Back on 2010. On 4chan's /co/ Imageboard.
An Anonymous forum for comics & cartoons someone known by it's Pseudonymous "The Zam" posted a youtube link to the first episode of My little Pony: Friendship is Magic.

The reaction was moderated, some people were surprised at the quality of the animation and the fact it was targeted for little girls. As usual, people on /co/ were fond of making fun of scenes, characters, animation errors, trivia, the screencapped scenes and added captions just as like they do with any other show, but what most found, is that they were actually liking the show, and they made fun of that.

They found ponies like the famous "derpy" and named it, The truth: some artists on /co/ were always in the mood of honouring the infamous "Rule 34", as threads gained hype.