How'd You Become A Brony?

[ChromaticChaosPony]

A friend of mine told me to read Cupcakes since I was into extreme metal (ie. Cerebral Bore, Cattle Decapitation, and Cannibal Corpse). (By the way, I perfer progressive metal and always have).

I read Cupcakes on Creepypasta and subsequently watched Party of One. Before I knew it, I had read every grimdark fanfiction and watched every episode of season 1 (I became a brony 2 episodes into season 2).

As for Brony music, I just found it by looking into every single section of the My Little Pony fandom. The only Brony thing I don't partake in are conventions and meetups since there are no Bronies or metalheads within 50 miles of my house.

[K3WRO]

Nico Nico Douga

[inkBot]

Not sure exactly where I saw it first but there was a noticeable increase in pony related avatars popping up on some sites I frequent. Didn't think much of it. Later one of my friends was watching the show, not too long after I decided to give it a shot. Not a very interesting story, but it's how it went.

Though it's only lately I've taken the term brony to heart and identify as one.

[LunchBagMusic]

I was over at my friends house, and we were playing video games.

Then, without warning, he jumps up and starts screaming my name and telling me to watch this. When he put it on I was all:

"What. the. fresh. hell?"
The rest, as they say, is history.

[CommandSpry]

FOX News

[SeventhElement]

FOX News

Oh dear, I'm so sorry.

[Pashoo]

Well, first I found images of ponies popping up all over the internet, and I'm proud to say my initial reaction was not "Fuck, what?" My initial reaction was more of just, "Oh, that's adorable, but I guess that's what people are into, nowadays."

It was around June when my older brother actually started watching the series. Since our computers are next to each other, I'd just glance over and think, "This is where My Little Pony is, nowadays? That's adorable." I was never into My Little Pony, in the past, if anything, I found it kind of gross, since I had grown up while G3 and G3.5 were still alive. I didn't have any reason to hate this reboot, though; I could already see that G4 had a better art style, better animation, and developed characters.

Eventually, he'd gone through all of season one before he talking to me about the show. loljk watched the whole series right next to him. And then we were bronies.

Oh, and Moonbase Alpha.
Aeiou

[Ed Viper]

Actually, like many people, I had started seeing the pictures getting put up on 4chan a little while ago. At first I was like, "Oh, it's a joke, right?". Honestly, since no one ever actually mentioned "My Little Pony" in all the threads I looked at, I never made the connection. I grew up when G3 and 3.5 were going on, so the rather different art style threw me for a loop.

Well, my brother knew, and for some reason he said "Hey, let's watch My Little Pony LOL" Like a joke kind of thing. I was just like "lol, ok" and we watched The Cutie Mark Chronicles because it was on our DVR. I wasn't hooked then, I figured "eh, whatever," but it was that episode that hooked my brother. About a week later, he started telling me to watch more episodes, and it took a bit of convincing, but eventually I sat down and watched the first few episodes of season 1 and before I knew it I had watched all the way up to Lesson Zero (which was the most recent episode at the time). I've been hooked ever since.

[NytMayr]

Well, I was (still am, actually) a moderator over at a Pokemon forum, and quite a few of my coworkers over there were fairly big bronies themselves. The funny part is, I absolutely loathed the show back then. I could not for the life of me understand how it was so popular, and generally made an effort to stay as far away from it as possible.

However, I ended up finding myself becoming somewhat attached to the show nonetheless. Whether it was out of a plan to try and figure out what was so good about it, or maybe just some subconscious decision on the part of my brain, I found myself looking into various bits and pieces of the show. Of course, I still never watched the thing, but I ended up learning quite a bit about it.

Then came the single thing that was probably the biggest influence in me becoming a brony. A particular piece of fiction that has achieved an unparalleled state of infamy within the community, and my first exposure to MLP fanfiction.

That story's name? Cupcakes.

That's right, Cupcakes was probably the biggest contributor towards me becoming a brony. Now, before you start yelling at me, understand that I had been writing a good deal of horror before then, and I found the story somewhat enjoyable. And, to this day, I still think it's a good story. Not the best story, mind you, but still a good one. I understand that the story is a touchy subject in most instances, but that's what happened and those are my thoughts.

Eventually, due to constant pestering by the aforementioned coworkers, I eventually cracked and watched the first episode...and loved it. I walked into it with a clear conscious, and walked out feeling blown away. I began questioning how I hadn't found out about this a while ago. (Mind, this was about early-mid Season 2.)

And I have never regretted my decisions since.

[Ed Viper]

Haha, I don't see why "Cupcakes" is such a touchy subject. Yeah sure, it's terribly gruesome and horrifying what happens, really, but I think it's a good story.

Plus, who doesn't love Sweeney Todd?

[Ed Viper]

I've never seen sweeney todd. I need to get out more often.

Regardless, you know the basic idea of the story, right?

Barber brings people into his shop, kills them, then gives the body parts to his wife who owns a bakery next door and she bakes the pieces into pies and sells them.

Same idea with "Cupcakes", only... Cupcakes.

[Matthew N.]

It was pretty simple for me.

.mov videos made me wonder what were the background references. Then I watched the first episode of MLP, fell in love with Fluttershy's adorableness, and... eeyup.

[Magnitude Zero]

I never really experienced that initial "dafuq is this" reaction. Saw a few pony avatars on various forums, and when I found out their origin I just assumed everyone liked the show ironically. Then a friend of mine started watching and talking about it. At that point I believe the worst I did was give him a hard time about it just for the sake of giving him a hard time (friendship!), but I figured I might as well look into it. And I did. Stumbled upon the KnowYourMeme page for RD's "so awesome" face, watched the part of Applebuck Season to see where it came from, and ended up not stopping. It was never really a conscious decision; I watched the whole episode, enjoyed it immensely, then proceeded to watch the entire first season.

[MixolydianPony]

Saw stuff on the Minecraft forums. Looked up a random episode (13, Fall Weather Friends.) You can guess the rest.

[ph00tbag]

Similar story to most bronies. A forum I frequent had occasional pony raids on the various boards. One particular thread that stands out was titled "[respected forum member] is watching My Little Pony on our 65" HDTV" with the subtitle, "what the hell am I watching?" At the time, I simply thought it was a pro level troll, in that either this one forum member was being trolled, or doing the trolling. But I later started to see various pony memes crop up, and some of them were genuinely funny to me.

Eventually, idle clicking on one forum member's sig brought me to that forum's pony thread. I read the OP, which was incredibly informative, and very reasonable, given how overbearing some bronies can be. It linked the OG xMasterlinkx episode uploads (Masterlink is actually a frequent poster on these boards, so it was a bit of a plug for a friend, too), as well as EQD. I started watching, figuring why the hell not? It's not like it could be that bad.

I remember being somewhat intrigued by the overview in the first minute, but having to skip the intro the first few episodes, because of how saccharine it is. It's kind of funny to me how now I'll usually hum or sing along whenever the intro drops. I'd say that I wasn't really sure I liked the show until Ticket Master. The pilot certainly grabbed my interest, but I think the pacing of it kind of threw me. I've always felt that the writers for this show could easily put together a feature length film for this IP easily, because all of their two parters always seem to be rushed, like the writers are just chomping at the bit (pun intended) to write more stuff. So the pilot, while good, didn't convince me. But once the characters were all introduced to me, the sitcom feel of the show, and the endearing interactions were just so uplifting. I was hooked, and couldn't stop watching. I was caught up that same evening.

Afterward, browsing EQD brought me into awareness of the sheer volume of content that flows out of the brony community at an astounding and alarming rate. The fact that I could never really want for ponies just made it that much easier to bathe in it. I dunno... sometimes I wonder if it's damaging me. Part of my brain tells me that something that makes me this happy can't be good for me. But I have a job, and I'm doing reasonably well at it, so it can't be that bad.

[Maelstrom]

I became a brony directly through music. I was listening to some music on youtube, and on the suggested videos, nothing looked remotely interesting or good, so I chose the one which looked best.

That song was Alex S.'s Party with Pinkie.

I really liked the song, and didn't realize that the song really had to do with MLP. Eventually I figured it out, and became curious.

And we all know what happens when people become curious with MLPFiM...

And that's how Equestria was made!

[Ed Viper]

I became a brony directly through music. I was listening to some music on youtube, and on the suggested videos, nothing looked remotely interesting or good, so I chose the one which looked best.

That song was Alex S.'s Party with Pinkie.

I really liked the song, and didn't realize that the song really had to do with MLP. Eventually I figured it out, and became curious.

And we all know what happens when people become curious with MLPFiM...

And that's how Equestria was made!

Haha that's awesome! A really good way to get into the show, in my opinion *squee*

A bit more manageable than this guy:

[TheLonging]

A friend on IRC told me about it last year in March. I didn't bother watching it until April, and finished it shortly after the season 1 premiere, but I loved it. Started lurking around Ponychan quite a bit.

What really sold me to stay in the fandom was PONIES: Anthology. A class-A video.

[wu long cha]

i became a brony by accident.

when i first started seeing mlp around the chans I thought "ugh stupid furry stuff urgh" and went about my daily life. then last year one of my friends became a super-huge brony. finally during the summer i figured "ah what the heck, i might as watch the first few episodes and see why people like it so much."
so i watched it. i liked it. a lot.
funny part is, after summer break, a lot of my other friends finally gave in and joined the herd. then more kids at my school started watching. so now there's this pretty sizable brony community at my school. nobody really gives us trouble for it, either, which is pretty cool.

[Jimmy]

Saw a bunch of off-topic pony-related posts popping up here and there on a Doom-related forum. (Doom is, of course, a game with precisely 0% pony.)

Looked it up on Wikipedia and confirmed that it was a thing.

Watched nine episodes in a single day.

Became brony.

...This is about a year ago. It was July 3rd that I and my brother were inducted converted brainwashed introduced.

[Cherax]

My sisters - both older than me - found out about the show through the AV Club, which ran an article along the lines of "what the heck, why is this show so damn good?" in April last year. They checked it out and decided it was the cutest thing in the world, watched all the aired episodes at an alarming rate, and passed word on to me. I was a little skeptical - not because it was a kids' show, because I'm an avid fan of Cartoon Network (old and new), but because it was a kids' show aimed at five-year-old girls. I just didn't think it would make the cut.

As has happened to others ITT, the pilot episodes didn't sell me overall, but as someone with an appreciation for animation and art design (though a surprising lack of ability in both regards), I was floored by just how amazing the show looked. That, and my sisters' encouragement, kept me watching, and after just a few more episodes, I was in.

(I'm not sure how exactly I found EQD after that, but it's a pretty logical step.)

[DijiTwitch]

Was playing Minecraft online with some friends when a random brony hits up our server and jumps on mumble with us. Pretty cool guy, but I never got his name. At any rate, he tells us to listen to some music by PinkiePieSwear. I had no idea who Pinkie Pie was at the time, so I just went with it and found Trixie's Good Side and immediately fell in love with ever vocal splice remix I could find. Then expanded into vocal originals, instrumentals and all that good stuff. At least 200 songs and about five fan-fics later I decide to actually watch the show.

[Raddons]

I wish I had an interesting story.

Back that fateful summer of 2010, I had a friend (still do, just got back in touch) who used to frequent /co/. Well... you know what happens next. He had a pony for his profile picture on Facebook, and I said to him: "what the hell is that?". He explained to me the Brony thing and I didn't get it. I hated it for a week or so just to hate it. Then I watched an episode after talking to him about it. I didn't even watch it the whole way through. I was impressed at the quality, but I couldn't bring myself to do it.

Come mid 2011, I literally had an urge to get into ponies. I have no clue how it started, but it did. First I would watch episodes just to piss other people off in my house, but I only did that about once. Then I started watching them in my room alone. I caught up to whatever point the show was on in a week. The first episodes I saw before I started hitting them in chronological order were "Green Isn't Your Color" and "Lesson Zero", which in my opinion are bad first episodes to watch, but I digress.

So, yeah. Here I am today breaking the bank on pony toys and making pony music while I tally the days on my bedroom wall next to my bed until new episodes begin.

[SpyPie]

The way I became a brony was a short story.

At first I thought it was a Fad on a Website I am on, I thought it was something so terrible that people were liking it. I was fooled. This thought only lasted a few minutes. I became a Brony inspired by the pieces of work that were done, that I thought were just pictures. Before even watching almost all the episodes.
I am a loyal Brony now, and intend on staying that way. I have converted a reasonable group of friends to the Fandom. As well

[Nikki-Layne]

What's that? No one cares how I got into MLP? GREAT! I'll tell you all, then!

Late last summer, a stoner buddy of mine mentioned this cartoon he'd just discovered; a revamp of My Little Pony. He went on about how good and entertaining it was, and I was intrigued, albeit confused. My immediate response was; "Yeah, you were probably just stoned off your ass, watching cartoons made for little girls, weren't you... Count me in!" So, we both blazed up, sat down, and watched the first four episodes, non-stop. And the rest, my friends, is history.