Equestria Daily

Once Upon a Time, there was a young man who, through extraordinary circumstances that probably aren't all that extraordinary, realized he liked ponies. Liking ponies had become a thing, and this man, Sethisto, thought it would be neat to open a daily news blog about all things pony.

Oh, if he only knew what was in store for him and his little pony blog.

Equestria Daily is a fan-run news blog for the ever so popular show My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic that launched on January 19th, 2011 and is run primarily by Shaun "Sethisto" Scotellaro. The blog was created in an attempt to create a more unified fanbase and partly as a response to the banning of ponies on 4chan in early 2011. In addition to posting the latest news pertaining to everyone's favorite show about pastel colored ponies, the site features a lot of high quality fan art, fanfics that get judged by a panel of pre-readers, custom toys, and all kinds of other fan-created content from across the brony fandom.

The blog eventually became one of the pillars of the My Little Pony fanbase. If it gets posted on Equestria Daily, chances are most bronies know about it. Hasbro and The Hub have even sent Equestria Daily exclusive content (the extended "Equestria Girls" video being a prime example), and the blog has done exclusive interviews with members of the show's staff including show creator Lauren Faust herself.

Oh, and even by fandom-unrelated standards, it's absurdly popular. Equestria Daily racked up 100 million hits in a little less than a year. And it is currently on pace to double that figure in half the time.

While Sethisto is the face of the blog, he's picked up some helpers along the way. The full staff & pre-readers list can be seen here.
 * Cereal Velocity: Seth's right hoof stallion, a coder, and has written a few fanfics. Known for his Portal style "Equestrian Innovations" videos. Thinks Rarity is Best Pony.
 * Phoe: Organized the Fan Art training grounds that help spawn several fan favorite artists in the community. Thinks Lyra is Best Pony.
 * Tekaramity: Handles a lot of the interviews and used to organize YouTube videos. Has no best pony but does sport a Rainbow Dash avatar.
 * Calpain: Mostly handles the customs, plushies, and comics posts. Thinks Twilight Sparkle is Best Pony.
 * Xyro: Handles community streams. Thinks Spitfire is Best Pony.
 * PK: Blog intern, may or may not be working against his free will. Often handles the Nightly Roundups. Also thinks Twilight is Best Pony.

Oh, and where can you find this rather popular corner of the Bronyverse? Right here.

Tropes

 * April Fools' Day: For April Fool's 2012, they pretended they had a corporate takeover by Hasbro, turned the website pink, and posted a bunch of pre-G4 content.
 * Their prank for 2011 had the site being "taken over" by Trixie, who announced that the site was now dedicated to talking about how great she was.
 * Hostile Show Takeover: In October 2011, Phoe took over the blog for a day, and Sethisto and Cereal's OCs were shown tied up in the banner (until they escaped and got their revenge).
 * Logo Joke: The banner rarely stays the same for very long, often changing based on a holiday, recent episode, event, or whatever strikes Seth's fancy.
 * Milestone Celebration: Popular pony fanartist Madmax used to celebrate every time the blog got a million hits with a special comic. However, the blog eventually became so popular and started getting a million hits so frequently that it almost became a daily comic for her. Understandably, she stopped, though her regular comics are still featured.
 * Sealed Evil in A Can: Sethisto used to be portrayed as a cube trying to get out in Madmax's comics until he got a proper OC pony.
 * Rose Haired Pony: Phoe's OC is depicted as this.
 * Zerg Rush: Any site that gets linked here can expect one of these. Just look for the "CHAAARGE" tag.