I'm going to echo Burning Phoneix here.
MLP never became what it is by itself. The internet has made it what it is today. What I mean by that is the fact that the Brony community itself makes up most of MLP's mass and gives it its gravity.
Image how differently things would be if MLP never showed up on 4chan's radar:
Nobody would have trolled with it, which means it wouldn't have caused a massive shitstorm on 4chan
Without the massive shitstorm on 4chan, people would have ignored it rather than make something out of it
If nobody made anything about it (art, stories, discussions, trolling attempts and such) it wouldn't have formed a fanbase.
If it didn't form a fanbase, it wouldn't have registered as a massive trending event on KYM
If it never trended on KYM, many of us would have never known about MLP and joined this fandom.
So it really does just come down to you guys. The show itself is average to me, I like it as much as I liked Samurai Jack and Fairly Odd Parents. But the community (you guys) draw me into this fandom above all else. I love the artwork, I love the discussions, I love ponifying things and of course I like having you lot as friends. If the community wasn't there to provide that; like Phoneix, my reaction to MLP would have just been "nice cartoon", then I would have been on my merry way.
@Image Gallery
Yes we know. Looks like a secondary attack following the Spardo spam that happened earlier in the General forum. I guess the trolls gotta hit more than one place to maximize effect.
Nobody panic…in fact, don't react whatsoever…just wait for a mod to delete the images