I'm told there might just be a reference hiding in here, but I'm not sure if it's true.
So introduce yourself, what's your name, when did you join EQD, what do you do?
P: Hi, my name is Phoe, and I'm Equestria Daily's mare in the shadows. I was the third member of the EqD family, basically getting my start just as Season 1 was wrapping up, back when Cereal could still look at a pre-reader's efforts and be impressed enough to badger Seth into bringing her on. Basically I used to be a tertiary admin, but my role has since shifted into more specialized roles. I handle behind-the-scenes Quality Assurance, actively filter new ideas for the blog, and otherwise hang around waiting for some kind of task that needs good penmanship. If MA Larson needs a book reviewed, I'm your gal. If you need somebody to ramble on for ages and ages, look no further. I'm also the mastermind behind the Newbie Artist Training Grounds, and by night I moonlight as an assassin.
What's the best thing about working for EQD and what do you do in your spare time?
P: The selfish version of that answer is getting the chance to go to conventions and pretend to be somebody important.
The less selfish and kind of humblebraggy one is getting a chance to reach out and touch people's lives. EqD is a platform that gave me a voice. I became... I don't want to say "important", because I'm not, but inside the sphere of influence the blog has created, I can say things and people will listen. And that's led to some very awesome things, especially in getting others to realize their own potential and become better versions of themselves. Whether that means drawing ponies or just looking at an idea through a new lens.
My spare time is eaten up by a thousand different hobbies - I'm writing a novel, I exercise, I occasionally play at baking, and most especially Speed Running! My main game right now is Mega Man X, which if you like old-school platforming is pretty much tops as a wizard fast experience. So much fun.
What's your favourite episode and whose your fave pony?
P: Oh, now we're asking the hard questions! Do I get graded on this answer? You know, I'm not really sure. I guess it depends on what you're looking for in a "favorite" episode. Like, do you want to laugh? MMMMystery on the Friendship Express is pretty baller for that. Do you want to stubbornly insist Fluttershy is in love with Rainbow Dash? Any and every episode when they're on screen together, haha. But I guess if you just wanted an overall favorite, sort of "gun to my head" sort of thing, the answer would probably be A Canterlot Wedding. Huge surprises, great songs, best princess, best villain impersonating best princess, and also I got to see it at a premiere party The Hub was throwing at the time, so the memory of it stands out a little more, too. That sounds more boastful than I meant it to be, gosh. They just happened to be holding it like fifteen minutes from my apartment at the time and Seth needed a plus 1. He's the bigshot, I'm just a tagalong. =P
Favorite pony, though! Forever and always, Lyra Heartstrings. People give me weird looks for this a bunch because I'm putting a background pony with one spoken line in her life in front of all of the real and actual characters in the show, but the thing of it is, Lyra just has so much potential. She's part of almost all the best fanart, and really, she's sort of the "true" fandom pony, even moreso than Derpy. Whenever there's an easter egg scene, it's usually Lyra who's running it. Whenever there's a crowd of ponies, if any one of them is wearing a unique expression, it's always Lyra. She rewards the viewer for looking the extra little bit more than all the other ponies. She cries hardest, laughs loudest, and in all ways sets the example for how a pony should be. Hail Lyra, King of Conquerors!
Do you think EQD helps the fandom?
P: Apparently it's loaded question night. This is complicated, and I worry that any amount of time I spend answering this is going to be taken as aggrandizement or taking advantage of people's talents and successes. "You wouldn't be so big if it wasn't for us!" and other rabble rabble nonsense speak.
It's not true. Equestria Daily is first and foremost a content aggregate site, meaning that it pulls together a lot of the best and coolest stuff that you, the fandom, put out. All the comics, art, stories, plushies, animations, songs, analyses, what have you... it all comes from you.
But especially when we were in the Wild West beginnings and still figuring out what the heck was going on with this pastel horse thing, it was very difficult to get news, and even harder to hear about new content producers and sift through all of the junk you don't care about. So having a site like EqD pop up and grow in popularity was a huge boon for gathering the fandom under one roof. It's a role most anyone could have filled, sure, but EqD was the site to actually do it. It gave the fandom a face, it gave Hasbro and The Hub et al a sort of common point of interaction to gauge and reach out to a fandom they straight up never saw coming and weren't remotely prepared for. And that helped blossom one of the coolest and most special relationships between creators and fans that exists on this earth.
The flip side of it is that Equestria Daily has dropped the ball a few times. Taken stands where it shouldn't have, failing to vet news properly and causing panic with incorrect or incorrectly presented facts and opinions. We also went from being some of the very first to bring and produce interviews with important figures to being utterly overshadowed by other figures. Once upon a time in a documentary you may or may not have seen, I said that EqD was trying to become "pony CNN". Looking back, I think it failed. There's so much more the site could have been that time has just sort of shut the window on. I take a lot of the blame for that. I burned out on numerous projects and never really did the due diligence to transform it into something of any greater merit than it already was.
But with all that said, Equestria Daily is a real voice with a real sphere of influence, and I think the fact that the voice it has is a silly one does do the fandom a lot of good. So yes, I would say that it helps.
Is Seth really as crazy to work with as everyone thinks?
P: Seth is sort of a force of nature, and the stories don't really do him justice. There's nobody on earth who can pop up out of nowhere and leave me quite as befuddled as he can. I could tell you stories for weeks and not come close to running out. But I think telling those stories does him a disservice. I can't really say if EqD ever reached its maximum potential in terms of what it could be, but what it's been is the most successful and far-reaching content provider and news source in the world of pony, and I don't actually know anybody else who has the single minded devotion to have made it so.
Sometimes the eccentricities can be grating, but no more so than working with any other "boss" figure. I don't really want to sit here and make fun of him, as tempting as it is, because the truth is he accomplished something really amazing, and it's something I would never have been able to do. Sometimes I want to choke him, but I respect Seth a lot.
Thanks for chatting Phoe and glad to have you back on the front page again. If you'd like to see some of her Let's Plays you can find them over here and her live speedruns of Mega Man are here.
