Let's see if I can shed some "Twilight" on the subject...
I'll flat-out admit it. I have really come to enjoy this show. It's extremely original, it breaks stereotypes and the visuals are simply a joy to look at! I think what has made this show stand out amongst everything else like this is how much it has proven people so dead wrong as to how to make something enjoyable to watch. It's written so well, the stories are great, it's all so high-caliber, and yet... it's so innocent. Think about it. How many times do you see something high-caliber like this in which the developers of the series (or film or whatever you're watching) fall for the lie that for any character to be appealing, they must be some slight variation of the "Angsty McBaddude" type? This series has shown that the most enjoyable characters come in many different colors, with varying personalities, traits, flaws and opinions. And they don't have to treat everyone around them like crap to seem cool.
However, there is a slight problem. Actually, it's a huge problem. The biggest problem with the show isn't even the show, itself. It's the fanbase. Or, rather... a very large portion of the fanbase. Many of them call themselves "bronies", but I can tell the difference. The ones you have to watch out for are the ones I like to call "phonies".
Think about Portal for a second. It's about the only game that ever got a truly positive review on Zero Punctuation. And it's well-deserved. It's such a creatively-designed game that was pretty much a "stocking stuffer" of a game that wasn't meant to gain much attention, yet, it's essentially become the highlight of The Orange Box. Heck, Valve, altogether! And yet... It's nothing like anything else developers are currently making. It's so clever, creative, intelligent, innocent... You see where I'm going with this?
So, you'd think a game like this would have a fanbase to match, right? Well, not entirely. On one hand, you've got the intelligent players who enjoy Portal for what it is, and congratulate Valve on such a design. On the other hand, you've got the inane gamers who just like to use it to make cake "jokes". And I put "jokes" in quotes, because quoting the same line over and over again is not a joke. In fact, it's not even funny. That's why it was omitted from Portal 2, remember?
It's the same way with My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. Except that it's on a staggeringly-larger scale. On one hoof, you've got the bronies. These are the ones who have seen the show and enjoy it for how innocent, original and creative it is. Not only that, but they go out and express these feelings, often times in the form of fanfiction (or "FiMfiction), comics or digital drawings. On the other hoof, you've got the "phonies". These are the ones you've got to watch out for. They're very much like the bronies, except for at least one major difference. They see the show, but they don't care about the originality, the creativity and certainly not the innocence. I think you know where I'm going with this. These are the people who see it and say it's great, when they themselves do not even understand what made it so great in the first place. These are the ones who have completely missed the point entirely. As such, they crank out scarring garbage involving lots of sexual content, drawn-out stereotypes and overall every bit of crap that the show stands against. They may do this with "shipping", "Dat Plot" or ...ughhh... "Cupcakes"...
For me, it isn't how childlike the show might appear at first glance that makes me reluctant to tell anyone that I actually find enjoyment in the series. It's the dark side of the "fan" base that likes to corrupt using every old trick that 10,000 other people have already done.
For me, as you may have guessed, I am amongst the group that enjoys the show for it's innocence and many other positive aspects. I even have my own webcomic based on the show known as "Serendipity". It has inspired many things into a lot of people. Some of them good, some of them bad. It all depends on the person in question. It has inspired and influenced me and my own works in numerous ways I never thought possible or would even consider. Yet, here I am. In closing, I shall leave you with a quote from a very respected person, whom I have no doubt would have become a fan of the show himself, if he were alive, today.
"Critics who treat 'adult' as a term of approval, instead of as a merely descriptive term, cannot be adult themselves. To be concerned about being grown up, to admire the grown up because it is grown up, to blush at the suspicion of being childish; these things are the marks of childhood and adolescence. And in childhood and adolescence they are, in moderation, healthy symptoms. Young things ought to want to grow. But to carry on into middle life or even into early manhood this concern about being adult is a mark of really arrested development. When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up."
- C.S. Lewis
