If you’re a brony, you pretty much follow a whole lot of pony tumblrs. Grimdark, comedy, shipping, nsfw; it doesn’t really matter what type it is. What’s important is that you’re following a lot of them. How did this become such a popular thing you might ask? Well the answer can be summed up in just four little words. Ask Pinkamena Diane Pie. This web comic pretty much started the whole pony tumblr craze and structured how it works today. I’m gonna talk about the tumblr itself (the original and the new one) and analyze what it means, in my opinion, to make a pony tumblr a great one. Prepare for massive amounts of words. 

The original Pinkamena comic was started by well known internet artist Crookedtrees late last year. The comic revolved around Pinkamena (Pinkie Pie’s straight-maned crazy alter ego) doing what she does best, killing ponies. The comic started off fairly small. She answered questions, a few dark jokes were made, it was pretty cool. We start to move a long deeper into the character when we are introduced to her lovely assistant Scootaloo.  Together they palled around and did what murderers usually do. It was somewhat linked together by a loose story, but for the most part each post was a stand alone piece and didn’t effect the overall comic. One story arc in particular though defined this comic as a masterpiece. The Fluttershy murder arc (or Flutterarc). In a three post story arc, Pinkie captures Fluttershy and tries to kill her. Shy escapes, but is caught once again and murdered. This arc polarized the community. Agree or not, this was fantastic. He showed that no one is safe, not even the mane six.

The comic did have it’s emotional moments, the best example being Pinkamena describing a dream she has where she is with her friends and she’s happy because they forgive her for all the bad things she’s done. Tree’s has done something that I’ve never really seen before, and that’s make a murderous psychopath sympathetic and lovable. He makes you want Pinkie to be happy, even if that means a few ponies has to die. This made it all the more upsetting when he announced the comics cancellation.What makes the comic so great is how Trees never actively showed the murder on screen. It was always either off panel, or the deed had just taken place. His grim and gritty art style gave the comic much more personality and tone that aided it in being a great work of art. Even though it’s just a tumblr comic, I have to say that it’s probably one of the greatest things I’ve read. It captured so much emotion in each post. You couldn’t help but fall in love with Pinkamena. Writing and artwork melded together to be a perfect read.  

Now that I’m done gushing, I’d like to bring your attention to the new blog. This picks up where we left off from the original (which was probably one of the most touching moment I’ve ever seen and, no joke, was on the verge of crying). Though it sports a cuter art style than Trees’, it delivers by giving a good heaping helping of Pinkamena and Scootaloo. I can’t say much about it, sadly, because there aren’t that many posts up and you can’t really get a good feel of the new author’s style just yet. I will say that I’m pleased with the posts so far, and if the latest’s cliffhanger is any indication, I think it’s gonna be a great comic that could be just as good as the original given a little time.  

http://horror-on-sugar-cubecorner.tumblr.com/ <—New comic, just incase you want to see it.  

Continued in Part 2…