Five years ago today, deep within the confines of the internet, a lone fandom began to emerge based entirely around cute, anime eyed cartoon horses. Few expected it to be anything more than your average internet fad that explodes and dies within a few months. Yet here we are, half a decade later! My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is still going strong, and Equestria Daily is here riding the wave that never ends!
Below the break, I get all sappy. Thanks a lot guys.
When I first created EQD all those years ago, I really didn't expect it to last much past season one. I remember telling Cereal Velocity, the first blog co-admin here that the upcoming break between episodes would be our death knell. Surely people would grow bored right? I've never been so wrong! When the 26th episode aired and ended, people weren't satisfied with just dipping into oblivion while waiting for more. Hundreds of thousands of minds got together to create their own entertainment, and here at EQD we spotlit it all!
I don't know how much of an impact we had on the success of pony growing in the early days. The show had it's own unique appeal that kept people busy. But hopefully we did help you all find things you may have missed, and in doing so helped motivate people to keep on making more. That was the goal, and I think we did it as well as we could.
Equestria Daily wouldn't be anything without it's loyal fans though. You guys are the ones that create the awesome stuff we have posted every single day for the past 1825 days. You are the ones that submit the things we don't scoop up. The ones that flood the things we post with views, turning people that previously didn't have a following into pony fueled superstars. We've seen hundreds of musicians, artists, authors, video makers, and more follow this path over our 32,000 posts and counting.
Sure there were some rocky periods where it actually became "cool" to dislike the site, but I don't think anything on the internet dodges that period in life. There were bad decisions mixed with the good, and more growing pains and learning experiences than I'd ever care to remember. But we survived, and hopefully are better for it!
As the year ticks on, and we head into the next of the pony hiatuses (though hopefully a shorter one this time!), I want to thank you all for still coming here all these years later! EQD is definitely a 24/7 job, but you all make it worth doing every single day. When I quit my crappy retail job a few years ago to work on this, It was a pretty huge risk. Everyone thought I was insane for creating and throwing countless sleepless nights into a pony site, including me! I'm glad I did though. It wouldn't be possible without you. Even if you are blocking the ads, it's still huge motivation that you all come here just to keep things active.
So keep it up everyone! Pony has a long life ahead of it, regardless of where Equestria Daily is in a few years. Send us anything cool you find, and keep on creating! As long as there is cartoon horse, we will report on and compile the best of it.
Oh, and Trixie is still best.
