Becoming a Brony

If there’s one meaningful thing I took away from Comic-Con this year, it might be the answer to the eternal question, “What is a BRONY?”. I first learned about Bronies while on the Adventure Time Comic-Con Quest where I was trying to get my own geeky medal. I was waiting in this ridiculous line with other fellow “questers” to get a stamp on my Adventure Time Map when I suddenly heard someone say, “Dude, are you a BRONY?!”. When I turned around, I saw two guys engaged in a discussion about being a Brony. Interestingly enough, the one wearing the Brony pin on his lanyard was convincing the other guy why My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is the greatest show ever. Hm, two guys talking about My Little Ponies? I had to find out what this was about. Although still a little confused as to what a Brony was, this Urban Dictionary definitely completely cleared things up for me and I was on my way to becoming a Brony.

Definition of Brony:

Fans of the new G4 My Little Pony show “My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic”. Mostly refers to the older male viewers of the show, but female fans use it too.

Stages of becoming a Brony:
While generally associated with a negative stereotype by outsiders, due to it’s former 80’s frilly girly-girl twinkle-toed tea-parties and all-female main casting, bronies are attracted to the new show by it’s good animation, acting, writing, and humor.

Having once been on the outside, bronies can love and tolerate others until they themselves become bronies. However, haters gonna hate— most likely due to the fact that they have a masculinity inferiority complex, where they believe that if they watched My Little Pony, others like them will label them as an effeminate freak.

Phase 1) Are you joking? How can adult males watch a show for girls?
Phase 2) Pfft. I’ll see what all the fuss is about, maybe make fun of the show.
Phase 3) Meh. It was okay. It wasn’t that bad, I’ll give it that.
Phase 4) It’s actually kind of funny and entertaining.
Phase 5) I take back everything bad I’ve said! This is AWESOME! …but I’d be ruined if anyone found out…
Phase 6) Friendship is Magic! Screw it! I’m a brony!
Phase 7) I’m dead serious, you should watch My Little Pony, too.
Hater) You guys are all gay freaks… I’ll never watch that. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to jerk off while lifting weights and playing video games all day to pretend to be a man.

Since then, I’ve watched something like 25 episodes now and am still going. And like a typical geek who loves her action figures, I immediately thought, “Where can I find myself some My Little Pony figures?”. After doing some research, I realized that the general Brony community agrees that the blind bag versions are some of the cutest versions out of all the toys. Even though these are blind bags, meaning that you can’t tell which figure you’re getting inside, the back of each blind bag contains 5 numbers and if you look at the 2nd and 4th number, it will tell you what pony you are getting.

In this example, the code is 20425. If you take the 2nd and 4th number, you get #02. Counting top to bottom, left to right, this blind bag would contain Applejack since she is pony #2. If the code were 21425, the pony number would be #12 and so on.

There are 21 regular ponies and 3 special ones. The special edition ponies are #22, #23, and #24. So the bag below with the code 22435 would be pony #23, which means you are getting the blue Rainbow Dash glitter version. Got it?

Although I misread a few of these and got a few extras and doubles, I was easily able to pick up the 6 main ponies from the show plus their special edition versions!

Oooh… glittery…

I also discovered the McDonald’s Happy Meal toy versions and thought these also portrayed the characters really well, so of course I went on a hunt for some of those on eBay.

On top of that, I’m also super excited about this MLP: Fighting is Magic game that Mane6 has done an incredible job creating! The animations and pony characteristics are spot on. I’m sure everypony is going to love this.