I dunno if I've already posted on this topic, buuut...
I became a brony in-between seasons 2 and 3, so back in 2012 or so methinks.
An "internet girlfriend" of mine (long and depressing / kinda mature story, don't ask) was on a call with me, probably on either Skype or the old Gmail voice chat they had back then. She came to me and was like "hey man, you gotta watch this show", and ofc since I was a totally different person back then, I started laughing at the idea of watching a "F'in stupid girl show".
Then after some serious pressure from her, I caved in and watched the 1st episode of season 1, laughing / cringing the whole way through.
...Then I loaded up the next episode, then the next, then the next, etc.
However, I didn't really immerse myself into the fandom until just recently, right around the time of the final Bronycon (RIP); even though I did do some RPing and such on Second Life for a while back in 2012
Lol, don't tell the majority of the community that x3
S1 is considered sacred by many it seems