I am a Brony

There.

I said it.

I can already feel your scorn...

I'll admit it took a little while to get into it, what with the fact that I'm 23, male, and to be perfectly honest the concept of a redone series based on My Little Pony did not appeal to me in the least.  Of course that didn't stop most of the population from giving it a shot and loving every second of it.  My friend Joe was one of the worst offenders.  Every time we'd get together for D&D he'd be all about the freaking ponies and what ridiculous adventures they got themselves into over the course of their 20 some-odd minute run; all of them involving sunshine and rainbows and unicorn farts.

This concept of "Friendship is Magic" confuses and ENRAGES LRRR!

One day though, I figured I'd actually take a moment to give it a shot rather than chastise it and pass judgement without actually having taken at least a tiny bit of a dip into the pool.

At the end of that episode I was hooked.

I really enjoy that they actually took time to develop the characters behind each of the mane ponies, still keeping them vaguely two-dimensional as any children's program but actually giving them a history and room to change and grow.  The animation style actually really appealed to me for some reason, despite being fairly simplistic in it's colorization and shading (or lack thereof).

One thing that actually really got me though was the story telling.  At points: yes- the stories were incredibly trite and I could honestly see where the plot was going from miles away (again though, it's a children's show).  But at other points, the actual approach to the story at hand was kind of phenomenal.  They approached the ideas of westward expansion in one episode as a...herd?...of ponies moved into a prairie town and started to plant their apple trees on the sacred stampeding ground of a tribe of native buffalo, leading to all sorts of hostile confrontation but coming to a peaceful resolution at the end.

And only 1 obnoxious musical number from Pinkie Pie!

It took a lot of guts to approach my friend Joe after making fun of his pony obsession and apologizing for how wrong I had been.  Since then, a group of my friends have all pretty much become Bronies and Pegasisters in our own rights.  Hell even this past Wednesday booze-and-movie night, we spent a large part of Captain America and Hellboy II coloring in pages from a MLP coloring book that my friend Allie purchased on a whim at Costco.

Nothing says "Art Major" more than shading with crayons.

Ah...the fruits of our mildly intoxicated labors...

I am kind of proud on how the shading came out though I have to admit...especially since it means that I may or may not have put in more effor than the show's creators.

Check out General Zoi's Deviantart page for the full version Pony creator.  All the credit goes to her for her marvelous creation that allowed me to turn myself into a unicorn up at the top here.