"As you can see, this design is a happy medium to get a unique look for 'Equestria Girls'. It’s just human enough, yet at the same time retaining many of the pony-like qualities that will set it apart from your average everyday human figurines. It is important that these designs be as distinct as possible if we want Equestria Girls to be a success."
Lyra pointed the wooden stand displaying the design one final time to end her presentation. She finally got a chance to exhale. She must have gone over the presentation over a thousand times this past week, much to Bon-Bon's chagrin. However it was necessary to get the presentation just right. Lyra was overjoyed when Twilight, Pinkie and the others gave her the opportunity to develop a story based around a humanized version of Equestria for a possible movie for Hasbro. Even though she had always been a fan of humans and humanity, a different idea popped into Lyra's head about how to handle this opportunity. She didn't just want to settle on a straight up humanized versions of the Mane 6. She wanted to do something... different. Something unique and distinctive that would catch everyone's eye, especially if Hasbro wanted to create toys based around the movie. So Lyra went to work to create a different kind of human for the movie, and she had a perfect name for her project, 'Equestria Girls'.
Unfortunately, no matter how hard she tried with every one of the designs, she still couldn't come up with a design that she was happy with. Things got even more complicated with Twilight's coronation. With all the hoopla and ultimate success surrounding Princess Twilight Sparkle, the need to make a movie in the first place kept on decreasing. And now, with the deadline to submit the movie to HQ just weeks away, it was now or never for Lyra to get an idea approved. She worked around the clock on the project, particularly in these past few days. Most of her time was spent trying to get the design just right. It took her several sleepless nights but she finally came up with a design that she was proud of. And so, after all her hard work, here she was now in the middle of the library, just her and the six bearers of the Elements of Harmony and the stars of the show in a board room type meeting going over the final details Lyra drew up for Twilight's Equestria Girls' counterpart (she was still working on the other five at that moment, but at least Twilight's was done). She had discussed some of the details before, but this meeting was the grand reveal, giving the six friends their first up close look at the details of the idea. Lyra took another breath to relax herself. The fate of 'Equestria Girls' rested on this moment.
"So… what do you think?" the green unicorn asked.
The six ponies in the audience took another silent look at the display, which featured Lyra's idea of what a human Twilight would look like in the movie. Lyra's heartbeat increased as the stress of the silence got to her.
"Ah’ll be honest, it certainly is… interesting," Applejack finally noted.
"Interesting in a good way, or interesting in a bad way?" Lyra asked impatiently.
Applejack took another look at the display. She shrugged nervously. "Just… interesting. Really interesting."
None of the others could muster up the courage to say anything to Lyra about her project right there. They all smiled nervously, hoping that somepony else would say something at that moment. Pinkie broke the awkward pause by clearing her throat.
"At the very least, thanks for all your hard work Lyra. We really appreciate you trying to do this for us." Pinkie said.
Lyra blushed. "Thanks Pinkie. I... really wanted to be a bigger part of the show. And I worked so hard to prove to you guys that I can pitch in too."
"Well, I’ll tell you what Lyra. Me and the girls are going to talk this over some more and we’ll get back to you with our thoughts once we get a chance to take this all in."
"Ok! I’ll be waiting to hear from you!" Lyra smiled as she heads out the library door. She never noticed the nervous smiles on the six ponies' faces as she left. After Lyra shuts the front door, everypony in the library sighed in relief.
"Ugh, that was brutal," Rainbow Dash commented.
Rarity simply shook her head. "I’ve never felt so awkward in my entire life."
"Are you girls thinking what Ah’m thinking?" Applejack asked.
Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. "I know I am. Lyra's idea blows."
Twilight frowned a bit at Rainbow Dash's bluntness. "I wouldn't have put it that way, but I sadly have to agree too. Lyra’s idea still has merit, but this execution leaves a bit to be desired."
"That’s putting it mildly," Rarity nodded emphatically. "The idea for this anthropomorphic design here is... off. This takes out all the adorable and cute aspects of a pony and replaces it with all the awkward aspects of a human. Needless to say, it’s not a fair trade."
Rainbow Dash got to the head of the table. "I don’t know about you guys, but I’m voting a big fat no on this whole thing."
Applejack raised her hoof. "That goes double for me."
"I’ll concur as well," Rarity added.
Fluttershy shook her head for the green unicorn who hatched the idea. "Poor Lyra. She worked so hard on this. I want to vote yes for her. But… I just can’t."
Twilight sighed. "Four no’s out of six. Guess that makes it official. And sadly, I was voting no too. Making a movie based off of this would be a mistake. What do you say Pinkie?"
"I would have put a stop to this even if you five voted yes. I mean, seriously, this has the potential to be even WORSE than Newborn Cuties!"
Rarity cringed at that analogy. "That bad?"
Pinkie went on to offer her two cents. "The problem is that a premise like this is full of so many possibilities that you just can’t settle for the first idea that pops in your head. It needs time to simmer so the story and the designs can get just right. Even if Lyra spent all that time over 'Equestria Girls', this… isn’t quite ready yet."
"Ah think that you could say that about us making a movie in the first place!" Applejack added. "If you ask me, maybe we’re not ready to do a movie as we thought. At least not yet."
Pinkie nodded sadly. "I’m starting to see that too. Thankfully, making a movie is not required from us. It was just an option that Hasbro gave us when we got green lit for season 4. So we don’t have to lose sleep over this. We’ll just tell Hasbro that we’re not doing a movie and that's that. They’ll understand."
"That’s good. I mean, could you actually imagine what the fans would think if we actually went through with this 'Equestria Girls' idea?" Rainbow Dash laughed.
Pinkie groaned. "Ugh, don’t remind me. It’s bad enough the fanbase went nuts after Twilight became an alicorn!"
"Don't remind me," Twilight groaned. "I'd rather not go through that again!"
"Even if we made Equestria Girls non-cannon to “Friendship is Magic”, it’ll still make the fans really angry," Pinkie continued. "There’s just no way we can ever do a project like this. Long story short, it's simply not good enough."
"So, how are we going to break it to Lyra that we’ve rejected her idea?" Fluttershy wondered.
Raimbow Dash shrugged. "That’s easy. We’ll just tell her ‘We really loved your idea Lyra, but sadly we've decided to go in a different direction.’"
"We can’t just lie to her!" Applejack shouted in alarm.
"Oh, so what do you want to say to her? ‘Sorry Lyra but your idea was the worst idea in the history of the My Little Pony franchise?’ Do you think that'll be better?"
"That’s just being mean, Rainbow! Of course Ah ain’t saying that! But we just can’t lie to her and pretend that her idea is ok when it’s obviously not."
"Applejack is right." Rarity spoke up. "Lyra needs to be aware that her idea needs a lot of work."
Fluttershy decided to volunteer herself. "I'll go over later and have a talk with her."
"Thanks Fluttershy" Pinkie said. "So it’s unanimous then. We’re not doing 'Equestria Girls' and we’ll put off doing a movie until further notice. Agreed?"
Everypony in the room raised their hoof in agreement, sealing the fate of the project.
"Well I guess that’s that then. What’s next on our agenda?" Twilight asked.
Pinkie smiled. "Well, I figured we might still be a bit worn out over the finale, so I was wondering how you girls would feel about taking a vacation to Las Pegasus next month. What do you say?"
"I’m in!!! Golden Horseshoe, here I come!!!" Rainbow Dash shouted in excitement.
"Oh, I simply can't resist the opportunity to do all that shopping." Rarity began to daydream about her conquering the famous malls Las Pegasus has to offer.
"Oh, well I... uh... I.. maybe... for a little while..." Fluttershy started to stammer. "I mean I'm not really a kind of pony who would..."
"Fluttershy says yes!" Rainbow Dash finished for her, making the yellow pegasus blush.
"Oh what the hay. Count me in too!" Applejack smiled.
Twilight chuckled. "Well it's unanimous again!"
"Ha! Two unanimous votes! This is the most productive meeting in history!" Rainbow Dash laughed.
Lyra had heard enough. She had her ear pressed against the library's front door ever since she left. She had been too impatient to wait for the verdict so she listened into the debate. Now she wished she hadn't. They hated it. No, they didn't just hate it. They thought it was the worst idea anypony had ever thought up. Lyra slowly troted away from the library towards her home. Her head hung low as the words from the meeting echoed in her head.
"Lyra's idea blows."
"Worst idea in My Little Pony history..."
"Even worse than Newborn Cuties!"
"We can't just lie to her and tell her that it's ok when it's obviously not!"
"Poor Lyra. She worked so hard on this."
"Long story short, it's simply not good enough."
"Not good enough..."
"Not good enough..."
The words kept repeating in her head. All that time she spent, all the passion and sacrifice she put into the project, all the ambition she had to have a more active role on the show. And after all that, all her efforts were simply wasn't good enough.
"I guess it wasn’t meant to be." Lyra sighed.
Lyra kept on her slow, mournful trip back home, not particularly caring about the world around her. Everypony around her seemed to have been enjoying the day, and she didn't want to project her sad state of affairs on their bright day. She would just wallow in her own self pity for however long ponies were supposed to wallow in it. So Lyra paid no attention to anypony around her. She even almost missed a bubbly voice from overhead calling her name. the voice got louder until Lyra noticed the distinctive cross-eyes of a grey pegasus landing in front of her. It was of course Derpy Hooves. However, Lyra wasn't even sure if Derpy's bright smile could lift her spirits right now.
"Lyra!!! How are you doing?" Derpy asked.
"Hey Derpy," Lyra frowned sadly. She kept her head hanging low in her depressed state. Derpy was quick to notice that Lyra wasn't feeling happy. Lyra was normally a very excitable pony who sported a grin that could be found in a crowd of thousands of ponies. So seeing the green unicorn like this was a bit unnerving for Derpy.
"Lyra? Are you ok?" Derpy asked in concern.
Lyra sighed. "No I’m not," she admitted.
"Oh no! What happened?"
"Well, remember that movie that Pinkie wanted me to help her with?"
"You mean 'Equestria Girls'?" Derpy was familiar with the project with the number of times Lyra brought it up over the past few months.
"Well I had a meeting to present it to Pinkie and her friends.... and they didn’t like it. In fact, they flat out hated it."
Derpy's expression saddened a bit for Lyra. "Oh. I’m sorry."
"It’s not your fault. It’s just, this was my big chance to show that I could contribute too, you know. I guess I’m just not good enough." Lyra had to fight back the tears forming in her eyes.
Derpy just couldn't stand to see one of her friends so sad like this. "Well you shouldn’t give up, Lyra! If it really means that much to you, you should keep trying until it gets made. You never know."
Lyra shrugged. "I guess, maybe..."
Derpy frowned. She was determined to get that grin back on Lyra's face. And she knew a way to do it. "Hey, you know? I was just on my way to meet Chrysalis for our muffin exchange. Why don’t you join me? A warm muffin might be just the right medicine you need to make you feel better. Come on, please?"
Lyra wanted to say no, even though it was nearly impossible to resist Derpy's muffins. But she just wanted to be left alone for now. Besides, she never even met Queen Chrysalis after her reformation. Her only other encounter was when she was disguised as Cadence during the wedding.
If only she paid attention to the attitude back then, then she would have been indistinguishable from the... real... thing...
Lyra stood stunned as realization hit her hard. An idea started forming in her head.
"Derpy? Do you know if Chrysalis has a spare camera?" Lyra asked urgently.
Derpy stood confused at Lyra's sudden change in moods. "Uh, yes. They still had it from when they stood in for everypony back when we were still doing the reruns live. Why do you ask?"
Lyra flashed her big grin in response. "I'm going to get Octavia and Vinyl! I’m gonna need some help with the music! Derpy, find Time Turner and meet us at the train station! I’ll be right back!"
Lyra dashed off away from a very confused Derpy.
"I don't know what that was about, but at least I got her to smile again." Derpy said to herself.
Derpy went back to fetch Time Turner like Lyra wanted. Meanwhile, Lyra galloped full speed down the streets of Ponyville with a big grin on her face. Derpy was right. She shouldn't give up her dreams even if they said no. She should keep going forward. She should be the master of her own destiny. And with the help of the changelings, she'll show Pinkie and the others too. She worked too hard to let it all end now. No, this idea has to be made a reality. 'Equestria Girls' needed to be made. And if nopony will give her the chance to do it, then she's just going to have to do it herself! A part of her felt guilty for going behind everypony's backs like this, but she quickly shrugged it aside.
Everything's going to be just fine, she thought to herself. After all, I'll be the master of my own destiny! 'Equestria Girls' is a good idea. I just need to show them myself. I'll shoot the movie, then I'll show it to Pinkie, and then she'll see just for herself what a great idea this is!
What could possibly go wrong?