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Big Macintosh seeks help in realizing his greatest dream, but will anypony understand?
This story has been described as "creepy" and "disturbing" by some, though it was never intended to be like that. Still, I feel I should warn just in case. It is meant to be silly and random and not to be taken too seriously.
Also on: Deviant Art
... This is creepy, disturbing and possibly the weirdest piece of fimfiction I've ever read. I would have reacted EXACTLY like Twilight at Big Mac's request, and there's no denying that he comes off and probably IS insane. If that was your intention, good job. Great job.
If you were trying to use the whole thing as a metaphore for preferring no a life without everyday problems even at the cost of your free will and nature... That makes it even creepier. And disturbing. Stephen King can't top this shit.
Meinos Kaen
>>872514 Meh. To be fair, it's not that difficult topping King, if only because... It seems like he's always writing the same themes and characters. Only the monsters change. Hell, they always take place in Maine.
As for your reply, I have to guess that you didn't intend for this to be creepy. Well, I guess you're a Savant Poe, then. lol
Meinos Kaen
Never read a lot of King, to be honest, but he is quite famous regardless so he must be doing something right.
It is kinda interesting to see how people read this story differently, actually. It was turned down by EqD for being too creepy, but I mostly intended it to be weird and maybe a little sad. If you were to take it very seriously it was intended to be a kind of metaphor for transhumanism and mind-uploading, the dream of being able to be anything you want to be in a Matrix-like virtual reality, only here it's being a puppet in a play. Twilight was definitely right to be critical, of course, but she didn't approach the problem very well. She basically scared Big Mac away and because of that he ended up resorting to desperate measures when he could have gotten help to approach his issue in a sensible manner instead.
>>872633 Oh. Well, it REALLY Didn't come out as that. I mean, the concept is alien. Most people would like something like the matrix to experience more than what they can normally experience, but he wanted to willingly become something that would prevent him from talking and moving, leaving him no other option but be a literal puppet in someone's hands. Who the hell would like to upload his mind into something that can't do anything, be it to enjoy himself, defend himself or even express his distress? A deranged mind who has some sick twisted vision of the life of a puppet, since not everyone care for such a thing the way Big Mac cares for SmartyPants, and that's exactly the way The red stallion comes out as. Sick, deranged, in sore need of a straight jacket. I mean, asking to be turned into an animal or a monster or even a freaking mare would have been seen as at least understandable, but an inanimate object? Eeyup, to the happy house where life is beautiful all the time with you!
Meinos Kaen
From Big Mac's perspective he would be moving and talking. He would be acting in a show, living lives that he could never live before as a pony. Assuming of course that Trixie didn't just throw him in a box and let him collect dust, but she strongly suggests that she's going to make a star of him so he's probably going to see some action. At least for a while. It's a crude way to achieve the Matrix, but it's essentially no different. Even if you assume that people have free will, if they upload their mind to a computer they will loose it in exactly the same way they would if they became a puppet controlled by a puppeteer. Turning the computer off or leaving the simulation idle is the same as throwing the puppet in a box and forgetting it.
Now, this is not to say that Big Mac was right or that his choice was good. It wasn't. This is like someone who really wants to upload their mind, or change their gender, or any other very major and irreversible operation, and they're so desperate for it to happen right now that they'll take any offer, even though the technology is still undeveloped or the one offering is kinda untrustworthy. If they're really lucky it all goes well, but more likely it'll have nightmarish consequences.
The point of the story (again, if we are to take it very seriously) is that Big Mac made a hasty and highly risky decision because Twilight was too quick to dismiss him as simply under magic influences, instead of sitting him down and openly discussing it with him. Perhaps he was sincere and could be convinced to become an actor instead, living out his dream that way instead. Or perhaps if all else failed a temporary transformation, while risky, might be an option and should be done by a professional like Twilight rather than a random street magician like Trixie. You need to be very careful when dealing with cases like this, because the risk of the person taking matters into their own hands is something you absolutely want to avoid. Twilight realized this too late.
That it might seem like it ended well for him is where I think a follow-up might be good, to show that hasty decisions have consequences. Perhaps Trixie does get tired of him and throws him in a box, and so he learns his mistake. Only then it's too late, and all he can hope is that Twilight finds him and can turn him back.
I have to say, I completely and absolutely LOVED this story. And don't worry about EqD, they're so anal about the stories they put on. I rarely read them because they're so stoic and written in exactly the same manner. Have some fun with the charectors, you know?
Anyways, again, this story made me squee because it was so adorable. And the ending was amazing. Big Mac got what he wanted, and it was adorable.
The disturbing thing is that puppets can be used as toys, or they can be literally used like pawns. It just gives me shivers to think Big Mac would want to become an inanimate object, devoid of emotion, expression, life, free will...
...Or maybe it's something completely different and I'm over-thinking it. 
It's a short yet intriguing read anyway, and besides that I didn't find it creepy in the slightest.
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Admittedly this story could probably do with some kind of follow-up, if only I didn't have a ton of other stories waiting for me to write them
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