Something that people had been asking me back before I went on my long hiatus was if I was planning on drawing anything for the new My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic show.  I replied that I had not seen it, and didn't really have any plans.  The show seemed a little kiddie even for me.  I mean look at the freakn' title!

But I do have something to confess.  Well, actually several things to confess. Confession One.  Its not that I hadn't seen the show that made me hesitant to jump on this bandwagon.  See, I have an innate distrust of anything popular.  I don't know why.  It took me till book four to FINALLY read Harry Potter, and even then my mother had to read it first and recommend it to me (and she doesn't do nearly as much fantasy as I do).  That's how distrustful I am of popular things.  And this PONY SHOW, YIKES.  I guess I kept worrying it wouldn't even compare to the hype.

Confession number two.  I finally saw the freakn show.  All of it.  And enjoyed it, despite some areas of campy and a few continuity issues (all of which is completely forgivable, given the ORIGINAL target audience).  HAPPY NOW?

Confession number three.  This has actually inspired me to learn how to run that Adobe Illustrator program that's been sitting on my computers for years.  I don't know if I will actually POST any pony art, but I'm curious about vector drawing suddenly.  Been meaning to learn anyways, as it will help monstrously with my own art style.

Confession number four.  Am I now a pony fan?  Well here is the biggest confession of them all.  *deep breath*  Am I NOW a pony fan?  You kidding?  I WAS A PONY FAN A LONG FREAKN TIME BEFORE THIS WAS POPULAR, PEOPLE!!  I've been a pony fan since 1983!  I was TWO YEARS OLD.  I collected nearly ALL of G1!  I have the FIRST pony toys for crying out loud (they were Earth Ponies).  My twin sis and I, we were ALL about ponies.  We collected so many; hundreds really.  First year releases, second year releases, the animal companions, the seahorses (sea ponies), the fairy ponies (flutter ponies), the big brother ponies, the teen ponies, the HORSES.  Got the first brony, Lucky the Stallion, even though he was mail order only with horseshoe points.  We even had that HUGE four building mansion with pool playset and made nearly every other girl in our year jealous.  Yeah, when I was a kid, I BREATHED PONY.

Am I a pony fan.  Pffffft.

PROBLEM though, is that I was a GENERATION ONE fan.  G2 and 3 came and went, and I didn't even look twice.  They weren't my precious ponies from childhood.  They looked weird.  They didn't do nearly the same for me as those old toys, now boxed away somewhere in my parent's garage (a toy collector reading this will probably break into my house in the next month or so, but TOO BAD because when I say my sis and I played with them, WE REALLY PLAYED WITH THEM so I wouldn't count them as collector quality, lol).

And so, when I started hearing that the new G4 pony show was getting INSANELY popular, I had two immediate reactions.  One was the usual "ack, something popular, there's no way it will live up to the hype for me", and then I also had "ugh, not ANOTHER homunculus of the original".  I don't know why this bothered me; I've always looked forwards to redo's and reboots.  Look at TMNT; it just keeps getting better every time someone new gets their hands on it (I except Michael Bay to break that streak though).  But the reason its taken me over three years to check this show out is because this franchise was something special to me.  It was more my childhood than Barbie (which is saying something; I loved Barbie) or Cabbage Patch Kids (heaven forbid, but I grew up in that era), or even Duck Tales (my favorite kids show growing up; wanna hear me sing the theme song?).  The idea of anything being able to match that was unthinkable.  I was content to just let the new generation enjoy their version of my precious ponies in peace, worried that if I saw the show I'd turn into a whiny grandma sounding type ("Back in MY day, Ponies actually LOOKED LIKE PONIES!  You youngsters get off my lawn!).

I have now seen the show.  And I approve.  And THAT, ladies and gentlemen, is SAYING SOMETHING.

Overall, I give the new pony show an 8/10.  Maybe I'll actually review the show later.  Right now I've probably talked your ears off enough with my random pony history.  I may never know as much about this new G4 series as others do (some of you rabid fans . . . I worry about you lol), and I may never get as psycho on it as I did back when I was 3-8, but I can say that this new G4 has done the franchise justice.

That'll do, Lauren Faust.  That'll do.

~Shada