Ponies at Dawn: Journal

Ponies at Dawn is a pony music compilation album project that started in 2012 and currently has over 30 releases as of 2026. P@D brings together a great number of artists and features all genres of music, from dubstep to irish acapella. To me, it has been a really fun way of discovering new music and staying in touch with the community, and I've been attending all of their live album releases on Pony Town since 2023. This shrine serves as a love letter to the project, and a way for me to save those memories forever until the last bit rots.

What is "pony music"?

This is a surprisingly hard question to answer!

In the past, pony music just meant "music that was themed after My Little Pony". There were very strict community-enforced standards about how many references and soundbytes from the show your track needed to be considered pony music. This is ridiculous and has soured some people away from the label and sometimes making music themed after the show altogether.

You still see that kind of pony music today, but more often than not tracks have little to no mention of MLP whatsoever. This is very common in instrumental tracks, though some are still named after characters from the show. Hell, one track in 2024's Blossom album uses plenty of samples from Deep Rock Galactic and features no soundbytes from the show whatsoever! So what gives?

...I don't really have a good answer for you, sadly. The cynical answer would be "it fit the original definition when it started in 2012 and they kept the label out of conveniency despite G4's fading relevancy", but I don't know if that's actually true. An answer I'm more partial to but still not 100% sure about comes from a MLPForums thread where someone said: "If the creator had ponies in mind when she/he made the song then as far as I'm concerned it's pony related".

My personal answer lies somewhere between those two opinions. There's baggage in making music in a space that was once entirely based around OG pony music, but I don't believe you need any explicit ties to the show to call your music pony music. I would go as far as saying that you don't need any ties to the show; being in a community with people that are still making music about MLP and those who aren't but still keep the show in their hearts can qualify your music as pony music.

Not that it matters too much anyways. You can do whatever you want forever.

How did I get here?

I got into MLP G4 back when the shows only had four seasons, and have always had a soft spot for it even after I stopped watching it. I'm not going to give you the whole speech about how "the brony movement helped countless people explore their gender identity and sexuality even though it was originally an ironic trend born of the sewers of the internet", mostly because that's pretty much the extent of it to me.

Music-wise I was at least aware about most of the classics: WoodenToaster, The Living Tombstone, Sim Gretina, etc. My focus was more on fan animations and fanfiction though, so I wasn't as knowledgeable as the average brony at the time might have been. I got back into pony music the same way a lot of people currently into it have: stumbled across Vylet Pony's Antonymph, went down memory lane and then came back up to see if people were still making pony music.

I'm not really sure how I got into Ponies at Dawn specifically. I remember there was an infographic going around that was like, "here's other contemporary pony music to get into if you enjoy Antonymph!", but I don't remember P@D being particularly high on their list. I'm pretty sure the first album I listened to was Wanderlust, and I... kinda hated it? I was coming off my EBM phase, and all the dubstep followed by 5+ minute orchestrals did not sound good to me.

But I kept listening, and now I greatly enjoy P@D even though I'm still not too into those two genres most of the time. It got me familiar with individual artists I now love such as Koa, Replacer and Synthis, and it's also a wonderful social experience to attend the live events on Pony Town even if I just park my avatar on the dancefloor and change the tab a lot of the time. Regardless of its status as de facto pony music, it helps me connect with (the few good parts of) my childhood as an enjoyer of the show and give me an even deeper appreciation for both it and the community.

The Journal

And now for the actual purpose of this shrine: writing down all of the P@D albums I've listened to live on Pony Town, my top picks and some thoughts and memories surrounding each of them. I'm also going to put a gif of what avatar I brought to that release, like a kind of fit check. I've decided to do this in preparation for the (as of August 2026) upcoming 33rd album Respite. Starting from Respite I'll try to write these entries shortly after the live event, but for albums before that I'm relying on my memory which isn't very good.

Wanderlust Album Cover

Top Picks

Wanderlust (2022)

This was the first ever P@D album I've listened to live, with the caveat that I was also streaming Minecraft Stoneblock on Twitch at the same time so I wasn't paying too much attention.

I remember not enjoying this one too much, but I also didn't enjoy that stream on its own. I wanted people to enjoy both the music and the modpack, and I'd say that most people watching had no interest or knowledge in either.

My mental health was deep down the drain at the time and I did not get the attention and affirmation I wanted from that stream, but that's not saying much since I wanted an unreasonable amount of attention for not being that engaging of a person. It took me a year or two longer for me to figure out that I didn't want random people getting invested in me as a streamer, I wanted my friends to get invested in the things I was streaming.

That stream was also very tiring because I didn't yet know that these albums are really fucking long. P@D albums tend to have on average 60 songs, and Wanderlust itself is around 6+ hours long counting DJ commentary and bumpers in between songs. I remember calling it quits a little after "I'd Rather Be In The Orchard" played, which was song 54 out of 75. I really would rather have been in the orchard than streaming by that point.

As for the album itself... It's not really that memorable to me? Some songs I really like came from this album but I rediscovered them later through the P@D youtube channel. It's hard to say I liked or disliked a particular album as a whole because it doesn't feel too much like a "whole" and more like... well, a compilation, duh. But you could say I didn't like this one too much, experience-wise.

Pandemonium Album Cover

Top Picks

Pandemonium (2023)

A salmon-colored pony wearing a red sweater with white writing, a black skirt, heart earrings and a white bow on the base of her tail.

I would consider this my first proper P@D album. I picked an outfit for my Pony Town avatar, set her to do a dance emote on the dancefloor and stayed there for all 6+ hours.

I don't remember much from that time. I think I was a bit upset no one could come with me to the live release but not that upset. I was still in the mental health trenches but it was more of a drowning hum than a sharp peak by that point.

Based on my messages from around that time I didn't like Pandaemonium all that much, but listening to it nowadays I actually like it quite a bit! The songs that stood out to me at the time are really good, and I've been able to pick up a couple more on a relisten.

This was the album where I officially became a fan of Koa and her more pop-adjacent music. Which is lucky for me, because Koa used to feature in a lot of songs back then. She's only in 6 in this album, but in one of them she was in a whopping 12 songs. That's almost a sixth of a whole album!

Blossom Album Cover

Top Picks

Blossom (2024)

A salmon-colored pony wearing a black hoodie, black skirt with red spots, black and red striped thigh-highs on her front legs, black sneakers on her hind legs and headphones with a heart stamp.

This one was really fun! One of my favorite P@D albums so far. I managed to go with my partner at the time and we had a blast listening to it and looking at other people's fun avatars on Pony Town. Ironically that means I don't have too much to say about the album itself because I was too busy enjoying myself to really absorb much of the actual contents.

Though this might be one of the rare occasions where on a relisten I ended up saving less songs than I did right after the event. Maybe because I was having so much at the time everything was much more my taste? Not to say the songs I dropped were bad, I can just be pretty picky with which songs I actually save in my library to listen on the regular.

To me this is one of the album where you can clearly see "sections": starts out with a song to set the vibe for the whole album, then transitions into pop, then harsher electronic, then orchestral and then it finally ends with a general mix of slower songs. I think this is fine, it gives the whole-album listening experience some more cohesion.

Survivors Album Cover

Top Picks

Survivors (2024)

A salmon-colored pony wearing a black and red vest, spiked wristbands on her front legs, black and red striped socks on her hind legs, black glasses and a red bow on her tail.

I thought I wouldn't have much to say about this one either, but looking at the tracklist is bringing back a lot of memories! By this point I was already starting to get acquainted with some of the reocurring artists, and being able to tell them by voice and style alone. So there were a few neat moments that made me feel like I was finally "in" the fun of P@D.

To go back to the Koa thing from the Blossom album, she's "only" in five songs in this one, and I had taken a look at the pre-release track list so I knew when to expect them. She's actually in an aditional song though! Surrender by "Pnk & Blu", which are pseudonyms for her and... I believe Faulty? Unsure, but it was a really neat moment when that song came on and I was like... Is that Koa?

I also remember being really underwhelmed by her song with Replacer (To Be Found), but listening to it now I think it's... fine? All of the songs by Replacer I was familiar with by that point were all bouncy and kinda quirky even when the lyrics were more on the downer side, but this is a full on melancholic track. Even now I'd say it's very different from his usual, but I appreciate that a lot more now.

There was also a kinda funny moment involving the two live hosts, Dijit and Lycan. I don't know much about music in general much less electronic music so I just assume they know what they're talking about when they throw terms and adjectives around. You can still tell when they start getting tired and out of things to say though. The song Poison (20mg Per mL) is pretty obviously about the artist's experience being transgender, and I was pretty curious what the host commentary would be since I've never heard them express their views on anything other than music.

Well, their insightful commentary was something along the lines of, "fun fact, the singer does both the male and the female voice in this track!". I know it's been like three or four hours and 53 songs, but come on. No thoughts whatsoever? Is it too much to ask for a "trans rights" from my dear Dijit and Lycan? Pretty please?

Limelight Album Cover

Top Picks

Limelight (2025)

A cream-colored pony wearing a red dress with silver sparkles and a purple sash, purple leg warmers on her front legs, red sneakers on her hind legs, a pearl collar, an earset, a pearl collar and a purple bow on her tail.

I remember the Pony Town experience for this album was really funny but I'm struggling to recall all the details. The event map for it was (I believe) fully custom and built after a city to mimic the album cover, but the black asphalt floor and the huge open space kinda made it feel like a parking lot which was kinda funny on its own. I think this was also around the time beverages were implemented into the game and they added a little drink stand where you could get stuff like soda bottles or those big glass mugs of beer. At some point people noticed the floor was so uniformly colored they started painting their avatars to look like solid rectangular blocks and began assembling a tetris board in front of the stage.

There was also this really funny moment at the 13th track, Xtra Fire. I don't remember exactly what was said, but after the artist bumper (or in stead of it?) one of the hosts was like, "I'm told this song is dedicated to a very special person who will not be named". And then the track starts and it's like, Vocaloid MILF voice mommy kink song (awesome). What did they mean by that???????????

I don't remember the name of the person in question but I did end up finding their account later and they're like a notorious artist who draws Cream Heart/Button's Mom, so that checks out. I'm glad it was a nice homage and not like a live confession/callout, but man could you fucking imagine?

Fusion Album Cover

Top Picks

Fusion (2025)

A cream-colored pony wearing a red tank top, red shorts and black glasses.

I'm immediately puzzled by my choice of outfit for this one. I think I was going for a sort of like, crop top + shorts kind of rave outfit, but it just ended up looking like a shitty bikini. Me and my partners were accused by some tiktok kids of having e-sex in the middle of the show because we were idling too close to each other and I imagine the outfit definitely contributed to that.

Aside from that, it was pretty fun taking both of them to go and hang out in Pony Town for the first time! The map wasn't 100% custom this time but it was very well decorated, there was a funny png of a Minecraft villager in the blacksmith area and everything. They're not used to listening to pony music for 5+ hours so I hope that was a decent enough Subway Surfers for them.

It seems like these albums are getting shorter, also. This one had only 54 tracks and it seems like Respite is only gonna have 56. I dunno what the cause is; maybe less people are applying, maybe they wanna make these albums more condensed to be more accessible, or maybe Dijit and Lycan don't have the stamina to do these 6+ hour stream anymore. Dunno.

The premise for this album was that it'd be collabs only which sounds pretty fun, but I'd say a sizeable amount if not most songs in an average P@D album are collabs already, so it didn't feel all that different. Koa was in 7 tracks which feels like a very small number for a collab-only album. Metajoker was in quite a few songs this album which I appreciate a lot! They have a nice voice and I enjoy a lot of their older more electronic-y tracks.

Another highlight was the (re?)debut of Feather! All I knew about her before last year was that she was a pretty nostalgic name from some years ago and that she's good friends with Vylet Pony. She was taking a pretty big mental health break but she suddenly came back and all of her new songs rule so much. It seems like she has a lot of collabs set up for Respite and I'm really excited for those. She seems to be putting out a lot of art (both drawing and music) since her return so I hope she's okay and she takes care not to burn out.