Sonic Reviews: My Little Pony Friendship is Magic fan fiction: "Anthropology" by JasonTheHuman · 11:14pm Oct 14th, 2013
Yeah, yeah, I said that I would be doing Star Trek Into Darkness, but I changed by mind.
So, Anthropology, one of the more memorable stories here on Fimfiction. I've never read it before now, so I decided to sit down and see what all the hype was about.
Warning: Spoilers ahead.
Lyra. She's obsessed with humans. One day as a filly, she was doing a research project on Equestrian History, and did it on humans. She failed. However, that's where it all began. Choosing to adopt the name "Lyra", as opposed to her original name "Heartstrings", she researches the mythical creatures, until her parents order her to stop.
Several years later, she moves out and lives with Bon Bon, and the two share the rent. However, Lyra drives her crazy with her re-obtained human obsession, to the point of wanting to be a human herself. She even turns her own hooves into hands, much to Bon Bon's horror.
Bon Bon threatens to kick Lyra out of the house, so she stops for a short while, until Princess Celestia orders Twilight Sparkle to make a report on humans. Lyra is now convinced that the Princesses want to punish her.
However, at the Gala, Lyra is called to Celestia's side, and is told that she was originally a human. She arrived in Equestria as an infant, through unknown causes. She turns Lyra back into a human, and is sent to Earth. Bon Bon knows nothing, other than that Lyra is not coming back.
In the human world, Lyra ends up in the middle of nowhere Iowa. She travels into a nearby city, and meets a girl named Audrey. Lyra tells her that she woke up outside of the city and can't remember her past. Audrey takes her in.
Lyra, realizing that she needs to make money, offers to join a rock band, having learned to play the guitar. The band plays a few shows, and is an instant hit. However, Lyra is looking for her birth parents, and needs to look soon. She shows her friend Nathan a picture of her parents that she was found with, and he recognizes them.
Her father is a famous fantasy writer.
So she travels to meet him, and he knows that Lyra is his daughter that disappeared a little over sixteen years ago. He takes her in, and they become a family again.
However...
A few months later, Discord appears in front of Lyra, thanking her for allowing him to find these humans, and confirms that he, indeed, made humans go extinct in Equestria, and intends to do it again. He also turns Lyra back into a pony before going to New York to start his chaos.
Lyra rushes back home, where her father finds her. She explains everything, but suddenly finds herself in Equestria again. She runs into Bon Bon, and hastily tells her what is going on. The pair rush to Canterlot, where they discover that Celestia wants to see Lyra yet again. She arrives, finding the Mane 6 there as well. The seven of them go to the human world, with Lyra returning to her human form, and they go to stop Discord yet again, only to find that the Elements don't work.
Lyra, out of desperation to save her new home, calls six of her human friends to wield the Elements, and they stop Discord for good.
..... Oh, boy, where do I begin?
I liked the parts with Lyra as a pony. I loved that part. It's the best part of the story. Unfortunately, there's only a few Chapters of those. The H!Lyra makes up most of the story, where the writing....
He's got is depiction of a human Lyra spot on, I'll give him that. I can totally see her loving guitar (And am I the only one who finds his description of Human Lyra kind of cute? I dunno. I'm weird.), and the rock band thing was cool. However, the human part of the story is really weak, in characters and over all interesting-ness. It's not very interesting by the time we find out who Lyra's father is.
If I can recommend reading this story, I can say read up to Chapter 9, and assume that the story was never completed. Just do that, as from then on, the story seriously goes down hill.
If there's one thing I can compliment the human section on, aside from Human Lyra, it's the feels you could get at points. It does a good job at that.
Anyway, I give "Anthropology" by JasonTheHuman a 2.7/5. Strong pony parts, but weak human parts. Writing is great, and Human Lyra is characterized perfectly.
Dude, Discord takes control of the MILiTARY, yah know, the guys with assualt rifles, jets, and cruise missiles? That's pretty dang scary, and he's immortal.
1421063 Well, yeah, but I feel that the human arc, especially the Discord parts, were rushed and not as strong as the pony parts.
1421122 Fair enough, yeah, they did seem pretty rushed, though, when your close to a long ash story, you may just wanna get it done, or can't think of a way to make the finale "POP"
1421285 Very true.