When did you discover ponies?

[Vinyl Scratch the DJ 0]

So when, where, and how did you discover this glorious show and community? Did you accept it at first? Did you think it was just one big troll? Share your stories.

 

I personally first found ponies on the infamous 4chan's /b/ about a year ago last January. (A year already? Time really does fly by when you're having fun.) I immediately loved the show after watching the first episode, this was about the time where ponies first started making that move out of /co/. Mostly anon'd my way for a while, briefly used my pony name generator name, and eventually grabbed the name Scratch a day or two after episode 14 aired. Jumped on the name of a background pony that was only there for a few seconds, who would have thought anyone else would have wanted the name? 8-) .

 

Mostly stopped going to 4chan's pony threads after the bannings went down, and I hung around ponychan since the day it started until it moved to the new site where I gradually stopped going there.

 

I've since been mostly hanging out in a small pony chat keeping and eye on the community.

[MalikLucius 0]

I first took a look at ponies...well, I don't know the date, exactly, but Boast Busters was the current new episode. I'd heard tell that the old My Little Pony series was being revamped by the creators of Powerpuff Girls. Now, Powerpuff Girls is bloody awesome, but at that time I thought they meant the Artist, Craig McCracken. I enjoyed Boast Busters; neither was i super-wowed, nor unimpressed, but whatever. I had other things on my mind. It wasn't until Feeling Pinkie Keen came out, when a pair of my close friends discovered the show, that I really sat down and watched. It went a little something like this:

 

"L, have you seen the new My little Pony yet? You really need to take a look at this."

"Oh, yeah, the one by Craig McCracken and folks? It's pretty good, I saw one episode a ways back."

"NO, You don't understand. YOU NEED TO SEE THIS. NOW."

 

And then I discovered the meaning of Life.

 

And that's how Equestria was made.

[MrBlueCheese 0]

I've discovered a few months before the second season came out.

 

I decided to watch the show because of the hype that we're caused on various websites and wanted to see for it myself.

 

Now i can't get enough of them.

[MrBlueCheese 0]

I've discovered a few months before the second season came out.

 

I decided to watch the show because of the hype that we're caused on various websites and wanted to see for it myself.

 

Now i can't get enough of them.

[Talryk 0]

I was at RainFurrest 2011 with a fellow fur friend from work. All around the con, we saw a huge focus on what we both generalized as "just My Little Pony." A fair few of the local furs I hang out with were also into it. My friend and I both tried to avoid it, thinking it was just another one of the weird aspects of the fandom that we tend to accumulate. On a whim, though, I got curious and wondered exactly what the rage was all about. So I hop on youtube and found myself an HD source of full episodes, started at ep 1. Next thing I knew, it was 4am and I was through about twelve episodes, not feeling any desire to stop.

 

Confound these ponies, they invade my brain.

[Talryk 0]

I was at RainFurrest 2011 with a fellow fur friend from work. All around the con, we saw a huge focus on what we both generalized as "just My Little Pony." A fair few of the local furs I hang out with were also into it. My friend and I both tried to avoid it, thinking it was just another one of the weird aspects of the fandom that we tend to accumulate. On a whim, though, I got curious and wondered exactly what the rage was all about. So I hop on youtube and found myself an HD source of full episodes, started at ep 1. Next thing I knew, it was 4am and I was through about twelve episodes, not feeling any desire to stop.

 

Confound these ponies, they invade my brain.

[FicficPonyfic 1]

Found it through /co/.

 

Thought it was a massive trolling effort like a lot of people.

 

Watched show.

 

LOVE AND TOLERANCE ALL AROUND~!

[BlankFlankBrony 0]

Joined in around late May/early June, not too many weeks before the end of Season 1. I had seen episodes being posted on Youtube in a channel I had a subscription to, but didn't pay much attention. Then, some of the people I knew in a forum I used to frequent started using pony avys and sigs, so I decided to watch the episodes just so I could see what the chatter was about. Got hooked, and haven't regretted it since. :mrgreen:

 

EN TARO CELESTIA!

[Frosty Brand 0]

Late February of '10 is when I first was made aware of it. I've been an off and on [rule1] lurker for a while, And in mid Feb decided to be on again. I really didn't know what to make of the images of colorful horses being spammed around when I saw them. After a few days I found out about the new MLP website hasbro was setting up, and lol'd at it. then I made my fatal mistake. I played that personality game. [Ended up as twilight, like a baws]. I decided what the hay, I'd watch an episode and see just what people liked about it. Next thing I know its 4 in the morning, and I'm up to about episode 8 or so realizing I need to sleep for work in the morning.

And thats the story of how Pinkie Pie got her cutie mark

[Frosty Brand 0]

Late February of '10 is when I first was made aware of it. I've been an off and on [rule1] lurker for a while, And in mid Feb decided to be on again. I really didn't know what to make of the images of colorful horses being spammed around when I saw them. After a few days I found out about the new MLP website hasbro was setting up, and lol'd at it. then I made my fatal mistake. I played that personality game. [Ended up as twilight, like a baws]. I decided what the hay, I'd watch an episode and see just what people liked about it. Next thing I know its 4 in the morning, and I'm up to about episode 8 or so realizing I need to sleep for work in the morning.

And thats the story of how Pinkie Pie got her cutie mark

[Markarian 0]

I think it was late spring of last year, when Blobbus (our Admin and my roommate) had heard of it on Metafilter and decided to marathon the show in our front room. I was skeptical until I heard it was produced by someone who had helped make PPG and Foster's Home. I came in during Rarity's "Art of the Dress" scene and was completely hooked. It was the music that initially drew me in. When I went to Mexico that summer, I took all of Ponies on my laptop and watched them in my hotel room.

[Markarian 0]

I think it was late spring of last year, when Blobbus (our Admin and my roommate) had heard of it on Metafilter and decided to marathon the show in our front room. I was skeptical until I heard it was produced by someone who had helped make PPG and Foster's Home. I came in during Rarity's "Art of the Dress" scene and was completely hooked. It was the music that initially drew me in. When I went to Mexico that summer, I took all of Ponies on my laptop and watched them in my hotel room.

[Schlagwerk 0]

Can't remember when exactly, but I was still in college so maybe April? My brother and I were hanging out, and he mentioned My Little Pony. "My Little Pony? Really?" "Yeah man, grab the download, let's watch this ish."

 

Curiosity, intrigue, obsession. You guys know how it goes.

[Schlagwerk 0]

Can't remember when exactly, but I was still in college so maybe April? My brother and I were hanging out, and he mentioned My Little Pony. "My Little Pony? Really?" "Yeah man, grab the download, let's watch this ish."

 

Curiosity, intrigue, obsession. You guys know how it goes.

[Guest]

I saw ponies slowly creep into art sites near the end of 2010, but mostly ignored it. Art journals made periodic mention of the show and sometimes linked to episodes, but I didn't really have the energy to feed my curiosity until one artist posted a journal along the lines of, "wow, so does this mean Derpy is canon now?" This was of course in reference to her first official cameo in episode 15, which was linked directly below.

 

I had to know what he was talking about, so I watched the episode. Wow. Absolutely nothing like what I expected, but I don't need to explain that side to you guys. I immediately jumped back to the pilot and watched them in order to catch myself up. One of my favourite memories was hitting episode 11 and having my mind completely blown from the nearly five minute musical number OUT OF NOWHERE.

 

So yeah, that would be Feb 11, 2011 according to the MLP wiki. Fun fact: I've been rocking Gummy as my avatar since that day, when we both entered the community.

[Bejoty 0]

I saw ponies slowly creep into art sites near the end of 2010, but mostly ignored it. Art journals made periodic mention of the show and sometimes linked to episodes, but I didn't really have the energy to feed my curiosity until one artist posted a journal along the lines of, "wow, so does this mean Derpy is canon now?" This was of course in reference to her first official cameo in episode 15, which was linked directly below.

 

I had to know what he was talking about, so I watched the episode. Wow. Absolutely nothing like what I expected, but I don't need to explain that side to you guys. I immediately jumped back to the pilot and watched them in order to catch myself up. One of my favourite memories was hitting episode 11 and having my mind completely blown from the nearly five minute musical number OUT OF NOWHERE.

 

So yeah, that would be Feb 11, 2011 according to the MLP wiki. Fun fact: I've been rocking Gummy as my avatar since that day, when we both entered the community.

[DerpyShy1386071984 0]

I, at first, was extremely puzzled as to how grown men/women could like a show called My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. I stayed in this stage of confusion for about 3 months, until my 2 of my friends at school started making pony references in our Facebook group. I asked them what was appealing about the show, and they just said "Watch it", and so I caved and watched the first episode, and was instantly hooked. I watched all of Season 1 and the two Discord episodes in a span of 2 days, and the rest is history. Plus, most of the people in our Facebook group are now bronies =D.

[S_E_F 0]

My friend came to me and said "Two of my team members are bronies and they insist we put pony related things in our mod" and I asked "what are bronies?". He then went on to describe the weird people who watch My Little Pony, and to avoid judging them I tested the first couple episodes and didn't like them at all. I later discovered that one of my friends was a brony and he insisted I watch beyond those episodes into deeper into the season. I watched most of season one by the next day and have been hooked ever since.

[Spokes 0]

I got into the show the first week of October 2011. I just kind of stumbled into it on accident, completely unaware it had already taken the internet by storm. I can't recollect the exact path I took to get there, but somehow I went from watching Bob Sinclair and Pogo music videos on Youtube to PinkiePieSwear's Flutterwonder. I LOVED IT. And the flood gates were opened. From there I found Alex S, WoodenToaster, and SimGretina. I was indifferent to the source being My Little Pony; the music was awesome and that was all I cared about.

 

But a few days later I became really sick. When I'm sick I watch what I call "comfort shows"; things like "Fly Away Home" or old Disney movies or Studio Ghibli movies. Having just engorged myself on My Little Pony-themed music, I decided I would watch some episodes. I was totally expecting it to be, y'know, exactly what the stereotype was. But I watched the entire first season in one sitting. It went from "OMG what have I done to myself" at first watching of the intro to "That was cheesy but expected for a kid's show" for the first letter to Celestia and the next jump I remember was, "Holy crap I can't get winter wrap up out of my head I'm singing it with strep throat and it hurts but I can't stop smiling MOAR EPISODES" When I got to season 2 my mind was blown a hundred times over as I, a huge fan of Star Trek The Next Generation, got to watch a reincarnation of Q actually voiced by Q.

 

And if I wasn't hooked then, a few days later SimGretina released his remix of Winter Wrap Up (I had just gotten it out of my head mere minutes before, too!) and Lesson Zero was the next episode that aired.

 

Sometimes I'm still surprised that I like this. But I think it's the combination of pretty good show every which way you look at it and HOLY CRAP AMAZING fandom using the show not only to channel their talents in various artistic mediums, but to hone them to an incredible degree and at an incredible rate.

[StarStep 42]

I got into the show when a dog and pony show aired. So late March? Anyway I was on a comic forum and someone said that the new my little pony series was really good. I was like 'ok she probably has a little bit of nostalgia, liking the first gen. Glad its not as vapid anymore as it was in later generations.' Then another poster who had turned me onto firefly and a few other good series said it was good as well and posted the starcraft 2 ponified trailer. Then I watched the pilots and figured it was decent and watched up til dragonshy which sealed my fate. Then I found the huge gathering of pony on the internet that I somehow had completely missed up til that point.

[StarStep 42]

I got into the show when a dog and pony show aired. So late March? Anyway I was on a comic forum and someone said that the new my little pony series was really good. I was like 'ok she probably has a little bit of nostalgia, liking the first gen. Glad its not as vapid anymore as it was in later generations.' Then another poster who had turned me onto firefly and a few other good series said it was good as well and posted the starcraft 2 ponified trailer. Then I watched the pilots and figured it was decent and watched up til dragonshy which sealed my fate. Then I found the huge gathering of pony on the internet that I somehow had completely missed up til that point.

[Jay6 29]

My first exposure to it was when my friend (Hax Mega) complained that My Little Ponies were everywhere, and he wanted nothing to do with it. I suggested we should watch it anyways to see what the fuss is (I knew nothing of the show), but he refused. I looked at a clip from the show, and thought "This would be something nice for my niece to watch, I guess...?" and thought nothing much else of it. A day later, Hax Mega approaches me again, and suggests that we should watch MLP:FiM. I was a bit confused, but decided to watch anyways. Since then, I guess I was a brony. This was way back in March last year. I knew nothing of the brony community or Equestria Daily until watching all the episodes.

[Jay6 29]

My first exposure to it was when my friend (Hax Mega) complained that My Little Ponies were everywhere, and he wanted nothing to do with it. I suggested we should watch it anyways to see what the fuss is (I knew nothing of the show), but he refused. I looked at a clip from the show, and thought "This would be something nice for my niece to watch, I guess...?" and thought nothing much else of it. A day later, Hax Mega approaches me again, and suggests that we should watch MLP:FiM. I was a bit confused, but decided to watch anyways. Since then, I guess I was a brony. This was way back in March last year. I knew nothing of the brony community or Equestria Daily until watching all the episodes.

[S_E_F 0]

My first exposure to it was when my friend (Hax Mega) complained that My Little Ponies were everywhere, and he wanted nothing to do with it. I suggested we should watch it anyways to see what the fuss is (I knew nothing of the show), but he refused. I looked at a clip from the show, and thought "This would be something nice for my niece to watch, I guess...?" and thought nothing much else of it. A day later, Hax Mega approaches me again, and suggests that we should watch MLP:FiM. I was a bit confused, but decided to watch anyways. Since then, I guess I was a brony. This was way back in March last year. I knew nothing of the brony community or Equestria Daily until watching all the episodes.

That's good. I hate it when people become bronies almost entirely because the community exists. While the community may be a driving force, you should also be able to like the show for what it is on its own.

[RainbowShy1386071991 0]

I'm almost ashamed to admit when I first saw the ponies, my co-worker and I made fun of them. See, I work at a children's dental office and one day in our supplies for the kids, we got some MLP: FiM stickers and we laughed at them because we had both been fans of G1 when we were kids. My co-worker dubbed them 'donies' (implying they looked like dollar store knockoffs) and we had a good laugh.

 

Fast forward a month or two and I start noticing a bunch of pony memes on the I Can Has Cheezburger site...strange, I thought, is this actually a show or something? Now their pony site is called 'My Little Brony' and I didn't know what a brony was so I looked it up and I was like "Adults watch this?" I wondered what the appeal was - I like animated shows too, but often anime or Disney movies, things like that. The animation didn't look great from the little that I had seen and so I figured it was a 2nd rate show that wouldn't last past the first season. Didn't know or realize exactly how BIG the brony community was, of course.

 

It still took a while, but around Christmas of 2011, I was bored during my week-long work staycation and after looking at the memes on Cheezburger, I said to myself: "You know, I'm going to watch an episode just to see what others see in this show...why is this so popular?" So I started at the very beginning - episode 1. The beginning of the story piqued my interest, I lost almost complete interest with the theme song (I have since made peace with the theme song, but it took a while), but I had made up my mind to watch the entire episode. Still wasn't entirely sold by the end, but I did want to see if the ponies ended up in eternal darkness or not and the plot of these episodes brought me back to G1 and some of the adventures there. So, I watched the second episode...not bad, okay, I could see a little of what people were talking about. So, I figured I'd watch a third episode that wasn't part of a 2-parter just to be well-rounded in my final opinion. Before I knew it, I had spent my entire week off of work watching ponies...I was humming the songs, checking out Target's toy section to see what they had, and confiding to two of my best friends that I was into it and suggested they watch the show (they are now bronies).

 

I wasn't sold on the animation at all - that took a while. There were times I'd look at it and think "that's supposed to be a pony?" However, I was comparing it to G1 and that was wrong because while FiM has roots in G1, they are different generations and really different shows. But once I realized Lauren Faust was the mastermind behind it (and being a fan of the Powerpuff Girls), the animation style then made sense. Now I think the ponies are absolutely adorable.

 

So here I am roughly six months later with pony toys on my shelf and ponies on the desktop and a Derpy poster on the wall, pony shirts, Derpy keychain...and a ticket to Everfree NW.

 

Brony and PROUD!!