This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.
The original was posted on /r/hobbydrama by /u/marilyn_mansonv2 on 2024-09-06 16:52:08+00:00.
Note: Most of the primary sources of drama pertaining to this subfandom seems to be missing. I had to rely largely on comments on Derpibooru and Fimfiction to put this together. But enjoy!
What is My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic?
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is an animated series that ran from 2010 to 2019 as the fourth generation of the My Little Pony franchise. It centered on, well, ponies, and their adventures and problem-solving using friendship.
An unexpected adult fanbase was spawned from this show, producing all sorts of fanmade content, including erotic content sometimes known as clop. A clopfic is erotic MLP fanfiction.
What is Fall of Equestria?
Fall of Equestria (Not to be confused with Fallout: Equestria) is a dark AU (alternate universe) anthro setting created by non_creepy_nickname (NCN for short) where Equestria has been overthrown by invading, misogynistic caribou and all the mares are enslaved. Using a corrupted version of the Crystal Heart, they brainwashed most Equestrians so that most stallions are now misogynistic like them, and most mares accept their new place as sex slaves.
Mares are classified into four collar types: red for the willing, black for the unwilling, purple for the "mentally broken" and silver for the unclassified. There is also a non-canon blue for "women of honor" and diplomats.
Female unicorns have their horns chopped off and female pegasi have their wings plucked and put into sleeves.
The Rise
The FoE AU started around April 2013. Around that time, the Fall of Equestria tumblr blog was created. It was a combination ask blog, fic blog and art blog. Run by NCN and others, it featured artwork that was often sexually explicit in nature. The blog got taken down several times in 2014 before they just gave up and relegated the stories to Fimfiction and the pictures to Derpibooru.
Anyone could write a FoE fic, but in order for it to be considered "canon", you needed to get permission from NCN. There were rules as well. These included:
- The Caribou cannot lose and can never be challenged in any meaningful way. They also cannot be made to look bad.
- All non-Caribou cannot show any greater ability over the Caribou.
- No happy endings, and mares cannot escape sucessfully.
- You can't question or disagree with NCN on the setting, else you risk getting ignored or banned.
Among others. I couldn't find a complete list of rules, and the known rules are paraphrased.
The Criticisms and Fall
From its very inception, FoE has been extremely contentious amongst bronies. Many see it trying way too hard to be "edgy" and with its dark themes of rape and mutilation, it's not hard to see why. Many people also considered it to be nothing more than trashy clopfic.
Even those who weren't bothered with the sex slavery aspect had issue with the setting. For example, there was little regard to any of the ramifications of removing the wings of all pegasi mares and stripping the unicorn mares of their magic. Equestria relies on weather manipulation for agriculture, and with half the weather workers removed from their job, that could result in mass starvation due to crop failure.
NCN kept trying to hand-wave the plot holes and setting issues, but I'm not even sure if people took him seriously even when the subfandom was at its peak.
One user pointed out that the Caribou society is far closer to sapient red deer and that if the FoE caribou were anything like real caribou, they'd swap gender roles every six months.
Another user commissioned an art piece where Applejack, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle get revenge on the Caribou and posted it on Derpibooru. NCN begged Derpibooru mods to either delete it or mark it as non-canon, and the user was forced to put a disclaimer saying that it was non-canon to the FoE verse.
One member of the FoE circle, Schorl Tourmaline, began writing a fic set in the FoE verse. Called "Bruised Apples", it centered on Big Mac--who was one of the few stallions not brainwashed--trying to comply with Caribou law while also trying to ensure that his sister Applejack stays compliant so that she isn't taken away from him. Schorl spent two years writing the fic, hyping it up and rallied her fans. Then on July 21 2016, she released two chapters that pulled the ultimate bait-and-switch: King Dainn gets attacked and killed by Big Mac and Applejack, then a revolution overturns the control of Equestria back to the ponies.
Schorl was promptly cheered on by most people, but she was shunned by NCN and his followers before her fic was declared noncanon and she was kicked out of the circle. That didn't dissuade her from writing multiple post-FoE fics.
Schorl Tourmaline wasn't the only one to write an anti-Caribou fic. Many others also wrote their own stories where the Caribou get their asses kicked and Equestria is returned to the ponies.
The Aftermath
These days, the FoE subfandom is mostly defunct. There's a small number of people who are interested in the setting and still making art and writing fics, but it'll never grow to the level of popularity that it once had. Anytime it's brought up in the MLP fandom these days, it's typically met with a negative response.