Meet The Mares: Lulu Luck · 11:22pm Sep 15th, 2021
There’s only so much that can go into a story, especially one with as many characters as 16 has. So I’m opening the floor to asking these characters questions. Post your reply with any questions you have and Lulu Luck will be happy to answer them (I’ll be editing this blog to add those questions). I’ll be posting the other characters in the coming weeks (up through Snowcatcher; the rest will come after their chapters are posted).
Interview subject #9: Lulu Luck
Source: https://derpibooru.org/images/165139
Cutie mark?
Thanks to Feathermay, I discovered that pony names don’t translate to English quite as well as everyone originally thought. What’s the most direct translation of your name?
She Who Sides With Luck. I’ve survived some pretty intense moments that I shouldn’t have. I once crash-landed an airship into a lake, and that was after I’d been pushed off of it.
That sounds like quite the story. Do you want to share?
That’s what everybody tells me, and no, I don’t. I’m saving it for the book everypony is trying to convince me to write, that I have no intention of writing. It’s really not a big deal.
You were on the very first busload of ponies brought to the consulate the day the portal opened. Is that correct?
Actually, that’s not correct. Not everypony working at the Mareiott was on the first bus. My predecessor was, though. There was a mare by the name of Bifröst who was on that first bus who joined the hotel on day one. I bought her share out, and haven’t regretted it. She was friends with Honeybuzz and Feathermay, so you could probably ask them about her.
Relationship status?
Single. Romance is an unnecessary distraction.
Favorite part of living on Earth?
You’re kidding, right? Your technology. I thought the Abyssinians were advanced, but they’ve got nothing on you.
What’s your favorite song? Specifically, your favorite song that our audience on Earth might know?
Hold on. She places an iPod on the desk between us and starts scrolling through her playlist that contains tens of thousands of songs. I’ve got a little bit of everything in here. I have every single Equestrian song that’s been digitized, and make it a point to keep current. I love my coworkers, but except for Diamond Rose, they’re not very tech savvy. So if they want something, I’ve got it.
As for a personal favorite? It depends entirely on my mood. If I’m working on something delicate, like a motherboard, I like soft music. Preferably instrumental. If I’m out in the garage pounding out a dent on a Ford Pinto or banging a hammer on the finicky carburetor of a Checker engine, it’s gotta be hard rock or heavy metal.
For all-time favorite? Probably Edvard Grieg’s In The Hall Of The Mountain King. I have a bunch of versions, as performed by symphonies around the world. I’ve unfortunately discovered the song has lyrics that I’m not particularly fond of, but most versions are instrumental.
Oh, and obligatory ‘because it’s my name’ song: With A Little Luck by Wings. This will probably be an unpopular opinion, but I think the Beatles’ best work came post-breakup. Wings, Traveling Wilburys, their various solo careers. Well, with one exception.
Ringo?
Bingo.
What is with ponies and rhyming things? Even in regular conversation, it sounds like you’re singing.
Ponies are a very musical species. We’re known to break out into song spontaneously, in the middle of a crowd, and somehow everypony joins in. It’s part of our Equestrian magic. Harmony is a concept embraced fully by ponies, in both aspects of the word.
Favorite TV show?
It’s not on television, but I’m going to count Roadkill as my favorite. To specify, that’s the Motor Trend web series, and not the more recent British TV show. I’m also partial to Knight Rider and an obscure cartoon show from the 1980s by the name of Pole Position. The latter two shows feature computerized, talking cars. Combining my hobbies? Yes, please!
Favorite movie?
Smokey And The Bandit and Rat Race.
Do you have a car?
Yes, multiple. My favorite car in my fleet is a Checker Marathon. The same make and model that the Mareiott uses for guest services. They’ve got timeless styling, they’re durable, and they’re easy to work on. I’ve got a few others, too. But they’re mostly projects waiting for me to have time to fix them up. Between the hotel’s fleet and everypony else’s cars, not to mention taking care of my guests, there’s not as much time as I’d like to tinker with them.
What do you miss about Equestria?
My family, of course. I bet you’ve heard that answer a bunch of times already. The catch is, I had already left Equestria prior to coming to Earth. I spent a few years in Abyssinia. Ponies are a rare sight in the land of felines. How rare? My arrival doubled the local equine population. I thought they were joking when they told me that, but even after spending years there I only ever encountered one other pony. From there, I came here.
In that case, what do you miss about Abyssinia?
Ponies think Abyssinians are as adorable as humans think ponies are. I’m sorry to say humans aren’t as cute.
Emil: What was the favorite food/drink that you discovered on human-Earth?
Royal Crown Cola. It’s a bit of a sore subject for Ploomette, but RC’s really popular with ponies now because she drank some on TV. That hasn’t stopped her from drinking it, and she makes a show of it now when she’s on camera. She’s turned what should have been an embarrassing faux pas into her own thing. It’s become a trademark for her and since they couldn’t sign her to an endorsement deal, the company donates to her sister’s charity back in Equestria. They’ve really embraced the equine market, and ponies are incredibly loyal. It’s been win-win all around.
Reese: I'm surprised most ponies find Abyssinians so adorable, given your relative sizes and Abyssinians having anatomy of predatory carnivores. I'm not saying I'd expect hostility, since you are after all thinking beings, nor would I be surprised to hear some ponies found them so adorable – but most? Do you know what's going on there, if any ponies have speculated on the reasons?
I understand that on Earth, there are things called teddy bears, which most humans find adorable. I also understand most folks don’t actually want an up close look at real bears. Most ponies find cats cute, and Abyssinians are cats. Big, bipedal, sapient cats.
I do, perhaps, have a biased sample. I grew up in Siami, where felines outnumbered equines once the Storm King showed up in their homeland. The ponies who were uncomfortable with Abyssinians moved north. The rest of us stayed put and enjoyed interacting with our new neighbors.
Reese: Actually, related question – you're possibly not the best pony to ask, but it's close to the subject I was already on: on Earth, many brightly-colored animals have developed that coloration because they're poisonous, and I've come across some speculation before that the same is true of ponies. Is that why your species appears to have no instinctual fear of Abyssinians?
We’re non-toxic as far as I know. I haven’t heard of any sapients eating a pony. If a species was to ever cause concern, it would be dragons and to a lesser extent, griffons. Some dragons are huge and could gobble up a dozen ponies and leave no trace they ever existed. Griffons have sharp talons capable of ripping a pony to shreds. But they don’t.
Monsters do periodically. You can’t rationalize with a hydra, you can only hope to outrun it.
Our princesses raise the sun and the moon. There are legends of things Princess Celestia did to ensure the peace and prosperity of ponykind. One would have to be very stupid to risk invoking the wrath of the creatures that control the sun. We evolved from a prey species that herded together for protection. We look out for one another.
The rest of us aren’t defenseless either. We can buck, and unicorns have the added bonus of magic. You never know what you’ll get when you mess with a unicorn.
It doesn’t hurt that Abyssinians prefer seafood and poultry (don’t tell Feathermay about that last part; they like eating chicken as much as humans do).
If one wanted to try eating a pony, I suppose it would be best to look for a small settlement. Possibly out on the frontier somewhere. Somewhere far away from communications with the rest of society. Like here on Earth. Are you going to eat me?
Reese: No, I'm not any more likely to eat you than an Abyssinian is. I was mostly thinking about the ancestral evolutionary environment.
That’s appreciated. Our evolutionary history is significantly more complex than Earth’s. Humans are the dominant sapient species on Earth, perhaps the only one. There are more than a dozen sapient species on Equus. Ponies evolved from a prey species, as did cows, donkeys, yaks, and giraffes. Zebras share ponykind’s most recent common ancestor, but ponies and zebras diverged a few hundred thousand years ago. Some of our scientists are split on the issue, and have argued that zebras are the same species as ponies, but with different coat markings.
Abyssinians and griffins evolved from predators, while minotaurs are evolved omnivores. Changelings are a unique case, having previously been a parasitic race feeding on emotions. After an ‘event’ of some sort (details are sketchy), there are now two types of changelings. ‘Changedlings’ which are herbivores like ponies, while unchanged changelings continue to feed on love. If not for the fact they’re extant in Equestria, there’d be no evidence that they exist. There’s no evidence for changelings or any direct ancestors in the fossil record. It’s been hypothesized that they’re the mythological ‘flutter ponies’ known from legends, though that doesn’t explain where they came from.
None of the changedlings know their past, and it’s unknown if any changelings survived the ‘event’ unchanged. If any did, they’re likely in hiding. If anycreature knows, it’s their former queen, but I don’t think we’re going to get answers out of her anytime soon.
Dragons are fascinating in that they’re neither herbivores nor carnivores, but instead eat gems. Gems grow wild in Equestria, and are farmed like vegetables. Dragons can be considered omnivorous since they’re also capable of eating both meat and plants.
Hippogriffs are the product of interbreeding between ponies and griffins. While griffin-pony couples are rare, they must’ve been common at some point in the past if an entire species could be founded from the offspring of those relationships. Hippogriffs are primarily piscivores.
Then there’s Discord. He’s a draconequus. His history is completely unknown. According to him, he was born from chaos magic. Evolution can’t explain him, though it’s possible he may have influenced evolution on Equus if he’s been around longer than any of our species. Magic doesn’t fossilize and Discord isn’t one for giving straight answers. Conversely, it’s been suggested that he’s the resulting offspring of a pony-dragon pairing. Dragons don’t normally get romantically involved with other species, and offspring from such parentage is completely unheard of.
Reese: Thinking more on it, pony toxicity to humans could be important information for the hotel to know. Obviously, humans eating ponies is out of the question, but there's the question of whether such things as shed hairs would be problematic. I'm guessing not particularly, or you'd have noticed by now, but I thought I'd ask when the idea came to me while I was on the topic.
We’re not toxic, and I haven’t even heard of someone being allergic to us, but I suppose that’s possible?
Reese: Hopefully these questions don't let curiosity run too far past the bounds of politeness, though; if so, sorry. Having now lived in two different lands where ponies are extreme minorities, though, I hope you'll understand said curiosity from others about you?
No worries, it takes more than a few questions to offend me. This is an interview, and likely the first chance many of you have had to ask questions of a pony.
I understand your curiosity. I’ve seen that some humans treat other humans poorly because they don’t look or act like they do. While blue ponies aren’t biased against pink ponies, there’s some lingering bad blood between the three tribes. There are some unicorns, pegasi, and earth ponies that only associate with their own kind. Ponies are afraid of the unknown. Fear is a powerful motivator.
Snowliasion: As ever you luck bearing daredevil. Favorite colleague?
I don’t know if I’d go so far as to call myself a daredevil. I didn’t get on the airship with the intention of being thrown off it, or crashing it…
I’m a loner by nature. Diamond Rose isn’t, but she’s an outcast like me. We’ve bonded over our love of human technology. It’s why I went to great lengths to restore a car for her that she couldn’t have afforded otherwise. She has a good heart, but she has a bad habit of opening her mouth. It doesn’t help her case much that Lily Blossom has the dirt on her, and is more than happy to spill it any time Diamond annoys her. Which is frequently. It also doesn’t help that her ideas tend to be unhelpful.
Emil: Having a luck-based cutie mark sounds like it guarantees success - or at least, guarantees you'll never have a disastrous failure. Is that true? Does it mean you'll never suffer bad luck?
My name’s luck, but my cutie mark’s actually for walking.* I’d call being captured by the Storm King and thrown off his airship to be unlucky. That said, the fact that I survived would certainly support your theory. But that nets out in the end, so I’m not sure it counts.
*Lulu hasn’t yet figured out that her cutie mark was acquired when she teleported off the airship, and is indeed for luck. She discovered it after spending hours trudging through a swamp, and it’s a pair of horseshoes. You can understand her confusion on this.
Dan: What do you think of the rest of Peer Gynt?
I’m afraid it isn’t to my taste. I like In The Hall Of The Mountain King, specifically as an instrumental. The lyrics are… awful. As for the play itself, I didn't make it through the first act. I'm sorry. Lulu's ears flatten in embarrassment as she says this.
Dan: Have you bought any human lottery tickets or visited any casinos?
I’ve never had any interest in gambling. The lottery is a thinly-disguised tax on ponies who are bad at math.
This will be a plot point later in the story.
penguincascadia: What do you think about the various human space programs?
I find them fascinating. If NASA ever has any interest in sending a pony to the moon, I’ll volunteer. I could be the second pony to go to a moon, but the first to actually set hoof on it.
penguincascadia: Do you have a favorite space probe?
I never really thought about it. I guess the Voyager twins, though I feel like that’s a clichéd answer. But they’ve done so much, for so long, with so little. And as my coworkers can attest to, I’m rather partial to 1970s technology. It’s easier to work on, and I understand it a lot better than today’s computers. I’d be willing to help build a Voyager replica to start exploring Equus’ system. We could certainly upgrade it a bit with what’s been learned in the decades since it launched, but I’m a big fan of keeping things simple.
Royale Princess: Would you dare to create the first time machine ever in Earth/Equus?
Absolutely! There are existing time travel spells, and I’d love to combine them with technology to bring time travel to everyone! While these spells aren’t exactly ‘forbidden’ they’re not exactly common knowledge. One needs clearance to get access to them, and that’s something I lack.
Dan: Are you familiar with any of Gerry Anderson's work?
Thunderbirds are go!
Dan: If you pulled a human from a burning structure or vehicle and they pledged a life-debt to you, how would you react?
I'd threaten to put them right back into the burning building or vehicle. If that doesn't snap them out of it, I understand Earth has something known as a 'restraining order' that should do the trick. One doesn't do something like that to be rewarded, one does something like that because it's the right thing to do. If I save someone's life and they want to treat me to an ice cream or something, that's one thing.
I'd rather see them pay it forward, and stop and help someone who needs it. Don't get me wrong, I understand being grateful to someone, and I know I'm being hypocritical here because I'd probably try to do the same thing if someone saved my life. I suppose it's different when the horseshoe is on the other hoof.
Dan: What if they're really cute, and/or an orphan with no other prospects than to be your partner/servant/familiar?
I would hope that they aspire to be something more than that. If not, I'll just have to insist that they make more of their life than that. I'm a loner by nature, and not particularly interested in a partner (romantic or otherwise), servant, or familiar. I wouldn't turn down having a new friend though.
What do you think of the rest of Peer Gynt?
Also, Ringo is best Mr. Conductor. That Carlin guy aint got crap. He doesn't even know mean from median.
Also, what do you think of Lt. M'Ress and why is she best Starfleet Officer?
Have you bought any human lottery tickets or visited any casinos?
Early classic rock is okay, but all the best human music is directly derived from the Baroque period. The absolute pinnacle of human music is the Musica Antiqua Köln recording of die kunst der fuge.
It was literally too perfect for this world, and it cuts off because God took him away before he could reveal too much. Many scholars have proposed how it was intended to end, but a pony's perspective would be particularly valuable, I'm sure.
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=contrapunctus+14+completion
Having a luck-based cutie mark sounds like it guarantees success- or at least, guarantees you'll never have a disastrous failure. Is that true? Does it mean you'll never suffer bad luck?
As ever you luck bearing daredevil Favorite colleague?
I'm surprised most ponies find Abyssinians so adorable, given your relative sizes and Abyssinians having anatomy of predatory carnivores. I'm not saying I'd expect hostility, since you are after all all thinking beings, nor would I be surprised to hear some ponies found them so adorable -- but most? Do you know what's going on there, if any ponies have speculated on the reasons?
Actually, related question -- you're possibly not the best pony to ask, but it's close to the subject I was already on: on Earth, many brightly-colored animals have developed that coloration because they're poisonous, and I've come across some speculation before that the same is true of ponies. Is that why your species appears to have no instinctual fear of Abyssinians?
Actually, thinking more on it, pony toxicity to humans could be important information for the hotel to know. Obviously, humans eating ponies is out of the question, but there's the question of whether such things as shed hairs would be problematic. I'm guessing not particularly, or you'd have noticed by now, but I thought I'd ask when the idea came to me while I was on the topic.
...Hopefully these questions don't let curiosity run too far past the bounds of politeness, though; if so, sorry. Having now lived in two different lands where ponies are extreme minorities, though, I hope you'll understand said curiosity from others about you?
edit for the author:
I don't remember if the adorableness-to-ponies of Abyssinians was brought up in Lulu Luck's chapter, but if so, I apparently didn't think of this then -- unless I'm also forgetting that.
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I'll address your in character questions in the blog, but I'll answer the author one here. Both of these points were brought up in her chapter. Oddly enough, one would think this would be counterintuitive, but here are some quotes from the chapter:
Aside from being absolutely adorable, Abyssinians have all kinds of gadgets we don’t have here in Equestria. Felines don’t possess any natural magic of their own, so they’ve developed their technology to compensate, building devices that don’t run on magical charges. I found their tech fascinating, and I had an entire corner of my room dedicated to taking their gizmos apart and attempting to put them back together. Sometimes I got it right, and other times I was left with a pile of broken parts. With age comes experience: I break far fewer devices than I used to.
So Lulu mentions finding them cute. There's also this exchange between Lulu, Catrina, and Tempest Shadow:
“Equestrians are in short supply around these parts.”
“How short?”
“The Abyssinian pony population doubled roughly two hours ago, coincidentally at exactly the same time you got off the airship.”
Catrina cracked up at that. “Abyssinians are carnivores. Most ponies get nervous around large groups of cats. You’ve seen that firsthoof in Siami.”
I nodded. “The pony population declined when the feline population boomed.”
“When you say it like that, you make it sound like we started eating you guys, instead of a mass equine exodus to Baytona Beach and other points north.”
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Thank you, as always, for the questions! These have been added to/answered in the blog.
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Ah, thanks. And sorry for forgetting, though... ah, yes, looks like her chapter was over a year ago. So I have some excuse, I hope. :)
And thanks. So it sounds like, indeed, it's not so much that ponies think Abyssinians are adorable as that Lulu is one of the few ponies to think that. Though I've not read the answer in the blog yet. Speaking of...
[reloads and reads]
Thanks!
@Lulu Luck:
Thanks!
And no, I'm not any more likely to eat you than an Abyssinian is. I was mostly thinking about the ancestral evolutionary environment (...though, actually, I don't know if you had one of those in your world), before the Princesses and before diplomacy with other species was an option.
And I'm glad the questions didn't bother you. :)
And back out of character:
"This will be a plot point later in the story."
...Yeeeah, so now I'm wondering what happens if Lulu gets a guest who is interested in gambling...
And I suspect we might just find out!
Oh wow I had no idea about the Mountain King...sheesh. I also have a pretty eclectic playlist with a wide variety of music genres. Don't know much about cars and the last time I actively fiddled with electronics was in my high school shop class. There was an incident with an antique radio unit that my mom got at a garage sale. Needs a fresh power cord, and I haven't the foggiest about its internal state.
What do you think about the various human space programs?
Do you have a favorite space probe?
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Thank you for the question - replied in the blog!
Are you familiar with any of Gerry Anderson's work?
He inspired an entire generation or two of aerospace engineers and emergency response personnel.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTPjLQeB8TFfAuMksms-CCJlNurCR8-1O
If you pulled a human from a burning structure or vehicle and they pledged a life-debt to you, how would you react?
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Thank you for the questions! These have been answered in the blog.
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What if they're really cute, and/or a Short Round-esque orphan with no other prospects than to be your partner/servant/familiar?
(Same line of questioning for all the mares)
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Thank you! Answered in the blog.
Do you want me to add these last two questions for all of the characters?
If you pulled a human from a burning structure or vehicle and they pledged a life-debt to you, how would you react?
What if they're really cute, and/or an orphan with no other prospects than to be your partner/servant/familiar?
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I don't know. 21st century social service bureaucrats would probably kill any interesting storylines in that direction. And I daresay, none of the Mareiott girls would look good in a Sellek mustache, even if they had a young ward/mascot for the establishment.
But I guess I'm kind of jumping across genres and jumping ahead in the story. Can't wait for mares to gain dedicated adult or child followers.