Well that's trap. Not long ago I was behaving the same as people who claim how silly it is to watch MLP, just like d12. Until I was challenged to watch it and all reality was destroyed and I started puking rainbows. The show literally shattered many mental barriers I previously had. 

You are just guessing what motivates pony fans. I'm sure there are some doing it for that, but sweeping generalisations don't help anyone.

If I was, I would have stopped it, because Bronies are good people. I was not good enough to stop the horror that you unleashed, so that is proof that i do not watch it. Don't even know what channel it is on, but I will guess Cartoon Network. Saturdays.

Is it even on a TV Channel? I've never seen it...

That also makes no sense. What "horror" have I unleashed?

To me, it is the greatest thing ever to happen. Completely not kidding.

The show's characters, writing, voice acting and so on is very strong and comparable with adult series. It just happens to be aesthetically for children so there is a stigma about watching it. Once you get over that it is high quality.

The fan community surrounding the show have produced gigabytes of music, art, games, comics and stories, and there have been real life meetups and conventions as big as any other fandom. That aspect is how people really get into ponies, they follow all the latest fan content (I myself have more Pony songs on my ipod than record label or videogame ones combined)

Salnax's link is to the 87-page Pony thread on VGC. Ask any of the people who post there about it. If you really want to know, watch an episode for yourself, they are all over Youtube, and decide for yourself whether it is good.

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Re: "pitiful" - liking something should not be pitiable. Having it take over your life is; same for any other pursuit, you can take it too far. Watching it and following the news site for it is in no way worse than arguing about videogame sales on this forum.

tl;dr It's not ironic. It's not counterculture. It's just what I like.

See it is counterculture. 

Society tells you its wrong or "nerdy" to watch girls programming yet you like it anyway despite what people might think. Thats counterculture. 

Well liking something can be pitiful. Its all context. Whether how much the writing/plot/fan creations this thing gets, its still a childrens show that being enjoyed by adults. Im sure theres plenty more age appropriate shows to get attached to. All this fan support just tells me that theres a lot of people out there that refuse to "grow up". 

I dont really mean to criticize, I am just genuinely curious and trying to understand.