Your introduction into the awesomeness of poni

This forum is rather inactive
As I would rather trade vital organs than miss out on even ONE SECOND of this con (I've got the days marked to be off work eight months in advance!) I would hope that many more people start flooding into these forums soon... and that the con is packed to the gills with excited poni fans and attendees. If you guys cancel the con I promise I shall torch things and generally be all riot-y up in this here. FIRE I SAY.

SO LET US DISCUSS THINGS!

How long have you been in the fandom? Or for those who simply love the show and ignore the fandom, when did you first declare your allegiance to this show?

I joined on May 26, 2011, only a few weeks after S1. I was aware of FiM through /co/ and deviantART ever since the fandom began in late 2010, but despite my love for such similar things (my interests have always been far more feminine than my gender would suggest to most) I didn't figure it was something that I would be interested in enough to use the valuable bandwidth at home to download the episodes. But whilst obsessively tracking severe storms on May 25 2011, as is my forte, during a moment in which the weather was quiet and the house was to myself, boredom and curiosity got the best of me, and I snagged the first two episodes off Youtube; I have no idea why on earth I did eventually decide to watch them, but perhaps a little voice in the back of my head was prodding me to do it. We may never know. That night I watched them. "It was under e-e-e-e-e-e-eeeee!" was the line that got me, after being pretty neutral to the first half of the intro arc. By the end of the intro arc, E2, I was thinking how awesome it was. And, as they say, the rest is history - for I had watched every episode and become head-over-heels obsessed less than 72 hours later.

YOUR TURN.

I stumbled across a clip from Bridle Gossip of Fluttershy singing Pinkie's song and thought it was hilarious that they gave the most soft-spoken pony a deep, man's singing voice. So I decided what the hell and started watching the series from the beginning. I was disappointed that that wasn't Fluttershy's full-time singing voice, but kept watching anyway all the way up to.. I think.. Suited For Success? Fall Weather Friends? I don't remember.. somewhere in there... And then I had to WAIT for new episodes to be released.

That was when my downward spiral began.

Two years later I'm helping put on a brony convention and writing bad pony fanfiction on the side.

While I was in Atlanta, interning at Cartoon Network, often times I didn't have a lot to do so I would look around on failblog and memebase. This was around February of 2011. I kept on seeing things on memebase about it and got curious so I checked out an episode. The first one I watched was the "Over a Barrel" episode. I watched a couple more and was hooked! I followed it ever since

I started watching because my little brother kept nagging me to watch mrninjapony's censored version. After laughing so hard that I fell out of my chair, I decided that I wanted to know what was really going on in the show. I watched the first three episodes on December 27th of last year and I haven't stopped since.

I got into the fandom in January 2011. I don't believe I actually started watching the show until February though, probably the day after The Packers won the Super Bowl if my memory serves me right at all. Admittedly, I found it on /b/ when /sp/ was having a slow day. I was very impressed by a flood of original content that was able to make me laugh harder than I had for the prior year. And then I found it ironically hilarious that so much of /b/ hated the pony threads despite the fact it was new original content, which /b/ always complains about an overwhelming lack thereof. Within a few days of Ponychan being created (Feb. 8, 2011), I immediately switched from 4chan to there and have remained ever since. I was reluctant to watch the show at first, but I was really impressed by the kind of community that it was inspiring. I never did believe this fandom ever held the values of love and tolerance close, I mean I still remember how furries were considered "kill on site" in the early days of Ponychan (not by the staff, but just the users who first were posting there). However, they definitely were a fandom forming around the lessons the show teaches on friendship and, for the most part, positivity. The fandom still had quite a bit of an edge at the time, but I liked that about it. Every pony's hides seemed much thicker back then. Anyways, I'm getting off topic here.

So at last I caved in and started watching My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic once I no longer was following my favorite football team as they had just won the Super Bowl. The show didn't come off as majorly impressive me at first. I mean I enjoyed it, but I was still kind of in a surreal state of disbelief. I mean...I grew up with two older sisters. My Little Pony toys were the bane of my existence. Not to mention I played just about all sports growing up and was on my school's football team back in the day. However, I couldn't stop watching it. And yeah, the rest is history. Now I'm staffing two pony conventions, am a part of the documentary, admining Ponychan's IRC channel on Canternet, helping arrange a local meetup and assisting with the Bronies for Good. It's pretty much all pony for me. I love what this fandom has done and is continuing to do through its charitable contributions, acts of kindness to one another and the creativity they encourage and produce. I guess I just don't want to see it die at all, so I try to help out with it anywhere I can.

started watching somewhere in november 2011. been watching ever since. all of my friends and parents think i'm weird or a pedo. i dont really care, cause they just assume what is is based on the title alone without even looking at a single frame.

For me... I think for some reason I've always had some slight sort of interest in them, but I never got around to watching them, somehow. It wasn't until my friend finally just gave me the entirety of season 1 on my harddrive that I decided to watch them. Being a lover of music, the opening sequence already reeled me in, but after watching the first two episodes, I can easily say it just took me over by storm. This was all after season 1 had ended and we were all waiting for season 2 to start. I have to say I have yet to be disappointed by anything I have watched with regards to the show.

One of my more immature and quite strange friends from Xbox LIVE insisted that I watch My Little Pony. Even going so far as to pay me in Microsoft Points to do so. Of course, I thought that A) no matter how weird he was it was doubtful he enjoyed such a show, and B) There was no way I was going to let him make me watch a little girls cartoon. But eventually he short-linked me to a Pony R34 site, needless to say I was disgusted. But that was my first clue that more people liked MLP than just him. I thought, 'If enough people like it that that much... stuff... could come out of it, maybe there was merit to the show after all. And maybe if I got to know the characters better the... stuff... might make sense.' So after months of fighting it I sat down and watched the show on YouTube. During the entire opening sequence I cringed. But after finishing the S1 opener I found I liked the characters a whole hell of a lot. I found myself laughing at some of the jokes despite my best efforts not to. And I found that R34 of it somehow managed to become even MORE vile. Within a day I had finished the first season and was quietly looking forward to the next. I didn't become an avid brony until after Season 2 when I discovered FiMFiction.net. Now I'm obsessed to the point where I think it might be affecting my mental health

Soulless DCLXVI wrote:

Now I'm obsessed to the point where I think it might be affecting my mental health

Positively affecting it, I'm sure!

So, introducing myself, my name is Amanda 'A.J.', (aka Lady Megatron or Meg around the comic con, Botcon and multigenre conventions.) Howdy ya'll! Revealing my age a bit here, but I'm an original fan, from back in the 80's. My favorite even back then was Applejack and I still have my pony toys from when I was just a little girl. But I admit I got out of it and if not for my buddies at college, in our Sci-Fy Fantasy guild group, after I went back to school this past year, I'd not have been into it now. I sat down one day between classes at a table where some of us would gather to sit and talk, and I was met with several of them pointing at me and screaming, "YOU'RE APPLEJACK!". I of course went, HUH? and was shown what they meant and once explained, yeah, I'm soooo just like Applejack. I started at season 1 episode 1, and was after not even halfway through, hooked. I was instantly drawn to Applejack as soon as she met Twilight with her typical 'Yeehaw!' and shaking her death with her overly enthusiastic handshake introduction. It was love all over again. I am so addicted now, and such an AJ fan, that the guild at school has even re-nicknamed me AJ, and I've done a humanized costume of Applejack, complete with custom belt buckle and even her Honesty Element of Harmony necklace, and 3 apple earrings. I even made a Smarty Pants and carried her around. I think Smarty Pants got more Brony love than the costume did!

So I've only been into pones since December 8th. My introduction was when my girlfriend and good friend went out looking for blind bag ponies because we had nothing better to do at 2am. It was utterly amusing and after that I started to draw ponies, watch ponies.. the works.. I've nearly memorized every voice actor that did an MLP voice, including the additional ones. That is sad. I've not done that since Powerpuff Girls. ^^;

...^^; I liked the Gen 2 show.

Starlight Ironhoof was it for me. I got an IM from him around the time he started watching the show talking about ponies. I totally had the on my face but when he told me that Faust (he had to link her to PPG for me) was involved, I was intrigued. I loved PPG, and decided to give it a chance.

The show was good, and it made me want more, but what got me more than anything was the youtube comments. I literally LOL'd at people taking the show so seriously, debating on the ponies, discussing the show in the replies, and so forth. So, for a while, I watched the episode and then read the youtube comments. Within a week, I was caught up and watched Over a Barrel hours after it aired. Yeah, I had a gap...and Starlight gave me a cure - Ponychan.

That's where I saw the love on the Bronies. The amount of love they gave to strangers, the love to everyone, the concern for everyone was mesmerizing. There were times I shed tears over the love that these bronies had for each other. Though I rarely posted on there, I kept an iron fist on that place, and it made me so happy to be one of them.

I almost felt at home. I've never seen a fandom show so much love and care for complete strangers, and the stories of the show keeping people from suicide was enough to convince me that this was the right thing and people were not BSing it.

It was only a matter of time before I fell in love with the show's memes, the themes, got the clothing, and was OK with labeling myself as a Brony. Sure, I got flack around my local town by people who just didn't understand, but I didn't care. It felt right to me. And I felt like I had a venting place online with people who cared, and could teach and educate me. I still carry that to this day, and the fandom has helped me cure some of my own fears.

This show just feels right for me. This movement feels right. This CON feels right.

Well... I came from the bowels of the internet - 4chan. Saw that jimmies were rustled to an intensity I haven't seen before, so I figure I'd see what the big deal was about. I mean, between my brightly painted fingernails (never a matching color!) and my hot pink I Love Lucy shirt... I didn't really think this was going to hurt my image any. Besides, who are my friends to judge? They're all weirdos.

Started from episode one and instantly fell in love with the series. The community surrounding it has just driven me past the point of salvation. Shiva save me, I was reading fanfic for the first time and amassing music and fanart like it was valuable contraband. Can't even internet (that's a verb, you know) without trace amounts of pony leaking in from SOME angle. Since then I think either I or fate has gotten most the people I know into the show. Not enough social, local poners in this city, but at least I got friends to geek-out with. Good stuff.

This whole fandom just feels like one, big spiritual hug. Granted, we're not given sweet Nikes or bunk beds in a San Diego mansion, but the obsession is strong enough that I'll gladly go for seconds on this community's Kool-aid.

I collected the toys as a kid in the 90s (collected isn't the right word, really). I watched the shows alongside Care Bears and She-Ra and such! But it wasn't until shortly after the G4 S1 started that an internet pal informed me of the show! I watched a random episode on YouTube and was hooked! Still love it!

I found ponies during a rather dark period of my life. Depressed, full of anger, and losing interest in most things I used to enjoy. I had failed out of my college classes and lost my largest scholarship which ensure that I wouldn't be able to go back and I only landed a job because my mother was friends with the boss. One day while particularly angry I was derping around on newgrounds when I happened across a flash video with a rather creepy smile. Intrigued, I clicked and saw what was an animated representation of Sgt. Sprinkles "Cupcakes". Shock factor lead me into going to YouTube to see how this correlated to the show it was based upon. Surely there wouldn't be anything that dark in a children's cartoon aiming towards such a young demographic?

It was there on YouTube that I saw a short clip that depicted . I couldn't help but laugh and, after learning that FHfIF creator Lauren Faust and voice actress Tara Strong had a hand in creating FiM, I decided to give the show a fair chance. First two episodes were ok. Didn't care for it much till episode three and even then wasn't entirely engrossed with it. It was just a cartoon that stood out from what I'd seen recently that reminded me of the quality cartoons I had grown up with back in the 90s.

Episode begot episode and smile begot smile. I found myself watching episodes in sequence all night long when I got back home from work in the early evening. For one of the first times in a long time I had felt a kind of lightheartedness and joy that I hadn't felt since...well...ever! I was in love with this show! I loved the stories! I loved the ponies!

When I hit the end of season one, I found myself ecstatic and couldn't wait for the second season. This was when I got into the actual fandom of the show. Music, art, videos, mash-up, original characters, stories...it was all a lot to take in but I needed something to help fill in the time before Saturday rolled around. I remember following Max Gilardi's Jappleack Tumblr blog from day one and seeing how it culminated into the crude, vulgar, yet hilarious PONY.MOV series. However, it was here that I saw that not everything was sunshine and rainbooms. I found all kinds of comments talking about hate for bronies and anti-brony videos. Their anger was irrational to me and their hatred for us seemed completely unjustified. Seeing all of this brought my blood to a boil and I was ready to post the same hate right back at them, but then I remembered the lesson to be learned from the entire show: "Love and tolerate." I still try to adhere to the doctrine and at times it's difficult but I manage. I'm proud to call myself brony.

And now we have this con. Finally a convention close to home! I've wanted to attend a brony con ever since I heard of the first one that happened back in New York but time and money were major constraints. This is my chance to finally get out here and meet with my brethren bronies and witness all the fun first hand. I'll even have a chance to see Gilardi himself! And the Mentally Advanced Series crew! I CANNOT WAIT! >w<

I started with pony memes on the cheezburger network and thought they where pretty funny, so i then checked out the show but by then season 2 was close to ending. Brought it home for my daughter to watch and she fell in love with it. It gives us some common ground and something to look forward too. Trying to talk to a 4 year old is hard but with ponies its easy. She really looking forward to coming to this con, be on the look out for Discord and Trixie!!!

the Awesomeness of Ponies.. well I got my start when a friend of mine introduced me to MLP:FiM on youtube.. I saw the first two episodes and I admittedly was hooked, I watched them all on youtube since I don't have the Hub network on my cable package.