How did you become a brony?

[Chack]

I'd already given my story a while back, so I'll tell you the tale how I turned my brother to a brony.

During my early brony days (Fall 2011 is where it started), I hated the fact that I liked the show so much. "No one will ever know!" I said to myself often. Unfortunately, it got increasingly more difficult to hide my pony love as time went on. I have 2 younger brothers, you see. The middle child hates everything and thinks that everything I or anyone else does is stupid and annoying. He's been angsty since 2nd grade, and I knew that if he found out, I would never live it down. The youngest one, however, is stubborn as a mule, but he respects me more than the middle. I thought, "Maybe, I could convert him!" and I devised a plan. An awful plan. I had a wonderful, awful plan.

I decided to act as a hater for the time. I would mention how I "found out about bronies" and said it was a stupid thing to exist (I know it was horrible for me to say that, but I wanted to be convincing). Sometime in January 2012, when me and the youngest were home alone, I got him to watch some videos with me. I came to some videos where there was pony stuff in the suggested videos, and I "complained about it being shoved in my face" Totally convincing. So we searched videos of people destroying pony toys and other merch. I tried my best to hold back the tears of sorrow, and instead replaced it with evil cackling. My brother joined in on this. We eventually got to the point where we were watching short clips of the actual show. I commented on how good the animation was, faking the belief that they were fan videos, but almost sure it was actually part of the show. I showed him the clip of Rainbow Dash's Atomic Sonic Rainboom, and "admitted" that it looked pretty awesome. Then it was time to put my plan into action. I told my brother that, "If there's a clip from the show of one of these ponies actually snaps a neck, I'd watch an episode". Everyone knows, of course, the moment Fluttershy snaps the bear's neck, yes? I did a vague search for it, found it, and watched it with feigned awe. "Oh... I have to watch it now..." I said in "dismay". My brother was laughing. I shot an angry look at him and then pleaded, "PLEASE, watch it with me! I can't do it by myself!" He agreed rather quickly, surprisingly. If I didn't know my brother, I wouldn't have thought that might've worked so easily. So we watched the first episode; a cliffhanger, if you recall. Then I said, "That's it, no more!" shutting my laptop and asking my brother that we should never speak of this again.

But I knew my brother well. A cliffhanger is too deviously clever to leave unresolved. I knew that eventually his curiousity would consume and overthrow him. I giggled evily as my plan was in full swing. (Wow, I am a psychopath.) Two weeks passed. I went to my brother while we were at Quiznos and whispered to him, "Hey, you know that My Little Pony thing? I kinda wanted to know how it turned out," and he admitted that he too wondered what happened next. At that point, I knew I had him in mine and the fandom's grasp. We agreed that we should at least finish that two-parter. The two of us waited until we were home alone again (which didn't happen for a while, and I assumed that his curiousity burned even further). Then we watched it. I admitted it was pretty good, and so did he.

So the two of us watched more episodes together. Unfortunately, he barely started Season two when he was caught by my other brother. After he was harshly ridiculed, he just plain stopped watching MLP. He never wanted to see another episode because my sociopath brother told all of his "friends" about it (I put "friends" in quotations because he sure doesn't act like one to them). I felt guilty and responsible for this. He never deserved that sort of humiliation. So that was the end of that.
Or so I thought.

Eventually, the middle child discovered that I was a brony. He didn't say anything for a while, because by that time I had a new gaming computer and he would have done anything to play on it. Blackmail is a funny thing. The slightest annoyance could have deleted his precious Guest account. It eventually did come to that, and he would beg me to give him another guest account. I told him to stop making fun of the youngest for watching MLP because he didn't do so anymore. We came to an agreement.

After some time had passed, my youngest brother started watching the show again, and this time he was more careful about being caught by the middle. Also, the middle brother stopped playing on my computer in favor of a brand new PS3, but he was so busy playing Call of Duty and screaming at the TV that he had no time for us "inferior brothers". By the time me and the youngest had some friends who we discovered became new bronies, my brother was a bit more comfortable with himself. And so was I. I now wear pony shirts in public and pony pins on my backpack, and I care little about what the middle brother has to say, because all he ever does is spout garbage. It's a wonder he still has any friends at all.

Of course eventually, I had to tell the youngest the truth.

While the two of us and a brony friend were at Wendy's, the friend brought up the topic of how he became a brony. After his short'n sweet story, my brother told his and "mine". He said, "We just lost a bet with each other."
"Umm... About that..." I began, and I told him how I actually tricked him into watching the show. He was kinda mad about it, but hey, I got him to where he is, didn't I? He got over it pretty quickly.

And so ends the tale of happiness, sadness, my vague understanding of psychology and curiousity, my weird obsession with laughing maniacally like a cartoon villain, and my next-to-perfect plan of converting my youngest brother.

I still do read everyone else's stories to see what kind of unique answers we get.

[FrozenSkies]

lets just say the show saved my life. it was fall of 2010, i was out of highschoool and i was really depressed. my friends didn't want to hang with me, i had no job, no money. i wouldn't be here if my friend didn't introduce me to this franchise and i thanked him kindly for it .

[xXPonyMusicXx]

Well I found out about MLP 2 or 3 years ago by an old friend. I didn't know about the whole fandom thing for a while. After my friend showed me it I was hooked. Then a bit later I was playing minecraft, cause that what I did.A year later, I saw somebody talking about mlp and "WoodenToaster". I was confused, so I said, "How would a wooden toaster work? that makes no sense XD", or something like that. Then I found woodentoaster's channel, after a quick google search. Then after that I started to get really into the fandom. Then after a bunch of crap nobody cares about, I started to make music. Never heard that one I bet.

[atarumenchi]

I was really bored one day, and I started thinking about all the pony meme stuff. I wondered what the big deal was about, since I thought it was really weird for all these teens to be so into the show. So I watched the first two episodes, then watched the third... and then the fourth... and then the fifth... and that's how Equestria was made.

this statement pretty much sums up how I found out about this gen.

[Emperor]

To be honest I was a hater.. Then I was ... like.. err...... let's just.. watch it because im down.. THEN BAM! 

[BobTheFloof]

This exact video, actually

[Becky]

I'm not a brony, but I am a pony lover. I've always loved My Little Pony since I was given the G1 toys when I was 6 years old. And then my mum started buying G2 toys for christmas and birthdays. And then I saw the G4 show because I was begged to watch it on my deviant art page Discord. I had the name before the actual character of the show. So I started RPing as Discord.

[Bardsworth Brony]

I had actually been browsing /b/ (a habit I've more or less grown out of) and I noticed a rash of "pony threads".  My curiosity eventually got the best of me and I found the shows on YouTube.  After the first episode I was like, "...huh, that was pretty good."  After watching the whole first season, I waited impatiently for the second to air.

Then I fell into the fandom.  I started browsing Ponychan and even started reading some fanfics.  Most were terrible, but a few were so well-written that they inspired me to write my own.  So I think that was around the time I "officially" became a brony.

[Peace Keeper]

How I became a brony? Well... I like to thank my little niece for that

Before MLP, I see MLP stuff around and was both puzzled and kinda annoyed of it, though some were good and funny. Then the day my carpet was getting changes, my sister put Netflix for my niece, and they put MLP:FiM. So I checked to see why it's so popular, then it hit me after the very first 3 or 4 episodes "This is the show people are raving about!?... it's pretty good. No wonder people like it.". Yea, I was shocked to see the battle of Nightmare moon and the Mane 6. Did not expected to be that hardcore for a children's show. Every other episode was funny and it gives good lessons.

Though I wouln't call myself a brony just because I just saw a couple, I decided to see every episode all the way up till now. I look at some artworks, comics, and even memes that gave me good laughs here and there. At there I was just borderline brony.

I think the point that I finally entered the brony status was joining this forum. Here is where I joined the brony community, and this forum is one of the greatest brony communities I know.

Thank you all, and that's my summary of my origins.

[YINYANG232]

Looks at deviantArt 
look at fan art
watch show
MOAR
your welcome

[Honorary Aperture]

One day a steam friend became a brony and sent me the first episode. I kept talking to him through steam because it felt awkward to just be watching it at first. I just got into it and continued on until the last episode avaliable.

[lightspeed_flash]

Lets see what is my brony story? hmmm
Well I suppose it starts with bronies talking about the show and me shrugging it off for a while. Then one day I had to see what the fuss was all about so I watched the first few episodes online and after that I understood where the broines were coming from and why they like it but I left it alone for a while. After a few weeks I found the mysteriousmrenter youtube channel and watched his videos then while I was looking at his playlists I saw reviews for the episodes. I watched the first season's reviews and after that I was hooked I just HAD to see how those episodes unfolded then I watched season two reviews and then the actual season two, but after that I saw the rest of the series blind and loved it even more. Next thing I knew I was looking at fan art and watching fan videos and playing fan games then I joined this site and met some really wonderful people who showed me what true friendship should feel like.

[Nuserame]

I like how this thread revives every time the OSW comes up. These stories are kinda fun to read.

Spoiler: All this! • show

I'd already given my story a while back, so I'll tell you the tale how I turned my brother to a brony.

During my early brony days (Fall 2011 is where it started), I hated the fact that I liked the show so much. "No one will ever know!" I said to myself often. Unfortunately, it got increasingly more difficult to hide my pony love as time went on. I have 2 younger brothers, you see. The middle child hates everything and thinks that everything I or anyone else does is stupid and annoying. He's been angsty since 2nd grade, and I knew that if he found out, I would never live it down. The youngest one, however, is stubborn as a mule, but he respects me more than the middle. I thought, "Maybe, I could convert him!" and I devised a plan. An awful plan. I had a wonderful, awful plan.

I decided to act as a hater for the time. I would mention how I "found out about bronies" and said it was a stupid thing to exist (I know it was horrible for me to say that, but I wanted to be convincing). Sometime in January 2012, when me and the youngest were home alone, I got him to watch some videos with me. I came to some videos where there was pony stuff in the suggested videos, and I "complained about it being shoved in my face" Totally convincing. So we searched videos of people destroying pony toys and other merch. I tried my best to hold back the tears of sorrow, and instead replaced it with evil cackling. My brother joined in on this. We eventually got to the point where we were watching short clips of the actual show. I commented on how good the animation was, faking the belief that they were fan videos, but almost sure it was actually part of the show. I showed him the clip of Rainbow Dash's Atomic Sonic Rainboom, and "admitted" that it looked pretty awesome. Then it was time to put my plan into action. I told my brother that, "If there's a clip from the show of one of these ponies actually snaps a neck, I'd watch an episode". Everyone knows, of course, the moment Fluttershy snaps the bear's neck, yes? I did a vague search for it, found it, and watched it with feigned awe. "Oh... I have to watch it now..." I said in "dismay". My brother was laughing. I shot an angry look at him and then pleaded, "PLEASE, watch it with me! I can't do it by myself!" He agreed rather quickly, surprisingly. If I didn't know my brother, I wouldn't have thought that might've worked so easily. So we watched the first episode; a cliffhanger, if you recall. Then I said, "That's it, no more!" shutting my laptop and asking my brother that we should never speak of this again.

But I knew my brother well. A cliffhanger is too deviously clever to leave unresolved. I knew that eventually his curiousity would consume and overthrow him. I giggled evily as my plan was in full swing. (Wow, I am a psychopath.) Two weeks passed. I went to my brother while we were at Quiznos and whispered to him, "Hey, you know that My Little Pony thing? I kinda wanted to know how it turned out," and he admitted that he too wondered what happened next. At that point, I knew I had him in mine and the fandom's grasp. We agreed that we should at least finish that two-parter. The two of us waited until we were home alone again (which didn't happen for a while, and I assumed that his curiousity burned even further). Then we watched it. I admitted it was pretty good, and so did he.

So the two of us watched more episodes together. Unfortunately, he barely started Season two when he was caught by my other brother. After he was harshly ridiculed, he just plain stopped watching MLP. He never wanted to see another episode because my sociopath brother told all of his "friends" about it (I put "friends" in quotations because he sure doesn't act like one to them). I felt guilty and responsible for this. He never deserved that sort of humiliation. So that was the end of that.
Or so I thought.

Eventually, the middle child discovered that I was a brony. He didn't say anything for a while, because by that time I had a new gaming computer and he would have done anything to play on it. Blackmail is a funny thing. The slightest annoyance could have deleted his precious Guest account. It eventually did come to that, and he would beg me to give him another guest account. I told him to stop making fun of the youngest for watching MLP because he didn't do so anymore. We came to an agreement.

After some time had passed, my youngest brother started watching the show again, and this time he was more careful about being caught by the middle. Also, the middle brother stopped playing on my computer in favor of a brand new PS3, but he was so busy playing Call of Duty and screaming at the TV that he had no time for us "inferior brothers". By the time me and the youngest had some friends who we discovered became new bronies, my brother was a bit more comfortable with himself. And so was I. I now wear pony shirts in public and pony pins on my backpack, and I care little about what the middle brother has to say, because all he ever does is spout garbage. It's a wonder he still has any friends at all.

Of course eventually, I had to tell the youngest the truth.

While the two of us and a brony friend were at Wendy's, the friend brought up the topic of how he became a brony. After his short'n sweet story, my brother told his and "mine". He said, "We just lost a bet with each other."
"Umm... About that..." I began, and I told him how I actually tricked him into watching the show. He was kinda mad about it, but hey, I got him to where he is, didn't I? He got over it pretty quickly.

And so ends the tale of happiness, sadness, my vague understanding of psychology and curiousity, my weird obsession with laughing maniacally like a cartoon villain, and my next-to-perfect plan of converting my youngest brother.

I still do read everyone else's stories to see what kind of unique answers we get.

Man my story is a lot less interesting than ones like this though. I basically just got very bored and somewhat intoxicated and figured there might be more to this pony meme than just a meme, since most of them last a lot less long than 2 years. (but still too long most of the time... man did those Chuck Norris jokes start to grate)

I was never particularly bored by all the memes, had no reason to hide anything since I live on my own. What I said, pretty bland story.

What did catch me off-guard is how large this fandom is. Not just the sheer number of bronies but the amount of content artists put it pretty spectacular!

[Chack]

Man my story is a lot less interesting than ones like this though.

I was being a bit devious. Desperate, but devious.

It's fine if your story is interesting or not, just as long as you end up here.

[SafyneBlossom]

With me it happened like this...
I kept having friends come up to me saying I was so much like Fluttershy (which come to realize I am very similar) so one day I finally decided to look some things up on YouTube and my fiancé was on his laptop next to me as well as my brother walking by with his friend...my fiancé and brother seemed ok with it along with myself but my brother's friend was less than happy with us (mainly me) he said "don't wipe their minds with ponies"
Few days after me, my fiancé and my brother all went shopping and I ended up buying MLP socks (which are so amazing) when we got home we were talking more on what we watched on YouTube and we decided to watch MLP:FiM and we were hooked the second we started watching
It became an every day thing, make or order pizza after my fiancé got out of work and we'd all watch the show for the last hours of the day
After we watched all 4 seasons we noticed a movie which was Equestria Girls so naturally we watched that too
We then fooled around with pony creators, bought pony vinyls, watched Rainbow Rocks, etc...
All of us are hugely into MLP and we never thought we would be and my brother's friend still hates on ponies hahaa

[Mrs.Darkling]

Welp, I'm not any more but I do occasionally like to check up on how the whole pony business is doing.

[PrincessButton]

Welp, I'm not any more but I do occasionally like to check up on how the whole pony business is doing.

And what do you find when you check up? c:

[ComeGetSome]

I  don't know how but I was salty when it became popular during 3 months of it being around but then I somehow got attached to it.
Being a Fallout fan, people think I became one by reading Project Horizions or the original FO:E but that's definitely not true. I DESPISED it since I've heard of it back in  late 2013 via a Fallout New Vegas mod by Riven. Nowadays, I tolerate it and  the main character of the first story became my internet persona when I am allowed for her to be. Now that I am a game designer and I am adding that character as a playable character in my fighting game and Kkat herself giving a personal endorsement for adding her character in my game, there's pretty much no reason for me to not despising it.

But really, I don't know how. But I know fondly about the rage and butthurtry I had when it was popular.

[Sunshine Smash]

I was just kinda walking around my house. Don't remember why, sometimes I just kinda do. It was the summer of 2013, so we were back at my old house in New Hampshire. I heard some TV show coming from my sister's room. Which was odd, since she didn't have a tv in there. Because I had nothing to do, I decided to see what she was watching. What do you know? It's My Little Pony. She was watching it because her friend was planning something, I don't remember, and she wanted my sister to dress up as Rarity. I was kinda laughing to myself, I was kind of critical towards the show, and didn't really give it a chance. But I stuck around long enough to see Rainbow Dash perform the Sonic Rainboom.

I thought that was pretty awesome, but decided that I didn't care. Over a couple weeks it just kinda kept growing on me to watch an episode. I always pushed it out of my head. But one day I just came across some YouTube video (Can't remember which one.) about MLP, I thought it was pretty great. So I finally decided to sit down and watch the series premier. I didn't think it was amazing, but I wanted to see how it would end, so I watched the 2nd part. It wasn't amazing (to this day it's still my least favorite two parter.) but I wanted to watch more to give it another chance. The first half was decent, and it kept me going.

Then I came to the first episode I saw, Sonic Rainboom. It was awesome! I got really into the show after that episode and starting getting into the community. Though, I'm still not sure how I came across this website in the first place.....

[Vick McBread]

I remember my first days being a brony. So many things (that are in the fandom, and my daily life) have ruined that.