We Survived A Brony Convention
BronyCon brought together over 4,000 adult fans of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. Here’s what went down.
Darius, a brony in the National Guard. The crowd cheered for him and his friend when they entered the convention in uniform.
At this past weekend’s BronyCon — a gathering of “bronies” at a convention center in Secaucus, New Jersey — you could buy My Little Pony hats, pins, art prints and even nail polish. You could go to a panel discussion with Lauren Faust, the creator of the cartoon show My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. You could play a Magic The Gathering-type of card game that was My Little Pony-themed, or if you were really hardcore you could participate in a game of pony themed LARP (live action role play) game that went on for hours in a room with a tightly closed door. Or you could just hang out with the 4,000 other bronies and discuss the Derpy Hooves controversy.
A brony is an adult man who is a fan of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic — not just the little plastic ponies that little girls have been playing with for decades. (Adult female fans are sometimes called “pegasisters,” though I prefer to use the brony term universally.) They’ve developed an intense (some might say creepy) adoration of the show, which is aimed at young girls but is packed with clever jokes and sophisticated characters that appeal to adults, with a theme about the importance of friendship that resonates with teenage or college-age geeky guys.
Darius, a brony who’s a member of the National Guard, was wearing a Rainbow Dash patch on his sleeve. “We barely made it up to the top steps and everyone outside was cheering for us. I didn’t know they were cheering for us, I thought one of the other guys had showed up, I thought it was [voice of the character “Dischord”] John de Lancie or Lauren Faust. I started clapping because I figured if everyone else was clapping I’d do it too. Then my friend was like, ‘no dude, they’re clapping for us.’” Apparently bronies also love a man in uniform.
Bronies have plenty of spaces on the internet — Tumblrs, Deviant Art, brony blogs — to communicate with other bronies, but getting to hang out with other bronies in real life seemed to be the most exciting part of the convention.
Another highlight of BronyCon was a screening of the second version of a video mashup called Ponies: The Anthology. A team of video editors worked for months splicing clips from the TV show with popular music and other dialogue to create a jumpy masterpiece filled with pop culture references and inside jokes from the show. The crowd loved it.
Here are more highlights from BronyCon, from vendors and their DIY merch to girls in evening gowns as part of pony cosplay costumes.
A security guard in bulletproof vest talks into his wireless mic.
A vendor selling MLP needlepoint crafts.
Fans listen to a panel discussion from voice actors from the show.
Bottles of soda decimated by brony LARPers
Cosplay based on a popular fan video where Fluttershy kills Rainbow Dash with a chainsaw.
Princess Celestia cosplay LARPer
HOT ON
More Buzz
Facebook Conversations
16 Responses So Far
- joanr4 thinks We Survived A Brony Convention is Fail
- itsthecolleenlife We Survived A Brony Convention and thinks it’s Cute & Win
- TheGothicSerpent We Survived A Brony Convention and thinks it’s Sweet, Cute & Win
-
- mattyraritye We Survived A Brony Convention and thinks it’s Win
- CharmedPop We Survived A Brony Convention
- susiek thinks We Survived A Brony Convention is WTF
- buzzrabbit thinks We Survived A Brony Convention is Win & Cute
- haiiishannon thinks We Survived A Brony Convention is LOL, Win & OMG
- Giovanni Lido thinks We Survived A Brony Convention is Facepalm! & WTF
- xxsacredrelicxx thinks We Survived A Brony Convention is & Fail
- janice! We Survived A Brony Convention and thinks it’s , WTF & Ew
- Gitsie Gutwrench thinks We Survived A Brony Convention is Fail, WTF & LOL
- PifflePrincess thinks We Survived A Brony Convention is , Win & Cute
-
- aed0924 thinks We Survived A Brony Convention is Fail & WTF
- mooreladybugs We Survived A Brony Convention
- jessicas80 thinks We Survived A Brony Convention is WTF
- reddit.com readers just made We Survived A Brony Convention hotter
-
-
- andreac16 thinks We Survived A Brony Convention is WTF
-
- angha thinks We Survived A Brony Convention is , Cute & LOL
- darbanella thinks We Survived A Brony Convention is , Fail & LOL
- izaya thinks We Survived A Brony Convention is WTF, LOL & Fail
- AdventureNeckbeard thinks We Survived A Brony Convention is WTF & LOL
- mushabon We Survived A Brony Convention
- kathrynp thinks We Survived A Brony Convention is LOL & WTF
- idhren We Survived A Brony Convention and thinks it’s OMG
- dourland thinks We Survived A Brony Convention is LOL
-
Andosphere 10 months agoI don’t think I’ll ever understand the fascination with this show.. I don’t hate it, the fandom is obsessed though.
-
- joels9 thinks We Survived A Brony Convention is WTF &
- Marisa M. thinks We Survived A Brony Convention is WTF
- Robot On thinks We Survived A Brony Convention is LOL &
- toughlove2 thinks We Survived A Brony Convention is WTF
- LB thinks We Survived A Brony Convention is & Ew
- therealsky thinks We Survived A Brony Convention is WTF
- Museviolet thinks We Survived A Brony Convention is LOL
-
-
- KamrynAlexis33 We Survived A Brony Convention and thinks it’s Cute & Win
- shawali thinks We Survived A Brony Convention is Fail
- EmmaLead thinks We Survived A Brony Convention is Fail
- benjaminc5 thinks We Survived A Brony Convention is WTF & Fail
- carmenw2 thinks We Survived A Brony Convention is WTF
-
- WuTangPam thinks We Survived A Brony Convention is Facepalm!
- xturkishx thinks We Survived A Brony Convention is , OMG & Win
- Sweetcheex76 thinks We Survived A Brony Convention is
-
PunkySpunky 10 months agoI like being not the only adult who likes cartoons and my little pony but I don’t like how there are adults who are pedis and try to add sexually to the cartoon since it just not ruins the cartoon but also but for the kids which why they revamped it in the 1st place and plus I bet I’m the only my little pony fan who has been a fan since the 1980’s!
-
- Amalie Lawrence We Survived A Brony Convention and thinks it’s , Fail & WTF
- maniacallyinclined thinks We Survived A Brony Convention is LOL
-
- noura thinks We Survived A Brony Convention is WTF
- coolcoolcool14 thinks We Survived A Brony Convention is OMG
- caseyk2 We Survived A Brony Convention and thinks it’s OMG & Win
-
- charleseffinbrunsi thinks We Survived A Brony Convention is WTF
- aurorem thinks We Survived A Brony Convention is
-
-
-
-
-
Special Reactions
Your Reaction?
React with an animated GIF!
READY. SET. REACT!
GET STARTED