Just out of curiosity, how did everyone else get into this show?

The story of how I joined the fandom is an epic spanning three years. I'll spare the details.

I was first introduced to it in 2012 by some of my friends watching pony.mov in my company.

Being as sensitive as I was, I thought it seemed absolutely horrible, and it endowed me with a hatred for MLP and bronies.

My friends made fun of me for it, thinking I was just joking. I didn't like that, they apologized when they found out, and all was well.

Later in 2012, my dad died, which made my negative emotions in general stronger.

My hate for MLP peaked in 2013. At that point, I had a revolsion to anything equestrian, MLP or not.

In late 2014, I started reading YouTube flamewars on bronies for fun, which is pretty stupid.

I also started getting interested in autistic advocacy around that time, which was related to me starting at a new school.

In early 2015, I read one particular flamewar comment that mentioned bronies being called "autistic" as an insult. It was at that point that I realized I was in the wrong, so I started being tolerant for once.

I started making friends with more autists, no longer avoiding autistic bronies.

Gradually, I started taking an interest in the brony fandom and lore of MLP. This was partly so that I could better understand, empathize, and communicate with my brony friends, but also because it just seemed like a nice and friendly place.

By July, my social media feed had become filled with MLP stuff. I even "declared" myself a brony. It wasn't until August that I'd actually start watching MLP, though. I figured it was necessary to see things in context if I were to really be a brony.

The first episode I ever watched was "Return of Harmony, Part 1", because some dingus said I should start with S2 instead of S1. Regardless, I loved it from the very first second, and blazed through the first half of season 2 in one day.

And the rest is history.

/r/mylittlepony Thread