Visit our brony timeline for an even more detailed look at early bronydom!

While the show was preparing to air, the debate of modern children's cartoons being nothing more than toy commercials was raised. No matter what Hasbro's intentions were, the production team behind Friendship is Magic made sure that the cartoon they were producing was indeed of high quality. As a result, the show gained the attention of an unexpected audience.

Many users of 4Chan, a controversial anonymous image board known for being the birthplace of various internet trends, latched onto the show during this time. Users began to excitedly post thread after thread of endless pony pictures. Some of it was for the sake of ironic humor, while some users found themselves genuinely enjoying the show and looking for others to discuss it with. At one point posts about ponies were banned from the site due to the sheer amount of pony spam. A number of people rose up against the show expressing hatred toward those who even mention something pony related, likely because of fans' proclivity to sometimes share pony content in places where it was not wanted.

It's not a stretch to say it was the "anti-pony movement" which made bronies what they are today. The more something is opposed, the higher the supporters must rise up, and rise up they did. Bronies soon began to create their own websites. After seeing so much opposition on 4Chan, bronies moved on to create PonyChan, an image board just for My Little Pony related content. During this initial boom of pony popularity countless blogs, image boards, and other websites were created along with the use of virtually every popular social media website on the internet. As the brony community grew and expanded into the rest of the internet, 4Chan later created a brand new board just for ponies and welcomed the community back with open arms.

By this time ponies had already begun to take over the internet... and the world.

As with many memes spawned from 4chan, ponies rapidly spread around the world; but this time was different. While plenty of memes gain popularity from a simple sharable image macro, ponies represented an actively airing television show where each new episode introduced new phrases or other memorable moments. Fans found themselves drawn to the minimal yet expressive nature of the characters, the lore-filled depth of the world they lived in, and of course the humorously ironic nature of a bunch of grown adults and teenagers enjoying a show originally intended for seven year-old girls.

The early My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic episodes were enjoyable for what they are, but as bronies became an inescapable phenomenon the creators of the show quickly joined in on the fun. Staff interactions with the fandom became regular online and at events, and soon references intended for the older fans made their way into the show itself. The quality of the show and the attention it received by early fans was already a powerful force, but it became evermore potent once the show started to recognize bronies. 

Not even the internet could contain the excitement and passion of the bronies. Fandom organizers created the first brony convention in 2011 with the first big convention to see thousands of attendees taking place the very next year in 2012. This convention was aptly named "BronyCon" and as years went by their annual attendance grew from a couple hundred fans to over ten-thousand. Not only that, but other brony conventions unrelated to BronyCon also took place all around the world. Ponies reached every continent, and even the international space station.

Many long-time fans remember this period of time as the height of bronydom, as it felt like everyone was taking part in the pony party in some way. Musicians created iconic remixes, popular YouTubers made references, people's profile pictures became ponies, and everywhere you looked on the internet there was a pony to be found. However, this "meme status" of the show was only the beginning as fans settled in for the long haul.

The explosive popularity of bronies was viewed by many as a fad; a silly meme which couldn't possibly persist. Even most bronies were surprised as the show continued to announce new seasons, spin-offs, and other official media. Comparisons could be made to other long-lasting communities such as Trekkies or Furries, but the brony community is truly unique because of its unbelievably passionate following and incredible amount of fan-made media; all for a single cartoon originally made for little girls.

Anything and everything can be ponified. That combined with My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic quickly becoming one of the longest-running modern cartoons gave the community immense staying power. Even as the meme-status wore off, the news stopped reporting, and casual fans moved onto other things, dedicated bronies continued to produce creative works and discuss all things pony on a daily basis.

Hiatuses between seasons of the show were both despised for being arduous and celebrated as a time for the fandom's creativity to shine, however, the looming threat of an "eternal hiatus" made fans uneasy. The show had to end eventually...

In August of 2019, a trailer for the final season of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic released the very same day as the final BronyCon. In stark contrast to the show ending, this BronyCon event was the largest brony gathering ever with more than ten thousand attendees and nearly $100,000 raised for charity. Soon after, the emotional final episode of Friendship is Magic aired in the US October 12th 2019; just two days after an impressive nine year anniversary.

Despite everything being against bronies at this time with the show ending, the final BronyCon, and a worldwide pandemic cancelling most events for a year and a half; fans continued to make creative works and discuss the show on a daily basis just as they always have since the beginning. Virtual pony events and meetups erupted online in greater numbers than previously seen due to the pandemic. Interactive experiences like PonyTown provided a place for bronies to meet and enjoy virtual concerts together. Multiple convention organizers provided virtual panels and digital vendor halls throughout the year. Since bronies were already a predominantly internet-based community, pony activity only continued to increase as more and more people found themselves quarantining at home.  A whole new group of bronies who had previously never been to a pony convention were experiencing a small slice of it for the first time, which no doubt led to even more excitement as physical pony cons planned their grand re-openings as the pandemic began to lift.

The brony phenomenon may not be an internet-wide meme anymore, and the mainline show may have concluded, but that hasn't stopped bronies from passionately enjoying the show. It also hasn't it stopped Hasbro from announcing future spin-offs and new generations of My Little Pony.

The future of bronydom is an exciting one. New fans are frequently joining and discovering the huge catalog of fanmade media, conventions are slowly returning after the pandemic, and Hasbro is working with Netflix to roll out an all-new generation of My Little Pony.

It's never too late to join the herd!