#31) As well as being a brony, I'm a furry. I find that some bronies alienate me because of that, and many bronies become offended when people assume that they're furries. What the hell? Shouldn't they know what it's like to be out of the mainstream? Is it bad to be a furry? Why can't I be both a furry and a brony?

<sub>Answer: The furry fandom has a lot of negative connotations surrounding it. The stereotype of a furry to a non-furry is someone who is attracted to animal-people, which a lot of people are uncomfortable with. When ponies became popular, a lot of people started saying that pony-fans are furries, while many pony-fans became vocal about not being part of the furry fandom just because they like ponies.

Personally, I find this to be exactly why applying abstract labels to things can be damaging. Not everyone wants to be part of a fandom based on their interests; some are fine to be remain without labels and titles, and instead prefer to just appreciate various interests without being tagged and defined by them. The fact of the matter is that bronies are not necessarily furries, and so I can see that some people would get pissed off if they were incorrectly labelled as a furry when they aren't.

However, bronies have their own problems to worry about. While they may not like to be called furries due to the negative stereotypes that surround the furry fandom, bronies instead are seen as: masturbating to ponies; having some sort of a learning difficulty; being homosexuals; being emotionally repressed; being paedophiles and so on. None of these things are correct for many, but that's how ignorant stereotyping works.

Nothing is stopping you from being a furry and a brony. The two are not necessarily mutually exclusive. If bronies give you shit for being a furry, then they'll just make more people dislike them, which isn't a good idea. People can have multiple interests, even if others don't see the appeal. I wouldn't say that the dislike bronies show towards you, however, is anything against being outside of the mainstream: furries have been around for a much longer time than bronies and are more well-known on the whole.

I imagine that it's mainly because some bronies are casual about their interests and fear being associated with furries due to the aforementioned negative opinions that many have about furries. Being falsely labelled as something is a pain in the ass, and thus perhaps bronies are trying to establish a rift between furries and their own fandom in order to prove to the world (or themselves) that bronies and furries are not the same thing. Feel free to continue having both interests, though, and if it brings you comfort to identify yourself under the terms of 'brony' and 'furry', then go for it.</sub>


#32) I've always liked crossovers, so my first MLP story, still a WIP, is a crossover between MLP and Star Wars. What do you think of MLP crossovers? Are they a good thing, intrinsically and for bronies? Is there a line that we shouldn't cross here?

<sub>Answer: I think that you have the right to write whatever you want to write, as long as you can deal with the backlash of what you have written. If you would enjoy writing a crossover between Star Wars and My Little Pony, then why the hell not? I'm sure that there are enough fans of Star Wars in the brony fandom to get you a decent following, as long as the story is well-written. From my perspective, as long as something is written well, you can get away with most crossovers: if it benefits the story to make it a crossover, then it can be fun to explore those familiar worlds with different characters (in this case, ponies).

Crossovers are a good way to strike a chord with people, as they may be interested already in the thing that you're crossing with ponies, which will naturally build you an audience. As long as people can accept that these stories are highly unlikely to be masterful works of prose, there's fun and enjoyment to be had in it. Generally, I'm cool towards MLP crossovers, as long as they know their place. For example, Fallout Equestria has become a little too grandiose with people attempting to publish it and so on; in that case, the fact that the story is a crossover utterly ruins its chances of being published, as those wishing to publish it would need to get permission from both Hasbro and Bethesda, which is highly unlikely to ever happen.

For the purpose of typical fan-fiction, though, go ahead and do it. I wouldn't say that crossovers are a good thing, but nor are they bad: they're absolutely neutral, and I'm neutral towards them. Having an original story is great, but it's not necessarily a lack of originality that would make you choose the crossover option; it really depends on the story that you have in mind, and how well you can present it. I don't perceive there as being a line that shouldn't be crossed, unless someone crosses ponies with something extremely distasteful. For something as innocent and influential as Star Wars, though, the only limit is your imagination.</sub>


#33) I sent in a crossover fanfic chapter to the MLP:FIM group but the person declined it, saying how, 'OMGZ IT IS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITHZ PONYIES!'. I am sure she didn't even read half of it, what should I do?

<sub>Answer: MLP:FIM is an enormous group that receives a lot of literature deviations every single day. Naturally, it's difficult to go through that many stories and check to see if they all have ponies in. That's why I'm somewhat surprised to hear that you received a comment telling you that the story has nothing to do with ponies, as that would suggest that they actually read it, even if only partially. However, I assume, as you're sending this question to Brony Advice and taking into consideration that you submitted it to that group in the first place, that the story does have ponies in it, and so I'm not sure why it would have been rejected for that reason.

The fault either rests on you or the person who handled the deviation handling. Either you didn't make it obvious that the story was about ponies in a crossover setting, or they didn't bother checking to see what the content of the story was, and instead just assumed from the title or whatever that it wasn't pony-related. Running a group can be challenging, and so if the assumption was made that the deviation doesn't have anything to do with ponies, you could try replying to their message and say that the story is, in fact, about ponies, and request to send it in again.

Chances are that they didn't read the story (which is understandable, given that it's not practical to read through every literature deviation), and that they failed to see that the story was a crossover for whatever reason. At this stage, if this has only happened once, consider it bad luck and try asking the member of staff for more advanced feedback, or attempt to explain to them that the deviation is about ponies, and that it's a crossover. You may want to see if the group has some sort of rule against crossovers as well: it's been known to happen from time to time.</sub>