How and when did you become a brony?

[Amethyst42 6]

I remember when the first series of McDonald's toys came out. One of my daughters got "Twilight Sparkle" and I thought "It's a messed up reference to that sparkly vampire book/movie and it's going to be AWFUL." 
Over a year passed, and FIM finally came on Canadian kid's TV. I love great animation coupled with great writing (I was so crazy for Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends!) and one day when the kids were watching, I started watching now and then too.

By the break between seasons 2&3, I was hooked! My daughters and I just about burst waiting for season 3 to start.

I'm so sad we can't get the latest seasons right away in Canada. We can't buy them on iTunes, even! Why are't they offering them right away, I'd gladly pay to see my favourite show as soon as it's available.

And my thoughts on Twilight Sparkle?

Never have I been more wrong!

[JeanMich02 3]

Well, a while ago, if i can remember, in may or june. Can't remember alot. been a while. my sister watched it while it was still in the 1st season. She was a brony for a while. (Now, she is much freaking out about anime/japanase stuff but still a brony.) and i was wondering what the hell it was. She showed it to me one day. And the first time i saw it, i thought : ''This is really girly.'' but then after a while, i was wondering if it was that good and why my sister liked it, i then started watching the 1st/2nd episode when there was a countdown for season 2. Did took me a while to start watching it. I kinda liked it.

 

After that, i watched the rest of season 1 episodes. I did that when the season 2 was having a countdown.

 

I didnt even knew about the series before. Thanks to my sister, i'm now a brony. If she didnt show me it, i'd be not.

 

I'd have more details but it been a while and my memory is bad.

Edited February 18, 2013 by JeanMich02

[Zacharias 191]

2011 November. I finally got fed up with all the pony avatars and videos popping up everywhere so I asked my (then also new brony) friend to get me Season 1. And well, you know the rest.

[SandCoffeee 7]

I became a brony sometime this month. It started with me watching this documentary on bronys. It mentioned Equestria Daily a couple times, so I decided to check it out. One of the posts on there that I saw was the State of the Herd brony census. It took part in it and from that day forward, I've officially considered myself a brony.

[Aeon Of Dreams 115]

I joined the herd in June of 2012, it was on a bus ride back from New York state and during the long ride a friend of mine who was a brony let me watch an episode on her media player. After that I got hooked on it, and here I am.

[Equestrian Warrior 3]

My friend Hank was one of those pushy "you have to watch this show" types of bronies. Eventually I was in my college's commuter lounge between classes and I didn't have any work to do that day, and since I had time I watched the first three episodes to humor him. And I was hooked.

[Shaky Novel 72]

I believe it was in June or perhaps July. I was very sad and anxious and my best friend knew about it, so she sent a link to a video...

 

 

AND THEN A BRONY WAS BORN.

[firesoxs 93]

When I was a kid I was the social reject so I played with my sister alot, and she had a lot of ponies. At first I was anoyed but at least I got to make my awsome dionsaurs atack the girly pink things. eventually I kind of liked them and I've been trying to over compensate ever since.When the show came out I secretly thought maybe it would be kind of cool, but my overly manly atitude wouldn't let me watch it. Eventualy I got bord of the anime i was watching and caved. one week before the season three premiere I might add.

Edited February 27, 2013 by firesoxs

[Wardaddy 470]

I became a brony in the winter of 2011. For a while I was neutral on MLP returning to the small screen, but one day I came across a clip totally by accident, and one thing led to another. Eventually, after being relentlessly pestered by pony vids on Youtube, I decided to give the show a try. The first episode I watched was "The Best Night Ever" and sweet Celestia I was impressed! It had humour, it had class, and somehow it had managed to light a fire of interest deep inside. However, a while after that I let my bronyism sleep, for fear it would eat me alive someday. And after watching my second episode in total (The Last Roundup), I finally gave in. However it wouldn't be until much later, following the events of "Magical Mystery Cure" when I wanted to talk with the fandom. I needed something to clear the plague of questions about Twilicorn in my mind. Now hear me out, I didn't care about Twilicorn, and I sure as hay don't now, but anyway I was tortured mentally with questions of how this could happen, and what it could mean for the show in future. But now that's been dealt with, I managed to broaden my horizons as a brony, and now I've been frequently keeping tabs on the forums ever since.

[Jamie 302]

30th December 2012, perfect way to start the new year! So would it be 2 months on the 28th February or 1st or 2nd March? It's so confusing!

[Bronze Horse 9]

I became a brony back in August 10, 2012. I was looking up random sonic videos because I was a HUGE sonic fan. And I came across this video called sonic vs. rainbow dash. As I was watching it, I noticed the typical hater comments about ponies and the comments defending them. I thought " I wonder why people hate this show so much, I guess ill see for my self". So I watched the first episode and saw the to be continued at the end. I really wanted to see how it ended so I watched the next one and keep watching up until the 8th episode. I didn't get much sleep that night because of it but I couldn't stop watching!

[Powderpuff 390]

February 2011, I think? I remember it was right after the A Dog and Pony Show episode. My brother, who commonly trolls around 4chan and other internet places like that, told me about it, probably around late 2010, and he insisted I watch it. I thought that was the funniest thing ever, coming from him. But it's not like I felt that MLP was stupid or anything, that I didn't watch it. I was just so darned lazy :'D But eventually he came home for spring break and forced me to watch the episodes. Sat down one day and ran through all the ones that were out at the time. Instantly hooked. I so badly wanted a little Applejack figure after that. By the Spring I swallowed my pride and bought an AJ figure, and a Rarity for my brother.

 

It took me a while to ease in to the community, though. I joined the MLP Arena in March 2011 because I was more interested in the actual show and the toys, than the brony fandom. But even though I liked previous genstoo, I felt like an outsider there because I didn't grow up with ponies so much like the members there - I started with G4. So in August I went to seek out a G4 forum, found the forums and rainbowdash.net. A very small, cozy little community there, love it

 

But throughout this whole time, I never felt like I was a brony. In the beginning, I felt like bronies wouldn't want me in their group anyway :'D The big token was that they were older guys watching it, and I was a very (physically) small girl. Bronies told me that it's not a big deal that I like ponies, but it's super important that THEY like it. Of course, it's not totally like that now and it was probably a small minority of bronies that thought like that outright, but I still felt alienated because of it. And I've been more along the collector side of MLP that my interests in the franchise are very different from most bronies'.

 

So yeah, I've been watching the show since Feb. 2011, but I don't quite call myself a brony

Edited February 26, 2013 by Powderpuff

[MuniMoose 489]

Ours was around November when we first started looking deep for information on season 3 starting 

half the time we wouldn't get a good answer so we had to keep looking and thats when we joined this forums :3

we haven't had a problem fining information seens and we can also link our becoming of bronydom to the forums too

because we usually drop things like this if we can't find a way to talk to others of it :/

[Lightning Buckheart 29]

As weird as it sounds, a youtuber by the name MAST3RL1NKX, made me curious when I looked at his channel, I saw ponies everywhere, I thought it was stupid. I remember later that night, I hid in my room and watched a YouTube poop of it, after that, I watched episode one on my iPod, after that, I loved it slowly, til what it is today, I love My Little Pony, why don't you all share how you started loving it?

[Gone Airbourne 21,977]

Saw a shirt in the mall with my friend and asked him about it. He explained what bronies were to me and I was shocked to hear that guys actually liked a cartoon show meant for little girls. Got home that night thinking there has to be a reason as to why this show has become so popular all of the sudden. So I decided to watch an episode and after watching I got hooked. Reason being because of how well made the show was and it matches the quality of older cartoons from when I was a kid. 

[Justin 16]

If I recall correctly, around mid-2011, I finally gave into all the hype of the show.

 

My first exposure came through gaming forums, and like everyone else, I simply mocked it, but in a friendly, non-cruel way. As time went on, much more of the members - friends and moderators included - had gotten into the show (some, however, were in it as a joke and left the fandom after a few weeks, others I'm still unsure about). Because I'm a bandwagoner, I couldn't help but try it out. Though, I was rather afraid of what to expect, so research had to be done.

 

Know Your Meme was my first site I've seen a full analysis on bronies and the show. It also included a video of the pilot episode. With my parents and others out of the house that one day, I had nothing better to do but watch it. I couldn't quite say I was "hooked", but more or less interested in how things turn out.

 

After the pilot two parter, I didn't touch upon the show until a week or two later. My curiosity sparked again, and I soon watched The Ticket Master and Party of One - both of which had pretty much denoted my liking of the show. Hence, liking, I wasn't considered a brony, as I personally watched each season 1 episode as the days lazed on, until reaching the Grand Galloping Gala episode.

 

Little by little, I got infected by the influences of the show. It began with an Applebloom signature, then  Derpy-with-glasses avatar, then a few songs added to my iPod, and soon my hype for the Season two opening had grown. I guess at that point I was a full on fan of the show. And look where I am now - most avatars on any site has a pony in it, my iPod has over 250 brony-related music (that's compared to the other 30% of non-pony music in there), and the fact I'm on this site too.

So, yeah.

Edited February 27, 2013 by Justin

[Night Shine 767]

Argh, ye be wantin' my brony story? It be long, but if ye be interest'd, I'll tell ya the tale.

 

:3

 

My story's pretty long, but it's pretty unique so I'll share it:

 

 

 

First off, when I first encountered MLP in March 2012, I was primarily interested in two things: Minecraft and YTPs (Youtube Poops). Minecraft is something I played with all of my IRL friends, and I had been into YTPs since elementary school (I'm currently a high school sophomore). I first encountered bronydom when a YTPer that i subscribed to on Youtube made a couple brony sketches, and then in the video description said, "NO, I AM NOT A BRONY!!!1!1!". Such a strong denial intrigued me.

 

Anyway, I started watching a ton of MLP YTPs, which escalated into actually watching clips of the show---specifically, ones involving Discord. He fascinated me, mostly because...wellll.....based on the way I used to play Minecraft, I could relate to him. O.o Anyway, this reached a climax when I saw the Know Your Meme video on bronies, which I thought was obnoxiously one-sided. I then tried hard to reject my love of MLP by "becoming a hater", which didn't work because I can't hate without feeling dead inside. ANYWAIZ. At that time, I realized how deep I would get into MLP if I let myself, and that it might threaten my interest in Minecraft, so......I suppressed it.

For three months.

 

In those three months, all of my friends left me behind in Minecraft to go play other games, and I spiraled into a deep depression. My admission of defeat came when I went to a Boy Scout summer camp, and I found that all of my thoughts were consumed by one pony: My OC, Night Shine. No seriously, my profile picture is based off of the embodiment of my suppressed interest in MLP before I watched a single episode. In that week of summer camp, I realized that 1) My interest in MLP was unstoppable and 2) Minecraft was literally driving me into the ground.

 

SO, as soon as I got home on July 22, 2012, I dove headfirst into the fandom. If I wasn't so accepting of it, it would be scary how it slowly replaced everything in my life. Two days later i joined this forum, although to this day I regret not making a Welcome topic. Ironically, I didn't know how much of a family we are here, and it took me a couple days to realize that this is the friendliest and most sincere community on Earth.

 

Still, (Warning: this is going to get very personal. VERY personal.)

 

 

MLP and bronydom have done so much for me, I can't even thank you all enough. Before MLP, I occasionally wrote down composition ideas in Band class, but now I release full classical compositions every other week. Before MLP, I knew I was better than decent at writing, but after MLP, my writing skills have improved radically--compare my first fanfiction and the earliest chapters of my second to the latest chapters of my second. Before MLP.........this is a very freaky thing to admit, but I'm an open person, i guess.....I had an addiction to furry porn, which MLP gave me the strength to break. MLP also allowed me to realize my passion for stargazing and the beauty of night and nature, something I didn't necessarily care about beforehand.

 

 

 

Thank you all and the community you have helped to create for the experience of a lifetime, and I look forward to bronying on in every way possible. /)

 

 

 

There's the brief version, with as few details as possible, and even skipping over a part or two.

xD

[Anonymous~ 591]

I was kind of new to the "internet" and #chan, the birth place of all bronies, back in 2011. I was lurking in /co/ I believe when one moment I saw this strange-looking creature which was very similar to a pony. I said to myself something betwean the lines of: "What the hell is that thing? It looks kind of cute, but man, it's a bit too cute for my taste". So, I decided to lurk in that colorful-creature thread for a while and at the end of it (to my surprise) I really liked the peeps and ponies. But I wasn't hooked yet. After that encounter at /co/ I decided to watch a few episodes myself and see if it is as good as people were saying. And here I am now, posting this story about how I was new to the "internet", the birth place of....

[Pinkie Pie 3 U 42]

I got hooked onto MLP:FIM from a post someone put on one of the anime forums I visit from time to time. I was curious since he had ponies all over his profile and I thought hmm the characters look cute why not give it try. So long story short, I think I downloaded an episode from a torrents website and from there I watched all of season 1, then I looked for more and I found season 2. After finishing the whole series till that point I was hooked. Now look at me, I learned to draw and now I'm starting fanfics of ponies, collecting merchandise, and I bought season 1 on dvd from amazon. I got the pony fever bad. X D.

 

I believe, and this my own personal opinion, statistically that people who have watched anime or know anything of the Japanese culture are more likely to give MLP:FIM a chance. It seems that way anyway especially for the people who love the really cute anime like me.

 

I found out about the fandom and bronycon after finishing season 2, and boy was I suprised to say the least. I couldn't believe older guys and girls were into the MLP:FIM, and I thought I was the only one who obssessed.

 

I'll tell you though once you go pony you never come back. I thought anime was the cutest thing in existence, never have I been so wrong. It is truly the perfect blend of anime and western cartoons ever, something I thought that wasn't possible.

Edited February 27, 2013 by Pinkie Pie 3 U

[Fluttershyfan94 5,742]

How I became a brony: Around the summer 2012. My brother had told me to check it out, when I first saw an episode I said: "Wow, cartoons have become a lot better". I was watching a lot of cartoons at the time, since I watched cartoon network as well as boomerang. I thought the show was good, but I had not watched a whole episode untill 11th november 2012. But before I started watching the show, I had watched a few compilation videos, like "the best of Fluttershy", by watching a few videos of that genre I finally decided to watch a full episode. I watched season 3 episodes one and two. I liked them, but I couldn't connect with them, I didn't know the characters. Then I decided, that I would have to watch the first episodes too truly understand the season 3 episodes. I started watching season one, and then it happened, I started wanting to watch more and more episodes, this was around the 12th of november. In the process I read a comment, saying: "How many of you are actually male, teens or boys". This question caught my eye, I thought I was just being weird, but there were other people too, therefore I found out about the brony fandom. I started to postpone everything to be able to watch a few episodes. I became hooked around the first two episodes of season 1, it was fun simply watching all of the episodes of season 1.. While reading comments like "once you have reached episode 10 there is no turning back". While ignoring those comments I watched through all of season 1 and 2 and then caught up with season 3 while premiering episode 4.

While watching the episodes, I was also checking out the voice actors, therefore finding out about bronycon, although I was just seeing the voices of the characters. I did not know it was a brony convention.. I just wanted too see the faces behind the voices. I had done the same with "the misadventures of flapjack" and was doing the same with "my little pony". That's how I found out about the brony fandom.. Since I noticed that most of the people there were actually male and people in the comment section, noticed that too. lol..
Also BronyCon, made me want to check out the "brony" part of it. I also found out about EQD in a comment on a youtube video. Which led me to find out about the art talents in the community.. Which made me of course want to give it a try too. I had no skills in drawing or making music.. But gave it all a try, I could not draw a pony at all, but in the end I got it. Now I'm just waiting to go digital, to make the drawings look a lot more show accurate.

Edited May 10, 2013 by Fluttershyfan94

[firesoxs 93]

I've been a brony for a really long time. so this is going to be long.

Growing up I was kind of a social reject so I played with my sister a lot, and she had a lot of ponies.(I mean like fifty) At first I was kind of annoyed that all she wanted to play with was her ponies but I didn't complain because I got to make my transformers and dinosaurs attack the girly pink things. Eventually I learned to tolerate them, when she got the MLP Friendship Gardens video game I would watch her play it over her shoulder (and when the house was empty I would play it myself.) When she grew out of her ponies and baby dolls stage I just grew with her because she was my only playmate and the closest thing I had to a real friend. (my "friends" at school were all douche bags) When my youngest sister got to her pony stage I was kind of excited (although I would never admit it.) I never played with her ponies because she was six and I was sixteen and that's just creepy, (and I had moved on to other things) I was really only exited because of nostalgia. When FIM came out I was surprisingly reluctant to watch it even though a close friend of mine had recommended it. One day my sister (the one I played ponies with as a kid) decided to watch the first two episodes on netflix so I sat down and watched it with her. I decided if she watched the rest of the show then I would watch it with her, but she didn't so I just watched clips and fan animations on youtube for about a month. About a week and a half before season three came out I just decided to dive in head first and stop fighting with my overly masculine self image. So I guess I've been a sleeper brony all along but I only recently acknowledged it.

Edited February 28, 2013 by firesoxs

[Sky Warden 2,243]

I was wandering in a website called Memecenter which I found on a signature of somepony in a forum which I found in search of my favourite game's forum.

 

I remember it had been about three weeks since I started wandering in Memecenter. Then, in a busy day at a computer laboratory, when students were meant to be productive, I saw a meme which says :

 

"Vampires are for women. Ponies are for men."

 

With Twilight Saga and Ponies pictures.It's LOL. At first, the one who attracted my attention was Rainbow Dash. She looked so colourful, and happy. No no no. I think spirited is the right word. I loved her mane at the first glance, and her cyan coat fitted her perfectly. I saved the meme in my computer. That's what I do whenever I find a good meme, so I can share it with my friends, but I didn't share the pony one.

 

After few days, I saw more and more ponies in the website. Like a meme which says :

 

"I can't believe I live in a world, where Ponies are considered manlier than vampires."

 

Again, with Twilight Saga and Ponies is it. LOL. Later I decided to search the Internet about it. I found that the title was My Little Pony : Friendship is Magic and giggled. I clicked the link though. It was MLP wiki or something like that. I mindlessly searched for the rainbow maned mare, Rainbow Dash. I read her description, and hooked by her cuteness shown in both pictures and description on the page.

 

The next day, more ponies in Memecenter. Some memes like:

 

"Why I don't watch MLP. Because it's stupid : 5% Because I'm afraid I will like it : 95%"

"Watch five episodes and you will be hooked. Challenge accepted."

"Oh Lord Inglip. It's me Nedir. What do you want me to do? Watch Ponies. At once My Lord!"

"Against the power of Ponies, there can be no victory."

 

Those memes forced me to do something risky. I browsed for MLP in YouTube with my home computer. I made sure that nobody else was watching. I just downloaded the first five episodes and didn't actually watch it. I just skimmed over the episodes to see my idol, Rainbow Dash. Then the five episodes ended without me actually watching it.

 

Few days passed. I saw more ponies in Memecenter and was like "Alas. I will watch it." The first two episodes made me "Just like another girly show." but I continued. Then the third episode, I was like "Not bad." The fourth episode, "Pretty good actually." The fifth episode, "For the love of Inglip! I'm hooked!"

 

Yes, that time I didn't say "For the love of Celestia" but Inglip.

 

That's my story. Ah yes, later I recommended my friend to watch it. Then, he became a Brony as well. He's new in the forum. His name is @Groovyle.

Edited February 27, 2013 by Sky Warden

[Dashie is best pony 9]

It was near the beginning of school when I joined. My brother was being annoying so I decided I would get on Netflix and get something that would annoy him, being the uber stereotypical man, so I decided on the perfect little girls show opening, MLP and the show turned out to be amazing.

[plasma tail 16]

Well my story is pretty simple really. It started pretty soon too. I started to notice allot of pony videos on you tube latley and i thought it looked pretty cool. I mean don't get me wrong for it being 2010 mlp was already popular. I soon cheeked the show out on TV at 8:00 in the mourning. i loved the show instantly from there and it was the first episode to air to. mlp s1 e1 il never forget. 

[Ron J 276]

Funny story, there was this forum I joined in June 2011 that I was active in for like a day or so and forgot about.

I came back a month later (joined July 1st 2011) and there was pretty much this whole brony/anti-brony forum war going on, one that I still look back on today and laugh at. I was neutral at first, because I was pretty much used to seeing ponies in certain places (because I was a member of the Black Mesa: Source forums beforehand).

Anyway, I ended up siding with the anti-bronies with this and it lasted an additional 27 days.

July 28th (my birthday), I watched a few episodes and fell in love with it. I didn't actually admit to liking it until about a week later.