After his betrayal of Equestria in the return of Lord Tirek, Discord was given the task by Fluttershy in his process toward reformation to take on a pet. Discord ventured to Earth to claim a pet human for himself, and this human's name was Caleb Tobin. Caleb had grown up in a world of poverty, violence, and suffering, but now he is in a world filled with happiness and peace. Adjusting so quickly may not be easy for the untrusting young man, but the Main 6 are willing to do whatever they can to make him feel as if he belongs. However, Caleb may not be able to believe these ponies. He may not be capable of making such friends.
Chapters (8)
Wait a minute...why did you start with the interview? Not bashing it or anything, but I think it started like 'The Odyssey'- it started in the middle, you explained what had happened, but it feels like you're starting in the middle of the fic. Sometimes writers use this, and sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. It doesn't really make sense to me that the Mane Six have a TV station, but then again, this is your fic, you do what you want with it. Hope that helped, and I'll keep an eye on this one
I liked this. Possibly one of the best setups for an HiE I've read. Caleb feels real, much more real than most HiE characters do.
So I think I can see what you're doing with this, and so far I like it. Caleb is an unreliable narrator, isn't he? I mean, his statements are factual, but his opinions are suspect. In most HiEs, you're supposed to sympathize with the main character to the point of believing some really fucked up bullshit about the Mane 6. But the fact that this guy thinks Fluttershy doesn't really care about him and has some hidden agenda strongly suggests that nothing he thinks or feels about the motives or trustworthiness of any pony is accurate... we might well have believed him about Discord being untrustworthy, because Discord is, and the fact that Discord is reading his mind is genuinely something humans would be squicked out by even if Discord is doing it for benevolent reasons. But even if he's right about Discord, his worldview is so dark and messed up that he literally cannot see benevolence when it's right in front of him, so he's not a reliable judge of anything. And I'm quite sure you meant him to be that way.
In a lot of respects this is really interesting. I've seen many stories about a human trying to befriend a dog or cat who has been abused, and the difficulties of winning a creature's trust when their faith in trust has been destroyed by life. I am not sure I've ever seen it from the pet's point of view. Caleb is sentient, he can talk, but in the MLP universe Angel Bunny is obviously sentient despite being unable to talk, and yet he is a pet; and cows appear to be something like property under the care of ponies, despite being able to talk. (And Discord treats sentient beings as pets anyway.) So the fact that Discord has taken a talking creature for a pet doesn't bother the ponies overmuch once they're clear on the concept that Caleb accepted the deal of more or less free will. Which means this is really a story about characters trying to win the trust of an abused pet animal from the perspecitve of that animal, who happens to be a human so we can relate to him as we couldn't really have related to even a talking dog or cat.
I suspect that the real reason Discord took Caleb is only in part that Caleb had no other choices. Discord was told to take a pet by kindness incarnate, the being who rehabilitated him. So he picked one who was abused and untrusting, but young enough to learn to trust again, because he wants to demonstrate to Fluttershy that he's taken her lessons to heart well enough that he can win over a damaged creature who really needs love and care but doesn't believe in it. His motives are selfish-altruistic; he genuinely wants to help Caleb, but the main reason he wants to is to look good to Fluttershy. Still, it's a start. :-)
Must.... Upvote.... Twice...
Not the greatest story ever, but it deserves a way better upvote/downvote than it has.
Soo can they all read his mind now?
Read it and-
This has my interest.
ANARCHY!
Nuff said.
I've been waiting for this for a long time.
All I can say to start is that the cover image looks like Discord is about to shit himself.
Calling it that either Luna put him in a dream state or Discord shifted him to an illusory reality. None of what's happening is real.
7700903 Thank you for that inspiration lol
4471508
Thats profound.
I enjoy this story quite a lot. The author really knows how to set up a plot.
I can't help but wonder what it would be like if it was Queen Chrysalis and she 'summoned' a pet to help with her own reformation project... or maybe bring the darkest creature in the universe and it's actually a human. I mean, something like that happened already, but things got complicated and she even threw out the human, thinking that they were useless.
4471508
That’s... a really long freaking comment. I like it though
...he’s a fucking dipshit. ‘Burn down their town?’ What kind of asinine moron even thinks that Discord of all people gave him enough power to hurt FLUTTERSHY with him there? They’re on of the best examples of a show’s OTP. Friggin jackass.
Geez, that whole block of text lost me. Wooo, yay, friggin dipshit learned a friendship. Touchy feely moment(I normally cry at the drop of a hat(obviously when it’s overly heartwarming or slightly too sad), but all I felt was disgust at the MC). Suddenly slightly out of character but believable Tia basically saying that she’s gonna punt him to the sun next time he messes up. Oh, and don’t forget blindsiding the readers with no foreshadowing whatsoever with a new backstory. I think the story needs a little work, although to get me to rant like this is pretty extraordinary. Imma stick this in tracking and hope it gets better (1/1000000 chance it doesn’t, soo...). If I ever reread this story, I’m skipping the first 8 chapters.