I remember when My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic first came out back in the early 2010s and all the praise that this show was getting from it's ever growing community of fans that everyone refers to as Bronies. I don't think anyone could of seen this coming and to be fair, no one did. But Bronies were a thing and still are a thing even after the show has finished. And I was one of them. My story with the Brony Community began in 2012 when I started to learn that they were a thing. And I actually kind of wanted to watch the show for myself to see why there was such a big fan base around it. There was just one thing that was kind of stopping me, while I knew at that point the stigma was total bullshit about how girly things or female leads mean meant for girls I was worried about the people around me who actually did believe in that stigma and trust me one side of my family is very close minded in that regrade! I mean if I personally did believe that stupid stigma then I might not of become such a fan of Shantae or Mighty Switch Force or hell even Bayonetta! So yeah, I mostly kept my viewing of MLP to myself when no one else was around and I'm really glad I did watch it back when it was still going because I really liked the show. During seasons 4 and 5, I would almost always look up online if the episodes were up to watch and because of how I never knew any station in Australia that aired them and I had to resort to using Daily Motion. Also, even if it's not my best work now I'm actually pretty proud of my early days on Deviant Art. The content I did of my Pony OC's is what originally gained me watchers and comments. If I were to remake some of it now or commission artists to do art around it now it would probaply be a little different than what I originally did.

So, what do I think of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic now compared to when I first saw it? Well, the same as I did back then. I thought it was a well made show with fun and memorable characters with good morals and I still think it's a well made show with fun and memorable characters with good morals. Do I think it's one of the best animated shows ever? Well, maybe? I haven't watched a lot of animated anything mostly because of how video games are my main source of entertainment as well as my increasing desire to watch more anime over western shows, mostly because I'm sick of almost all adult western cartoons that aren't Bojack Horseman being a comedy with gross out humour and a horrible art style, but out of every Animated Show I have watched it's up pretty high. This show has some really great episodes in it. At the same time though, not every one of them is a winner. And I don't mean the moral of the episode is bad or anything, in fact even in some of the weaker episodes the morals are actually alright, but rather how the episode may of delivered it wasn't the best. I mean you still have episodes like the one where Apple Bloom almost get's herself killed trying to prove she can look after her self and Apple Jack has to come in and save and even after that Apple Jack is all like "Nah, I may of been a total hard ass on ya about going though here but I think you can handle yourself."

Honestly though, I'd say there's more good or at least decent episodes than there are bad ones. The same goes for the characters as well. I mean, many of you who were on my DA back in 2014 and 15 probaply know how much I love Fluttershy and Luna and even if I'm not as involved in the community as I once was, still do. My protective big brother complex literally always kicked in with Fluttershy and while I'm not to proud of how defensive I may of gotten in the past sometimes, even being as petty as to refuse to favourite kink art involving her even if it involved a kink I was into like Hypnosis, that doesn't change how much I love her. I am really glad I've moved on from that part of my life though and grew up. And playing though Fallout: New Vegas with the Fluttershy companion mod was one of the best experiences I've had in a game. I mean now a days the idea of having a cute character like Fluttershy in a world as dark and unforgiving as Fallout seems kind of silly to me but dam if it wasn't a memorable time especially with how you could even teach Fluttershy to defend herself once you travelled with her enough. As for Luna, it was more of a case where I felt sorry for her than anything else. Being banished to the moon for 1000 years and then coming back trying to adjust to everything in modern times. I mean, she did have it coming what with her trying to create eternal night and all but still, hard for me not to feel some what sorry for Luna. Of course, for every Fluttershy and Luna there was also characters like Diamond Tiara who was kind of made to be and unlikable bully anyway, Trixie who drives me insane with her ego and... *sigh* Discord. Okay, I like a lot of the characters in this show. I will find something about all of them I at least like. Even King Sombra who everyone agrees isn't the best villain in the series, I at least like his design and how he can turn into a being of smoke. But I could never bring myself to like Discord, even now. Back then I hated Discord because of how he faked a sickness to make Twilight and Cadence go out of there way to find a cure which almost resulted in them getting killed by a giant worm monster, sold out his friend for the sake of some all powerful goat man promising him power and getting so jelious of Fluttershy going to the Gala with an old friend of her's to the point where his actions of bringing discount The Blob ruined the entire thing and almost out of rage banished Tree Hugger to another dimension all just because he was jelious "Senpi Didn't take me!" Now a days after looking at him with a more critical eye I can safely say that... I hate Discord now as much as I did then! I'm sorry, am I missing something here? I mean, I must be if people defend him and say he's one of the best characters in the show!

Moving onto something more positive, I can't talk about Friendship is Magic without talking about how like anything popular, Friendship Is Magic has been the source of a lot of fan animations, songs, drawings and other forms of art. Really, really dam good art. Seriously, sometimes when I'm playing a game I often have some songs like Nightmare Night, Awoken, The Pick Up on my Youtube Song Rotation because dam if these songs aren't awesome. Now of course not every that was fan created was great, Double Rainboom I get was meant to be a tribute to Larun Faust and her previous work but looking at it it kind of just feels like the Ready: Player One of My Little Pony. References and Fan service for the sake of it. I mean it's better than Dusk's Dawn at least. And if you don't know what Dusk's Dawn is, it's a thing I just made up on the spot that doesn't exist. Seriously, don't look it up! Please! I even remember there was actually a fan made fighting game based around it. Yeah, you all know the game Them Fighting Heards or whatever it's called where it's houses fighting eachother? Yeah, that actually started as Fighting is Magic which as you can probaply guess is a fan created fighting game that had a lot of work put into it. I never actually got around to playing it but looking at old archived footage of it, it clearly had a lot of effort put into it which is more than I can say for most of the badly done RPG Maker games I see.

Now of course, your probaply expecting me to talk about... THOSE people. You know who I'm talking about, the Anti Bronies. People who don't like the show. And there's nothing wrong with not liking Friendship is Magic. We can't all like the same thing because of a little thing called opinions and individuality. I mean, how boring would things be if we all just agreed with each other on everything? (I didn't like Cuphead.) However Anti Bronies, oh boy, Anti Bronies. I've seen it all with these guys. Calling bronies gay because they watch a show intended for little girls, some even calling them pedophiles, hate bombing anyone who was a brony even if they were not spreading it around or anything (Some assholes even came onto my Youtube page and called me scum just because my Profile Pic at the time was of Ponies even if I never said anything in the comments about MLP!) and even driving a kid to commit suicide! I mean he survived but why do some people keep saying that Bronies are cancer when the people who hate this community are far more toxic!? There's disliking something because you don't enjoy it which is fine and then there's going so far with your hate that you do shit like almost driving a kid to try to kill himself! And I'm not trying to say that Bronies are perfect either, I remember when everyone flipped there shit and over reacted over the end of Season 3 because Twilight became an Alacorn and even saying that they were leaving the fandom because of it. But when you do some of the horrible shit I listed Anti Bronies doing before I think it's obvious what side I'm taking. Even if I'm not as involved in MLP now as I was midway though the 2010's I have no shame in saying that the Anti Bronies were more annoying, if not way more worse than the Bronies! And if your wondering if I would say they are still horrible now, well I'm not two sure. I actually haven't seen them be as bad. Maybe they grew up and realised that they shouldn't be acting this way and just letting people enjoy things. Plus, what I listed is stuff I saw happen years ago. The people who do that stuff probaply regret most of it two. But if Anti Bronies haven't then yes, I would still say that Anti Bronies are cancer!

But yeah, those are my thoughts on My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic now vs then. Looking back not a lot has really changed about my opinions over the years. Will I ever return to doing pony content? Ehh, maybe. It might not be for a long time now since I'm so stuck in my current work that I commission or write. But it would be nice to come back to it if I ever get the chance. The show may be over now but I highly doubt the community is going to ever go away.