/mlp/

{{See also|My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fandom#History}}

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Initial discussions about My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic began on 4chan's "comics & cartoons" (/co/) board shortly after the show's premiere. These early threads featured positive reactions to the show alongside backlash from users who found the content inappropriate for the board. As interest in the series grew, pony-related discussions spread to other sections of the website, most notably the "random" (/b/) board.

By early 2011, the prevalence of pony content had generated considerable conflict within the 4chan community, with many users expressing frustration over the high volume of Friendship Is Magic content appearing across the site. On February 26, 2011, 4chan implemented a total ban on pony-related content, resulting in immediate bans for users who posted such material.

Following this ban, displaced fans established dedicated websites outside of 4chan, including Ponychan and Equestria Daily, while also sharing fan-created content on mainstream platforms like Reddit and Facebook. This exile lasted nearly a year before 4chan administration reconsidered its position.

After recognizing the substantial and persistent nature of the fandom, 4chan reversed its stance by creating the dedicated /mlp/ board on February 16, 2012, a year after the implementation of the initial ban.{{Cite web|last=Tiffany|first=Kaitlyn|date=2020-06-23|title='My Little Pony' Fans Are Ready to Admit They Have a Nazi Problem|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2020/06/my-little-pony-nazi-4chan-black-lives-matter/613348/|access-date=2021-06-04|website=The Atlantic|language=en}}{{cite book |last1=Edwards |first1=Patrick |last2=Chadborn |first2=Daniel P. |last3=Plante |first3=Courtney N. |last4=Reysen |first4=Stephen |last5=Redden |first5=Marsha Howze |title=Meet the Bronies: The Psychology of the Adult My Little Pony Fandom |year=2019 |publisher=McFarland, Incorporated, Publishers |location=United States |isbn=9781476663715 |page=134 |date=September 11, 2019}} Concurrent with the board's establishment, Poole implemented "Global Rule 15" (GR15), which confined pony-related content exclusively to /mlp/, effectively redirecting all such discussions to the new board while maintaining the ban elsewhere on the site.{{cite magazine|url=https://www.wired.com/story/4chan-moderation-buffalo-shooting/|title=Inside 4chan's Top-Secret Moderation Machine|first=Justin|last=Ling|date=2023-06-05|access-date=2025-04-15|magazine=Wired|quote="All pony/brony threads, images, Flashes, and avatars belong on /mlp/," the rules read.}}{{cite web |last=Erasmus |first=Dennis |title=Containment Breach: 4chan's /pol/ and the Failed Logic of "Safe Spaces" for Far-Right Ideology |url=https://www.boundary2.org/2017/08/erasmus/ |website=boundary 2 |publisher=b2o: an online journal |date=August 2017 |access-date=2025-04-16 }}

• On May 27, 2013, Lauren Faust, the creator of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, hosted a Q&A session on /mlp/.{{cite book |last=Connelly |first=S. |title=Ponyville Confidential: The History and Culture of My Little Pony, 1981-2016 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E3VPDgAAQBAJ |year=2017 |publisher=McFarland, Incorporated, Publishers |isbn=9781476662091 |lccn=2016044897 |page=183}}
• On November 11, 2014, an infamous incident known as the "Rainbow Dash Cum Jar" gained notoriety when images of a Rainbow Dash figurine submerged in semen left to boil near a radiator were shared on /mlp/. The images spread across various social media platforms and became an Internet meme.{{cite web|last=Broderick|first=Ryan|title=What This Guy Claims To Have Done To A "My Little Pony" Figurine Will Horrify You|website=BuzzFeed News|date=2014-12-01|url=https://www.buzzfeed.com/ryanhatesthis/the-pony-cum-jar-project|access-date=2025-04-05}} Three years later, in 2017, the poster returned to /mlp/ to transfer the contents of the jar to "another, more secure jar". When asked by Buzzfeed News, the poster claimed he conducted the experiment out of "sheer curiosity and scientific research".{{cite web|url=https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/katienotopoulos/this-my-little-pony-figurine-in-a-jar-will-delete-your-faith|title=A Guy On 4chan Has Completed His Disgusting Mission To A My Little Pony|website=Buzzfeed News|first=Katie|last=Notopoulos|date=2017-01-12|access-date=2025-04-14}}
• On April 1, 2017, 4chan temporarily merged /mlp/ with the politics board (/pol/) as an April Fool's Day joke, creating a hybrid board dubbed "/mlpol/."{{cite web|url=https://mackenzierudd.medium.com/my-little-nazi-the-curious-link-between-the-alt-right-and-the-my-little-pony-fandom-13d753919418|first=Mackenzie|last=Rudd|title=My Little Nazi: The Curious Link Between the Alt-Right and the My Little Pony Fandom|website=Medium|date=2019-03-18|access-date=2025-04-13}}
• In December 2017, a series of leaks were posted to /mlp/ reporting that the ninth and final season of Friendship Is Magic would air in 2019, and that an upcoming fifth generation of My Little Pony would be following it.{{cite web|website=Polygon|url=https://www.polygon.com/2018/8/28/17788132/my-little-pony-friendship-is-magic-ending-bronies-fandom|title=Friendship was magic: How Bronies are preparing for the end of My Little Pony|first=William|last=Antonelli|access-date=2025-04-15|date=2019-09-12}}{{cite web|website=Geek Reply|title=My Little Pony Seasons 8/9 and G5 Info Leaked|url=https://geekreply.com/geek-culture/2017/12/19/little-pony-seasons-89-information-leaked|first=Ule|last=Lopez|date=2017-12-19|access-date=2025-04-15}}
• On January 20, 2020, anonymous posters from /mlp/ uploaded a book titled Horse Pussy{{efn|According to its description, "[it] was written in a week by a large (and unknown) number of anonymous writers who banded together on a thread on the /mlp/ (pony) board of the site 4chan". There were no rules to what could be included in the book; as a result, "there are vomit-inducing sections of the book, as well as subtle romances, racist sections, anti-racist sections, rape scenes, wholesome scenes, and philosophical sections, all of which may even occur at the same time."}} onto Google Books.{{cite book |last=Y mous |first=Anon |author2=Anony mous |title=Horse Pussy: /mlp/'s Fanfic |date=January 12, 2020 |publisher=Independently Published |isbn=9781659313123 |language=English |pages=310}}
• On April 14, 2025, 4chan—along with its boards (including /mlp/)—was hacked and taken down by an anonymous user of soyjak.party.

Many users of /mlp/ distance themselves from the mainstream "brony" label, which they associate with openly expressing interest in My Little Pony—a behavior colloquially described on the board as revealing one's "power level." Instead of identifying as bronies, users often adopt self-deprecating or tongue-in-cheek labels like horsefuckers or ponyfag; when used as a term of identification, the -fag prefix carries a neutral connotation on 4chan. As one poster on /mlp/ wrote:

"The way I see it, bronies are those fans who don’t hide their power level in real life... In what way is someone a trekkie if nobody knows they like Star Trek? I’m a horsefucker, because I want to fuck pastel ponies but no-one will ever know."

The term nor/mlp/erson is also occasionally used to describe the denizens of /mlp/.

{{See also|My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fan fiction}}

On /mlp/, regular threads are devoted to My Little Pony fan fiction, where audiences follow works by "writefags". Like other 4chan boards, /mlp/ operates through anonymity and lack of user registration, with users commonly referring to themselves and others as anons. Self-insert fiction plays a large role, with "Anon in Equestria" being a popular format where a generic human character finds themselves transported to Equestria and interacts with the show's pony characters. These stories often function as wish fulfillment, allowing fans to imagine scenarios where they receive acceptance from or develop romantic and/or sexual relationships with pony characters.

Horse News is /mlp/'s fan news website. On May 23, 2014, Horse News released an exposé that revealed that the term brony did not appear in official Hasbro content until 2012 while the term was first used on 4chan in 2010, contradictory to Hasbro's attempts to claim the rights to the term.{{cite web|url=http://www.horse-news.net/2014/05/hasbro-claims-rights-to-word-brony-c.html|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140727115240/http://www.horse-news.net/2014/05/hasbro-claims-rights-to-word-brony-c.html|archive-date=2014-07-27|date=2014-05-23|access-date=2025-04-13|website=Horse News|title=Hasbro Claims Rights to word "Brony", C&D;'s usage.}}{{cite web|url=https://www.themarysue.com/hasbro-tries-for-brony-control/|title=Lock Up Your Bronies, Hasbro May Be Claiming Creative Control Over My Little Pony's Adult Fans|first=Carolyn|last=Cox|website=The Mary Sue|date=2014-06-17|access-date=2025-04-13}}

The Pony Preservation Project (PPP) is a fan-driven project on /mlp/ dedicated to preserving My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic by assembling and annotating large sets of voice data for artificial intelligence models. This work has been notably integrated into 15.ai, whose creator engaged with PPP contributors on /mlp/ to enhance the accuracy and variety of cloned voices.{{cite web |last=Temitope |first=Yusuf |date=December 10, 2024 |title=15.ai Creator reveals journey from MIT Project to internet phenomenon |url=https://guardian.ng/technology/15-ai-creator-reveals-journey-from-mit-project-to-internet-phenomenon/ |access-date=December 25, 2024 |website=The Guardian |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241228152312/https://guardian.ng/technology/15-ai-creator-reveals-journey-from-mit-project-to-internet-phenomenon/ |archive-date=December 28, 2024 |url-status=live}}

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Members of /mlp/ commonly adopt the practice of having a waifu (derived from a Japanese pronunciation of wife), referring to a pony character from the show for whom they feel particular attraction or affection. Users openly discuss which characters they find sexually attractive and frequently designate one pony as their special favorite. Often, the term "waifu" designates not only a preferred character, but also an idealized romantic partner.

A notable aspect of this waifu culture is the simultaneous acknowledgment of its impossibility. A common trope on /mlp/ is frequently expressing wistfulness about the fictional nature of their desired relationships.

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| footer = A meme that juxtaposes SpaceX astronauts with Black Lives Matter protestors (above). The "ponified" version of the meme (below), in which the astronauts are replaced with ponies and protestors are replaced with zebras (who are African-coded in the Friendship Is Magic universe). A report by The Atlantic described it as an example of racism in the brony fandom.

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Since its inception, segments of the My Little Pony fandom, particularly parts of the /mlp/ community, have faced scrutiny regarding the presence of far-right and extremist elements. Due to the fandom's early roots on 4chan, some users introduced politically radical content to the community.

In June 2020, during the George Floyd protests, The Atlantic reported that the My Little Pony fandom was experiencing an "all-out civil war" regarding racist content. The article noted that some /mlp/ users mocked the protests with racist art, many of which was posted to Derpibooru—the fandom's primary fan art repository. On Derpibooru, artwork mocking the protests received substantial upvotes while pro-Black Lives Matter artwork was heavily downvoted. This conflict led to the site's first significant moderation policy change, with administrators banning images "created for no reason other than to incite controversy" and temporarily removing content mocking the protests. The article specifically identified Derpibooru as having "became a playground for the right-wing posters [from /mlp/] who could upload their art."

One controversial image described in The Atlantic article was a modified version of a white nationalist meme that juxtaposed SpaceX astronauts with Black Lives Matter protesters. In this adaptation posted on /mlp/, the artist replaced the Black protesters with cartoon zebras—characters that have African-coded representation in the Friendship Is Magic universe. The article noted that these zebra characters are commonly referred to on /mlp/ using the word zigger—a portmanteau of zebra and nigger. The article quoted a user's comment on the image praising it as "perfect for subtle messaging."

/mlp/ has been the subject of analyses and academic studies. In a 2017 eight-month ethnographic study of /mlp/ published in Sexualities, sociologists John Bailey and Brenna Harvey found that its users constructed a collective identity around sexual desires that positioned them outside normative heterosexuality.{{cite thesis |last=Sert |first=Ebru |title=Gamergate, SJWs, and QAnon: Context for the Digital Perspectives Directing Political Discourse |type=Bachelor's thesis |publisher=Purchase College, State University of New York |date=August 2021 |url= |access-date= }} Unlike mainstream "bronies" who emphasize the non-sexual nature of their fandom, they found that /mlp/ users incorporate their sexual attraction to pony characters as a central element of communal identity, while maintaining that this aspect should remain concealed offline.

According to Bailey and Harvey, users of /mlp/ engage in continuous self-policing, distinguishing themselves from "bronies" who openly share their interest in the show. This secrecy serves not to contest the abject status of their desires but to contain it within an anonymous context where identity performance is untethered from offline consequences. The politics emerging from this shared experience often position women as advantaged and men as victims, particularly in sexual and social contexts, directly contradicting feminist analyses of gender power dynamics.

Bailey and Harvey noted how /mlp/ exemplifies how online communities organized around stigmatized interests can develop distinct political orientations shaped by shared experiences of marginalization, even as they simultaneously reinforce hegemonic notions of masculinity through practices of secrecy and self-policing.

• 15.ai
• 4chan
• /b/
• /pol/
• /mu/
• Equestria Daily
• Music of the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fandom

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{{reflist}}

• [https://www.horse-news.org/ Horse News]

Category:4chan

Category:Internet forums

Category:Internet properties established in 2012

Category:My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fandom

Category:Fan fiction