While they received a lot of hostility and hate posts, the Brony audience did not respond to the trolls in kind.  As with many internet groups, the Brony audience used catchphrases and memes such as “welcome to the herd” or “confound those ponies” to express their adherence to the audience and develop its culture. And during the ‘pony wars’ one meme in particular exploded in popularity and usage: “love and tolerate” (Fig 3.). Memes are an important part of an internet group as “they come to us framed by specific histories of use and meaning, and are products of specific ideological struggles,” [17] so the use of this particular meme as the Bronies’ main weapon and response to their ‘haters’ reveals how this audience was developing and creating its own identity during this time of tension and conflict.