4 - The Little Life
Lyra smiled down at Lucy, who was laying across a bed twice as large as she was. "Good afternoon, Lucy. I hear you started school today?"
Lucy gave an uncertain nod, clinking her crystal hooves together nervously. "I thought I was done with school. I suffered through years of it..." She looked up at Lyra. "Equestrian schools are strange."
Lyra shook her head. "They're the only schools that I know you've been to. What's so strange about them?"
Lucy sat up. "We'll start with the lack of division by age. I'm sitting next to this boy pony, uh, colt? He's twice my size!" Her voice become a shrill little squeak before she caught herself. "It's not normal."
Lyra nodded as she took a few notes. "Is this colt bothering you?"
Lucy shook her head. "Oh! No... he's fine. He's actually kind of nice. He helped me with geography."
A smile spread over Lyra's face. "Aw, that sounds lovely. Why are you upset he's there then?"
Lucy frowned and sank back to her belly. "It's just not... standard. I should be making friends with other people--"
"Ponies."
"people my own age, even if I am a little kid right now."
"Filly."
Lucy hopped to her hooves with obvious irritation. "Stop correcting me! Child, kid, youngster, filly, whatever. They're all perfectly functional synonyms!" She flopped onto her belly again, looking tired. "Cheerilee failed me in linguistics class. Me, a solid B+ student..."
Lyra reached forward. Lucy allowed the contact and she softly stroked the filly's mane. "I'll talk to her, alright?"
Lucy seemed to brighten at the promise. "Will you really? What's so wrong with using 'people' anyway? Griffons aren't ponies, or dragons, but they are people." She rolled over onto her back. "Oh god, why am I accepting those things as default?"
Lyra smiled gently. "You're getting better. Griffons and dragons are a part of Equestria, and it's good that you want to be fair to them, even linguistically. You're a very smart little filly, and I'm proud of you. Don't worry, I'll talk to Cheerilee about it."
Lucy was caught between emotions. Support against the linguistic tyranny of Cheerilee sounded wonderful, but Lyra was far too happy about it. "I'm still not a pony..."
Lyra pointed a hoof at Lucy. "You are clearly a cute little crystal filly. Even you saw that."
Lucy groaned in frustration. "But I wasn't before!" She pointed at Lyra's flank. "Why do almost all of you people have pictures on your rumps?"
Lyra's horn glowed as she conjured her lyra and began to play it with her magic, filling the small room with sweet and soothing music. "They are cutie marks, symbols of our special talents. I'm really good at the lyre, as you can hear."
Lucy nodded lightly, listening to the peaceful music. "How'd you end up being a psychologist?"
Lyra looked a little confused. "I am a helper of the mind, a special friend." She held out a hoof. "I'm here to help you remember that it's OK to be a pony, and whatever hurt you before, we can deal with. You're safe with me."'
Lucy snorted loudly. "I'm not some lost child! My parent were lovely people that put me through college. I visited them every year until they died, and it breaks my heart that I can't even visit their graves now."
Lyra cringed as she added to her notes. Parents dead. Possible repression of memories? Obvious love for missing parental figures. Could be symbolic. Maybe neglect, or traumatic incident.
"What are you writing?" Lucy leaned forward.
Lyra easily kept it out of her view. "That's for me to know. Why don't you tell me more about those parents of yours? How did they treat you around the house?"
Lucy became noticeably withdrawn as she described a fairly normal household. The more she went, the quieter and slower she got. Lyra held up a hoof. "You've answered enough for today. Why don't you go outside and play with your friends?"
Lucy shrank. "I don't really have friends."
Lyra gestured outside. "What about that colt that helped you with geography? Or even the others in the circle. You were getting along with them well. You have plenty of friends, just go up to one of them and say hello."
Lucy gave a cautious smile. "You're right. I'm not alone." She moved for the door and tried to reach the handle, but was too small to manage it. Lyra grabbed it with her magic and gave it a soft twist and pull. Lucy wave back at her. "See you Saturday." And she was gone.
Lyra frowned at her notes, tapping the pad with her quill thoughtfully. How could she drill past the layers of deception and comforting illusions to get at the truth? She set her lyre down beside her chair and hopped to her hooves. Trotting over to the window, she looked down on Ponyville and it's population of mostly happy and well-adjusted ponies. This was her first serious case, and she wasn't going to mess it up!
She moved for her calender and peeked at who was coming next. Sam, the earth pony 'truck driver'. Not that there weren't trucks in Equestria, but they were few and far between. Surely if he was one, someone would turn up looking for him? She tapped her chin, trying to plan ahead for the session. Perhaps more interactive means would help get to the bottom of this mental mystery.
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Former teacher vs pony teacher, that has to be quite trying.
This is a wonderful
satireexamination of the various HiE tropes. I definitely look forward to more of Lyra's insightful theories and group events to help these poor ponies.I think it's telling that it implies the ponies aren't sticking together outside the group sessions.
Well, this is most engaging thus far. Lyra treating species dysphoria? This is going to be all kinds of fun, especially when she finds that not only are the delusions all internally consistent, they're mutually consistent. Assuming, of course, that she can work through her very understandable confirmation bias.
(I have to wonder, though, what was with the monocle?)
I'm with Lucy on the linguistic thing. While I do have a head canon explanation that builds from the rebuilding of pony society following Discord and efforts to keep the tribes from fracturing again, they have had enough time to ease 'people' back into the linguistic sphere.
6006641 It's a known fact that glasses make you smarter. Doctors agree.
25.media.tumblr.com/890973343a4bf2867a33cb546bb58bb7/tumblr_mwx16qM90G1qcu6tjo2_400.gif
6006931
It's not a bad idea. I was the one who suggested the idea, and both Humans In Equestria Club and chapter 30 of Oh To Be Old Again were the inspiration, but this author hadn't read either, so this is entirely his take on the prompt.
I, for one, am excited to see where this goes.
this is a great story, so far
6007245
6006994
6006641 I'm having fun writing this so far! I hope you'll all be here with me as we explore their pasts and perhaps their futures.
It's OK Be a Pony (forgive me this is like the first one of these I've done and editing isn't my strong suit)
Grammer score: 8 (not the best at locating this stuff but it seemed to be fine)
Pros: interesting premise, definitely something I haven't seen before.
pretty funny to well written
Cons: I'd like to see more of how these ponies got to Equestria (though we probably are going to find out) it is a mystery as they all have similar stories. IDK where your going to go with this but that's just something I'd like to see personally.
Comments: Not sure where you going with this but I find the mystery of how the people became ponies and got their intriguing, definitely would like to see more development in that. Otherwise I think the story looks great, great hook and interesting mystery.
Please review: Twilight's Final Journey http://www.fimfiction.net/story/262947/twilights-final-journey
6007287 Reading right now! I don't squelch on what I agree to do.
OH Really?
...So do I, so do I.
Don't we all? Anyways, very Interesting story, will keep my eyes open for this.
6007322 Welcome aboard! Glad you like what we have so far. Feel free to drop ideas and thoughts.
6007345 And I like you
Any favorite parts?
What surprises me is how the ponies(especially the filly) can't provide knowledge that would prove they were human, or at least not of their circumstance.
That filly was a college student nearing graduation. Wouldn't a bit of calculus prove the point? I mean how many little kids can do calculus? What about science? Start working with the periodic table of elements, how things bind together, the valences, then go into the fundamentals of the atoms and other baryons leptons etc.
I would have to believe that I could convince a pony beyond a shadow of a doubt that I was an outsider if put in that situation.
(I did give it a thumbs up because I find the concept interesting)
a interesting story that Is looking to be really fun.
6007508 Actually, she's been a teacher for over twenty years, as she says in the group meeting, meaning whatever she learned in college is likely faded to largely what she teaches, though I don't think she ever disclosed what subject that was. Though, yes, they could be spinning fantastical details. The question would be how much of it is relevant to Equestria. Do they even have atomic theory? A few mis-steps and it just sounds like you're making things up.
Welcome aboard the story! I love feedback, and I hope my reply makes sense.
6007524
I am 46 and I still retain enough math. It does depend somewhat upon how far they are, but as a FILLY the bar is lower. All you have to prove really is that you know more than you possibly could.
All you really need is proof. I could do statistics that would be able to resolve itself. I do not know how much they know about factorials and such...
Yes I keep going on about math. Thing is you are right about other things. I know about a television, but I couldn't make one from scratch. I might be able to manage a ball point pen if I could find the right ink. A lot of the problems with "inventing" native devices is that you can't get to step negative 3. You need the factory to make the aluminum etc.
Another thing that could work is music. If you knew a body of songs that did not exist, that would work much in your favor. Music is universal, and is not easy to compose. A filly with 50 unique songs that do not exist would be more than enough to be impossible. Lyra might also relate to it.
6007569 But couldn't you just be making up songs? I can make up random songs pretty well. Still, food for thought! Definately worth bringing up and addressing in future chapters. Cheerilee is certainly going to get a few new grey hairs dealing with this particular filly.
6006676
I sure hope so. for them its more like discarding a mask.
6007659 ... this isn't your average everyday stupid. This is advanced stupid.
6007508
Well, the reason she knows a ton of math must be why she is in a class with older students?
6007668
Hence why I mentioned TRADING FLUTTERSHY AWAY!
Is that kind of stupid.
... you're running out of things to fall back on as explanations, ponies. In the case of Lucy, in particular. How long will it take for them to accept the truth? A question I will be timing as the chapters keep coming along. That or they'll just go "oh that's just them being crazy" like they did Pinkie Pie (but they had the reason of "if we try to find out what's wrong with her, she'll become a hydrogen bomb and destroy half or more of Equestria")
6007692 Though you admit it's not really out of character for them. I will be endeavoring to keep it at least somewhat reasonable.
6007596 k.
6007718 Is it slavery when you agree to do a task? At best it's indentured servitude. She received something for the services rendered and had the option to say no.
6007718
Probably because she did not want to make a fuss about it. But A) Rainbow Dash did now own Fluttershy B) Fluttershy herseft did not agree. C) Sun and Moon, is like the writers wanted to see how dumb they can make Rainbow Dash be.
Also Twi is still too innocent and probably saw it as servitude instead of slavery.
But yeah, you can't just trade ponies away like that, is basically slavery.
6007702 Yes of course, you have to be reasonable with the characters. You are doing a good job, too, keep it up!
6008289
Horses have been known to eat meat. It might not be 'normal' but it's not awful to the horse - and sometimes, some humans would purposefully feed their mounts meat in order to supplement a poor diet. However, cultural norms can be the most ridiculous and idiotic of things that hide in pseudoscience - 'masturbation causes blindness!' is an example of THAT stupidity. I'm not 100% sure Twitwi would be asking why they served meat in school in EqG, however. I can totally see her feeling ill if she didn't know those burgers were meat - breaking a cultural taboo can do that - but it was the line about serving meat in schools that is throwing me.
It makes it seem that Twitwi is finding it difficult to believe the EqG school she was in served meat of any kind. "Maybe your patient is crazy after all. Meat, hmmph. Why would they serve that in a school?" That's the line BTW. Now obviously, we can't know for a fact what gryphons eat or anything barring a list of acceptable dishes from the producers but I think it's generally accepted that gryphons are is not carnivorous at least omnivorous. Surely Twitwi would know that gryphon schools serve meat. Even if she didn't know the human diet, it's not a huge stretch to see a school with specialized creatures needing specialized diets.
Maybe the dissonance is on my end - it's a single line and it's not that big a deal. And maybe Twitwi was so shocked at the thought of eating meat that she reflexively discarded the thought that the EqG world could have served her such. I guess I can see that, depending on how deep the cultural taboo goes. Anyway, I like the idea of this story. It's not perfect, some of the timing and flow seem wonky, but I like it.
6008356 Twilight assumed the alien culture obeyed that taboo. Is it reasonable? No. Is it something people do all the time? Yes.
6008356 I think of the pony taboo of eating meat as similar to most cultures' taboo of cannibalism. Or at least like Americans' taboo of eating cats and dogs. So yeah, even if it's common for some people, most would find it disturbing enough to not even want to think about.
and this is why i support the death , torture, and burning of equestria. Also why i'm part of that coversion bureau fanfic group. fuck you, equestria.
6011706 we won't eat horse either, and a lot of us wouldn't eat dolphin, pretty sure monkeys are on the list somewhere, and Eagles, only a monster would eat a eagle. Basically, we only avoid eating stuff that scientists say could solve of of those toddler puzzles, or that we have a common companionship with, or at the vervy least a respect for.
Lyra is really starting to piss me off here.
6052097 Have some patience for our musician turned therapist.
6017580
No. Purging innocent worlds because some are horrific, living war crimes is not acceptable.
Now performing precise purges of particularly troublesome worlds is entirely acceptable. Informing innocent worlds of their crimes and fates is, too. But you do not act without damn good evidence.
The truth is right in from of you idiot!
6007569
I think math would be one of the best ways to go about the issue considering it is a constant that almost never fails. Chances are, she is young enough to not yet know more than a good portion of basic math. Assuming this is the case, more complex algebra should be good enough.
Though his philosophical reasoning wasn't well put together, imo, Descartes did use math as one of the more solid perspectives to prove the existence of 'god'.
6007575 Heartsongs would totally invalidate shared music knowledge - it is semi canon that unrelated ponies can just suddenly start singing in perfect harmony on tunes they didn't know a minute ago.