Expressive, well-designed characters that are both adorable AND very mature.

NOBODY THOUGHT IT COULD BE DONE.

Ponies did it. Imagine living with one of the ponies from Equestria. It would be adorable like a pet, yet it would be sentient & mature like a person. You could scratch behind its ears, AND talk to it like a human being. It would have its own emotions & opinions and would become very angry at you if you wronged it. It’s this clashing of completely different cartoon dialects that makes so many people interested in the show.

Second, the episodes themselves. It has slapstick for the young’uns, and very very mature humor for the adults. It truly is a show for ALL AGES. Not just children. There’s also action, and hilariously awkward conversations (mature humor). The episodes are sitcommy and character-driven. By all means, the ponies are the people in Equestria. They’re intelligent. Refer to point #1.

Third, THE WORLD IS NOT PERFECT in this show. SO MUCH SHIT GOES HORRIBLY WRONG, and the main characters have to go fix it. But half the time said “shit gone horribly wrong” affects them personally. Like Episode 5 (Griffon the brush-off), which is about Rainbow Dash’s griffon friend who has become an asshole over the years they’ve been apart. The episodes have life lessons (required for a show with a target demographic of children), but they aren’t stupid. They’re about racism, usurping, replacement, friends gone bad that need to be let go, and the likes. Episode 5 actually affected me personally, because I was in the EXACT same situation as Dash when I first saw it. One of my friends had gone bad, and I was holding onto said friend by a thread, hoping, hoping he would come back. He never did. I had to let go.

Last, the commuuuniiitttyyyy. Bronies have produced some of the best art, literature, and ORIGINAL MUSIC I’ve ever seen. I’m glad to be a part of such an enormous community that is nearing the size of the Trekkies.

This is probably my favorite cartoon of all time next to Ed, Edd n’ Eddy. In fact, since Ed Edd n’ Eddy FINISHED, this is moving in to fill the gap that it left. The gap that was previously inhabited by slapstick humor, awkward conversations, and a well-written plot.

It was replaced with slapstick humor, awkward conversations, and a well-written plot.

TL;DR version: This cartoon is incredible compared to today’s other cartoons. Watch it. It will bring peace of mind.

Both Season 1 and 2 feature epic 2 part openers dealing with villains. Season 2′s villain was a trickster spirit of chaos named Discord. His character was a shout out to the character “Q” from Star Trek… and his voice actor, John DeLancie, actor who actually played “Q”. Part of me imagines that the conversation went something like this at the recording studio “Yeah John, just do ‘Q’.” If that’s not enough, and entire episode was essentially a tribute tot eh classic Trouble with Tribbles episode from the original series.

As if Star Trek references aren’t enough, the production crew has seen fit to also take on the cinematic juggernaut Star Wars. Both of the closing scenes of the Season 1 and Season 2 openers parody the theatrical legend. The season 1 close is a musical parody, imitating the music and scene elements from “Star Wars Episode 1 Phantom Menace:, specifically, the musical number titled “Augie’s Great Municipal Band”. The season 2 close is even more impressive, parodying at least 2 separate scenes. The first is a chase scene with Rainbow Dash, where she flees with the cloud that she, in her altered mental state, believes is all that remains of the floating city of Cloudsdale, which she believes was destroyed. The music during this chase scene imitates The epic musical score from the escape from Cloud City in “Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back”. The closing scene to the episode is a blatant parody of the Yavin IV Medal Scene from “Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope”. A youtube video exists playing them side by side for comparison purposes.

And was it just me, or did anyone else notice a line in the above mentioned chase scene that appears to be right out of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 during the balloon chase, Twilight says “Applejack! Last rope! Make it count!”. This sounds a lot like a possible homage to Sgt. Foley’s “Ramirez! Last mag! Make it count!” line from MW2. Still it’s a generic enough line that it might be considered a throwaway line. Still, considering all the things this show has going for it… You never knmow

To top off all that… the musical numbers! WOW!!! “Winter Wrap Up” and “So Many Wonders” are amazing original pieces. Art of the Dress and At The Gala are amazing homages to Putting It Together (from Sunday in the Park with George) and Ever After (from Into the Woods). Both are Stephen Sondheim compositions, and they are paid homage and parodied to exquisite perfection. The MLP works are truly and surely themed and written for the show and it’s characters, and yet both songs perfectly match the context of the original songs. In “Art of the Dress”, Rarity becomes increasingly stressed with the endless demands by her friends to change the dresses she’s making for them from her original concepts, when Rarity knows the changes don’t match the vision she had for her friend’s dresses at all. This matches perfectly with the theme from “Sunday in the Park with George”. In “At the Gala”, the girls sing of how amazing their night at the royally hosted “Grand Galloping Gala” will be. The gala turns into an utter disaster. This is certainly in line with the events of “Into The Woods”, where all the happiness of “Ever After” is utterly shattered afterwards when the consequences of the first half of the play come back to bite the characters.

This show is epic on so many levels. I could probably write a book on this stuff… But I think TV Tropes is halfway there. Needless to say, i’ve only scratched the the surface of what the show has to offer.

As the article says, aside from all the “bonus” draws that putt you in, the show is VERY character driven. I WANT to be friends with people like these ponies. I WISH they were real. The show creates complex characters with intricate personality, and you truly do want to care for these digital scribbles in some studio’s computer monitors. It compels you to want engage the fan community and enjoy the art, the fanfics (and get mad when a grimdark fic hurts a favorite pony), the comics, the PMVs (Pony Music Videos), and even the rare original fan animations. It makes you see a life size Rainbow Dash plush toy sell on ebay and think… I wish I had $4900 for that, and not, WHAT WERE THEY THINKING (well, some of that second bit too! LOL)!!! It makes you appreciate all the fan created materials such as custom pony toys and sculptures, paintings, normal sized plush toys, clothing, and so many things you never thought of them. Clocks, paper crafts, buttons, bumper stickers, chalk art, graffiti, cakes, video games.

There is literally no end to the creativity of the My Little Pony fan community.

I find I neglect all other forms of entertainment these days, my video games, TV, other web entertainment such as my web comics… They all suffer, all to absorb as much fan generated MLP content as possible. I need to finish Fallout 3… maybe reading the 40 chapter Fallout: Equestria will get my Fallout urge fired back up.

Rainbow Dash is the best pony *cue the who is the best pony debate*