Confound these talking cartoon ponies!

So if you've spent any amount of time on the internet, you've probably heard of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic or bronies or seen pony pictures and wondered what the big deal is. Well, that's what happened to me, anyway. After several  months of seeing pony comments and pony pictures and pony-related videos, I decided to see what all the fuss was about, and since every episode can be found on YouTube, I didn't have to worry about people wondering why I was watching a little girl show about talking ponies and friendship.

Yeah. You might be able to see where this is going.

Now, to be honest, I wasn't really sure what to expect. I remember seeing a few seconds of what I thought was My Little Pony once. All I remember is for some reason, the pegasus ponies couldn't fly because they didn't have honey on their wings, or something like that. Didn't make a lot of sense then, and it makes even less sense now. On the other hand, I knew there had to be a reason this brony thing was getting so big, so I tried to go into Friendship is Magic with an open mind. I find when you do, you usually get your mind blown one way or another.

My mind was, indeed, blown. In a good way.

The episode I chose at random was "Green Isn't Your Color" from the end of Season 1. I'm certainly not into fashion at all, and I've never really understood spas, but I knew the show was aimed at little girls and went with it. At first I thought the story was fairly predictable: the shy pony accidentally steals the fashion pony's dream, and the fashion pony gets increasingly jealous until she finally learns the importance of sharing the spotlight or whatever. Nothing I hadn't seen before.

Then I hit the 13-minute mark, and the show threw me for a loop. Usually in this kind of story, the jealous character denies being jealous until the very end, even if someone points it out. But halfway through the episode, fashion pony acknowledges her jealously and admits that's she's wrong for feeling like that. I don't know why, but this caught my attention. I'd expected a standard don't-be-jealous moral, but it seemed the show wanted to take it somewhere else, and I started paying closer attention to what was going on. To top it off, the characters were genuinely interesting and relatable. The shy one reminded me of myself when I was growing up. The purple one reminded me of a time I tried (and failed) to keep too many secrets. And the pink one... well, there's really no way to explain the pink one, except maybe with a portal gun and 500 tons of sugar.

Needless to say, I was intrigued. A children's show with interesting characters and a plot you can't figure out in the first five minutes? I continued watching random episodes, each time finding something more to like. The entertaining (and sometimes annoyingly catchy) music and songs. The athletic pegasus making rainbow explosions that shatter solid rock. The OCD brainiac trying to fit in. The pink one... doing anything, really. The stories were entertaining and didn't beat me over the head with their morals. Sure, it was a kid's show, but for some reason, I found myself liking it more and more.

It was then that I gave in to the budding seeds of bronydom and started watching from the beginning. I watched all of Season 1 and 2 over the course of about three days, feeling much like Rainbow Dash when she discovers her love of reading. Sure, some parts didn't connect with me, but overall, I found the show funny and entertaining without having to rely heavily on adult humor and references.

It took me a while to come to terms with my new-found bronydom. I first told my fiancee, who ended up watching and liking the show as well. The topic then came up with a few close family members, some of whom turned out to be closet bronies themselves. I recently started writing fanfiction scripts and finding out more about the brony community and what goes on behind the scenes of the show. I even tracked down Lauren Faust's DeviantART page.

So, what now? Well, I'll keep being a fan, and in true FiM style, I'll end with a moral. It's easy to look on My Little Pony's past and assume this show is just meant to sell toys to little girls. And maybe it is, as far as Hasbro is concerned. But the show's creators have done so much more than that. They've taken the franchise and turned it into something anyone can relate to and enjoy. Will everyone like it? Probably not. But if you go in with an open mind, you may just find something you weren't expecting.

Kansas Badminton

So for the Fourth of July, my dad and I drove from Washington to Kansas so hang out with Britny (aka AWESOMEST PERSON EVER) and her family. We spent a couple days in Manhattan, where Britny goes to school. Then we drove out to Cambridge, where her grandparents and horse live. Then we went out into the middle of nowhere, where her parents own a house and tons of land.

Now, when I say middle of nowhere, what I mean is this: drive out on a country highway until you are 20 minutes away from any signs of human life, turn onto a gravel road, and drive for nine miles. It's very very very isolated. VERY isolated. Good luck getting a cell phone signal out there.

Anyways, when we pulled up, Britny's brothers, Zack and Zane, were riding a four-wheeler around, because that's what they do. We got out of our car and said hi to Britny's parents and some extended family members and friends. After all that, Britny took me outside to show me just how huge the property was. To put it simply, they own a lake. A whole lake. With fish and a dock and a boat.

After the tour, we found Zack, Zane, and a cousin named Lawrence setting up a net of some kind. I saw badminton racquets and a deflated volleyball lying next to a cardboard box, so I figured the net went with those. The net was anchored with several plastic spikes, which were impossible to drive into the hard, dry ground. Fortunately, Britny's Uncle Ed brought a hammer, which solved that problem.

After we got the net set up, we decided to play badminton - or rather, smack the birdies back and forth for a while. Since there were only four racquets, I decided to sit out and inflate the volleyball, since more people can play volleyball than badminton. The set came with a small air pump, which I found easily. What I didn't find was the needle attachment, which made the pump completely useless.

That was kind of a problem, since we had an extra person. Lawrence offered me his racquet after a while, and Britny and I played against Zack and Zane. After a few rounds, Zane offered Lawrence his racquet. I figured he'd sit out, but instead, he decided to improvise. He grabbed the cardboard box and walked back onto the court. We all thought he was just being silly and that his idea wouldn't work. The birdie flew towards him, he swung the box, and with a loud thwack!, the birdie sailed over the net.

We were all too astonished to go after the birdie, and when we recovered from shock, we burst into laughter. Zane continued playing with his box until finally, he swung at the birdie and, in his best Skyrim voice, shouted, "BOX-RO-DAAAAH!"

It was the best line ever. We all died of laughter, and by the time we recovered, it was time for dinner. We had spaghetti and garlic bread. It was delicious.