Nine seasons after Hasbro relaunched its iconic ’80s franchise “My Little Pony,” the decade of the “brony” is coming to an end.
A brony is, or was, a (nominally) grown young man who took a liking to Twilight Sparkle, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and their four-hoofed friends. Bronydom never proved persistent, and the show’s expiration this spring is hardly garnering fanfare. The showrunners are trying to capture some rainbow magic, though, and go out with a bang. June being Pride Month, the penultimate episode, “The Last Crusade,” features, for the first time in the history of Ponyland, lesbian ponies.
If you blink during the episode, you might miss the gay magic. The notion of anthropomorphic ponies having sexuality at all seems unfitting, and the episode’s protagonist, an orange Pegasus named Scootaloo, simply refers to the couple as her aunts. The episode begins with the two, Holiday and Lofty, leaving Scootaloo’s home and telling her which various Ponyville couples will be staying with her each night.
Wait, what? Quickly, it emerges that Scootaloo’s parents have an undisclosed job of supreme importance that keeps them from living in Ponyville at all. This 12th episode of the final season is the first time we ever meet her parents, who arrive only to announce that they’re settling down in another city and bringing Scootaloo with them.
An indignant Scootaloo spends the entire episode convincing her parents to leave her behind because she’s a part of an integral team that helps other ponies earn their “pony marks” (don’t ask). And it works.
You wouldn’t think a television show about rainbow ponies would need to resort to such contortions to become gay. Then again, you also wouldn’t think such a show would attract twentysomething male followers.
Perhaps we’re all better off that Rainbow Dash and friends are being put out to pasture.
