Shattered Stone sat comfortably on the sofa. He always looked comfortable. He usually looked happy. Of all her patients, he was the closest to being well-adjusted.
Lyra rolled a hoof at him. "You are a pony, aren't you?"
He nodded. "Gladly."
Lyra smiled. "Good, but, and I mean this in the kindest way I can, you're not acting like a pony. You're putting off others by some of the things you do. We want to be your friend, Shattered." She leaned forward a little. "Can you tell me what you think is bothering ponies?"
He frowned with a bit of thought. "I'm not sure? The mares seem to like me enough..."
Lyra nodded slowly. "Alright, let's talk about that. You were with a mare last night?"
"Oh yeah! She was quite the screamer."
Lyra held up a hoof. "How many other mares did you have to ask before you ran into her?"
He counted on his hooves, which was a funny thing to do with only two hooves to count with. "Eight?"
"How did the others react?" Lyra smiled gently. "How did they react exactly? Be specific."
Shattered frowned. "The first one slapped me. Three of them were busy, and four said they already had coltfriends."
Lyra leaned back in her chair. "Why do you think they acted that way? It's not in a pony's nature to hit things without provocation."
Shattered looked all the more thoughtful, and Lyra smiled internally, hoping he was going down the right path. "Maybe my approach is off?"
Good enough. Lyra nodded. "You're coming on too strong. What do you tell them, exactly?"
Shattered waved at Lyra. "Well if I wanted to go out with you, I'd tell you your plot looks tight enough to bounce a bit off of."
Lyra went red at the mental imagery. "That will only attract a very specific kind of mare. Is that really the kind of mare you want? Tell me, do you want to start a family eventually?"
Shattered shuffled his hooves awkwardly, looking shamed. "Well... yes... I suppose. But mares are so fun!" He rolled onto his side. "I love being a stallion. I feel so... alive when I'm on a mare."
Lyra tapped her chin. "Well, can you imagine that, but deeper? Because when you find that special mare, the one you want to be with forever, it grabs you right in the center of your body and never lets go. You feel it every time you see her."
"How would you even know?" He frowned at her.
She just smiled. "My Bon Bon makes me feel that way. Every day I come home to her and all my worries retreat under her smile. She holds me when I hurt, and she gives me great ideas. We support each other, and I wouldn't want another pony in the world compared to her."
He ran a forehoof in slow circles over the cushion. "I doubt there's a pony out there that'd fit me that well."
Lyra could hear fear, and a little hurt, and she slipped from her chair, approaching Shattered. "You won't know until you give that special mare a chance. She'll want to be treated right. Is the way you're acting now the -real- you? Is that how you want a mare to look at you, really?"
Shattered sank his head on the cushion. "I used to be a really nice guy. I used to always mind my manners, but I never got any women. Then I came here, and I was a pony. I wasn't the old boring me. I'm a virile slab of... horse." He rolled over onto his back, squirming on the couch. "Mares look at me. Sometimes they make unhappy faces, but they look at me."
Lyra reached out and brushed one of his cheeks. "You have the bravery to find a mare worth keeping. You don't need to act this way. Be yourself, but keep that bravery, and everything will work out. I promise. Your problem before was just not going out where mares could see you."
Shattered smiled gently and rolled up onto his hooves. "I'll try. I swear, I'll try." He stole a kiss from her forehead just under her horn and dashed out of the study before she could reprimand him. She sighed softly and smiled, deciding it had been a good session.
She settled on her chair and began to jot down notes. Some time later her hat buzzed, warning her a pony was coming or going from the house. She gave it a twist and saw Shattered was coming home. He ran into Darrell and watched her a moment before clearing his throat.
Darrell turned to look at Shattered with obvious reservation. "What?"
Shattered smiled. "You're looking very nice today, even if that's not the body you wanted. If you need any help, let me know. I'll be making dinner." He trotted off towards the kitchen without waiting for a reply, leaving a shocked Darrell behind.
Darrell shook off her surprise and stormed after Shattered with a frown. "Don't try to butter me up! I'm not a mare and I'm not available!"
Shattered looked like he was getting a pot of water from the kitchen camera. "I know that. It doesn't change facts. As mares go, you're pretty. I know you're not comfortable, and I'm not asking you out. If you need anything, ask. Sorry I've been a jerk."
Darrell looked increasingly out of sort, perhaps trying to figure out Shattered's new angle. She eventually spun around and retreated from the room, leaving Shattered to cook.
Lyra disabled the feed and smiled. It wasn't perfect, but it was progress. A few minutes later there was a soft rapping at the door.
She opened the door to find Twilight for the second time that week. She smiled brightly. "Sorry to keep pestering you, Princess."
Twilight waved a hoof. "Twilight works. What's on your mind?"
Lyra gestured towards Twilight's castle through the window. "I think I was wrong. I want to face their past dead on, at least some of them. Maybe one at a time. Would you be willing to oversee a few trips through that portal of yours? I have a few theories, but they're just that, and as many theories get shot down as not, so I feel like I'm floundering. I want to help them get better..."
Twilight frowned a little. "What if they want to stay?"
Lyra drew a slow breath before letting it out. "What if they do? Would that... be a failure? I'm not even sure anymore. Some of them are adapting really well. Shattered Stone is turning a bend, and was happy as a pony to start, but he's not the only one. But some of the others... If they can find happiness through that portal, is it even right to say no?"
Twilight nodded slowly. "I think I understand. We have to be careful though. There are dreadful consequences if they run into their counterparts."
Lyra blinked. "What?"
Twilight made a hologram in the air, showing Lyra as a pony, and the human Lyra. "There are two of most ponies. One on this side, and one on the other side. You're very similar, but not the same person. If they meet, the universes draw dangerously close, and that's bad. Really bad."
Lyra tilted her head at her human self, fascinated. "I look really strange as a human. I prefer the pony model, thank you."
Twilight smiled. "If you went with them, you'd look like that." She pointed at the human Lyra. "And you'd have to avoid your copy at all costs. You'd also have to learn how to walk on two legs, and how to use hands."
Lyra waved a hoof dismissively. "I've been teaching them how to move as ponies, I can figure out how to move as a human no problem. When can we go?"
Twilight turned for the exit. "Let me prepare first. Maybe a week?"
They shared a wave and Twilight departed, leaving Lyra with a fresh batch of thoughts.
What I would like to see is Twilight spreading a royal message across Equestria inviting all "not a pony in a pony body" to come join Lyra's secessions at the Crown's expense. Get some Canterlot and other "American" ponies in the story.
6011528 Oh my. Poor Lyra. Maybe after she has a completely successful patient or two.
Interesting reversal on Lyra. I wonder what prompted it. A bunch of little things, or worry about ponies like Sam?
Right. That's bad. Okay. All right. Important safety tip. Thanks,
EgonTwilight.Of course, something like that can't be said, without us seeing the outcome down the line
Or sending a pony through that has no counterpart. Then again, with how weird high school world is, maybe they do.
6011532
Those other ponies need help too!...Maybe Lyra needs an assistant? Now who has an awkward time fitting in...Ditzy, did you crash again?
6011537 They never did say what happened to Sunset Shimmer's opposite.
6011542 This can only end well.
6011549
Ominous!
I pray they go through with the visit, only for it to completely muddy up the waters further. Lucy remaining a child with crystal highlights, Darrel remaining a girl, them all looking as humanified ponies with their coat and mane colors, and the history / technology of the world being different enough to confuse. Things like that.
I still feel the same as I felt last chapter.
6011549
Probably like Twilight's opposite and lives elsewhere away from the high school.
6011598 Not sure what to tell you? She's doing everything in her power, even to the point of visiting a human dimension to cast truth on the situation. What more do you want from our mint-green protagonist?
Lyra's lost all credibility. At this point she's trying to treat them for some unspecific psychological thingy that is like delusion, mass hysteria, and dissociative fugue, but also meets exclusion criteria for all of the above. She's a quack.
Downvote. This stopped being a comedy of errors and, at this point, is just a bunch of errors.
So, has Twilight realized that the "non"-human-ponies shouldn't know whether or not meat goes inside of hamburgers yet? And that they shouldn't even know of the word "hamburger"? Or that they could be very quickly tested to determine whether they know of other human concepts?
The willful ignoring of evidence is incredibly frustrating. And while I can accept it for Lyra since she's a background character and therefore pretty much a blank slate, it seems like something Twilight would almost immediately figure out, being well-read. Her never figuring it out just seems outright impossible, especially when she's talking about something that should be very interesting to her, since she's been a human before.
6011786 Yeah, that line kind of made me scratch my head a bit. However, it's not unrealistic. People under delusions can sometimes feign or really lose sight of how to do something they already should know how to do. So it's possible Lyra's simply saying that she's taught them as far as the delusion of them not being able to move normally is concerned.
Other than that I'm not too concerned with Lyra's complete disbelief that they are really humans. Think about it, if all of a sudden a group of people suddenly popped up and all said they were dolphins or animals who had inhabited human bodies somehow would we believe them? Even if there were almost a dozen people with the same delusion it would still be looked at as impossible or preposterous, especially if all our science couldn't prove their claims in anyway. Lyra's used her magic to verify they aren't under any transformation magic, for all she thinks/knows they are all just crazy and delusional ponies.
I do think that if they do take a field trip through the portal all it will take is them walking around and showing lyra that they know how to move as humans to convince her that they really were. You can't fake that experience. If after seeing that she still thinks their delusional i don't know what her deal is.
6011879
Your dolphin analogy doesn't actually work, becacuse there are no portals on earth with easy access to dolphin dimensions, and dolphins don't talk. If there was such a portal, their claims would immediately become more credible.
We also don't know if traces of magic can't be removed, or if transformation can be made permanant if it's casted by a powerful enough caster.
It shouldn't require walking into another dimension to realize something that could've been easily tested for. Most academics are good at thinking abstractly because we have to solve abstract problems, so if Lyra has a liscence to practice, she should at least be able to consider the possiblity that they're human and think about what she should do in that scenario.
6011861
1) Hayburgers exist in Equestria
2) Twilight herself doesn't know what goes inside hamburgers
3) Twilight isn't that well versed in humanity itself, and any information she has access to from books, technically so would they.
4) She doesn't have access to Lyra's notes or the group sessions, so she just knows what Lyra tells her, so far. Lyra's on the case and is an accredited health professional who specializes in dealing with transformation related issues (only we know she is over her head). Why shouldn't it be deferred to Lyra? Plus, Lyra does want to go through the mirror now, and Twilight will accompany them on the trip.
6011891
Ok, I'm curious. Beyond Twilight Sparkle, who is keeping almost everything regarding the mirror portal a secret, humans are a myth. Almost nothing is written about them.
How would you test them to see if they were humans? The most I think you could do is conclude that they weren't originally ponies (but even then, they are comfortable around some pony things and concepts (that happen to be shared with Earth)), but it defies explanation as to how they were transformed, since it wasn't through normal means that Lyra knows or can detect.
Finally, even if Lyra believes them, does it matter? Her job is to get them comfortable with being ponies, and knowledgeable about laws and customs. Would that really change?
6011891 Just because the portal exists doesn't mean that they had access to it. Which is one of the things Lyra asked twilight about. Besides none of the ponies ever mention walking through a portal, they all have different ways about how they came to Equestria. All of them being random bizarre methods. Since there is no trend that Lyra could see why would she think they are serious? If they all had mentioned "I came through a portal" or they all had the same way of getting into Equestria then their claims might have been more justifiable to her.
6011907 How to test if a group is of an alien species with the ability to perfectly mimic yours? Well I would probably either a) look into their memories b) time view back to exactly when they arrived c) question them all about various things alone and compare answers that deviate from the acceptable range ponies would give.
6011893
None of that contradicts anything I said. Hamburgers do not exist in Equestria, and Twilight heard the word from Lyra directly. And I think you're also ignoring the fact that she has a portal to the human world in this story.
6011907
Easy: see if their experiences match with the experiences of other's who've been through the portal. For example, Twilight could ask them what high-school was like, how their prom went, or she could ask about anything else she went through.
Absolutely! Tell me, who would you choose to help you through a tough, possibly life changing situation: someone who trusts what you say and tries to see things from your perspective, or someone who thinks you're crazy and dismisses major things related to your condition. Further, what would you want society to think about you, since both Twilight and Lyra could publish something about this phenomona and make people in your situation more accepted by society. It could even result in laws being passed to help individuals dumped into Equestria with no knowledge of how to survive.
6011927
The similar experiences are already more than enough to look into. And the fact that there's a nearby, easily accessable world full of humans still makes their claims more realistic. Plus, neighter Twilight or Lyra know what would happen to a human if they came over, or whether they would show any transformation magic.
When the only thing that doesn't work with the story of how they got there is "I didn't come in through the door", that is not enough of an argument to ignore their entire life stories. Perhaps there were windows they could come through.
6011786
I think you're really overreacting, but I do agree that it's starting to stretch credibility a bit. In a world where chaos gods regularly fuck with people's minds, this degree of arbitrary scepticism is really toeing the line.
Of course, since that's the whole joke behind the story, I'm also really not complaining all that much.
6011786
6011970
You guys realize that Lyra is dealing with what we would call fringe science, right?
Alien abductions, bigfoot, past life regression, that kinda stuff (or the pony equivalent anyway)? Of course she is going to be thinking they're delusional. As for me I'm not very interested in reading about the gathering of evidence to prove her theories because this fic isn't about that. As far as I can tell this fic is about how those theories are wrong.
6012036
It's not really fringe science when the almost all the princesses own portals to other dimensions, and will just tell that any pony who asks, going by Twilight's actions in this story.
Also, I'd say the story is more about a close minded Lyra trying to give humans turned ponies classic psychiatric help when it's obvious they need something else.
6011949
I've just been assuming that Twilight is a decent representation of Equestria's scientific community in "Feeling Pinkie Keen", and that ponies are just terrible at science. Not testing what the 'crazy ponies' are saying seems like the kind of thing Twilight would do in that episode so that’s what I'm thinking about Lyra too.
6012188
Well, Twilight might not be good at science if you take that episode into account. (Though I'd rather just assume the writer's didn't know much about science. ) But even then, we know that she's well read, even likening her situation to mystery novels in mmmystery on the friendship express, and introducing dash to daring do.
She's been shown to be capable of finding clues, and gets irked whenever something is inconsistent, so her not noticing such an inconsistency seems inconsistent.
6012218
You have a lot of posts. What inconsistency do you mean?
I think at least some of them would want to stay.
Shattered Stone yes he is starting to see things the pony way it is a small step but he is getting there.
Twilight made a hologram in the air, showing Lyra as a pony, and the human Lyra. to quote a Dr never meet your self it is vary vary bade.
Darrell shook off her surprise and stormed after Shattered was this good or bad? I am going out on a limb hear and say this is good for bouth of them.
this story is just getting so much better as it goes.
supper good work David Silver.
and to all the readers you should check out David's other work they are all good.
Harts Fire
6011879 Simply put, wrong kind of delusion. Lyra's ignoring evidence, and the evidence she ignores is whatever would contradict her train of thought at any given moment.
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6011927
6011907
6011786 You guys expect way too much from a colorful magic musician from a relatively primitive society. She is not a modern day therapist, why do you insist she act like one? She's been super allowing of their claims so far, to the point that, now, she's booked a trip through dimensions just to see if maybe she's wrong. That's above and beyond the call of duty in just about any psychologist's book. She has not been crushing their pasts under an iron hoof. She has been trying rather hard to get them to accept what is in front of them. They are ponies. Current tense. Definately ponies.
It's not even reasonable to assume she should worry about their past, because it doesn't matter to her job. At the best she should... kinda do what she did already, and seek out another pony that could potentially get them home if that's an option, which she didn't know was remotely an option until after the group meeting, but had to talk to them a bit more before she could internalize the idea that her group might actually be talking artichokes from the planet Quackzar after all, and how dare she not accept that at face value when they all went into such great detail to describe the pleasures of photosynthesis.
OK, I was really pleased with Lyra in this chapter, especially at the end. Still don't know what to think of Shattered Stone; on the one hand, he really might've just been a lonely guy who didn't have the easiest time interacting with other people. That doesn't still explain how he embraced being a stallion so quickly, and he could've even been lying for all we know, but I'm optimistic that he was telling the truth. I look forward to seeing how Lyra behaves in the human world and what new things she might discover there. Maybe there are no human-doppelgangers for her patients and they're the actual human-versions themselves, maybe there are doppelgangers and for some reason the ponies have gotten their memories, IDK, but it'll be interesting to find out.
I am liking this.
One thing a little surprised at is the overall reaction to Lucy. You have a child, a child whose "tribe" is indigenous to specific area, and they have yet to reach out for a missing child report. You'd think Twilight would have sent word to Cadence and Shining Armor that one of their juvenile citizens has mysteriously shown up in HER town. But, I'll keep watching and seeing how things play out. Truthfully I'm a bit surprised that they (the humans) haven't REALLY discussed WHERE in the world they are from (I know one answered America, but come on surely they'd think of 'What state, what city, whose the president?' and stuff like that to ask EACH OTHER)
Personally I DO want Twilight t have a sit-down with them and discover they ARE being truthful. Then it's just a matter of locating the correct universe to bring them to.
6012717 They have. They expressed frustration at the fact that they didn't find a missing crystal foal. That should be super easy to do. They come from exactly one place! How hard is this?! But there's no sign of Lucy's existence besides the fact that she clearly exists.
As for finding the 'right' universe, that's kind of a huge tricky wicket, what with their portal technology being 'does the mirror go where you want? No? Tough luck.'
Welp that answer my question.
Oh that scene between Darrel and Shattered Stone. Oh one of those terrible things that could happen to a man in a mare's body! Ah, wow, hilarious to observe.
Hmm... would a human-turned-pony pony have a human counterpart? Hmm... I will be "hmm"ing a lot, I take it...
Ah. Shattered Stone has that... thing. Being kind isn't working, so instead he's going to throw all caution, and respect, to the wind.
6050035 Thing you say?
6050078
Well... That sort of growing pains when someone who is unaccustomed to expressing themself starts to. And often this includes rejecting the things that made them so docile, which, in this case, is a sense that being quiet and agreeable is the way to display respect.
So when rejecting it they go pretty far overboard.
need to find someone whose counterpart has died, that can go through the portal and make sure anyone's double is warned to stay away if one is planning a trip. Probably tricky in that when your counterpart dies, your universe being similar and all there isn't exactly good odds that you haven't died as well.
Where the heck did this dangerous to meet your double thing come from?
6660399 Why was only Twilight allowed to go?
6660719 First time was uncertainty about what was on the other side. Second time was not wanting things to be too confusing.