Originally watched back in G1/G2 days as a kid. Ended up a very long hiatus after that as I got into teen years and pretty much missed the entire G3 era and such.
Then someone linked me to the pilot back when season 1 of FiM was starting and I didn't really spend more than a couple minutes on it at the time. Afterwards I kinda forgot it for a while until I started seeing pony avatar after pony avatar on forums and eventually decided to go give it a real try, this being just after the end of season 1. The next two days ended up being get up, go to work, watch pony until I had finished the entire season. Then I discovered the fandom...that pretty much sealed the deal.