Pretty straightforward translation "Tomodachi wa Mahou." lol.

I'll have to watch an episode

I have no idea how men can like this show. I'm not calling bronies weirdos but I can't register it in my head. It seems impossible that straight males can enjoy watching this, which is as you said, targeted towards little girls. The cult following is truly a puzzling thing and boggles my mind. I can understand the love for old cartoons cause a lot of the new stuff (with very few exceptions) are absolute shit. I grew up in the 90s, I know my cartoons but this is just too much for me.

If you grow up in the 90s you should understand the show's pedigree; Lauren Faust (wrote and storyboarded for Powerpuff Girls) with Rob Renzetti (a Hannah-Barbara alumnus of the What A Cartoon! period). It's a show which breaks out of the little girl ghetto, like PPG did, by being genuinely good and only girly on the surface.

A good show is a good show.  Pokemon is targeted towards kids too, and I don't know any gamers that don't enjoy pokemon.  Pixar and Dreamworks movies are targeted towards kids, but adults enjoy them for the well written stories and the little in-jokes that the creators put in.  My Little Pony is the same thing, only instead of being for little BOYS, like cars or the incredibles or whatever, it's for little girls. 

Your confusion is bred of society's gender roles, not of whether the content is actually appropriate.  

Look at it this way.  If grown women came out as loving Transformers, and they were "Transisters" or something, guys everywhere would be lining up to marry them. It's the same mentality that it's okay for a girl to play with cars, but not okay for a boy to play with dolls.  We live in a new world, bro, no need to hang up your boots on gender roles, and remmeber: good entertainment is good entertainment regardless of who it was created for. 

I watched the powerpuff girls, no shame there. It was geniuenly good and heartfelt. The villains were great, the major was hilarious and seend the professor interact with them and learn to be a father was pretty entertaining. I know not to judge a book by its cover but this is just too much. I have to give it a try some time soon but I doubt i will get pass its "girly" surface. The powerpuff girls was much more moderate in its girl factor. This flaunts it around a bit too much.

Well look at the source material:  a show made solely to sell little pony toys to little girls.  The new show is much more mature than the old one. 

I think there are more than a very few exceptions to good cartoons. Avatar: The Last Airbender/Legend of Korra and Star Wars: The Clone Wars are all fantastic cartoons. FiM is very good as well.

I too grew up in the 90s, and have enjoyed many older cartoons; not just from the 90s, but also from well before (The old Scooby Doo cartoons, Looney Tunes, Rocky and Bullwinkle, etc). Friendship is Magic is good, but in a different way. It's very sincere in what it does, and I find it to be genuinely entertaining. The cult following shouldn't be surprising once you look into it. It's a pretty welcoming group of people, and many of them have taken to improving themselves just because of the show. It is a very positive and friendly environment to be in.

I know you probably did think of it when you mentioned it but your statement that it's only weird for STRAIGHT males to watch this is a a classic case of stereotyping homosexuals based on the fact that they are homosexual. Why should it be any different for them?

Just wanted to point that out in case it was an accident so you don't do it again in the future.

With time, it just became another cartoon for me. I did get into all the hype and rage. I swear it was like a trance that invaded my brain.

Bronies will probably hate me for saying this, but ever since I lost 25 lbs and went back to school and caught up with friends... and finally got into a relationship after two fucking long years of being single, the whole MLP thing started feeling funny to me. I think whatever empty void in my life that MLP filled was replaced with other stuff going on in my life.

That said, I resent  the bolded part of your statement.

Either that or you're feeling the peer pressure