On the Dogpatch article about Mare Fair

Context: Mare Fair (MF), founded in 2023, is a ponycon that has attracted a lot of controversies because of its 4chan (/mlp/) roots. On the 23rd of October (2025), the Furry publication Dogpatch Press (DP) published an article titled "Mare Fair enabled shady crypto nazis and a zoophile organizer who preyed on horse rescues". This paste argues against many of the points it raises, going over each one by one. Links in the article are indicated in square brackets.

N.B.: in order to not accidentally breach the site rules of Ponepaste, the real life names that are provided in the original article will be omitted in quotes.

To do: expand the sections about Lightsolver and Crypto, maybe specify some more sources in a few sections. Integrate some points raised only in the summary to the rest of the paste. Address the direct sources of DP (mainly BronyFandon't).

Written by summaryanon.

 

>Corruption behind the record-breaking charity

This is the title of the first section in the article. As to be expected, MF is never shown to have corruption.

Off to a great start!

>Florida’s Mare Fair is an adults-only My Little Pony convention.

Incredible! A statement that is undoubtedly true!

>It crosses fandom for a kid’s show with the edgy chanboard culture seen in [news reporting about] [the MLP fandom’s Nazi problem].

Already, the cracks show. For a start - while chanboard is not a term DP came up with (the Oldfriend Archive dates the oldest known usage of the word to April 2006), it is nonetheless a very rare term - imageboard is far more common and understood (Boorus are sometimes included under imageboards as well, but the chance of confusion is minimal here). The links provided lead to the infamous The Atlantic article and a lesser-known one from Medium. While there's much to be said about them (and a lot has been said already), they are not the focus of the article, so let's go on.

>The con is organized by and for 4chan users, and bounced between 3 venues in 3 years while gaining a reputation for hateful behavior.

The validity of the first part has somewhat changed over time. MF1 was indeed a thing only 4channers really knew about, but as time progressed, MF's focus broadened (as can be seen by attendee amounts that are simply not possible with current /mlp/ demographics, the lyrics in the promotional/opening songs, the ever increasing amount of testimonials from non-channers, etc.). It's debatable if this broader focus is a good thing for MF or not (I personally believe it's not), but that's besides the point. Because of a lack of public info, it's harder to say if the "by" part still holds true or not.

In any case, keep the "by and for 4chan users" quote in mind. I'll mention it whenever DP acts all surprised when 4chan comes into the conversation about MF at later points.

The "bounced between 3 venues in 3 years" is rather disingenuous as it omits why it bounced between them - the first venue MF was held in was the Wyndham Orlando Resort International Drive. MF2 was going to take place there too, but it unexpectedly went bankrupt and closed down around 3 months before MF2. The second venue, Marriott, was merely a substitute for Wyndham; it was never meant to be a permanant choice.

>It keeps [raising criticism] about swastika displays and racist dogwhistles, while critics face backlash for protesting.

Once again, more omission. Yes, it's true that there have been cases of Swastikas and other such symbols being used (in various forms) by con attendees. However, it is also true that the con management has taken a stance against them, especially during MF3. The rules have been tightened, they have been shown to be enforced as well. Things slip through the cracks, sure, but the same can be said about any con.

"Critics facing backlash" is a non-statement. Yes, if you express an opinion on a controversial topic, you will get backlash from one side or the other. Especially if the opinion is "[Mare Fair is] a nazi convention, attended exclusively by bigots [...]", or when you share outright falsehoods (for example, if you state "Here are examples of them obsessing over Amy New [...] for talking on the convention", when in truth, that example comes from a completely unrelated event that centered on abortion, see Born to Silly). And yes, that's what the critic they link to says.

>One critic tells Dogpatch Press: “Nazis and racists used Mare Fair as a hate safe space, because they couldn’t spread it at reputable cons… it became clear that management did not care.”

Anonymous critics, how fun. Once again omitting the whole "MF is cracking down on this" aspect. Though, come to think of it, "omitting" is the wrong word here - they are actively denying it.

>Defenders have pushed back with denial and apologism about the con raising charity for horses.

Ah, seems I was mistaken, it is we who are in denial, they said so, so it must be true. Deepest apologies!

On a serious note, if the opposition is arguing "MF is a failed con" or anything along those lines, countering by mentioning the sums for charity is a valid counterargument. If it is mentioned in response to, for example, the whole thing with Swastikas, then yes, it is most likely not relevant.

>Mare Fair is run by Snowpity Inc, headed by Corpulent Brony, who founded it by milking fandom with silver coin sales and his own cryptocurrency.

To quote the OP of /mlpmg/ #26 (see Desuarchive): "All of the profits from the project [the silver coins mentioned by DP], totaling $6,106.55, were donated to Day's End Farm Horse Rescue this past week. Documentation of this will be made available in Snowpity, Inc's publicly available tax reports." This same thread also includes a more detailed (albeit unofficial) report, see 40155495. The numbers provided there are fairly in line with the official report.

In regards to the cryptocurrency (which the article later specifies to be Mare Bits): "[Anon] I wonder if something will come out of Mare Bits. [Corp] unfortunately not unless someone who feels as strongly about it comes out and helps [...] they came out right when crypto was on the downswing and the negative perception was becoming very high / kinda sad because I put a lot of money and time into it, but it was the most likely outcome anyway" (Desuarchive, /mlp/, 39421031)

>This allegedly ties con finances to shady donors with crypto-wealth, who donate so much that it breaks charity records set by other cons — conveniently buying a PR front.

What are they even trying to say? Corp tried his hand at crypto (and failed), so therefore, the con is financed/backed by cryptobros?.. what? If any reader knows (or even has a guess) on what they mean, do share.

>Behind the front of helping horses, Corp and the con management teamed up with Lightsolver to help run Mare Fair.

The article really tries to make it seem as if Lightsolver had a high position at MF/Snowpity Inc. He did not. Nor is there any proof that Corp reached out to him; if one's to believe the testimony of anons, it was Lightsolver himself who reached out.

>Lightsolver is a zoophile who abuses horses, according to horse rescuers who claim Lightsolver manipulated power over their operations, after keeping a crippled horse alive in pain and using a baby horse for years of sex abuse.

At this point, you may as well make a "Lightsolver exposed" article, would be more beneficial for everyone ('cept Lightsolver himself, of course). Alas, the fairly fine assessment of him comes together with a whole lot of unrelated shit about MF. Because people can identify that shit as, well, shit, even the statements that have legitimacy start smelling like shit too.

>On top of that, Corp runs his own website that hosts bestiality videos (evidence below).

Spoiler alert: this is overblown/very very misleading, just as many other things in the article. You'll see more info once we get to that section.

>If Mare Fair desperately needed PR to cover up zoophiles at the top, consider what balls it takes to taint their PR by spreading channer dogwhistles with weak plausible-deniability.

Once again, Lightsolver was nowhere near a high-ranking position. Corp is not a zoophile. And, oh look, the con they label as "organized by and for 4chan users" has 4chan memes in it! Except DP calls them dogwhistles, because they really want to hammer in the political aspect they're pushing (just don't ask what ants on feet have to do with the far right, please).

>The [2025 conbook] is full of explicit adult references, but more to the point, the con logo design features a horse vagina.

The adults-only con has adult themes and depictions, what a mind-blowing revelation. And balloons are horse vaginas, got it (in a way, it's more telling of the viewer if the first thing they see when they look at the MF logo is a horsepussy - sure, it was probably designed with that interpretation in mind, but it's hidden seamlessly).

>Corp’s cryptocurrency, named Mare Bits, also has a horse vagina in the design.

Granted, the horsepussy is a lot more obvious in the logo of Mare Bits. Equally as obvious is the pun on "mare bits" (where bits is slang for genitals and is also a reference to the name of the currency used in MLP, the bit). As such, it can be concluded that DP can't even notice puritan-agitating material that's hanging in plain sight.

>The silver coins that Corp pushed [are loaded with more 4chan and horse vagina references.] What a coincidence.

The coin celebrating 10 years of /mlp/... has /mlp/ references on it. Insane.

>Ambition leads to expansion, and Lightsolver and Corp teamed up to found a new con in Maryland, Neighcon.

And Lightsolver got kicked out of Neighcon's management. DP really wants to undermine that fact.

>Apparently it’s meant to recall the defunct [Bronycon] in Baltimore.

This links to the Wiki article on BronyCon. Wouldn't linking to whatever public statement of theirs that draws a comparison to BronyCon be a better fit? For example, this? https://nitter.poast.org/NeighConMLP/status/1980351189784092928

>Both men are on [the articles of incorporation].

Fun fact - if you click on their link/source, it'll lead you to "Page Not Found - The page you are looking for is not available". With that said, the source they're trying to link to does exist (one would need to search for Harmonic Ventures on that website to find it).

>However, even fandom tied to 4chan isn’t comfortable with the corruption.

Don't ask how any of what Lightsolver or Corp (especially Corp) do/did in regards to MF or Neighcon counts as corruption. There's no proof to suggest that Lightsolver used any of his little influence to do... anything. By the fact he got kicked out, favouritism clearly isn't present either. And nor do I see anyone taking bribes.

 

>Background about fandoms and under-reporting the story

Finally, the second section. Let's see what they have to say.

>Bronies, the adult male fans for My Little Pony, emerged around 2010 as irony-loaded followers of a mainstream TV show.

Ah, there's the classical blunder of defining a Brony. Bronies are not exclusively male; while the term "pegasister" does exist for female fans, it has been a contentious term since near the start, and many female fans prefer to call themselves Bronies. "Adult" is a fine definition in this context, but it sometimes includes teenagers as well (as they are outside the secondary target demographics). Perhaps the most relevant distinction is that certain groups of MLP fans prefer not to consider themselves as Bronies, but rather use different terms. /mlp/ is a prime example, as the board members usually identify themselves as "Horsefuckers". This can even be see in MF's promotional material - for example, in the 2023 opening ceremony video, the term "Bronies" is never used in the lyrics; "Ponychads" is used in its place.

>Sincere fans young and old [have also been around] for a long time.

I suspect DP is trying to create a divide in the reader's head between Bronies, "irony-loaded followers of a mainstream TV show", and the other "sincere fans young and old". The antagonistic newcomers who came because of a fad and the original fans who got swept under the rug. Of course, the fact that many of these "sincere fans" became Bronies as well gets omitted. So does the fact that the "ironic" aspect of Bronydom got dropped fairly early on. Or the fact that, while the show itself is arguably mainstream, being a Brony was far from it.

...or, maybe, they're just trying to shill another article of theirs that gets linked. Who knows.

>Their scene has some basic differences from furry fandom, because of the influence of marketing, merchandising and professional talent under one media property.

It is implied here that Bronies and Furries once used to be very close/the same, but Bronies drifted apart because of Hasbro's influence. A simple glance at the history of ponies on 4chan proves this wrong; the initial following and hype for MLP:FiM, the first Bronies all come from /co/, a board that has traditionally been very opposed to Furfaggotry. Another board that formed the basis of the early fandom is /b/ (more or less the same story). The rest of the boards had relatively less impact on the fandom; probably the most relevant one to mention is /a/ (as in anime, not too fond of Furfags either). Since the very start, an effort was made by anons to differentiate themselves from Furfags. To claim that the pre-4chan fans of MLP were Furries would be equally as wrong.

>It rises and falls with popularity of the show, and isn’t as active as a decade ago.

The amount of people in a fandom is a measure of how popular the thing the fandom is about is. No shit.

>However, many furries are also pony fans, and there isn’t that much difference in what they do.

All fandoms do more or less the same things. Discuss the thing they like, go to cons about that thing, make art, literature and such based on that thing... the difference between what Bronies and Furries do is not that different to the difference between what Bronies and, for example, Anime fans do.

>This made it weird when researching this story found that some corners of pony fandom like to brew up forced tribalism against furries, like with hateful stickers and anti-LGBT slurs.

Is it really forced if it has been there from the start? And when the Furries have engaged in countless provocations, ranging from claiming that "Bronies are diet Furries" to bringing fursuits to a con that very clearly advised you not to because it'd distract from the pony focus?

By hateful stickers, DP is most probably referring to the kekful "Animal Man, go home" sticker that caused a shitfest on Xitter. It's a literal nothing-burger that was used to start borderline artificial drama because the Swastika pool didn't happen this year. By "anti-LGBT" slurs, I assume they mean "Furfag" - this, of course, ignores that "-fag" rarely ever carries its original meaning of "faggot", and is used more like the suffixes "-ist" or "-er" would be used in standard English. The term "ponkfag", for example, merely means a fan of Pinkie, or one who has Pinkie as their waifu; 9 times out of 10, it is a completely neutral term, and 10 times out of 10, it has nothing to do with the gays, lesbians, or the rest.

>This story isn’t for partisan rivalry.

Wouldn't've this been better to put at the start? Just saying.

>It’s by request from furry-adjacent pony fans, because no other media has investigated the problems with Mare Fair.

Wait, you said it's a non-partisan thing, but now you're saying that it was primarily/only requested by the fans that lean towards your side? Huh?

>These fans had opinions about why pony fan news has only reported favorable fluff about Mare Fair.

Because the only even slightly relevant pony news publication is also one that is infamous for avoiding getting into fandom drama of any kind?

>One outlet, Horse News, provided crucial info a decade ago for Dogpatch Press [reporting about a scammer] who jumped from pony to furry fandom.

Here, they are trying to imply that Horse News was once a worthy news publication, but has become disgraced over time. The fact that it was founded by /mlp/ anons flies straight over their heads.

>Now, it only posts a few times a year and one pony fan source who spoke for this story calls Horse News “a joke… for gossip and drama”.

More anonymous sources! Woo! And once that can be contradicted by simply going to the Horse News website and seeing that most of what they post now is... con recaps. And an occasional shitpost.

>Another says “they pose as news but are 4chan memers.”

And it has always been 4chan memers. DP is really failing to acknowledge that. Or the fact that having a bit of humour in one's reporting doesn't distract from whatever thing they're reporting about.

>Its Mare Fair coverage only has a fluffy interview, and [a 2023 press release] about the con starting up.

No way, a factual statement :O how long will they keep this up?

>It spread coin sales without mentioning a conflict of interest, where coin seller and Mare Fair manager Corpulent Brony was [editor for Horse News].

Not for long. They want to make it seem as if Corp was the main man behind /mlpmg/, when in fact, someone like Wolvan or Lunar Harmony is more fitting for such a description. And also, he still has "editor for @HorseNewsMLP" written in his profile, "was" may be the wrong word here.

>Still, the comments had early grumbles of suspicion: {image of a comment being sceptical about MF because it may be a scam}

Conveniently, DP does not show Corp's reply to this post where he answers the questions it raises, one by one. Even if Corp didn't make that point, it's still undeniable that MF was, in fact, not a scam. No one considers that to be a valid point in discussion about MF, not even the detractors.

>Another prolific outlet, Equestria Daily, got this opinion from one pony fan source: “It’s mostly just one guy now, Sethisto, who posts fluff like China getting their own version of the show so they are [getting the best merch].”

This sounds more like trying to shill an EQD article than a genuine attempt to criticise EQD, kek. Small note: the link article says nothing about "China getting their own version of the show", only pics. To reiterate - DP wanted to throw mud at EQD and ended up shilling an article with a clickbait hook that wasn't even present in the original. This is either absolute incompetence or their source is a secret EQD agent.

>Equestria Daily’s Mare Fair coverage is [censored of criticism] ([9/8/25]).

The two links are an EQD article and a screencap of a conversation with deleted comments. For whatever reason, the screencap they link to is heavily bleached. It also doesn't show what comments were deleted - at that point, you may as well only link to the EQD article.

>It amounts to bland notices like “Mare Fair largely follows board culture over on 4chan’s /mlp/” ([1/17/24]), and short blurbs of congratulation: “We’ve hit another huge fandom milestone! Those crazy rich 4channers have done it again with a pony convention record breaking $103,483 earned for the horsies…” ([10/10/24])

See? This is a fine sentence, there's nothing to critique. Not all of DP's article is bad! Only the vast majority of it is.

>A source gives more Equestria Daily background: “Sethisto fired his right-hand staffer, Calpain, for trying to get him to stop harboring problem people with right-wing bias. Channers doxxed Calpain and got him fired as a teacher. Now the same people are harassing critics in defense of Mare Fair.”

Yay, another anonymous source. Here's more reliable sources, like Calpain's own words (taken from Xitter): "Today he pulled my admin privileges fearing that because I dislike him I might delete the blog." And Seth's statement (from a now deleted EQD post, it's not that hard to find it): "EQD won't be the same without him. There is no world at all where I'm going to ever match [Calpain's work]. I'm the polar opposite."

Notice how there's not a single mention of the right? The Xitter thread mentions Aryanne as one of the reasons why Calpain didn't like Seth, but that is just an example among many others - "never delegating work on EqD, bad reporting without first fact-checking, articles he should have known not to post but did so for views, etc." And the fact that Seth has removed pro-/mlp/ staff like Makenshi is conveniently not mentioned by DP.

...And for an article that was so puritan, screeching about "horse vagina logos" and "explicit adult references", the fact that Calpain got fired because of a pic he commissioned that involved implied foalcon via exhibitionism (see Ponerpics ID 2110283) is not even implied. I'm not saying he deserved to get fired, especially because of a drawing (it's not real), but I find it suspiciously hypocritical of DP to not mention it.

>If pony fan news won’t investigate for public interest, some fans turned to a faithful furry newshound for help.

I do wonder who these fans are. But eh. I suppose it may never be answered.

>It isn’t about which scene matters more, it’s about protecting people and animals from abuse in all stories in this series, where furries get criticized too.

But no one was even arguing about "which scene matters more"? Bronies and horsefuckers don't like furfags refusing to recognise MLP as an unrelated fandom. Furries don't like the MLP fans not accepting them (whether in a fursuit or not).

 

>Digging in to chanboard influence and shady behavior at Mare Fair

Third section. Same thing with "chanboard" as before. And does it count as "influence" if it was created "by and for 4chan users", as DP says?

>Sources for this story draw a direct line from 2017, when 4chan merged /mlp/ and nazi sub-boards, as an [April Fool’s joke] that [never really went away].

1. Aryanne was popular long before /mlpol/ ever became a thing; there had been (at least) 155 threads with "Aryanne" in the subject (per Desuarchive) before 2017. The same is even more true about right-wing sentiment. In short, 2017 is a wrong date to pick. 2. /pol/ is not a "nazi" board, nor is nazism its dominant ideology; one can find a wide range of political thoughts there, ranging from ultra-nationalism and libertarianism to liberalism and communism. 3. More misuse of terminology - there are boards, generals, happenings, but there are no "sub-boards" on 4chan, and even if there were, there wouldn't be multiple nazi sub-boards. Why would there be? /mlpol/ only joined /mlp/ and /pol/ together, nothing else. 4. The links are a KYM page and the infamous article from The Atlantic (again). What more is there to say?

>They say pony fan cons boosted careers for professional talent, and many staffers worked for multiple conventions, which helped to shape the fandom.

Not sure who "they" is, nor how this is related to the previous paragraph/line, but sure.

>It was noticeable when edgy online humor bled in and caught protest on social media.

Are they using "noticeable" as in "It was easier to tell apart who's the natsee in the past" or "When [this and that] happened, it used to be taken as a big deal"? Both are valid interpretations within the context. What is the timeframe even supposed to be here?

>This escalated to backlash towards “liberal complainers” and antigay/nazi jokes.

For "liberal" complainers, they sure aren't liberal about what kinds of jokes one can make. Again - what is the timeframe even supposed to be here?

>Eventually, deeply involved people quit fandom due to “noticing weird stuff”.

And many more just lost interest. But alright, let's see what this "weird stuff" is.

>They mention people carrying sex dolls out in the open and Foalcon (the same as cub-porn in furry fandom.)

Holy shit, has this been Databyte's revenge against /mlp/ masterplan all along? Gotta respect the effort.

>Mare Fair had weird looks from the start.

Depending on what you count as the start, arguably not. Dismissiveness is not the same as "weird looks".

>Beyond being 18+ in contrast to mostly all-ages cons, and generally coming from a shady base, there was suspicion about ownership by Corpulent Brony with a conflict of interest for pushing crypto.

...conflict of interest how? Wikipedia (for the sake of an easy-to-understand source) defines COI as "a situation in which a person or organization is involved in multiple interests [...] and serving one interest could involve working against another". How does the (alleged) usage of crypto work against MF? Now, a "newshound" that has to report the truth and also get money by satisfying its readerbase that has a very specific pre-conception of things, and reacts overtly negatively to those who disagree with them... just saying.

>One DJ said the con insisted on paying in crypto: {Quote from Firrooburary aimed at a non-specified local ponycon}

...'Cept that MF does not pay its musicians. At all. Just ask any of them. And do tell, why would a con so opposed to Furries ever want to invite one? And ain't it just so convenient that they do not show MF's response, where they plainly tell Firr that he was contacted by a pretender? https://nitter.poast.org/pic/orig/media%2FF7MIj_fW0AAT8rw.jpg

>At the first Mare Fair in 2023, nazi behavior cropped up in the shape of a swastika made with human bodies by the pool.

"Nazi behavior" is a strong phrase. Was it in poor taste, unfunny? For some, clearly so. But, do tell - was it a genuine attempt at spreading National Socialist ideology, or was it done purely to get funny triggered reactions from "liberal complainers", as DP thinks MF-goers call them?

>Initially indifferent watchers started protesting, but some let it go as a fluke with hopes for improvement the next year.

Another one of the rare "gems" of "wow, there's nothing wrong here". Good job.

>After the con had to move to a new hotel, the same thing kept happening, among many racist memes.

Once again, the reason for changing hotels gets omitted. "Kept happening" is the wrong tense; there was only one instance of a pool swastika during MF2, and it was after the con had already ended. MF3 didn't even have when, something which is "strangely" omitted too.

>Some panels, art, and dealing at Mare Fair come directly from makers of popular racist memes.

Didn't they call 'em dogwhistles not that long ago? Ah well. At least they're not accusing the makers of being racists themselves.

>There was cosplay of show character Applejack as a plantation owner with slave zebras, and a character “Aryanne” created as a nazi horse.

The wording is a bit strange; "and a character “Aryanne” created as a nazi horse" makes it sounds like she was created specifically for MF; I wouldn't be surprised if some of the readers "not in the know" took as such too.

>Some of this became merchandise like mass-produced plushes.

It was merchandise before MF was even a concept. See /mppp/

>That’s deeper than a few bad apples to excuse or put out of sight.

Assuming this is in reference to the plushies, again - they have nothing to do with MF, mass-produced Ary plushies have been a thing before MF even existed.

>Allegedly some of the behavior was so extreme that it earned bans in con groups, but a banned extremist was still listed as a top donor.

Interesting how they are very happy to use the names (both real and fandom) of all the whomever-they-don't-like-s, yet for some reason, not this "top donor".

>This is a brief summary to avoid getting into the weeds and playing channer-peekaboo games, but [photo evidence speaks for itself].

The link leads to a Bluesky post by BronyFandon't. He's the critic they linked to at the very start. So, the previous criticisms of him apply - declaring that everyone who attends MF is a bigot (without a hint of irony), calling Horse News a "right wing centered harassment page" (this is especially funny knowing what BF has done himself), completely unsubstantiated claims of Corp lying about the venue thing (DP brings this up later as fact), "evidence" that doesn't even have anything to do with MF... Oh, they also have the two Pool Swastika images after this, ignoring how one of them happened after the con already ended, and how MF3 had no Pool Swastika to speak of.

>A source says: “all the public got officially was statements of platitudes from the nebulous executive team. Unlike other pony conventions, Mare Fair did not like to include the names of its executives in its online communications.”

On Xitter? Sure, they don't sign their posts, and when it comes to responding to controversy, they're the textbook example of a PR statement. But Xitter is not the only place where the management posts. Another such place is /mlp/ (again, in the words of DP - "organized by and for 4chan users"), and guess what? Important posts have trips, the "names of the executives", if you will. And they're a lot more heartfelt too. Here, a recent example: https://desuarchive.org/mlp/thread/42742065/#42742595

>Some official con statements contradicted statements from manager’s personal accounts.

Oh really? Let's see what these are.

>In one case, the DJ who said he was offered crypto payment was [treated as a liar].

This, of course, links to some shit BronyFandon't wrote. Come to think of it, it seems a lot of the article is just regurgitating what he says without checking if it's factual or not. The funniest part here is that this statement can be contradicted by... just looking at the screenshot that's provided as evidence. To paraphrase, Firr says "[Mare Fair] offered me crypto", MF says "we don't pay our musicians, you were being scammed, please tell us who did it". Do tell, where is the "treated as a liar" part?

>In another, the con pretended manager Corpulent Brony’s clear words were “misinterpreted” about [wanting to ban Pride flags as “political”]. (What other cons get to that point after hosting swastikas?)

One has to have a Bluesky account to view their evidence, which I don't happen to have. I assume the same is true of many reading this. However, I'm 80% certain it's a repost of this https://nitter.poast.org/AmyNewBlue/status/1960177125316825417#m

Of course, they do not mention MF's own statement which puts it very bluntly: "The screenshot of the staff member’s statement lacked the full context of the discussion, and [Corp's] way of wording it caused confusion for some people reading it." https://nitter.poast.org/MareFairCon/status/1961214310564143181#m

And again, really trying to sweep MF banning swastikas under the rug, because it contradicts their entire narrative.

>[The Pride backpedaling went like you would expect] with fans of a wholesome pony show.

Here, they link to the MF statement where it's said that "yeah, pride flags aren't banned". If you look at the comments, you'll find a bunch of Xitterites showing support for MF, even joking about how they should've banned them after all. This thus makes the "went like you would expect" statement by DP rather confusing - do they mean it in an ironic sense ("fans of wholesome things aren't all that wholesome"), or did they just fuck up a link? I'm leaning toward the latter.

>Lip service about bad behavior didn’t change who was causing it — while the con repeatedly lost hotels — and “privately, Mare Fair actively tried to suppress people from talking about it, including threatening fake legal action.”

Besides the disingenuous hotel loss claim (see near the start), they don't link any proof of "fake legal action", but BronyFandon't mentions it, so it's not hard to guess where they got it from. If my chronology is not messed up, the originator of this claim is one GatorGoatJohnny, in his video "Intended Audience". At around the 27 minute mark, he claims that MF tried silencing a critic by sending an email that faked a legal threat from Marriott. His argument for it being fake? "The venue had no legal recourse to request [the Pool Swastika images] taken down" and "They have the resources to go to the critic first and not play phoneitag with MF organisers". The simple fact that Marriot has never stated themselves that the email is fake is never mentioned. The interpretation of "Marriott wanted the two opposing parties (the critic and MF) to sort everything out themselves privately, something that would be beneficial for all parties involved and something that is directly mentioned in the email" is not even given a thought either.

>The failure of substantial response put attention on the top.

Not sure how "they complained about Swastikas, so we banned them" isn't satisfactory, but it apparently isn't.

 

>Problems with staff, and the darkest part of the story

New part! Woo-hoo! This one will have some things that I agree on.

>If Mare Fair likes organizing with 4chan, channer-peekaboo games, and brushing problems behind PR, then take what’s known as indicative for what’s hidden. (This story protects sources for safety; let’s not hear Mare Fair defenders have a problem with anonymity NOW!)

There's a difference between "an anonymous source claims some bad shit about you online" and "an anonymous source claims some bad shit about you in a news publication that's published online". It's a subtle difference, but it is there.

>A brony in North Carolina, named Searing Skies, was the subject of a staffers’ official-tripcode post shown to Dogpatch Press. It identified Searing Skies as staff for Mare Fair at some point.

This much is true. The post is 42435018. Take notice that Searing was called out not by some third party on Xitter, but by fellow Horsefuckers. Also note how fast MF staff reacted - after only ~4 hours since the first post complaining about him (without even mentioning his name) was posted, Searing Skies was removed.

>It claimed he was fired due to being a convicted zoosadist who [tortured and killed animals with fire in 2017-2021].

This is partially true. The MF statement speaks with far more abstract language ("After looking at the court records and matching up the information", "I abhor animal cruelty."), but given the general context of the threat, this is what he was being accused of.

>Make of that what you will, but there’s also Searing Skies’ own [social media posts] that represent Mare Fair support:

...And of the three posts they provide as examples, only 1 has anything to do with MF. Of the other two posts, one is about Foalcon (guess what, you can find Foalcons in any pony convention you go to, one of DP's anonymous sources even raised this as a point), and the other is about the Confederate flag (once again trying to hammer in the political aspect). Oh, and BronyFandon't is used as a source again, fun.

>Back to manager Corpulent Brony and his background:

Let's see what dirt they have on him.

>He started out with making Youtube videos for bronies.

Incredible, what deep insights. Of course, I wouldn't be surprised if he did MLP-related things before that, but I have no proof, so let's move on...

>His LinkedIn page shows he was an organizer for the Republican party in Florida in 2012-2013 while part of early Brony fandom.

...Oh, never mind. That date is before his first Youtube upload. So yes, if one is to believe he was a Brony during 2012-2013 is DP claims, they just contradicted their above statement.

>Source: “I knew the name Corpulent Brony years ago… eventually stopped seeing tweets from him which I assume was because of exile for being an asshole. After 4chan brought racists and Nazis into MLP space, Corp probably worked for a number of years to gather enough support and money to get that Orlando airport hotel.”

The ever reliable source of "I loosely heard of this guy years ago, stopped hearing about him, and now I hear about him again, so he must've done this and that in the meantime because I think that's what he'd do, trvst me bro". The fact that Bronydom comes from 4chan (and thus, if "racists and Nazis" are in the fandom, they have been here since the beginning) goes over the source's head. Or the fact that Corp's trip on 4chan, !twifag.HOY, has been in use since 2015.

>His coin sales used 4chan as a base for fundraising and gathering supportive crypto people.

There's ambiguity regarding what "coin" means here. If they mean the silver coins for /mlp/'s anniversary - they were, well, real coins, nothing crypto about them. Corp issued some DCoA to whoever wanted one, but those were never an official part of /mlpmg/ (see Lunar Harmony's statement on DCoA, 39422250). If anything, it just alienated Corp from the project. If DP means Mare Bits, that project was, as mentioned before, a failure.

>Mare Fair corporate entity Snowpity Inc [lists Joshua Hope as the main fundraising contact].

And that is bad... how? This is just a reiteration of a statement made multiple times in the article before.

 

>[The entire section with Lightsolver]

They spent a lot of time on him, even posting a 1 hour board meeting about Lightsolver and summarising its contents.

This is a section that has little wrong with it. As I wrote before - if this article would've just been about Lightsolver (and maybe Searing Skies as well, if they could find more information on him, and not just regurgitate a single MF staff member's post), it would've most likely been received rather well, even by the pro-MF crowd. However, instead of trying to cooperate with Mare Fair staff and attendees to out him, put him to justice, or whatever they want to do - they try to paint MF as if everyone and everything related or in support of it is just as bad as Lightsolver. And yet, they have the gall to claim to be "bipartisan".

Thus, certain important facts are omitted. For example - while Lightsolver was on MF staff, he did have a high ranking position, as DP is heavily trying to imply. Or the fact that he left MF before the allegations even surfaced. There's also a rather... inconvenient fact that the main person spearheading the crusade against Lightsolver, Christina, claimed she has evidence of his wrong doing and is willing to provide it, yet when prompted to do so, for whatever reason, she refused.

[Note: get some good sources. For now, https://nitter.poast.org/RealWindSong/status/1978660220332106236#m will have to do]

I myself am leaning to believe the allegations, for the circumstantial evidence and various testimonies from different sources are plentiful, but I wouldn't exactly be surprised if they turned out false.

 

>Corpulent Brony’s real bestiality video hosting

Back to Corp. This is a claim they mention a few times beforehand, and now is finally the time to address it.

>Is anyone still holding out skepticism that Mare Fair management was in the dark about an abuser inside while being trustworthy to help animals?

You've already identified/allege two individuals to be animal abusers, wrong number.

>Here’s a clincher. Corp made a video hosting website, pony.tube, with dogwhistling like his other projects — that goes all the way to actively, personally supporting full bestiality videos — humans abusing actual horses.

Quite a serious claim they make! Let's see just how valid it is.

>[The pony tube About page] names it as Corp's.

Okay, starting off good, this is true. The link they choose to use is not the best for this purpose (they go with .../about/instance/home, when .../about/instance/team would've been a better choice), but what they claim is true. All they need to do now is show that pony.tube supports/allows/etc. bestiality videos.

>Lightsolver was named as a Patreon funder.

Having a fandom video hosting site independent of Youtube is inarguable a good thing. Lightsolver, at least superficially, presents himself as caring for the fandom, and thus donates (-ed) to projects that benefit it. Corp has never been shown to have known about Lightsolver's doings before the allegations surfaced (not even DP claims this).

>The moderation policy: “NSFW videos *(including of actual horses)* are welcome, but please mark them as NSFW.”

Real-life horses fucking other horses is NSFW. It is also not bestiality. Moreover, another policy states: "No videos showing violent action against animals IRL". It's not hard to see how this can extend to bestiality. Is it not laid out clearly? Sure. It's a policy that could've certainly been clarified.

>That info was pointed out in a tip in the last month, but just scrubbed. The page now says “[updated 2025-10-21].”

This specifically leads to the team subsection, where Lightsolver is no longer mentioned. Almost like he stopped supporting pony.tube financially. But surely, that's not a possibility... surely.

>Archives of the page show [the message existed for years] prior to founding Mare Fair.

This link, on the other hand, is about the NSFW policy. And, oh look - it got clarified to explicitly disallow bestiality! Incredible.

>Hello, damage control!

If it was after the article's publishing? Sure. But it was done 2 days before the article ever got published. Therefore, one can come to two conclusions. Conclusion one - a long time ago, Ponytube's policies were laid out. The ambiguity of the policy regarding IRL NSFW of horses got noticed around the 21st of 2025 and was clarified, which happened to coincide with the article's production. Conclusion two - someone tipped off Corp that there's an article that's going to claim this, so he clarified it. Of this, there is no proof. In a way, DP is distinctiveness from even sharing proof of this, because one of the possibilities that this would imply is that one of their sources was covertly trying to aid Corp/MF. A simple way to do this is by giving out a bunch of false info that would be easy to debunk later on (as has been done in this paste), which could potentially put the entire article's validity in question (...as if it wasn't in question already). Of course, it's important to note that this is merely speculation - equally if not more likely is that someone told something to someone who knew Corp and then told him.

>[The General tab] is still labeled “Omnia vincit cunnus equæ 🐎 ”, which translates to “The horse’s cunt conquers all.”

Ponytube hosts MLP clop (which, if it isn't clear already, is not bestiality). /mlp/ is lewd. Connect the dots.

>Compare to Corp’s silver coins that were labeled in latin “The heat (of a mare) never ends.”

Again, the silver coins were something mainly associated with Lunar Harmony and Wolvan, not Corp. The test they are referring to uses the word "Equitatus", which can also mean "an instance of riding" (per Wiktionary), or in other words - "the ride" (as in "the ride never ends"). Alas, this clever double entendre (which, again again, Corp had nothing to do with, it was created by a random anon in the first /mlpmg/ thread, see 38213938) does not get the recognition it deserves...

Oh, and the previous point of "clopping is not bestiality, /mlp/ is lewd" applies here too.

>Just joking, except…

The joke is that /mlp/ is comprised of degen cloppers. There really is nothing more to it. Especially in regards to the silver coins, which, again again again - Corp had little to do with.

>A source says “I tried searching the site on Google, and the first hits that popped up were bestiality porn posted on it years ago, with a comment where Corp saw it and welcomed it on his site.”

Finally, this is their smoking gun! Let's see what proof they provide. I heard from Xitterites that MF was "destroyed" with "archived evidence", so let's see it.

>CAUTION: Archives verify the pages exist, but don’t show explicit video.

Oh. So, you have proof that there was a video, probably lewd judging by the provided censored thumbnail as well, but you have no proof of what the actual contents of the video were? Meaning it could've been horses fucking other horses? Xitterites, you told me there was going to be indisputable evidence backed by archives, not whatever this is.

>Hope commented approval on [the video of a man sexually abusing an actual horse]. The video was recently scrubbed, but there are explicit screens, and it was up for 5 years with the comment from Hope: “Nice, removed you from the autoblacklist.”

A conveniently unarchived video that was deleted before the article was even published with a comment lacking any further context. Inarguable evidence.

>There’s many more on the site, like [a 10 minute compilation full of people abusing actual horses], and they show up in Google results.

Same story as before. That said, they also provide screenshots of the Google results, which includes the thumbnail of this video, titled "My little pony horse stallion mare twilight sparkle sex". Guess what? It's a 3D clop animation, by the looks of it. Very hard evidence. Other thumbnails include a IRL horse vagina (no proof that this isn't just a horse fucking another horse), another 3D animation, and Clipper's "Anon's Anonymous Mare Sex Hotline" video that one can even find on Youtube (give it a watch if you haven't already, it's pretty funny).

>It was never very hidden.

And no one claimed it to be?

 

>The problem doesn’t go away by getting rid of one guy

Last section. Also the shortest one. I'll try to keep things short too. I'm sure that (You), anon, have already seen enough to make your judgements on the DP article and want to hear no further of it or my babble.

>Let’s keep it short and say that this evidence would be the kiss of death for events of every fan organizer involved, if fandoms hold a standard for honest organizers and protecting others from abuse

"Evidence"

>Mare Fair looks like it isn’t doing well when it keeps losing hotels, but Corpulent Brony, Lightsolver, and some other enabling associates founded Neighcon together under [the corporate entity Harmonic Ventures].

Third time the disingenuous point about hotels gets repeated. What is the definition of insanity?

At least their link to the documents works this time.

>Even if things get moved around on paper, the corruption isn’t going anywhere without being forced to.

We started with a claim of corruption. We showed no corruption. In our conclusion, we once again claim corruption.

Actual talent. Bravo. Bravissimo!

>{Bluesky shit from some guy named Sherbet}

It's a cross-post to Bluesky of a post Corp made on /mlp/ with commentary that adds nothing of worth.

>{Screenshot from Neighcon's docs showing it was founded by Lightsolver}

And he got removed from Neighcon's management. It means nothing now.

>Xitter post by Neighcon

Remember how I wrote "Wouldn't linking to whatever public statement of theirs that draws a comparison to BronyCon be a better fit?" Well, this is it! They substantiated their claim. Just in the wrong place, after everyone reading already forgot. Oops.

>MORE IN THE SERIES {list list list}

Oh right, this is part of a 5-part series of articles. If the rest are anything like this...

>Like the article?

No.

>These take hard work.

Read - a few schizos contacted us and we made an article based on what they told us without bothering to fact check.

>For more free furry news, [follow on Twitter] or [support not-for-profit Dogpatch Press on Patreon].

If one of their Patreon backers turned out to be an animal abuser, will we get the licence to call DP a pro-bestiality publication?

>Want to get involved?

Involved in debunked your shit? Sure!

>Try these subreddits: [r/furrydiscuss] for news or [r/waginheaven] for the best of the community.

Both of these are dead as can be.

>Or send guest writing [here]. ([Content Policy].)

Anon. I know (You) just had a very funni idea. Don't. It's not worth it.

 

>SUMMARY

I'll finally live up to my name, yay!

To approximate (by a lot): about half of DP's article is a hit-peace on a few key (...and not so key) individuals associated with Mare Fair, those being Corp, Lightsolver, and (to a far lesser extend) Searing Skies. A quarter is dedicated to portraying the Fandom in a bad light, and only the remaining quarter is about "bad things" happening at Mare Fair itself. The primary sources used for the article are all very biased against Mare Fair. Perhaps the most influential is an "exposé" by one BronyFandon't, published on Bluesky in the middle of September. Other sources include Amy New and SherbetAlex.

Corp is one of the main people behind MF, thus DP spends a lot of the article on him. They accuse him of primarily two things - being a zoophile and pushing crypto to MF. Their claim for the former is nearly entirely reliant on the former policy of Ponytube (a site Corp owns) that stated "NSFW videos (including of actual horses) are welcome, but please mark them as NSFW." However, the interpretation of such a policy specifically being directed at videos of real-life horses copulating with other horses (which is inline with another policy that had already been present by this point that stated "No videos showing violent action against animals IRL", which bestiality can be considered as) is not given thought, and all the evidence of such videos happens to be too poorly archived to make any decisive conclusions. Their claims about crypto have an even weaker basis, that being the testimony of a single DJ (to which the MF Twitter account has responded to, a fact that DP tries to undermine by omitting info from included screenshots and trying to frame linked sources in a negative light) and him creating a cryptocurrency called Mare Bits ($MARE) that failed to gain success before MF was even a thing. They also try to connect Corp's Mare Bits to /mlp/'s 10 year anniversary silver coin, despite the two having no relation, aside from Corp's minor contributions to the latter project, which was spearheaded by Lunar Harmony and Wolvan.

Lightsolver has the most serious (and arguably the most substantiated) allegations leveled against him out of all MF attendees, so DP spends a lot of time on him as well. However, they not report on or investigate any facts or claims that go against the narrative they push, such as Lightsolver not having a high position in MF, him stepping down from MF before the accusations were made, or how the accusing party claimed being able and willing to provide evidence of their allegations, yet later on refusing to do so.

DP's claims on Searing Skies consist of a paraphrased MF statement on 4chan (and a few posts before it), plus a few controversial things that SS has said in the recent past (two of these have nothing to do with MF).

When talking about the con itself, DP takes a very puritan stance, condemning the sexual nature of some con advertisement (including the logo) and the usage of Swastikas and other symbolism associated with the radical right by some con attendees. The former makes sense in the context of MF being an 18+ convention (something mentioned and subsequently disregarded by DP themselves), the latter ignores both how MF management has been continuously cracking down on these aspects and how such symbols have gained additional (anti-authoritarian) connotations in the wake of Derpibooru's 2020 policy change and the chaos that ensued. DP also undermines the humouristic aspect of such symbolism (or, more correctly, does not acknowledge such an aspect existing in the first place).

The article's views on the fandom should not be left unmentioned either. It tries to present both EQD and Horse News, the only fan MLP-related news publications of any noteworthiness, as being biased, unserious, among other inferable claims. DP tries to put focus away from them being a Furry (outsider) publication by trying to present the MLP fandom(s) as coming from the Furry fandom, a mere subbranch altered by "marketing, merchandising and professional talent under one media property". They simultaneously try to claim being bi-partisan, while also admitting that their supporters in the making of the article are "furry-adjacent" fans. A thing to note is that not even the non-channers, who should in theory be support of DP's position, are spared their criticism, as DP accuses (via unnamed sources) modern ponycons of being infested with "sex dolls out in the open and Foalcon" (the section this is taken from has a very unclear timeframe of the change of ponycon culture, thought I'd mention).

In terms of the tactics used to convince the reader, the most abundant by far is omission. False implication often comes with this omission too. For example - it is said that Mare Fair had to change venues 3 times over its 3 year history "while gaining a reputation for hateful behavior". This comes right after it's stated that MF was created for/by 4channers. Thus, it is implied that it is because of the "hateful behavior" that MF had to change venues so much. This is verifiably false, as MF's first venue closed down (so did many other hotels operated by this brand), and the second was merely a temporary substitute for the first venue until a better one could be found (and it eventually was, becoming the venue for MF3). The article is also filled with many anonymous sources that supposedly contacted DP, thus allowing them to deflect most criticism on them (should such a need arise).

The target demographic has given much praise to the DP article, reposting it all over their social medias. Some of these simply expressed shock at the things "uncovered" by DP, others chose to highlight highlight particular sections, mostly the Corp segment where he's accused of zoophilia. This section contains links to some archives that supposedly "proof" Corp's wrongdoing, yet said archives are incomplete (as DP admits themselves), as they lack the actual videos. All there is to go off of are video descriptions (which happen to be very vague) and a few preserved (albeit censored) thumbnails, the most "incriminating" of which is a mare's vagina... with nothing else. It could easily be a video of two horses copulating, yet without proper archives, this can't be verified.

Meanwhile, MF-goers and anons on /mlp/ in general have had a very negative reaction to it. This ranges from simple posts laughing it off to detailed breakdowns of the article and how it misleads or outright lies to its readers. An example of such a response could be this very paste, though it's not hard to find examples on Desuarchive as well. The most radical reaction has come from an anon on /mlp/ who decided to DDoS the DP website because "[DP's] site is garbage and you shouldn't spread lies". DP implies this is anon is a "big donor" of MF, or at least somehow supported by them (quote: "Some of Mare Fair's big donors aren't happy about what transparency does to their investment into something corrupt. We're currently mitigating DDOS attack that's meant to stop you from reading investigative reporting"). Unsurprisingly, they provide no proof of this.

When it comes to more meaningful impact the article has had, two examples can be singled out - first, there's the reaction of MF staff, which was to further stricten the rules on Aryanne by explicitly banning her from the con (before that, she could be displayed without her cutie mark). The second is a series of MF-mentions on certain MLP-related articles on Wikipedia (such as the one on /mlp/ and the one on MLP fan conventions) that had the DP article used as a source and some of its info (such as the zoophilia accusations) edited in. Attempts to argue about this with one of the lead pony contributors to Wikipedia has reached a rather unfortunate conclusion - because of a little thing called WP:OR (i.e. the no original research policy of Wikipedia, one of its fundamentals), trying to create a debunk of the DP article or anything of that sort won't go anywhere (this includes this paste per WP:SPS). At best, one can try invoking WP:NPOV to omit some of the more provocative statements made by DP and its sources, which has worked fairly well for the MLP fan convention article, but not for the /mlp/ one. Arguing about WP:RS has shown to lead nowhere. So, in short - the only guaranteed way to get any proper change done to the MF statements is by getting a generally reliable source (see WP:RSP, though that list is non-exhaustive) to do an investigation of their own and hope they come to at least somewhat of a more positive conclusions about MF. The chance of that actually happening, though...

 

>Miscellaneous and mostly minor things generally outside the article

On their Bsky, they claim that the DDoSing of their site was carried out by a MF sponsor. Not only do they provide no proof, they are outright contradicted by public information - an anon on /mlp/ wrote this shortly after the event: "Guys I think I killed cuckpatch.press. And since I know you're reading this thread: No, I have nothing to do with Mare Fair, I have never been, I have never donated, I have never done anything even remotely benefiting the con, I just think your site is garbage and you shouldn't spread lies. Talk shit, get hit." (42726313)

Oh, and the post where they claim this: https://bsky.app/profile/dogpatch.press/post/3m42yjzotu22o

It seems this is not their first rodeo into making very ungrounded accusations. Simply searching for "Dogpatch Press controversy" gives me this, and oh look - the guy who wrote the article in question is also the guy who wrote the DP article. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. https://www.reddit.com/r/HobbyDrama/comments/ccxnqi/furry_popular_furry_news_journalist_slanders_an/

Seems ponepaste changed the way links are handled. I don't like it. Just saying.

The DP article consistently does not use "the" before the word "fandom". Not something I'm used to, but per dictionaries or such, this seems to be acceptable.

 

>Changelog (per UTC)

Nov 3rd: paste goes out of private into unlisted and gets shared on /mlpol/ (would've been shared on /mlp/ too if a MF thread would've been present at the time). Consists of a short introduction, the core rebuttal and "Miscellaneous things outside the article".

Nov 7th: added SUMMARY section, a to-do at the start, and the changelog. Set visibility to public. Renamed "Miscellaneous things outside the article" into "Miscellaneous and mostly minor things generally outside the article". One or two very minor changes to a few sections, e.g. "Dogpatch Press (DP) published an articled titled [...]" corrected into "Dogpatch Press (DP) published an article titled [...]". Changed tags from "Draft" to whatever you see now.