DENVER- "Everypony" was welcome at the Running of the Leaves Convention (ROTL Con) in Denver, which brought together My Little Pony fans -- including a budding group of bronies.
By their own definition, a brony is a male fan of the My Little Pony franchise who falls out of the target demographic of little girls.
According to brony.com, as a group they've rejected what they call the "yoke of age and gender roles that others have decided on."
Some bronies have argued online that Bronyism transcends traditional gender roles and gives people an opportunity to be themselves without fear of rejection.
My Little Pony was launched by Hasbro in 1983 first as toys. From there came animated specials, a feature-length film and an animated television series. And with the launch of the franchise, the Brony Herd was born.
The bronies at ROTL Con said they were drawn to the show by its storyline, since it includes cliffhangers, relatable friendships, love stories and themes such as acceptance and love.
"The story was really well-written and the animation as superb. The characters felt real and developed," Travis Gerhards said.
Some were curious about the show but skeptical at first.
Jason Beardslee, a physics student, said he stumbled across My Little Pony online and at first decided to ignore it. He noticed it kept popping up everywhere though and decided to watch the first episode.
"It ended on a cliffhanger and I just hate cliffhangers with a passion and so I watched the second episode," he said. "And somewhere in there I decided it wasn't too bad and then next thing I knew I was already through the first season."
"I had a friend who told me to watch My Little Pony, and I was like 'Dude, you can't watch My Little Pony, that's for girls!' But one day in the summer I was scrolling through channels and I saw it, so I gave it a shot and now here I am," Gerhards said.
Some didn't even know what they were getting into.
"My friend kept singing a song from the show for three days straight, and I just had to figure out where it was from. And I ended up marathoning all of Season 1 that very day," Mike Kettle said.
For others, the show very quickly became a lifestyle.
"My Little Pony premiered the week I shipped out to basic training, and the first time I saw it was actually in basic training. And I really got into it. I even had Fluttershy as my mascot for my last deployment," First Lieutenant Robert McKenna said
"It's beautifully animated with strong female characters, good characterization, good story-line showing you don't have to be a male character to be a hero in a story," he added.
In Denver, coloradobronies.org is the main website where bronies introduce themselves and arrange meetups, ranging from casual viewing parties to 100-person photoshoots.
And while the ROTL Con bronies acknowledged their group is an eccentric one, they said the Brony Herd is bigger than most people would expect.
"There's actually a number of military bronies. I've known a lot in my unit, and I mean I have some artwork where I work up in my office and nobody cares," McKenna said.
The bronies at ROTL Con said they've seen a growing movement to expand the brony culture, and now there is conference called The BronyCon that takes place annually on the East Coast.
Even with the growing number of bronies though, they say acceptance from others can sometimes be hard to come by.
James Lamorte said he's had varied reactions to his brony way of life.
"Some can be really nice, some can be like, 'What the heck?!'" he said.
"Some people are like, 'Yeah that's so cool!' and then it goes all the way down to, 'What are you, a loser' and all I can say is, 'No, not really,' and then they get really mad and walk away,' Gerhards said.
The support within the community is strong, with female cosplayers saying they don't see any harm in Bronyism.
Cosplayer Vinyl Scratch asked that nobody judge the community
"I know that it may seem weird that adult men are into this but I say if they're into a little girl show that's way better than them looking into some not so good stuff. I'd much rather them be like, 'Hey, friendship is magic,' and, 'Let's all along and break down gender roles!'" he said.
Gender roles were very clearly absent from the convention, with events such as cosplay performances, makeup tutorials and a 5K pony race open to anyone who felt like joining in.
And so, clad in unicorn horns and curly tails, the Denver bronies rallied at the Ramada Plaza, celebrating mystical ponies and proclaiming friendship is magic.
(KUSA-TV © 2014 Multimedia Holdings Corporation)
