Megyn Kelly has issued a strong caution to parents regarding adult men who participate in My Little Pony conventions. This warning follows revelations that the individual accused of planting pipe bombs in Washington D.C. had an intense fascination with the toy franchise.

The suspect, 30-year-old Brian Cole Jr., frequently shared his own artwork featuring the My Little Pony characters, penned fanfiction related to them, and even created remixes of songs inspired by the series, according to a report by the New York Post.

It was also reported that Cole carried a My Little Pony backpack during his high school days.

This news has unsettled Kelly, who addressed the community known as ‘Bronies’ during her podcast on Tuesday.

“I’m sorry, but this is a real issue,” she expressed. “A close friend of mine once took her young daughters to a My Little Pony convention at a hotel, unaware that it primarily attracts adult men with questionable intentions.”

‘These conventions are not for little girls,’ the former Fox News host then declared. 

‘They are for pervy men, many of whom are connected to the furry community, who will show up there. It’s a very bizarre situation.’

‘What adult male is obsessed with My Little Pony?’ she continued. ‘I’m sorry. There’s something wrong with that person.’

Megyn Kelly issued a staunch warning to parents about adults who attend My Little Pony conventions

DC pipe bombing suspect Brian Cole Jr., 30, regularly shared drawings he made of the plastic pony dolls, wrote fanfiction dedicated to them and even remixed songs in honor of the characters

‘There’s something very off about those people, I think we can all agree,’ Kelly concluded. 

‘And I think that this guy’s interest in the community will come as a surprise to approximately no one.’

Grown men who are fans of the pony dolls are referred to as ‘Bronies,’ a community that became large enough by 2017 to hold their own annual conventions.

‘The subculture of Bronies was very online and unique and attracted a lot of male fans, who were breaking gender norms, which attracted a lot of attention,’ said Dr. Daniel Chadborn, an assistant professor of psychology who penned the book, ‘Meet the Bronies: The Psychology of the Adult My Little Pony Fandom.’

He argued that the subculture was not inherently sexual in nature, but said he was not surprised that someone within the community would be troubled.

‘Someone who is disaffected is often going to look for spaces to engage in, for a sense of identity and belonging,’ Chadborn explained. 

Social media accounts associated with Cole’s email address and phone number show that he regularly shared his My Little Pony works across the Internet.

Posting as iDeltaVelocity, he apparently uploaded 87 pictures of My Little Pony fan art to one forum, showing various pony and unicorn characters.

My Little Pony dolls are plastic horse toys

Grown men who are fans of the pony dolls are referred to as ‘Bronies,’ a community that became large enough by 2017 to hold their own annual conventions

Dr. Daniel Chadborn, an assistant professor of psychology who penned the book, ‘Meet the Bronies: The Psychology of the Adult My Little Pony Fandom’ said he was not surprised a member of the community would be troubled. Fans are pictured watching the opening ceremony for the BronyCon convention in Baltimore, Maryland in 2019

In one Star Wars-inspired post, a purple pony says in a speech bubble: ‘I’m not “cute,” I’m deadly,’ which Cole said is a line from the Star Wars: The Old Republic video game.

A Tumblr account focused on My Little Pony art which used one of Cole’s usernames also commented on a drawing of a pony with an M60 machine gun.

‘Eh… I’d give her an RPG,’ he apparently wrote. ‘What can I say? Explosions are COOL!’

Cole also apparently published a fanfiction in which he meshed the fantasy world of My Little Pony and horror.

‘Applebloom’s eyes snapped open as she sat up in her bed, panting heavily and sweat dripping from her red mane,’ his story began.

‘…The skeletons, the zombified ponies rising up from the ground, their decaying bodies, rotting flesh sliding off from their bones… it was nothing a filly should ever see, and she wished she could unsee it all.’

‘She buried her face in her hooves, crying silently at the horrible images that inhabited her mind.’

Under the username BlueVelocity, Cole also posted songs he made in his ‘Electro Swing’ genre – some of which also included My Little Pony Themes, such as ‘Pony I Want to Be (iDeltaVelocity remix)’ and ‘Doin’ the Equestrian Jive.’

Cole was arrested last week for placing pipe bombs outside the Democratic National Committee and the Republican National Committee on January 5, 2021  after authorities re-examined surveillance footage

FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino is pictured announcing Cole’s arrest

Cole even shared his enthusiasm for the plastic dolls in his personal life, with high school classmate Brian Hallenbeck telling the Washington Post how he was bullied for carrying a My Little Pony backpack. 

‘What I most vividly remember is people pointing and laughing at him or calling him out for being a My Little Pony fan,’ Hallenbeck said.

‘It was the theme of his backpack and he had some of the toys.’

Cole’s family members have previously told the Daily Mail how Cole mainly kept to himself, living in his mother’s basement in Woodbridge, Virginia, where he has been grieving the loss of his beloved pet chihuahua while working a data entry job for his family’s bail bonds business. 

‘He’s not politically affiliated with anything,’ the grandmother told the Daily Mail from her home in Gainesville, Virginia. ‘He has no social media contacts. He’s never online going back and forth with politics or anything like that. He says he don’t like either party.

‘He’s borderline autistic,’ she added. ‘He’s slow. He may be 30, but he’s got the mind of a 16-year-old. That’s why we’re thinking – What the hell? What’s going on?’

Cole was charged with laying explosives outside the Democratic and Republican National Committee headquarters, which did not detonate

He was arrested at his house in Virginia, where his grandmother said he mainly kept to himself

‘We were told that the main thing he’s very upset about is that he disappointed us, that he got locked up,’ the grandmother told the Daily Mail. ‘We told him we’re out here, we’re going to make sure thing’s taken care of.

‘We’re terrified,’ she said. ‘They say they’ve got all this evidence. Whatever happened, we’ve still got to fight it. We have to figure out what to do.’

Cole is now charged with laying explosives outside the Democratic and Republican National Committee headquarters on January 5, 2021, which did not detonate.

His arrest last week marks the first major breakthrough in the five-year investigation that had baffled the FBI and sparked a wave of conspiracy theories.

It only came after the bureau offered a $500,000 reward for leads to identify the suspect., who was seen stalking the streets of Washington DC the night before the infamous January 6 riots.

But Cole’s arrest reportedly did not come as the result of a new breakthrough in the investigation – but was rather the result of the FBI reviewing evidence it had collected in 2021 and 2022. 

Video released by the FBI last week showed a hooded suspect setting down a backpack on South Capitol Street, before putting on glasses and scanning their surroundings for witnesses and leaving.

The suspect then walked to the nearby DNC headquarters, where a bomb was placed at 7:54pm.

Surveillance then showed the suspect walking to the RNC headquarters and placing a bomb at 8:16pm.

The bombs were made of threaded galvanized pipes, kitchen timers and homemade black powder. One of the planted devices is pictured above 

This map depicts the approximate route the suspect walked on January 5, 2021, while placing two pipe bombs in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Washington, DC

The suspect wore a face mask, glasses, a grey hooded sweatshirt, gloves, and black and light grey Nike Air Max Speed Turf shoes with a yellow logo.

The explosive devices planted outside the two buildings in the Capitol Hill neighborhood were located the next day.

Hours later hordes of Donald Trump supporters descended on Washington DC to protest the 2020 election results.

US Capitol Police and agents from the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were called to the RNC’s office at 12.45pm.

About 30 minutes later, as the agents and bomb technicians were still investigating at the RNC, another call came in for a similar explosive device found at the DNC.

The bombs were rendered safe, and no one was hurt.

Officials said the homemade bombs were constructed out of threaded galvanized pipes, kitchen timers and homemade black powder.

As authorities continued to investigate the bomb threat, they discovered that Cole’s cellphone location data placed him near the scene that night and a license plate reader recorded a 2017 Nissan Sentra registered under Cole’s name at a nearby off-ramp.

They also discovered Cole had purchased parts for months to build the bombs from area businesses.

He then allegedly stored them in the home before he tried to carry out the terrorist attack.

Cole has since reportedly confessed to the crime.