Have I got a story for you. And it's a doosey!

It's not my own story. I'm sure you'd find that quite boring. It's a "friend's". And how I kindly and gently eased him into the brony fandom.

It began about a year agro. I had obtained shall we say a position at a university. There were three other people working with me. Two oldish students and the third, my friend. My friend and I hit it off quite well. It turned out that he was saavy with the internet, and we had many convergent interests.

Now, at some point it was let slip that I was interested in some bizarre children show that most normal persons would have no interest in. The older fellows were quite ambivalent, if a bit confused, but my friend was quite repulsed. I simply shrugged it off, suggested to him that perhaps he would like it, and left it at that.

The next day, he comes in, and tells me he watched the first episode. I was quite surprised, I had never expected him to take the initiative all on his own, without even a little prodding. I thought to myself. But no! Somehow, he didn't like it! In fact, he seemed to hate it, vehemently! He had become a bona-fide hater!

Normally, I would have left it there. I know when an effort is futile, and where limits ought to be. But I knew he would like the show. And my intuition is NOT wrong. He had just tried to dive in under the wrong environment, or had been so turned off by the cheesy beginning that he couldn't continue.

I'd fix that. So the process began. It was fun.

I pressed just hard enough to bend him without breaking. I patiently humored his every request, built favor, and then spent that on throwing more pony at him. I found everything he liked, and I showed him that it had been made Pony. I showed him the songs and the jokes and he loved it! And he hated that he loved it. Because the worst thing you can do to a hater is make them realize that they like the show.

When I showed him thisI took the time to explain to him the significance of that little outburst of song, specifically regarding a little story about two friends baking together. And then something amazing happened.

He walked in the next day, ashen faced and shaken. He had gone home and read Cupcakes. Fantastic.

What followed after was a period of intense psychological assault. I toyed with his emotions, showing him the most diabeetus inducing "da'aww" that I could dredge from the fandom; the most potent cures-to-Cupcakes I could find; mixed with intense no-sleep Pinkamina creepypasta.

And then Return of Harmony Part 1 came out. And I was inspired.

I made a deal with him. I'd read Cupcakes (Yes, I hadn't even read it when this happened!) if he gave me 10 minutes of his time to do anything I wanted. He agreed. I read the story (it wasn't that bad), pulled him into a synchtube channel, and turned on Return of Harmony, Part 1.

He couldn't help but like it. The jokes, the chocolate rain reference, the characters and plot, everything was going perfectly.

And then the ten minute mark hit. Exactly here.

I pause the stream.

He... he can't leave. Everything he has ever believed tells him that he should go. He's watching a children's cartoon. What is this. Why does he like it. DAMN IT TURN IT BACK ON. PLEASE!

I turn the video back on. Smiling. I had won. He was a brony.

When the episode ends... he asks for more. Part two... please... part two.... Hehe...