||Bronies of every age, country, and race.You are about to embark upon the final chapter of the show that has kept us all together. We’ been together nine years now and soon it will be time for the show to go. But it is not a ending, simply a next chapter in life.I wanted to share some thoughts, some of which I have been thinking for a long time. I have always lived in Britain and never have attended a brony con, or probably never came across many fans, and I only discovered the show in early 2013, but I, or anyone else, will never forget what we had experienced over the years. Most people say that it was Lauren Faust who deserves the credit, and that’s true. But I’ve always felt that the Brony fandom was really the one that gave the show the love and strength it received over the years.It has made us the people we are, including myself, into people who are happy and feel like new men and women. And now that it is all ending, it kinda makes us feel we have lost our purpose. Honestly, I understand that truly…parting is such sweet sorrow.My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic is a cartoon that has never struck such an impact with me. When I first came across it, I was always of the assumption that it will just not appeal to me, as to me and others, most modern cartoons were terrible, and not like cartoons we have seen in the 90s, and 2000s, but when I watched it for the first time, I felt like I had reunited with something. I felt happy, I felt like I had escaped the real world, but most of all, I felt like I had found a purpose.All the wonderful fans, who helped the show and the fandom become the way it has been, had likely been people who have been trying to find a purpose, and they have now become filmmakers and people different then they would have been years ago. Even me. I have would never become the person I have become if it wasn’t for this show.I think the reason we don’t want to see this show end, is because as some episodes have shown, the characters are ageing, and getting older, and the image that still remains in our minds is of the characters when we first met them, before Sweetie Belle’s voice starting growing older, before Twilight became an alicorn, before Spike gained wings. One of the driving themes has long been that, whatever the differences between the members of the Mane 6 team, they were ultimately stronger and better together. They would break apart, but they always came back together. They formed a family, this motley crew. They did terrible things to each other, but somehow always circled back around to each other. That’s how families (mostly) are. They were characters who were like people, and we never connected with cartoon characters on this level before.I know, these are imaginary characters. But they have struck a place in my and others heart’s no other imaginary character ever has, and I’ve been watching cartoons just like most bronies have probably been. I never felt much when it came to other cartoon characters, and the MLP characters were the strongest characters I have ever seen in my life. I think when we see them age, we realised that one day, their stories would have to end. We wish it could go on forever, but just like reality, nothing last forever. But most of all, I think that we can actually be grateful we saw it as it happened; while there will more shows and fan stories in the future, nothing will be like those years of 2010 to 2019. Bear in mind, that all of us were alive to witness this show come into existence, and fall deeply and passionately in love with it, and that we had an amazing, dream come true because it helped define the person we became.It is my firm belief that MLP was not a cartoon or a show, it was an experience that made us connect more with reality. It awoke the child inside us, made us reach out to others, made us fall in love with the characters, and gave us the opportunity to spread our wings…I believe that no matter what happens in future for this franchise, or where it could go, it will continue to spread love and joy, not just in children, but adults who have not realised that they have forgotten what it is like to be a child. It will go on, not for 100 years or 500 years, but until the sun burns out.As we embark on the final chapter, it is fine to admit we are heartbroken to see it leave. The task will not be an easy one; a part of our hearts will go with the show when it ends on Sunday. It will be sad seeing the book close for the last time, it will be sad seeing the characters age as they go into their later life. But that is the nature of life. For one moment it is possible to dream that we can go back and start the cycle all over again, back in the show’s first chapter. But we should be thankful instead, that we got to experience it. It would never be the same watching it again, and knowing what is to come, because life is unpredictable, just like how nobody, not even Lauren Faust, expected this show to be such a hit, to revive the MY Little Pony franchise for a new generation, to get it more love than it ever had before, and most of all, to awaken the person inside us, and make our own films. None of us had no idea what we were starting. The first pebble in an avalanche of fan art, fanfiction, cosplaying, fandom, shippings, pairings… We started a legacy, whoever any of us are.MLP is not a cry to cartoon or to silliness. It’s a rallying cry for the awaking of the human spirit. To make people smile and show kindness. All the characters taught us. No matter where we go, whenever we will see an act of kindess, we will remember Fluttershy, whenever we see a generous act, we think of Rarity, whenever we see any act that any of the characters did, we will remember them all.And that how the MLP fandom is, in my humble opinion. It is not a fandom; it’s a family. It’s not perfect, and there are things we can’t give each other, but what family is perfect? What matters is that we are not alone in loving ponies, we accept each other, and our flaws. We may exasperate each other, frustrate each other, and push each other to the point we wish we didn’t have to deal with each other… and then we show ourselves we care by doing something for each other that we can understand and appreciate, telling ourselves that we can get each other even if we don’t always show it. This is not the end, this is not even the beginning of the end, this is just perhaps the end of the beginningSo as Pinkie Pie might say, wipe those tears away, and smile, because one day, down the road, you find yourself moving into a new world. And when you are old, you start sorting through various boxes and drawers, and you discover all of those old photos and mementos. And it is all ponies. And your grandchildren sit on your lap, listening to you describe the show, and they would never understand what it was like, as they were never there to experience it as it happened.We have done our duty, and as I walk of into the new world, I will release my heart to the show that defined me as the person I became. I will never ever watch MLP again, as I want to remember it the way it was before G5. I’m sure G5 will be good, but it will never hold a candle to the prime years of the 2010s. We will never forget the characters that we came to know in G4. And I won’t forget them too.My fellow bronies, we did it. We not only gave love to a show, we made a difference, we made a franchise stronger, we made ourselves known in the show itself, and we left it in good hands, but most of all, we all became a family. All in all, not bad… not bad at all.And so goodbye, take care of yourselves, and, most of all, realise that there is no greater gift then Friendship.Sam Fraser
March 1, 1998- ???????
Briton, once a Brony, always a Brony
#MyLittlePonyFIMForver||
