It was a perfect, warm Saturday afternoon in LA, the best kind of day to spend indulging in love of all things PONIES! Fans of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic traveled from far and wide – several from out of state! – to sunny SoCal to join the cast and crew of their favorite show as well as Hasbro, SweetStreets LA and WeLoveFine.com for a heck of a Pony Party!

Bronies of all ages, including many sporting terrific costumes and their favorite MLP tees, lined up down the block on Fairfax Avenue for the cast reading and screening events at Cinefamily at the Silent Movie Theater. It was a packed house inside, with fans singing along to the MLP:FIM theme tune in the darkened theater while meanwhile, out on the patio behind the theater, our special guests for the day – cast members Tara Strong, Ashleigh Ball, Andrea Libman and Cathy Westeluck, plus head writer Meghan McCarthy – went over the script from “Hearth’s Warming Eve,” which would be the showcased episode for both the reading and the screening!

Of course, one important member of the cast couldn’t make it to the event: Tabitha St. Germain, who voices Rarity, was sadly absent. However, the Hasbro team had planned a very special way of filling Tabitha’s shoes for the day – the opportunity for two very lucky members of the audience to read Rarity’s lines along with the cast!  Since there were two performances that afternoon, we had two extraordinary guest Rarities who jumped right into the fun and held their own with the talented ladies of the MLP cast – not easy to do with a whole room of bronies watching at the same time! They were awesome, though, and congratulations Susan (first screening) and Alex (second screening) for being chosen and for doing such a terrific job!  Thanks so much to the talented ladies of the cast for their performances, too, as well as our marvelous MC Mike Vogel!

Click here to read our Q&A with Alex St. John, the lucky brony
who read Rarity at the second screening!

After both screenings wrapped, it was time to head over to Toy Art Gallery on Melrose for the autograph signing! Free to the public, this was a chance for fans to come down and have their MLP collectibles, tees, artwork and more signed by the cast, who had a great time meeting with fans and sharing their enthusiasm for the show. It also gave fans a chance to check out the amazing, irreverent artwork from the My Little Pony Project art show, on display at Toy Art Gallery through May 26th. One huge fan in particular – Twilight Sparkle herself, Tara Strong – was so taken by one of Markiii’s paintings from the exhibition (featuring Twilight and Spike) that she bought it!

Though they couldn’t stay all evening, the cast signed as many autographs as they could and made many excited bronies’ evenings, coming away with their cool MLP items fully signed and some great photos too. And those who stuck around were in for a treat, as Toy Art Gallery remained open for fans to come in, see the pony art, and share in delicious cupcakes and treats from Sweet E’s Bake Shop and soft drinks provided by Jarritos.  All in all, a terrific end to a delightfully Ponyriffic day!  Thanks SO much to all of you who came out to the screenings and the signing and made it so much fun. Bronies are indeed some of the best fans on the planet!

For more fantastic images from the event, check them out in WeLoveFine.com’s gallery on Facebook!