How did you become a brony?

@Background Pony #8C67
It wasn’t about seriousness. It was about that I was physically 14 and mentally 9. I believed in justice and friendship despite being a guy with clinical depression and being neglected by society. It is fricked up and it was so long ago.

I heard a reading of ‘Cupcakes’ back in 2012. Piqued my interest enough for me to look into the show.

Someone posted a screencap of Equestria Girls back in 2017 on a meme site I think. Got interested and curious cause I know the girls must have some connections with the ponies (I’m not really interested with the FiM stuff). Decided to search and give it a shot…and now here I am.

Did myself a dare to watch girls’ cartoon. Oh… i do regret this 7 years later.

I became a brony by complete accident. I was bored out of my mind and wanted to join a fandom aside from the Pokemon community and Metroid fandom. I then heard about this show called DEATH BATTLE! that paired different types of characters together and have them duel each other to the death with amazing animation and voice acting as well as amazing research as to what the characters are truly capable of. Thanks to the episode Starscream Vs. Rainbow Dash, I then delved into the fandom and the show after that. I became hooked immediately with Doctor Whooves & Assistant, Double Rainbow, Snowdrop, Don’t Mine At Night, MLP reviews and so much more in the early days.

I watched the show in February of 2023 because of a friend recommendation, and I actually really like it! I don’t know if I’m consider a brony yet but it’s been a pretty welcoming community so far :)

It was 2012. I was scrolling my steam friend list and I noticed how everyone had avatar with saluting Rainbow Dash on various flags. Than I knew I must watch it)

I was an antibrony.

I hated my little pony. But then I ranout of insults to hurl at the bronies I knew, which was someonenin my online gaming clan and my boyfriend (it was good spirited but still) they kept saying try it, try it, i bet you’ll like it. I finally relented. Admitted the first two episodes were good, likes 3, but then cam ethe griffon brush off. Oh man, by then I was in love with Rainbow Dash (who I felt was a boy) and I just could not get over the fact I loved her alone and was keeping it secret. Then seeing her stand up to gilda? How she talked to her? The points she made about how “she should go find some other cool friends to hang out with” it shattered my armor and my ability to be this edgy punk hateful person and “cool hateful i am so uppity and false self righteous”.

I juat broke down sobbing, and I turned my back on the hate my family had beaten (often literally) into me since I was 3 uears old. It has been a long road to recovery, but without that I never would have stopped the brainwashing i was being given. This rainbow pony reduced me to tears, and now I was, somehow, free.

I have been a brony ever since the first season when I saw it, and I qork hard to not fsll for the gaslighting of my hateful, abusive family.

Faster than a speeding bullet, atronger than a jet engine, love for Rainbow Dash and MLP hit me so square hard that I relented, I felt light I had been being forced to murder in my chest by abuaive people shine again, and I really do owe it to the show.

@Arc of Love
I could relate.

I first caught a little bit of the end of Boast Busters while procrastinating back in 2010, and I remember thinking “Aww, good for them.”

I didn’t give Friendship is Magic a serious try until I watched Kroboproductions’ YTPs of the show, and saw the comments giving genuine recommendations for the show. I watched Bridle Gossip first, and it’s a fairly fitting episode to start with. Still one of my favorites, too.

I went all-in on watching the show in the Summer of 2011, when I got injured and desperately needed something to take my mind off it and make me less depressed. Pretty good timing, considering the Season 2 premiere happened right after I finished catching up with Season 1 on YouTube.

TL;DR: Got curious about whether I’d like the show after considering buying season 1 of FiM on DVD for my younger step-sister for Christmas. Watched the first two episodes which spiraled into me finishing the first season.

It’s hard for me to remember but I think it was a forum post on Taringa! back in 2010-2011 talking about how the new My Little Pony series was gaining a following of male and adult fans due to how surprisingly good it was. I was hard to believe for the 13-14 year old me so I had to see it for myself.

I liked the first couple of episodes, much more than I ever expected to. But it wasn’t until Winter Wrap Up that I truly fell in love with the show. And the rest is history, I immersed myself completely with the show, watching music videos, episode reviews, theories, reading fanfiction, looking for fanart, playing fangames. I think it’s the fandom I’ve been into the most, only the Nasuverse fandom compares to it in terms of personal involvement.

I had a friend in college who had MLP pixel ponies that went on his screen. I teased him about having them and he was just like. “Eh, it’s a good show.”. Then my curiosity about this one statement got me to watch one episode on tv. Then I was like: “I barely understand this. I should watch the first episode.” Then I saw it and was like: “Dang. Two-parter. I guess I gotta continue.” Then after that I was like “Huh, what is the rest of the show gonna be like?”. I binged the whole show in a night. I still call that friend ‘Patient 0’.

Not really a brony anymore but I became a brony in the very beginning, around 2010. Just heard about it and decided to watch it. Not sure what specifically drew me into it, it just made me happy for some reason.

Mine isn’t really original. Although I did watch a bit of G3 as a kid.
I borrowed my mother’s abusive ex-bf’s Toshiba tablet frequently to watch YT videos before I got my own Kindle Fire the next year. (This was back in 2012 FYI)
I watched a few clips of the show when it was in its 2nd season including the S2 finale. I didn’t think much of it until I watched it on Netflix and my life was forever changed ruined.

I knew of mlp and bronies, but avoided it myself. Then, sometime during season 2, while searching YT for a “base defense cannon” clip from an old pc game, i discovered the (didn’t know at the time) fan-made clip of Vinyl Scratch shooting Discord with her base cannon. It made me laugh, and i’ll try any show that makes me laugh. And the rest is history…

I started listening to YT vids about bronies and the fandom, laughed at the idea of grown men liking MLP. At work I have a lot of free time so decided to watch FIM and see what all the hype is about, I ended up enjoying it. I now laugh with bronies and occasionally chuckle at myself for enjoying FIM.

The fandom amazes me; with their creativity, their dedication to their work and that people are still active in the fandom after 10+ years.

As a newcomer to the fandom (December 2023) I expected it to be dead fanbase; how wrong I was.

@midob
Welcome to Derpibooru! And to the fandom!

I saw reference to “bronies” on the bulletin board for an old webcomic and looked it up. The Know Your Meme page had a YouTube link to the first episode, and I watched it and was hooked.

@midob
It’s still alive don’t get me wrong, but it’s as alive as an undead zombie - let’s put it that way.

Half of the bronies that kept the fandom alive (Duo Cartoonist, Project Interlude, Alex S., TheoryBrony, PonyToast, Gina M., etc.) either don’t exist anymore or have quit/left the fandom or moved on.

Some are actually dead (R.I.P. Michael Morones 😞) whilst some are forgotten and were never seen or heard from again. (Jennabun, Pink Mist, Texierax, Sonadox, Sodiav, Byter, etc.)