I'm really curious to hear how everyone first heard about MLP and started watching the show. Did anyone see it on TV and started tuning every week, or did most of you get involved after hearing about it's success online? If so, where did you hear about it? What was the first episode you watched? Did you immediatkey get drawn in, or was anyone cynical for a while? As for me, I used to frequent a whole bunch of nerdy forums, and saw MLP popping up again and again in duscussions, sigs and avatars. I didn't really pay a lot of attention, but I do remember watching the opening sequence of the pilot episode, hearing the theme song and immediately backing out. Silly me :\ After that I largely ignored the fandom, and ponies slipped from my mind as I was preparing for some pretty important stuff at school. After I finished my GCSEs I started lurking around the interwebs again and found, much to my surprise, that the fandom was still going strong. Finally, I read this article and decided to give the show another chance. Oh man, was I in for a surprise. For about a week I lived, breathed and dreamt ponies solidly. I burned through the first season in a few weeks, and was halfway through the second before discovering the rest of the brony community online. And now, here I am, having the time of my life and making new friends every day. So, anyone else got stories they want to share?
I found the show when i saw my little sister watching it, then i found out my best friend was a Brony. He converted me slowly.
A few of my friends at school were/are bronies. After about a month of listening to them, I thought I'd give it a chance. I watch episodes 1-33 in 3 days. It was during mock exam week so I didn't waste any valuable time. Now I'm a part of the community.
One of my friends on Facebook had two short scenes (Fluttershy yelling + Rarity whining) Then I even checked it out, and probably get even more interested on July, when I randomly was searching for VS and DH's music on this forum. Eh.
My friend had some YT videos about the show on there, so I watched them and thought "Hey, that's kind of cute, hehe. Maybe I should give this show a try." So, the next day, I tune in to The Hub and watched a few episodes that aired that day. I was instantly hooked, I mean, I literally couldn't stop watching the show afterwards. Hehe.
The first time I found out about MLP:FIM was either in February or in March. I came across this video on youtube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zHZj8Xp-Ik I was curious because I sort of remembered MLP from when my much older cousins. All I really knew was that it was a girly show made in the 80's. So when I came across this video I didn't even want to look at it. I would scroll up only for a second and then scroll down very quickly. You see, part of me wanted to know, but another part of me didn't want to know. It took me about 30 some minutes before I was able to watch it. I formed this thought in my head that the show looked to be about high school ponies. Since they looked to about teenagers and because the anime with mostly girls is usually about them in high school. I also thought that Twilight was one of the popular ponies(As in she was popular at high school), Rarity was just the girly one, Rainbow Dash was picked on, Applejack was the silly one, Pinkie Pie was the happy one, and Fluttershy was the Snobbish one. This was based on what the character looked like and their facial expressions. I didn't understand it so I just Favorited it, and decided I would look into it more when my mind nagged me enough. Sometime in March (Most likely the 20 or the 24) I decided to watch an episode because I kind of wanted to know more about it. You see, after watching the video I believed that the person who made the video was just making fun of the show. It never occurred to me that someone could actually like MLP:FIM. I put on the Suited for Success because it was the first link on youtube. I then took out my math homework. Keep in mind that I had the video scrolled down so I couldn't see it, and I was home alone so no one would know what I was watching. I zoned in and out of listening, but I remembered the characters name and remembered some of the dialogue. When I was done my homework I decided to watch a little bit of it,and,to my horror, I kind of liked it. I was shocked and couldn't understand how I find ponies and dresses to be interesting. I told myself that I shouldn't be finding this interesting, and I just closed the page down and didn't think about. In May 7 or 11 I came across Reimagine: the game and I created Rainbow Dash. I was like "Oh you could create Rainbow Dash from MLP:FIM. I'll just create her just for the heck of it." So I did. Next I saved the picture to my laptop, and posted on facebook just for the heck of it. But, I didn't put down it was Rainbow Dash. I just said it was a character I created from Reimagine: the game. In the early part of June, I was in class and my friend next to me showed me Know your Memes. He showed me the memes for MLP. If you are wondering, no he wasn't a brony who was trying to get me into the show. He just liked going on Know your Memes and poke fun at the fact that people could like MLP. I was like "OH I know this show"(with annoyance in my voice). So I just scrolled down to the bottom and looked at the memes. It was then that I started to slowly get into it. I just sat there looking at the memes and dying of laughter. Then there was some that made me feel surprised and sad about. When I got home I wanted to find more stuff and that's when I came across the parody videos that people made. I loved them. It was then that I realized it, "These people love this show. They weren't making fun of it." Since I realized that people cared about the show because no one waste their time making a video unless they cared. Eventually I came across Otaku Ascended's video where they review the show in great detail. After watching that I then went onto TV tropes and eventually came to the Moment of Heartwarming section. There was where I found a link to all the people who wrote letters to Lauren Faust. Most were just telling her about how great the show is, and to keep up the good work. Then there were some who said that the show turned them around, and that now they are happier. That now their siblings are getting alone. I read every single letter because I felt that I needed to. Around the late part of June I was thinking about watching the show, but I was afraid. I didn't know what people would think about me, and I was afraid that the show was overrated. So I sat on the fence for sometime, but then I remembered C.S Lewis quote(I first found the quote on March 19) about being an adult. I felt better after that. My fear of it being overrated i got rid of it by watching the show because at the time I was going to read fanfic like I did for the anime Lucky star. Since I could blame the fanfic for not being good instead of the show. On June 24/25(the day I graduated from high school), late at night, I watched the first episode. It wasn't bad. For the next few days I would watch reviews of the episodes I already saw, and then would watch an episode that night. When I could of course. Then on July 6/7 I watched episode six, boast busters. That was the moment when I considered myself a brony. Since that episode was great. All the episodes before it was decent or good, but nothing special. Then I finished the season shortly afterward and finally came to this site in December.
I was browsing the www.grifballhub.com forum everyday and suddenly one of the members make a new thread called: "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic". I never posted there at the time, I was only lurking. He was met with posts like "wtf is wrong with you" and "how can you watch a show like that?", suddenly it showed up the administrator is a brony, and a bunch of other pro grifball players were bronies too. The avatars and sigs popped up everywhere and filled the forum with ponies, a lots of memes were used too. But I didn't care to watch it. I think my brother asked if I wanted to take a look at the first episode with him, and see what all the fuss was about. When we came to the introduction I had to pause the video and leave the room, I guess I felt like the girlyness would take my man card away. After a few seconds I just had to go back and continue watching it, which I did. Since then I was hooked. I watched all episodes in 1-2 weeks. Now the only thing I want to do is to listen to the living tombstone (among others), browse this forum, learning flash and drawing ponies. Life has never felt this Awesome.
How did I find the show? Good question, one I can ramble on about. But for the short and skinny answer, check this out. So, I had seen the occasional post about MLP on White Wolf, had no idea what it was about, had a night where I was just flipping through the threads on White Wolf when I came accross Page 11 of the You Know What I Love Part 4 thread. On that page was a conversation that, to date, is still one of the funniest darned things I've read on the internet. I laughed my rear off at that page. That put me in a good enough mood-and curious enough, that I clicked watched an episode of MLP, Season 1 Episdoe 4 to be precise, and I enjoyed it. Contrary to what I'm guessing is your first thought, I did not go from there and enjoy the ever loving poop out of the show. I actually needed some convincing. So, I went to a link offered by one of the conversors on that page that lead to CR's review of the series. I don't watch a lot of CR's stuff, but when I do always end up respecting his opinion, and was impressed by what the series was doing. So, I went back to White Wolf and gave a ultimatum(Read the firstlink at the top, if you're interested) that I would watch any show sent my way. Well, it turns out they didn't need to. I found the first episode in another thread and watched it, then watched the next one and then....about four hours and twelve episodes later I realized I was in trouble. And the rest is history. All of this took place in a matter of two days in October.
A random sprite on TF2 back in March. Asked a friend to know what all the fuss was about. Called it dumb and ignored it until September, when Cracked.com made an article about unexpected fanbases and they talked about Bronies. The comments from the people defending the show seemed way more intelligent than those of the haters, so it caught my attention. Saw the first season on October while... 'hyped with enthusiasm' after a minor surgery. Became closet brony until December, when I finally decided to let the -virtual- world know.
Found it from some guy on another forums who had Ponies as his sig and avatar and his name was Sadistic Rarity
I had seen pictures of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic around 4chan initially, but then two people that I met at college recommended it to me. I decided to check it out starting from Season 1, Episode 1 and actually really disliked the first two episodes, I thought they were obnoxious at first. But then, I realized that I couldn't stop watching them for some reason. It was similar to the anime series Lucky Star, it was so adorable that I couldn't stop watching it and eventually got absolutely addicted. I have since watched every episode and tune in every week.
I was on the forum I used to go and then someone had a pony as his avatar. Then I found out it was mlp and I was abit shocked because yeah unlike the older ones mlpfim looks cute. Then abit later a close friend sended me the link to the first ep and from there on I became a fan.
Me I think being a brony was faith. I mean everyday at lunch I turn on the tv and this day something was different those voices I didn't remember them at all. So I look at the screen and saw those ponies and just said ok then. Came back up stair after few mins and decided to see what this was and after about episode 3 season 1 I really enjoyed the show. For some reason the pilot didn't really hook me on. To this day why it happen no idea all I know is brony now and forever.
Wow, people really get a lot out of the first two episodes, did they? I mean, I did, but it seems I'm in a minority.
My wife first showed it to me. Before that i thought it was a annoying kids cartoon. But after an episode or 2 I grew to like it. The rest is history. The first full episode was the parasprite episode.
