Forget SOPA. The biggest online intellectual property story last week was the shutdown of a website offering downloads of the cartoon My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, which shook the burgeoning "brony" community to its core. 
 
 
 
 Bronies (bro+pony) are adult male fans of the new series launched in 2010 based on the classic ‘80s My Little Pony toy that [spoiler] your mom secretly threw out your collection of when you went to college. 
 
 
 
 If you think bronyism sounds like something only a serious pervert living in his mother's basement would be into, you're only about 30% correct. To address your immediate question: it's not ironic. It's nerdy guys who genuinely enjoy an animated series about ponies. The show has a legitimate appeal to older audiences—high production values, snappy dialog, and a heartwarming message. But the online fan culture of bronies grew out of 4chan, so they have a computer nerd vestigial tail of Mountain Dew, anime appreciation, chronic virginity, and cyberbullying. 
 
 
 
 Bronies have their own news sites, fan forums, and even a healthy amount of fan art of ponies doing unspeakable sexual acts on Tumblr. They've had real life meet-ups, and an upcoming BronyCon in New York will feature appearances by voice actors from the show. 
 
 In the pecking order of internet weirdo subcultures, bronies fall somewhere between Ron Paul supporters and furries. For this reason, I like to do a search for "bronies" on Twitter every now and then to see if there's anything worth ironically retweeting. It was while doing this search that I stumbled onto the piracy scandal unfolding between trademark holder Hasbro and a popular brony site. 
 
 Until last week, PonyArchive.org was a keystone of the Brony community. The fan site offered free full episodes of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, and had around 30,000 visitors a week. PonyArchive's videos were much higher quality than YouTube, making it the best destination for fans who didn't want to buy episodes on iTunes or wait for the DVD release in February. It also serviced international fans who couldn't access the show on TV or iTunes in their country. 
 
 
 
 It turns out giant international corporations don't love it when you pirate their content, even if the words "friendship" and "magic" occur in its title. On December 14, Hasbro sent a take-down notice to PonyArchive.org. PonyArchive, which was based in Sweden, did not comply, and sent this email reply, reposted on BronyNews: 
 
 Thanks for your consern [sic]. Since we are merely spreading friendship and magic we feel that we're protected by princess Celestia herself. Also, we are not based in the US - so US law does not apply to us. Please feel free to download the episodes from our website in order to 
 
 learn about accepting, friendship and happyness too. Have a nice one :) 
 
 But Hasbro did not want to learn about accepting or happyness. They sent a second notice, and by December 20th, PonyArchive relented and removed all content from the site except this message under the heading "Fuck you, Hasbro": 
 
 
 
 Dear Celestia, 
 
 
 
 Today we learned that Hasbro, are no real bros. They are indeed proper wankers. 
 
 
 
 We were only trying to spread the word that friendship is magic, and then these twats came along with their fancy threat-letters. 
 
 
 
 Please, banish HasNObro to the hell-holes forever. 
 
 
 
 Yours truly 
 
 Pony Mc Archiveington 
 
 (According to the Friendship Is Magic wiki, Princess Celestia is a "winged unicorn, the supreme ruler of Equestria"—the world of My Little Pony.) 
 
 
 
 These harsh words sparked a rift in the brony community. Had PonyArchive reacted immaturely, or was it a justified response to a snub by Hasbro? EquestriaDaily, the most popular brony blog, had 844 comments on its post about the crack-down. 
 
 
 
 Most commenters were anti-PonyArchive: 
 
 
 
 "Being a brony, I am ashamed to be associated with people that choose to answer in such an arrogant and self-entitled manner. It's childish, that's what it is. The last thing this fandom need are people like this." 
 
 
 
 "Not cool, PonyArchive. You're failing to love and tolerate the very people who introduced the love and tolerate rule. Shame..." 
 
 
 
 Other bronies were just disappointed the site was gone, especially bronies in other countries: 
 
 Ponyarchive is down. Guess I'll just use The Pirate Bay. It's not like I can buy the DVDs or any episodes from iTunes. — Anonybrony (@Anonybrony) December 21, 2011 
 
 PonyArchive's official response in the comments? "Well, we did this for teh lulz." 
 
 
 
 Illegal torrents of episodes are still out there for motivated bronies and international fans, and there's little chance bronies are going away anytime soon. Right or wrong, one thing is clear: Don't get between a man and his Ponies. 
 
 Katie Notopoulos is the creator of the blogs Sorry I Missed Your Party, Dumb Tweets at Brands, and Marina Abramovic Made Me Cry. She's on Twitter, duh. ||||| Today's My Little Pony is totally different from what you grew up with in the '80s, and it isn't just that you're no longer interested in brushing a plastic pony's mane for hours. When the franchise was rebooted last year with the TV show My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, it developed an unlikely fanbase: "Bronies," or adult male fans. Like an animated, girls' version of Bridesmaids (with less diarrhea jokes, presumably), the series proves that men will watch a high-quality program targeted to women, even if it's overloaded with pink and sparkles. 
 
 The New York Observer tells the unlikely tale of how the charming 4chan cesspool inspired a legion of men to begin following the adventures of characters like Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash. Shortly after the show (which, true to its origins, still exists in part to sell Hasbro toys) premiered on The Hub in October, an article about the show was posted on the 4chan comics and cartoons message board /co/. According to fan Nanashi Tanaka, "We were going to make fun of it, but instead everybody got hooked. And then the first pony threads exploded." 
 
 Soon the mostly-male commenters, who developed the term Brony from "bro pony," were posting about the show thousands of times a day, and even taking their discussion of Applejack and Pinkie Pie's latest exploits to the infamous /b/ board. Big-eyed, pastel-colored cartoon ponies who talk about friendship are the antithesis of everything /b/ stands for, and thus a civil war broke out on the boards. The denizens of /b/ fought back against the influx of ponydom with bannings and the usual photos of hardcore sex acts and dead things, which would traumatize the average internet user for life. According to Know Your Meme, the Bronies adopted a surprising mantra: "I'm gonna' love and tolerate the shit outta you." Fans responded to hate by calmly working around bannings and posting even more pony pictures, enraging their /b/ opponents even further. Eventually things died down when the creator of 4chan acknowledged the popularity of ponies on the boards. Says fan Sam Levine: 
 
 "My Little Pony is the only group to take on 4chan and win. 4chan once took on the F.B.I. and won. So you might say that My Little Pony is more powerful than the F.B.I." 
 
 The show's first season ended last month and by now Bronies have moved on to other Pony-centric fansites. Many say they're not ready to share their love of My Little Pony with the world yet, and not just because it's girly. In fact, though male Bronies have drawn the most attention, the Observer estimates that about a quarter of adult fans are women. 
 
 Advertisement 
 
 Understandably, fans of both genders don't want to advertise to everyone at work that they create fan art, post YouTube parodies, and collect merchandise related to a children's show. Bronies say they're drawn to My Little Pony because the plots, characters, and animation rise above the level of your average kids' show — and that's exactly what creator Lauren Faust intended. Faust was a writer and storyboard artist on The Powerpuff Girls and wanted to make another show children and adults could enjoy. Though, she recently told Wired she never expected this response: 
 
 "This might be a little short-sighted on my part, but I just assumed that any adult man who didn't have a little girl wouldn't even give it a try ... The fact that they did and that they were open-minded and cool enough and secure in their masculinity enough to embrace it and love it and go online and talk about how much they love it - I'm kind of proud." 
 
 The Hub has embraced Bronies in it's marketing, and hopefully other executives are taking note. They key to a successful children's program isn't churning out increasingly stereotyped shows in which girls pretend to be princesses and frolic with woodland creatures while boys fight and play with cars (or fight with robots that turn into cars). Men aren't allergic to everything aimed at women, and with interesting characters and plots (and a dose of '80s nostalgia) people of all ages, and genders, are likely to become fans. 
 
 Advertisement 
 
 With such high praise for the show, you might want to check out the first episode for yourself on YouTube. After all, even Ryan Gosling is a closet Brony. 
 
 Pony Up Haters: How 4chan [N.Y. Observer] 
 
 My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic [Know Your Meme] 
 
 My Little Pony Corrals Unlikely Fanboys Known As ‘Bronies' [Wired] 
 
 Advertisement 
 
 Earlier: Ryan Gosling Obviously Sings My Little Pony Theme Song ||||| Eleven-year-old Michael Morones is a passionate boy. He idolizes his Uncle Jimmy, who is a proud member of the Bronies. The term Brony is a portmanteau that refers to fanboys of My Little Pony (“bro ponies”), although girls can be Bronies too. 
 
 Michael’s favorite character is Pinkie Pie, a hyper excitable pony. The little boy, who has ADHD and rarely sits still for a minute, feels a connection to bouncy Pinkie Pie. His Uncle Jimmy taught him to be proud of his interests, and the boy has frequently worn Brony dogtags and Brony bracelets to school. 
 
 A group of his peers at school have been taunting and bullying the boy about his fandom. His stepfather, Shannon Suttle, said, “Michael was upset because the kids were calling him gay for liking a girls’ TV show. His mom and I, well, we told him that it didn’t matter what other people think. It only matters what he thinks.” 
 
 Nobody stood up for Michael, but he seemed to be doing okay. “Michael is deeply religious, and he turned to his faith. He asked to start taking confirmation classes, and he carried a little Bible with him everywhere. He told us that he would sit at a table at lunchtime and recite Bible verses to himself, and it brought him great joy,” Suttle said. 
 
 In addition to his religion and his love of My Little Pony, Michael has other keen interests. After watching violinist Lindsey Stirling perform, he was so enraptured that he decided to take up violin lessons. He avidly follows Stirling’s music career and is now dedicated to practicing on his own violin. He also loves the music of Pentatonix, an a cappella group that has captured his heart. Outwardly, he appeared to be coping okay with the taunting and talked about it with his family. 
 
 “A few weeks ago, Michael told us he wanted to take the bus straight home after school, instead of going to the boys and girls club with the other kids,” Suttle explained, “and at the time, we thought it was because he wanted a chance to have the TV to himself for a couple hours before his brothers came home.“ Michael has a 13-year-old brother and a 5-year-old brother. The family only has one TV, so the boys tend to argue over what they watch. 
 
 “But now,” Suttle said quietly, “I wonder about why he wanted to come home instead of being with the other kids. He said to us that the other kids were telling him he was gay for loving Pinkie Pie and they were trying to make him feel ashamed for being gay. We said that we didn’t care if he was gay or straight; he was our son and we would love him.” 
 
 On Thursday, January 23, Michael had another rough day at school. That night, he attempted suicide by hanging himself. 
 
 Michael is in the pediatric intensive care unit in a North Carolina hospital. He has damage to his brain, his heart, and his lungs and has not yet fully awakened. There is healing potential, but the extent of that potential is unknown. His family is holding vigil, praying that the swelling in his brain will go down and the child will become coherent. A tracheotomy is scheduled for this week. 
 
 The outpouring of support from the Bronies community has astonished the family. Suttle left a message for Andrea Libman, who does the voice of Pinkie Pie, asking if she might send a message of support to Michael. Libman was in South Australia on vacation, and she found a way to record a personal message for Suttle to play for Michael. In addition, she got every member of the cast to record individual messages for the boy. 
 
 “When we play the My Little Pony messages for him, there is increased activity on the EEG,” Suttle said. 
 
 The broader Geek community has also surrounded the family with support. I was contacted by a member of the 501st Legion, the charitable organization that made my young daughter a custom Stormtrooper costume after she was taunted for being a girl who loves Star Wars, and asked if I would help share Michael's story. 
 
 "Maybe Michael's purpose was to bring people together, so that this won't happen to another child," Suttle said, his voice catching. 
 
 It hurts the heart to think of these young boys and girls, mocked and taunted for the types of toys with which they play. The messages come from our society. Today is Superbowl Sunday. When you watch the big game with your friends and family, offer up a thought for Michael, who was as excited about an episode of My Little Pony as you are about the Superbowl, and remember that there is more than one way to be a boy or a girl. 
 
 Let us surround young Michael with support from around the world, so that he may awaken and find a kinder world than the one he tried to leave. If you know Lindsey Stirling, perhaps you can see if she might come play by Michael’s bedside. The beauty of her music may reach him and coax him to give the world another try. 
 
 The family struggles financially, and although Michael is on Medicaid, they are faced with massive bills for his care, which will be lifelong. 
 
 The CEO of Play Team Trivia, the company that employs Suttle, created a recovery fund for Michael and kicked off the fundraising with a $500 donation from his own pocket. 
 
 To help with the enormous costs of Michael’s care and hopeful rehabilitation, please visit the Michael Morones Foundation. Michael’s family intends to donate a portion of any donations to causes such as brain injury research, bullying prevention, etc. 
 
 May Michael recover and continue to bring joy to his family. 
 
 NEW UPDATE ON MICHAEL'S STORY HERE 
 
 This article was written by Carrie Goldman. Check out Carrie's award-winning book on bullying: Bullied: What Every Parent, Teacher, and Kid Needs to Know About Ending the Cycle of Fear. 
 
 To continue receiving posts from Portrait of an Adoption, type your email address in the box and click the "create subscription" button. 
 
 
 
 
 
 Follow Carrie Goldman on Twitter and Facebook
– It's going to be harder to salivate over the precious hijinks of My Little Pony for a weird conglomeration of "Bronies"—men addicted to the exploits of the syrupy animals. Hasbro has shut down the website that offered downloads of My Little Pony cartoons, featuring the exploits of the tricked-out ponies based on the company's classic toy. "If you think bronyism sounds like something only a serious pervert living in his mother's basement would be into, you're only about 30% correct," nickers Gawker. Some bronies do enjoy seeing their favorite characters in a pastel sex haze. But others are actually drawn to the heartwarming messages of the stories, and bridle at any suggestion they might be pony-kinky. Sweden-based PonyArchive.org was kind of the bible of bronies everywhere, offering high-quality online episodes, but Hasbro has now succeeded in shutting it down. Operators were stunned. "Since we are merely spreading friendship and magic, we feel that we're protected by princess Celestia herself," noted one operator on Brony News. Neigh.