How did you discover MLP

[Feather Scribbles 194]

So, how did you discover MLP? (As in, what events occurred that led up to you watching the franchise? And I'm talking G4 here.)

[Clod 8,293]

Honestly I don't know how I found out about it. But once I did, I decided I'd "torture myself" by watching it... so I watched the first episode. Then, making an excuse about not letting a story be unfinished (because it's a 2-part thing) I watched the second. Then I stopped, denied to myself that I was enjoying it, and and avoided it for either a few weeks or a month or something. But I couldn't stay away, so I came back and finished it in a couple weeks (it was only 3 seasons at the time), only watching it at night instead of sleeping (trying to hide it, of course).

Edited January 17, 2018 by meme
fixed a typo and added stuff

[ChB 18,532]

I first heard about MLP in another forum that's not related to MLP (or any TV show, for that matter). Some poster once referenced about Bronies, in a some-what pejorative manner. I thought Bronies were weird at first, but then I remembered about my nostalgia about old cartoons, and assumed that Bronies are no different. So I just shrugged my shoulders and moved on. 

Six months later, someone I knew and respected started a poll thread about MLP, where it asks who our favorite pony is. That got curious enough to look up the very first episode. During the first few minutes, I thought that it was going to be just as boring as those other cartoons I tried getting into but never could. Turns out, the climax of the Pilot episode was so great that I spent the rest of the day thinking about how great it was. The plot...the characters...the scenes...they all fit together - in perfect harmony! It felt like I got one of my best after-Christmas Christmas presents.

At the time, I didn't want to call myself a Brony, because I was a bit scared of being an MLP fan. I tried taking it slow and not binge-watch the show too much. But the show just got better and better. I really enjoyed Boast Busters, Dragonshy, Look Before You Sleep, Bridle Gossip, and Winter Wrap-Up. Weeks later, after watching Suited For Success, there was no turning back. I then considered myself a fan and decided to join this forum. 

[Prospekt 10,984]

For a couple of years, once I first became aware of the brony phenomenon, I was weirded out. Didn't see the appeal at all. Eventually, though, since the fandom didn't seem to be going anywhere anytime soon, I finally decided that I might as well watch an episode just to see what the big deal is. Didn't expect to like it. In fact, I expected to cringe.

Turns out, I really liked my first episode, Castle Mane-ia from Season 4, and decided to start the series from the beginning. It wasn't long before I took a look at myself and realized that I was becoming a full-on brony. I avoided the rest of the fandom for a little while, despite watching the show often, because at the time I was still kind of ashamed of the negative stigma. But eventually I shed that fear and finally became active in areas like this forum.

It all helped me quite a lot. Ponies came into my life during a rough patch and I think the show was part of what helped me climb out of that hole. I am forever grateful!

[Ganondorf8 11,118]

I discovered it by complete accident. One morning, I woke up and turned on my television--this was what I used to do before my television could no longer gain access to channels due to me not having my own cable box--and was surprised to see Equestria Girls was on--the first movie. I only saw snippets of it at the time yet it was enough to make me want to watch the entire movie on YouTube by any means necessary. Once I watched it all, I decided to go through the first three seasons--back when there were only three--in a binge like manner so as to prep myself for season four and to figure out how everything turned out prior to Equestria Girls.

Had my television been on a different channel or I had chosen to go upstairs, I wouldn't have watched EQG and I'd not be in the fandom right now.

 

[SparklingSwirls 21,261]

This was back in early 2012 so I don't exactly remember, but as far as I know I just saw people using MLP avatars and whatnot on other sites (YouTube and a wiki I was on come to mind). I decided to check it out because I remembered gen 3 from when I was a little kid, since I had a friend who was really into the g3 toys. So I guess I just wanted to see what changed/what the big deal was  

[Sketchy Tune 964]

It happened by accident. When I had cable in my house, I used to wake up and watch tv with my siblings. I turned it on and I started browsing the channels. I found the Hub Channel (RIP) and it was on a commercial break. I was curious about what was on, so I stayed there. My little Pony came on and I remember groaning. I didn't want to see some childish kid's show with girly things. I changed the channel. Nothing was on, so I went back. I was that bored that I decided to watch it. The episode that was on was actually a new episode. Feeling Pinkie Keen was the episode and I realized as I watched it, this isn't just a kid show. I was 10 years old at the time. I wanted to feel more older... like a teenager. I didn't want to watch little kids stuff anymore like that and I fell in love with the show right at the end where Twilight had that freakout where she burst into flames XD  That was not only the day I fell in love with MLP but also where Twilight became my favorite character. I began watching more episodes. And the rest is history ^^

[Lucky Bolt 34,914]

I've always loved MLP, so I always knew about it. When I was little I watched G3 a lot, I still have several G3 pony toys from way back then...I'm probably never gonna give them away.  Then in late 2010/early 2011 when G4 first came out, I started watching the show on and off, but I didn't officially become a "pegasister" until late 2014. And that's what I've been ever since.  Heck I even have a couple G1 ponies that were my mom's from the 80s. 

 

Edited January 17, 2018 by Lucky Bolt

[Vocal Analyst 665]

Heard about it from a friend, and well, here we are many years later still into it.

[Here No Longer 5,270]

Had a few friends on another forum called Virtualteen back in 2012/2013 that talked about the show some of the time, and it piqued my interest. Found some of the memes, and found them tasteful and enjoyable., and then actually began watching the show from the pilot episode around mid-June of 2013. Really liked it, and watched the whole first season in the matter of a week. The rest is pretty much history.

[ultrairongorilla 2,064]

From Rebeltaxi's My Little Pony Video. I watched clips of the scene with Derpy from the Last Roundup, and eventually watched seasons 1-4 on Netflix. Plus I was really getting into modern cartoons at this point and after catching up with Regular Show and Adventure Time, I chose this show as the next thing to watch.

 

[cuteycindyhoney 13,282]

I was aware of the show but paid it no attention. Then the "Flutterguy" clip showed up in my recommended videos on YouTube. I watched it and thought it funny. I wasn't sure if it was a fan dub or not, so I downloaded the entire first season. I was hooked by the second episode. Then I only had to wait a few weeks for season two to start. I've been a solid fan ever since.

[TBD 17,228]

i discovered it in hot topic, when they were selling "my little brony" tees. As all some may know already I thought the word "brony" is some sort of suggestive pun for "pony"  and  thought that was an horrible pun. Then  I kept seeing them everywhere and just gave up being ignorance toward it. So i gave the show a try, at first I was being resentful toward it while watching it...till 5 episodes later. 

[Sparklefan1234 161,594]

My "Friendship is Magic discovery story":

 

1. I watched a video on Youtube & thought it was funny.

 

2. I watched the pilot episode & didn't enjoy it.

 

3. I gave the show a second chance, got hooked by "Ticket Master" & marathoned the show until I caught up with "Just for Sidekicks"

    being my first episode as a member of the fandom. 

 

[Thuja 3,658]

Well I first knew about the franchise in general was through my mom, she taped the first movie and I used to watch it.  I wasn't really into mlp when I was a kid, I used to watch it sometimes but that was pretty much it.  For mlp:fim, I saw an ad for the show and was interested, been watching it since the first airing of episode 1 season 1 though the more recent episodes haven't been that interesting to me and I don't know why.

[Moony the Cat 3,695]

Well, i noticed Mlp G4 Themed Avatars on Youtube and kinda discovered the hate, that some People had towards Bronys. Thats how i first discovered something about G4. But i decided to watch it, after i watched every Generation before it, since i was interested in the Mlp Franchise even before i heard about G4 or Bronys. I always thought about giving it a try, because i thought this would be a cute franchise to watch.

[KirbyFluttershy 2,517]

Well I'll have to tell my story. I discovered MLP FiM from another forums I came from (which it died) and there was a fan club thread about it so When I take a look at the show through youtube, I took a peek by watching the 1st season of a 2 part episode and then I went deeper into the show so I said to myself that the show wasn't that bad and then when I wanted to watch more, I checked out my TV cable and find the show which was the hub, I decided to record the show and started from the season 2 which is secret of my excess episode so after watching the episode re-runs, I loved the show so I kept watching it the show and the episode re-runs on weekdays over and over and I couldn't get enough of it.

[GeekySonic 1,150]

[-----Deleted!-----]

Edited May 5, 2018 by GeekySonic

[Narcissus 352]

I started watching it because my cousin got me into it. I like lighthearted entertainment and MLP sounded good so I tried it. I was having difficult times in my life and MLP was a nice diversion. I soon got into the characters and kept watching. Most people wouldn't believe someone like me would like a show like this, but it rocks my world. Awesome show.

[Kaneki 1,072]

When a friend showed me the forums and I joined (that being @Lord Bababa).

[Alex2002ita 59]

Towards the end of May 2017, I was browsing through the Youtube home when I noticed a video of a "Slither.Io Logic" animation dubbed in it by a youtuber named Micman96 (who Google closed the channel for some reason), once finished seeing the video I browse the channel and I find a couple of dubbings of two troll animations of Pie Animations, "Friendship is violence" and "My Little Doomsday: Applecrack", I associate them with MLP even if I do not know anything about the cartoon and the fandom and I decide to watching them I look for pure pastime. Ended watching it, I do not know why, I am overwhelmed by an absurd curiosity about MLP. I'm concerned (because I had already seen it at random) a video of a youtuber called giulyagatta97 "Why watch MLP?" (I translated the name), After the video I begin to document more about this matter and first of all I start by asking Google the following question: " Why the f*ck I want to watch a show for little girls?! " and after careful thought and research I come to a conclusion...that is, I am a depraved mentally xD
Seriously, I simply started to inform myself on the Internet of why this thing, I discovered why then I also discovered the existence of bronies and their meaning, in short, all the stuff you had to know. Then I began to seriously want to watch this cartoon, only that I still did not have the courage (and here comes the beautiful part of the story). Thanks to a random user of Yahoo! Answer while looking for answers, he had put a link that once clicked me on a forum (now a living ghost) of the Italian fandom of which I am also moderator. Generally a person tends to subscribe to a forum dedicated to a TV series ONLY after starting to look at the latter, only I was too driven by curiosity and decided to register directly, since in my heart I knew it would be worth it . I wrote my presentation in the dedicated section together with a "mini"-request of how to start watching the series (that topic went well beyond the OT xD) and after the welcome by the most active users who now attend (online) with much pleasure and help on how to start watching the series, I started with downloading the first six episodes of the first season (the maximum, then the tell was filled and the 16GB microSD I still did not hold) and a few days later, after a good dose of courage, I began to watch those episodes (I watched them in the original language subtitled in Italian):
1) Not bad, I want to see how it ends up with Nightmare Moon, the way the characters were presented is really good;
2) Nice way this also how to make the user understand that the mane 6 were the elements of harmony, then a beautiful final;
3) Third episode;
4) Fourth
5) Fifth
6) Sixth

R.I.P.

By now I was totally gone and there was no more hope for me, I became a brony in all respects and I am happy of this :3

 

And this...is how Celestia was born xD

[AveryGamerDude 4,640]

Ooooh I like this thread!

 

The story begins in 2010, when I was a wee 13 year old. I saw promos for it along with promos for the Hub Network, and I was just like: "Eh. That channel doesn't really interest me, it seems to childish." Then 2 years later, the whole brony phenomena popped up all over the internet, and I just thought to myself: "Why would you wanna watch a show for little girls? That's so dumb and weird!" Then another year later, my little brother's best friend (Who was a brony) was annoying him by watching something called "Apple.mov", and I was like: "A parody of MLP? I'll go check it out!" Then I watched the Pony.mov series, and I thought it was pretty funny. And I thought to myself: "You know what? I'll give My Little Pony a try." So I went on Netflix, and I turned on the first episode. I had the lowest of expectations at first, thinking: "Oh boy, here we go. Just wait 5 minutes and then it's gonna be all about tea parties and dress up!" But nope. Instead, I got basically one of the best magical girl animes I've ever seen. (That's the best way I'd describe MLP) Then I was like: "I WANNA WATCH THE NEXT EPISODE!!!" 4 years later, here I am! Even though I need to catch up on the show lawl.

[Kyoshi Frost Wolf 40,220]

It was back in 2011, I was randomly watching those classic videos called Youtube Poops. One of which was dedicated entirely to FiM. That was my first introduction to the show and while I didn't watch it right then, I had an endless curiosity towards it. Over the course of an entire year from that point, I kept seeing and looking up random things about the show and its characters, Fluttershy was of course the one that caught my eye the most. After watching fan videos and clips for a year, I finally caved in 2012 and watched the first 4 episodes and ba-bam, I was hooked. I joined these forums 2 days later.

[Ashen Pathfinder 16,151]

@Feather Scribbles

Moving to Sugarcube Corner!

And to answer your question I discovered it while seeing fanart for it on FurAffinity. The explosion of fanart and discussions regarding it caught me off guard and piqued my curiosity, so in 2010 or 2011 I gave it a watch.

[KatonRyu 1,026]

I spend a lot of time on TV Tropes. One time in 2011, when Season 1 had just ended, I was browsing the Crowning Moment of Awesome page for Western Animation on TV Tropes, and came across an entry for FiM. Figuring that MLP could never be good, I decided to check out the so-called 'awesome' moments from it. There were so many entries there that I began to wonder if, somehow, it could actually be good. So, I looked up the first episode and began watching. When the theme song started, I seriously considered just turning it off, but the cold open had been good enough that I decided to at least watch this episode to its conclusion. Since it was a two-parter, I figured I'd watch the second one as well. Now, I liked Twilight from the start of episode 1, but what really cemented her as one of my favorite characters (and what made me decide the rest of the show was worth watching) was her initial reaction to Pinkie's 'Giggle At the Ghosty' song. Her exasperated, "Tell me she's not..." was enough for me to realize that this show wasn't like its predecessors, at least not entirely. A few days later, I'd watched the entire season.