I never thought I would enjoy watching this show. In fact when one of my friends recommended it to me, it took me about a year to finally get around to watching it.
I didn't immediately become a fan of the show, at first I merely watched it because I enjoyed the animation (as I am a fan of animation in general), but the more episodes I watched the more I became interested in it.
Funnily enough, I'm currently a bigger fan of the series than the friend who recommended it to me is. He still jokes about it to this day, and whenever he recommends an anime/cartoon series to me he always brings MLP up as an example for why I should trust him.