I cannot speak for anyone but myself and I have to clarify that a fan from 2014 cannot understand how the "golden days" were in reality. I haven't lived them nor experienced a single convention.

However,I have to say that after years of lurking,autism and the post season 4 ride events have given me an idea of what it was and how this fanbase gets involved around. Everytime I think about it deeply, I cannot post this on /mlp/, I feel like an actor, I feel like I am playing a role to make the fanbase look natural and give its normal rhythm of pony dosis.

Considering that everything or the mother earth of this fanbase is 4chan, the image has to be kept and trigger outsiders with a pony image. Defending themselves from attacks or trigger warning for those who desire them to be dead. Almost 8 years later,it's not dead. In fact,since 2016, the fandom has been through the pace of bigger established fandoms(PKMN,Star Wars/Trek to some extent and all the new born trends:SU,FNAF,Undertale...),surviving what could have been gone in the blink of an eye.