Brony Club brings more to Auburn's campus than just discussion and artwork of ponies.
One idea the club stresses is equality, said Callie Smith, member and sophomore in engineering.
"One of the things that appealed to me about becoming a Brony is that it is such an accepting fan base, and that's one of the things we have in our constitution," Smith said. "Being able to accept people that are different or have different lifestyles is important."
The Brony Club is a fan club for the television show "My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic," a cartoon created by Lauren Faust. Faust has created several successful Cartoon Network shows.
"The new show spoke to a lot of people and created a huge fan base," said Willy Steers, club member and sophomore in industrial design. "The fan base is predominately males between the ages of 15 and 25."
Steers loves the show and encourages people who do not think they will like it to give it a try.
"There's people from all walks of life in the fandom, essentially," Steers said. The word "Brony" is a combination of the words bro and pony, said TJ Lowry, club president and sophomore in engineering.
"The name has become gender-neutral," Lowry said.
Lowry helped start the club with his friend Michael Laughlin last year.
"(Laughlin) put up posters around campus and got a group together of people who were interested in the show," Lowry said.
The club has not yet had a meeting but hopes to get others excited about the club, Lowry said.
During the club meetings, members will discuss Brony artwork as well as the process it takes to draw them.
The club also hopes to clarify the difference between the old "My Little Pony" television show and the new one.
"The original show was more about merchandising," Steers said. "The only reason they had a new show was to sell another toy. In the new show, Faust took it and made it a legitimate cartoon that gave characters some depth and was actually made to tell a story."
The group of 20 members found it harder to get together when there was not a distinct meeting place, Lowry said.
"We wanted a place on campus to come and talk about it, so we decided to make it a club because that gives us access to the student center, and it's a central location," Lowry said.
The group talks about more than just the television show, Steers said.
"We talk about the show, what we've seen in the fandom or artwork people have created," Steers said. "It's not just about the show. It's the people around it. People have made art, music, video games or fan fiction about the show."
The Brony fandom also involves charities.
"Just recently 'My Little Pony's' subReddit donated $20,000, as well as over 127 years of computing time, to the world community grid," Lowry said. "That doesn't count all the auctions that are done."
The world community grid is a research community that creates a system of individual computers to find data quickly.
These data allow researchers to make discoveries that help prevent and treat disease in cost-efficient ways.
Lowry and other members hope to spread open-mindedness about the club on campus.
"Obviously we're watching pink and purple ponies on Saturday morning, which is kind of weird, so I'd like to put on some sort of presentation to explain what it's all about," Lowry said.
Starting the club was easy for the Brony fandom at Auburn, he said.
"All we had to do was make a constitution, by-laws, have 10 members and a faculty adviser," Lowry said.
The club is aware it may seem a little weird to most Auburn students, Smith said.
"You don't really walk up to people and ask, 'Do you like 'My Little Pony?'" Smith said. "That's a little frowned-upon on most college campuses."
Lowry said that won't stop the club from being active at Auburn.
"We're not hiding the fact that we like it," Lowry said.
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