just like the unicorn sacrifices totes are stolen from the psyker sacrifices in 40K.)

The show starts a thousand years after Nightmare Moon's banishment. An upper-class shut-in nerd named Twilight Sparkle is sent to a rural backwater town to make friends. Despite initial misgivings, she makes them, and six ponies reactivate the Elements of Harmony and become their new bearers.

Most of the show is about these six ponies' everyday problems and how they're resolved, but season premieres and finales often are heavier on the lore and adventure. This culminated with the defeat of several villains by turning them into stone statues, and with Twilight becoming the next princess after Celestia and Luna retire for whatever the hell went on.

And then, years later, the magic was lost and the three pony races went back to fighting each other. Another nerd had to start all over again, getting her own Elements of Harmony against some red tyrant.

Races[edit]

Ponies, obviously. Unicorns, earth ponies, and pegasi make up the vast majority of pony races. Earth ponies are natural farmers, and provide almost all of Equestria's food and lumber. Pegasi can move clouds around, and are in charge of the weather. Unicorns once raised and lowered the sun, but that required 10 of the tribe's young men and women to give up their magic for life, every day (sounds awfully familiartotally stolenit's not stolen it's all Hasbro from 40K) Since Celestia and Luna took on the burden of raising and lowering the sun, the unicorns' niche hasn't been as clear. One might say their role is to advance the study of magic and technology, though a lot of them don't have magic beyond telekinesis.

A few of the notable other races are described below:

  • Griffons - Greedy, selfish creatures. Were once a proud warrior race, now they live in straw shacks and grab every bit they can. Currently allied with ponies.
  • Buffalo - Pretty much the setting's Native American equivalent. Share territory with ponies.
  • Crystal Ponies - A kind of pony that lives in the Crystal Empire. Have translucent skin and polygonal pupils.
  • Dragons - Pretty close to D&D's dragons, but not as evil. One of them falling asleep near Equestria is a major threat, as their snores produce unbreathable smog. Currently allied with ponies.
  • Changelings - Love-eating shapeshifters. Think succubi and dopplegangers rolled into one. Went through a civil war, most of them mutated to be non-parasitic. Currently allied with ponies, aside from their rogue queen Chrysalis.
  • Yaks - Rugged, Tibetan culture based around smashing things that aren't perfect. Currently allied with ponies.
  • Hippogriffs - A race of pony-birds/pony-fish (they can switch between these forms) who were once hiding from a villain known as the Storm King. Currently allied with ponies.
  • Breezies - Tiny butterfly-ponies who live in a magical land only accessible through special portals.

Other Setting Tidbits[edit]

Applejack's true form as a Steed of Slaanesh.

The show's tech level is very weird. Guards carry spears while videogames and LED screens exist. The simplest explanation is that as Equestria has never fought a real war, there hasn't been a necessity to innovate better weaponry, and thanks to a reasonable prevalence of magic, it's often easier to rely on the fact that 1/3 of the population can use their forehead as a gun. Though they do apparently know what tanks are, so make of that what you will. (It could be referring to a water tank, or it could just be the creators not fully thinking through the implications of everything.)

Magic is an everyday thing at a low level, with roughly 1/3 of the population being basic casters and the other 2/3 having passive magic. Powerful spellcasters are very rare, with Twilight Sparkle and Starlight Glimmer the two most notable ones.

Being attacked by monsters has become an everyday thing for the town of Ponyville, as they border the Everfree Forest. Everfree is a very strange place to the ponies, where nothing works as it should: the clouds move on their own, for example.

Around puberty, every pony figures out their special talent, which is represented as a mark on their butt. There was a cult of equality that removed ponies' cutie marks.

Side Note: So, What's the appeal?[edit]

More seriously, if you want to know how to make something with roughly the same appeal as MLP, there are a few possible suggestions:

  • Roughly the same idea as Bunnies and Burrows, in that on one side you have harmless creatures who mean very little harm to most people, and on the other you have a deathworld intent on destroying their community. That the Ponies are more powerful than the Bunnies doesn't change much of the appeal, because most of their powers are usually only combat-useful with some creativity.
  • Mild utopianism. In the same way as ST:TNG's Federation, while they are (usually) better as a society than their enemies, they have flaws, weaknesses, and constraints that they are aware of and try to make the best of.
  • Xenofiction. They're not human in many ways, and that effects many things in the way they see the world.
  • For the many seasons of Friendship is Magic, low-key slice of life fantasy. It initially was a series where the apple harvest is, in its own way, as (or, depending on who you ask, more) important than that dragon over in the mountain, since the dragon is more or less keeping to himself, and can be negotiated with, while those apples aren't going to harvest themselves. Not much fantasy focuses on this low a power level.
  • Nonviolent resolution as the default preferred option. If you've played with enough murderhobos, you'll see the appeal. If you haven't, you might not, but trust us, it's quite real.
  • Gay furry shit
  • And, for /tg/, there's always that one dude who wants to stat out everything, because he desperately needs to know how many unicorns you'd need to take out a Dragon, and, depending on the dude, what tactics would work best for each side, and/or whether a rocket launcher would change that number. And MLP:FiM, at least initially, provided enough Loremeat that statting up generic ponies and monsters wasn't that hard if you made a few assumptions.

See Also[edit]

/tg/ Related

Official games:

  • Little Pony CCG - A pretty fun variation of MtG which stresses multi-color decks and solving friendship problems instead of killing each other.
  • Tails of Equestria - Official P&P role-playing game, written by Alessio Cavatore of Games Workshop fame. Aimed at younger players.
  • My Little Pony Roleplaying Game - Released almost four years after the show ended, it's somehow still getting content. This one is aimed at players 14 and over.

Fan made content:

Elsewhere
Video Review

Gallery[edit]

  • My Grimdark Pony

    My Grimdark Pony

  • Comrade Curt Sibling Provides.

    Comrade Curt Sibling Provides.

  • I don't even know what is happening anymore.

    I don't even know what is happening anymore.

  • A SPEHSS MARE-EEN mini.

    A SPEHSS MARE-EEN mini.

  • ".....We stood at the end of discord and would have fallen, if it were not for the God-Princess and her Ponies of Friendship. Forged in love, tempered in tolerance, we are the living weapons of friendship: The Space Mare-eens."

    ".....We stood at the end of discord and would have fallen, if it were not for the God-Princess and her Ponies of Friendship. Forged in love, tempered in tolerance, we are the living weapons of friendship: The Space Mare-eens."

  • Hereseh my Batul brothars, hereseh!

    Hereseh my Batul brothars, hereseh!

  • Yep. Celestia just got claimed by the Ultrasfmurfs. Probably to get purged a better spiritual liege.

    Yep. Celestia just got claimed by the Ultrasfmurfs. Probably to get purged a better spiritual liege.

  • Heresy unending within heresy.

    Heresy unending within heresy.

  • Even /tg/ has not been immune.

    Even /tg/ has not been immune.

  • In the grim darkness of the far future, there are only ponies.

    In the grim darkness of the far future, there are only ponies.

  • Ridiculous amount of ponies, that is. Somehow Slaanesh, responsible for the whole thing, isn't present. (S)he/it's probably watching, lying in wait.

    Ridiculous amount of ponies, that is. Somehow Slaanesh, responsible for the whole thing, isn't present. (S)he/it's probably watching, lying in wait.

  • Nothing must be spared.

    Nothing must be spared.

  • Typical constituent of the 'expanded demographic'. Note the eerie resemblance to fa/tg/uys.

    Typical constituent of the 'expanded demographic'. Note the eerie resemblance to fa/tg/uys.

  • Chaos Space Mare-eens of Khorne, Slaanesh, and Tzeentch.

    Chaos Space Mare-eens of Khorne, Slaanesh, and Tzeentch.

  • Papa Nurgle's version.

    Papa Nurgle's version.

  • A tech-filly of the Ponyius Mechanicus.

    A tech-filly of the Ponyius Mechanicus.

  • Venerate the God-Empress of Ponykind or else.

    Venerate the God-Empress of Ponykind or else.

  • The Empress Protects.

    The Empress Protects.

  • Rarity as Hesperax? Dark Eldar would find that sick... yet strangely erotic.

    Rarity as Hesperax? Dark Eldar would find that sick... yet strangely erotic.

  • Dark Eldar + Rarity = WHY BONER?! WHY?

    Dark Eldar + Rarity = WHY BONER?! WHY?

  • The Tau'va is now 20% cooler.

    The Tau'va is now 20% cooler.

  • Through the tolerance of our enemies do we earn our salvation.

    Through the tolerance of our enemies do we earn our salvation.

  • If you will not serve in combat, then you will serve on the bucking line.

    If you will not serve in combat, then you will serve on the bucking line.

  • Lo', though the time is dark, my face shines.

    Lo', though the time is dark, my face shines.

  • I LOVE NO EVIL FOR I AM LOVE INCARNATE!

    I LOVE NO EVIL FOR I AM LOVE INCARNATE!

  • Initiating party protocol 23.

    Initiating party protocol 23.

  • Consolidating friendship on the objective!

    Consolidating friendship on the objective!

  • Eat powerhooves!

    Eat powerhooves!

  • The Emperor's Ponies of Death.

    The Emperor's Ponies of Death.

  • *Plot Twist*

    *Plot Twist*

  • C-C-C-COMBO CANCER

    C-C-C-COMBO CANCER

  • Suffer not the pony to live.

    Suffer not the pony to live.

  • The Imperium has judged these mutants and found them.... wanting......

    The Imperium has judged these mutants and found them.... wanting......

  • The Imperium has ju.....FAITH IS A LIE, TRUTH IS A LIE.

    The Imperium has ju.....FAITH IS A LIE, TRUTH IS A LIE.

  • Praise the Emperor and strike down his foes.

    Praise the Emperor and strike down his foes.

  • EXTRA HERESY!

    EXTRA HERESY!

  • Heretical and terrifying.

    Heretical and terrifying.

  • Impersonating the Emperor's Commissars is extra heresy and punishable by BLAM.

    Impersonating the Emperor's Commissars is extra heresy and punishable by BLAM.

  • This picture is heresy within heresy. A work of infinite fractal heresy without beginning or end.

    This picture is heresy within heresy. A work of infinite fractal heresy without beginning or end.

  • He walked me through the ruins of Victory Bay, celebrating the slaughter I had carried out there! If you had been there, you too would see what a rotten veil of lies our chapter has become!" - Avitus

    He walked me through the ruins of Victory Bay, celebrating the slaughter I had carried out there! If you had been there, you too would see what a rotten veil of lies our chapter has become!" - Avitus

  • Nor Paizo. Ponyfinder is your new RPG.

    Nor Paizo. Ponyfinder is your new RPG.

  • Ponyfinder Pegasus datasheet

    Ponyfinder Pegasus datasheet

  • Ponyfinder Unicorn datasheet

    Ponyfinder Unicorn datasheet

  • Ponyfinder Rainbow Dash datashe...wait.

    Ponyfinder Rainbow Dash datashe...wait.

  • -4 Str

    -4 Str

  • Have to give 'em credit. Foul as the underlying concept might be, its presentation was carried out well.

    Have to give 'em credit. Foul as the underlying concept might be, its presentation was carried out well.

  • what is this I don't even

    what is this I don't even

  • tl;dr "bronies do it for the lulz".

    tl;dr "bronies do it for the lulz".

  • Anyone still not convinced the faggots have gone too far? There are worse abominations. Do not click if you have epilepsy or the like. Genuinely serious safety warning.

    Anyone still not convinced the faggots have gone too far? There are worse abominations. Do not click if you have epilepsy or the like. Genuinely serious safety warning.

  • I'm... uncertain.

    I'm... uncertain.

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