I had a neighbor who was a brony several years back, I hung out with him back in 2011-2013. I thought it was weird how he had profiles on games named after ponies, mlp shirts, etc. That was my first time meting a brony.
I haven't seen him in years, unfortunately, but I had seen a ton of mlp stuff on the internet. I watched some videos about it and thought 'hey, maybe I should give the show a try? It must be good if all these people like it!'
So I watched the first two episodes of season 1 and thought they were alright. By the end of the next week, I had seen all of season 1 and a good portion of season 2. I was hooked!
A week or so later I joined these forums!
I just feel really bad that it took me all this time to get into it. I wish I could go back and relive the 2011-2013 hype again.