to somebody who's new to all this, is this what the show's about?
All right, Ima type this out then promptly fall asleep.
Firstly, welcome if you're speaking for yourself(I don't really know anymore as I've stopped keeping tabs on most people and this forum). For the fandom in general, there is a three way split with two sides being closer to 45% and the last being 10%. The two larger factions-we'll call them that for now-are you're generic run-of-the-mill fans just like any other following. What causes the split is whether or not the enjoy adding a loveual side to the show and characters. Generally, most of the people in the fandom don't really care either way whether someone clops or not. The exception to this is the previously mentioned 10%. They're hellbent on killing anything explicit or questionable relating to the show(see tumblr nukes).
The real beauty of the show is there isn't really a set moral or theme. For the most part, as long as it can fit reasonable in the shows actual episodes, you can interpret it any way you wish. As for the fandom, depending on where you are, who you're around, and who you're speaking with, it can be a varied beast of a thing. You're best bet it to browse the more populated areas such as r/mlp on reddit and /mlp/(watch out for research if you're not a clopper). From there you'll figure out what parts appeal to you and which you don't care for. Just be sure to take it all with a grain of salt.
In those places you'll be introduced to the various actual parts of the fandom: the artists, musicians, pony-doll-thing makers, average joes. In the end, we're all just different people here because we like a cute little girl's show(some people get upset when this is said, they should probably try to be more laid back), and when we come together extremely interesting things happen.
