3: Doctor Heartwell
Lyra had an odd dream about a horse snorting mixed with snoring. It turned out to be her own snoring. The hard sound of a hoof rapping at a door woke her out of the slumber. Waking, Lyra found that post-sleep crankiness was universal across all dimensions.
"Wake up call! Breakfast in an hour!" Some orderly said, keeping the door open. The sound of hooves against the floor outside, and the everpresent smell of horses brought Lyra back to her senses. Her odd sense, anyway, as nothing seemed to make much sense around here. It took only a moment to reconfirm that nothing about her body was in its proper place.
Screwloose jumped down from the bed above her, shaking herself off.
"Wake up, Lyra! Trust me you don't want to get late for the bath. They serve breakfast only for an hour and if you miss it, then you don't get any."
Lyra, who was barely half awake, mumbled something about that not sounding very fair. She slid out of bed, landing perfectly on all four legs without even really thinking about it. Actually walking, however, was still something that still gave her trouble. She stumbled a little bit here and there, but wasn't remarkably terrible at it.
"This place is starting to feel like a detention center," she said quietly. "My mom would serve breakfast and keep it warm until I got to it, even if that took two hours." She sighed, rubbing at her face with a foreleg to wake up. She lingered a moment on her horn, still unable to shake the feeling that it didn't really belong there.
Screwloose graciously helped her take a good shower, which quickened her. The patient shower was just a large room with hot water jetting down from the ceiling, so it wasn't quite as uncomfortable as Lyra had anticipated. Pony or not, waking up took a while, and a hot shower always helped.
"Wow, you really do look like someone who's not used to anything like this," Screwloose yelled over the roar of the full body pony sized hair dryer, which was blasting all the moisture off the two ponies. If Lyra hadn't been awake before they turned on that thing, she certain was now. The roar died down, and with her mane sticking out like cotton candy for a moment before collapsing down, she stood clean. Screwloose had helped her brush the undersides of her hooves which were clean enough now. This took a long time, however, as Lyra kept fidgeting. She didn't really like being touched all that much.
Showering with another pony was very strange, and Lyra kept herself very stiff and rigid. She asked at least twice where the clothes were, which had earned her odd looks from a couple other horses lingering for their turn at the hair dryer. She was clean and wide awake now, and shook herself off to get the last few stubborn ends of her mane to lie flat.
"Alright, great, we're clean. Can we go get food now? I'm absolutely starving for bacon." She looked a bit nostalgic for a moment. "Though nobody makes it like my older brother, he's got the cooking talent in my family."
A few moments later she was sitting down with a healthy plate of… sliced apples, four carrots, some salad leaves and a bell pepper, generously sprinkled with salt. No utensils. Screwloose regarded her own serving, for a moment and dug with with her muzzle, munching up some of it. Lyra had asked where the bacon was, but upon being met with a few blank looks of confusion and a few looks of disgust, she decided it best not to pursue that line of questioning any further.
"Eh, not the best morning meal," Screwloose was saying. "But satisfactory."
An orderly approached Lyra from the wings, and stopped at their table. "Hello, I'm just here to tell you that Dr Heartwell will see you after breakfast in his office, he'll tell you all about why you're here and wants to examine you to see how you're doing and whether you'd want to be let out."
It probably didn't help that at the moment the orderly approached her, she was busy stabbing pieces of fruit with a straw like a spear. She had tried picking up the food with her hooves, and the results were littered on the floor around her chair. The straw she held determinedly in her mouth, and stood in rapt attention upon being addressed with a piece of apple violently impaled on the drinking appendage. "...Do I have to?" She asked. "I'm fine, really, I just want to go home. That's nothing to bother a busy doctor with. Just send me on my way, and we'll be just peachy."
"You tell him that, you seem fine enough… besides, Just Peachy's appointment isn't until tomorrow." He said looking a bit uncertain. "But remember to clean up after yourself, you're getting food everywhere."
Screwloose looked over to see the orderly leave, and regarded Lyra's behavior. "Maybe you're really from Manehatten, they eat kinda fancy over there, here in Ponyville? We just chow in, there's really nothing to it." She made a practical demonstration of that by munching of the rest of her plate's contents and swallowed it all in a good gulp. Lyra looked stunned.
"What?" Screwloose asked.
"Ponyville?"
"Yeah, didn't they tell you? You were moved to Ponyville while you were knocked out. Better healthcare and facilities. Better equipped for dealing with... unusual cases. "Dr Heartwell is a nice pony, you'll probably like him."
"If you say so," Lyra looked again down at her plate, and noted that several of the others were doing the same thing. It didn't feel right, but it didn't seem out of place. Not wanting to go hungry, she buried her nose in what was left of the fruit and munched as much as she could. It was near the end of her plate clearing that something Screwloose had said finally clicked, and she slowly raised her head. "...You meant Manhattan, right?"
A bit salty, but not bad, the salt worked surprisingly well with the acidic sweetness of the apples and it made the otherwise boring leaves go down a lot easier. Could have used a proper dressing though. This was definitely rabbit food.
"That's right! Manehatten! You're remembering something from that place?" She asked, hopefully. She still seemed to think Lyra had memory loss.
Lyra's heart sank. "Not MANEhattan, MANHATTAN!" She stomped a forehoof on the table and suddenly realized she'd been shouting. She honestly wasn't trying to be so difficult on purpose, she was just upset. Everything was different, and it didn't seem like any of these horses cared if she got home or not. She pushed the rest of her plate away. "I'm sorry, not hungry. You can have it." She began to walk away from the table in the direction the orderly had gone, while poor Screwloose just looked on in exasperation.
"What'd I say?"
***
The office of Dr Heartwell was easy enough to find, the orderly was more than happy to guide Lyra to the right door. It had his name and a big cute heart next to it along with a temperature. A few knocks, and the door suddenly shimmered red and opened on its own.
"Lyra, is that you? Please, do come in." The voice belonging to Dr Heartwell was soothing and elderly, and when she entered she saw an older pony standing comfortable in the middle of a fairly cozy office. The walls were filled to the brim with the pictures of hundreds of ponies of all ages. He nodded to Lyra as she entered and closed the door behind her, with that strange telekinesis she had seen before. "Goodmorning, Lyra." he said kindly, once she had entered. "Please, take a seat if you want to, the couch is well worn but it's comfy as well."
"It's..." She paused. Arguing her name wouldn't help her position at all. "Yes, it's me." She said. She jumped slightly as the door closed by itself, staring at it for a few moments before approaching the couch. She seated herself in the fashion she was used to, upright, with two hooves on the floor, a foreleg clutching the arm of the couch for balance. Her back protested, but she ignored it. "Let's make this quick, I'd hate to waste your time, and I really think I'll be perfectly fine. I just to need to figure out where I am, that's all."
He took his time and folded himself into an armchair, tugging his legs up under him. He nodded to the things Lyra said.
"You're wasting no ones time, for the next hour and a half my time is no one's but yours." He said reassuringly. "First of all I want you to know that we're doing everything we can to figure out where you came from. The guards will alert her Highness Princess Celestia herself, you can be confident that once we know how you got here and from where, we'll tell you."
"But I have to ask you some questions. The guards told me you were acting erratically, and that your horn was discharging involuntary magic. Lyra… don't be afraid of telling me anything. Put into your own words what happened if you could."
"You promise nothing I say will result in you pasting a giant 'CRAZY' stamp in that notebook in red ink and hauling me away to never be seen again?" She asked
He chuckled "We do not use the word crazy, and its not thinking or believing weird things that makes a pony mentally abnormal, its how they process information and its whether they are dangerous. Which why you are wearing a dampener right now right, involuntary magic is dangerous. So tell me the story."
Although she had initially wanted to hold back her origin, Lyra launched into everything. Canterlot High, her family, her best friend Bonnie at school. How her mother was probably worried sick and going to kill her because she was supposed to be watching Sam. Horses and ponies didn't talk, didn't do magic, didn't fly. They were fast animals, but compartively stupid animals. (She apologized here, her face having turned a shade of red upon admitting this.) She spoke of doing homework, going to the mall, leaning against a statue and tumbling through some sort of hallucination vortex, waking up in the throne room. She spoke of being scared and confused and not knowing anything or anyone. The first thirty of her minutes flew by, words pouring out of her mouth, tears streaming down her face. "And I happen to know you're all lying to me despite all this, because Screwloose TOLD me that some ponies have horns and some ponies have wings and some ponie have neither, so then what's the deal with THAT one?" She pointed to a mural behind the table, a rather small one admittedly, but which featured a large equine that very clearly had both a horn and wings. "Someone obviously never told the artist." She smiled triumphantly, as if she'd just figured out Watergate.
He listened, and neither added to anything nor condescended. In fact he didn't ask any questions, he simple listened to her, as she emptied herself. Her question made him look up at back at his diploma, which carried a big silhouette of Celestia with spread wings.
"She's the royal princess, which means she's an alicorn. Have you heard of that word before?"
Lyra just sat in stunned silence. She felt like she'd made an idiot out of herself, and slowly shook her head. "And this princess takes care of an entire world of horses and magic by herself? That sucks..."
He marked something down, at the last remark. "She's our princess, she rules Equestria and she's passed out responsibilities. For instance, I'm one of the overseers of this ward," he told her. "Above me is the mayor of Ponyville, she got her position by being a capable leader, and above her is Celestia." He summed up Equestrian politics for her.
"That's not the first time I've heard that... Screwloose mentioned Ponyville too. Is that the capital?"
"Ponyville?" He looked over to the windows and the curtains whisked open. Outside were curving hills, and flower filled patch, a pond lay beyond that and from there a curving dirt road snaked into a village of houses. In the middle could be a seen a large circular building with extremely fancy dresses in the windows. She saw a few pegasi flying through the air. She could barely read the words 'SOLD OUT' on a muffin cart, nearby which the vendor was trying to comfort a crying grey pegasus. Far in the distance she saw a castle nestled against a cliff side with waterfalls. "Welcome to Ponyville Lyra… you've never heard about this place before?"
"In case you're confused, you were taken from Canterlot to here. While Canterlot has the biggest hospital, Ponyville is renowned for its mental hospital. The quiet airs here and the cheerfulness of the town has helped many melancholics, and calms many who have bad nerves."
"What?!" She suddenly looked angry. "You can't do that!" She felt her heart start racing, and looked frightened. "I told you, I don't know what Ponyville is, I don't know who Celestia is, and I don't know what alicorns are! All I know is I woke up in Canterlot, which means Canterlot is my best chance of getting home. You have to magic me back there! If I could just get back in the big throne room, I'm sure I can find my way out!"
"Lyra." His voice was calm but firm. "Calm down right this instant, you were taken here because you were judged to be a danger by the guards. Canterlot is no more than four hours away by train, so you're in no hurry. You also don't have to assume that I think you're lying, I don't. You don't talk the way a pony who's intentionally lying would be." He stood up and put down his notes. "In this conversation I wanted to fill you in on everything that's happened to you, because you've got a right to know them, as a patient. And its to evaluate whether you're safe to be let out. I don't understand the memories you have, but by themselves they're not dangerous. Lyra… if I let you go, I want to know that you won't start barging into places where you don't have permission to be." He raised a hoof. "Before you consider asking, yes, her Highness will be informed about this. She's been busy lately due to the Summer Sun Celebration efforts I'm told. This year is the One Thousandth Celebration, so we've all been busier than usual."
Lyra shook her head. "Look, I'm not making threats to your princess or whatever. I swear I'm not. She doesn't even have to BE there. I just need to examine the room, maybe some security footage, you guys have to have security cameras right? I mean it's a princess palace. There's bound to be loads of evidence that I'm not a threat! I just want to get back, that's all! You can't keep me here, and either way, even if it takes days or weeks or months, I WILL find my way back. And that starts with Canterlot." She had an annoyed tone now, and rose for the door. "We're done here." Her temper had flared, a bit overly dramatic perhaps, but she wanted out of here.
"Lyra, before you dramatically exit my office…" He began shaking his head and turning around. "Wouldn't you want to have the dampener removed? I'm not keeping you here, you're neither hurting me nor anyone. I don't know if you're delusional, but I do know that you're not insane. Its a bit odd of you to just storm out of here, do you know the way to the train station if what you say is true? I can tell you that if you follow the path into Ponyville and stick due north you'll find it, but most ponies will help you along if you want. Secondly, there's plenty of guided tours of the palace, if you get one of those you'll be able to inspect the throne room if you want." After her big show he wasn't even angry at her, at worst he seemed to look at her as if what she was doing was odd, but he didn't seem angry at all.
There was a look of confusion. "But I have no idea how to do magic, and my horn keeps shooting off lightning bolts. Even if I wanted it removed, are you honestly going to tell me you'd remove it and allow me out into public?" She asked. "I don't want to hurt anyone, and if it's taken off... who's to say I won't?" She asked. "As for the train station, I'm assuming it's near the tracks," she said. At least her humor was intact.
He approached her calmly. "Lyra, do you want me to remove the dampener? You might not realize this right now, or believe me, but you're a unicorn and with your horn subdued you'd be like a gryphon with her claws tied to her back. Now you said you kept shooting sparks and doing bad things… that's unintentional. Can you look at me and try to stay calm as I remove it?"
"Yes." Her response was quick and firm. "I want it removed." She sounded slightly worried, but fairly confident. At the gryphon remark, her ears twitched. "There are gryphons here as well, or are you being sarcastic?" She asked. "Next I suppose you're going to tell me to watch out for dragons and zombies."
Her caustic remarks went on deaf ears, though his mouth pursed in a smile. He went over to her and levitated a fine key into the damper. "Now Lyra, I want you to simple relax and think of a little beach ball on some hot sand. Picture the crashing surf, and the sound of seagulls." He instructed he as he levitated off the damper. A measure of relief could be felt, as if a yoke had fallen off her somehow. He took a pencil and levitated it onto the desk. "Now Lyra… I want you to reach out and grab hold of that pencil, and lift it into into the air."
"Pencil... right... no big deal. Just a pencil. Just using magic. Totally normal..." She focused every announce of her attention on the writing instrument, and severely mentally commanded it to obey her instruction. UP!
There was a short and quick sensation of magical energy escaping through her, surging for it. It flipped up into the air spinning around itself. He grabbed it magically and put it down again. "This time breathe deeper, and imagine that you're picking it up." He instructed patiently and put it down.
"Deeper..." She took a calm breath, and allowed her heart to stop racing. Perhaps up was too violent a command. She had an excited, doofy looking grin on her face. "Okay... less power..." Float!
It wobbled on the table, rolling too and fro. It was almost as if… she could feel it. As if she was touching and caressing it lightly with fingers she no longer had … almost able to feel its surface, without touching it at all. She heard a shimmering sound from her horn and saw that the pencil was glowing with a small white light, but still it wobbled without lifting.
"Sometimes I need to imagine literally picking it up for it work," the doctor offered patiently.
Frustrated, Lyra stepped closer to the table. She was embarrassed, there were probably small children who could already do this. But, as they said, when in Rome... she tried to imagine a large hand coming down from her horn to pick the pencil up, and became momentarily distracted. She missed her hands, but this magic thing would have to be an adequate replacement. Which brought her to yet another question.
"How do the horses without horns do this?" She asked.
The first imagine of a gigantic hand coming down from Heaven didn't work so well… but it did help her a bit, just the idea of picking something up with her hand… she had done that many times. Remembering the feeling of fingers folding around a pencil was easy. And before she knew the pencil was suspended in the air right in front of her.
Amused the doctor reached out with a hoof, took hold of the pencil and put in back in a drawer before shutting it. Using only his hooves.
"I think you'll be alright now. If you start to have involuntary magical discharges again and you're worried that they will be dangerous, please contact a guard and they will send for a dampener. I see no reason not to discharge you now. Will you be alright?"
Lyra rubbed her neck with a hoof. "Should I be worried about food or lodging or money or anything like that? I'm guessing I'll be here for a while, but if I got here through some magic vortex, I can always get back again. It's not like there's a time limit or anything..."
"Hmmm, your case is a bit special, as we still don't know where you're from. You're welcomed to eat and sleep here until you've found out these things, and heard from the princess, or from the castle. Now lets see here…" He opened a small book and flipped through it. "Sometimes some of our patients who are doing better ask to be able to help out and work in Ponyville. Its a good way to earn bits… where is she… yes, Bon Bon. She runs a taffy shop, and could use an extra hoof. Its a good enough place to start if want to earn a quick bit. Celestia's letter will arrive here… and Lyra, lighten up, this is the Summer Sun Celebration. If I were your age I'd be in Ponyville and help out with the preparations. Good luck!" He held out his hoof.
Right... just because I'm a talking horse doesn't mean I can't have fun with the Summer Sun Celebration," she teased, but held out her hoof in an instinctual handshake. "Uh... is there a trick to this, or...?" She eventually just gave up and sort of bumped it. "I'll do my best," she said. "Can I have this?" She asked, gesturing to the pencil. "It might help."
He placed he nestled it behind one of her ears. "There, unless you want to twirl it. The clothes you arrived with are still in Canterlot for the Princess's inspection, but all the pockets were emptied and the contents can be requested. You were wearing one of them, something that played music… its in your room. Come back any time you feel like having a conversation. Lyra, I hope you sort things out for the best."
Lyra had completely forgotten about the music player. Upon arriving, it had been her most important possession. And although she still insisted on keeping it since it was the only link she had to home, it didn't seem quite as important any longer. "Thank you," she said, and left the office. She had only been gone a few minutes before she poked her head back in. "Um... taffy shop?" She asked sheepishly.
He smiled.
"A sweet shop, she specializes in taffy. Just ask for Bon Bon, Ponyville is small enough that everyone knows everyone. It's as good a day as any to arrive, and I'm sure Bonbon could use the helping hoof. If I were you I'd help her out, earn a few bits, and enjoy the evening and watch the traditional sunrise by Celestia. If you're lucky you'll be able to ask her questions then."
Lyra sighed. It seemed she had enough information now to at least get her started. With a final glance down the hall and a thank you to the doctor, she retrieved her music player and tied the earphones around her neck. Then she departed the room and pushed open a set of plain double doors, cringing in the sudden light as she thrust herself straight into Ponyville.
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Since Lyra went to Princess Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns with Twilight (see chapter one) It would be better to set this fic start years before Nightmare Night return. And honest, why wasn't she interrogated by some guards? Why they just let her leave like that? I know ponies are trusting, but this is too much. I feel this chapter could be greatly improved. Also Sunset left YEARS before Twilight became Princess Celestia student.
3756802 There are of course going to be some liberties taken with the timelime, as this is merely a story loosely based on canon events and not meant to completely fit.
The guards let her go because she was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Technically she didn't break any laws, and she was evaluated by the mental hospital before being released
You can bet that Celestia will hear about this, however.
In the meantime, don't think too hard about it, I just hope you like it.
3756820
Your story is way too similar to Heartstrings .The way they treat her, and how she is just moved to Ponyville, it seems you're rushing things way too much. For me it would have worked better if she had stayed in Canterot, found that her unicorn body was young, they tried to sent her back but the mirror rejected her for some reason... stuff like that.
3757218 Never read Heartstrings, I'm very selective about what fanfics I read because I don't want to be influenced by other peoples writing. That just seems inappropriate.
But I do value your feedback, ill try to work in less trusting guards and such.
I like it
They couldn't test the mirror on Lyra really, since it's not until some time later that the mirror is discovered. In the meantime, at least the NMM has to come. It would also seem rushed to have Lyra just inspect the room right away, even though she wouldn't find anything and doesn't even know the mirror is the portal. I think it's a fine idea that Ponyville is the location of a renowned mental hospital. It would explain so much. Maybe the Bon-Bon thing was a bit rushed, but you could always edit the story to put in Lyra's failed attempts to find gainful employment before she encounters the candy pony. Her picking up basic telekinesis so quickly was a bit plot holey, but it makes sense that all she has to do is push in the opposite direction that dampener did. I'm not sure if it's a good idea to immediately bring in the hand metaphor though. It might otherwise make a good "special" magic for her to discover later.
Also don't feel intimidated by "Heartstrings." I enjoy a good written tale lots more than a tumblr blog. The puppet animation is good and all, but it's easier to imagine when it's just words. At the same time you should read it though. It's about Lyra turning into a pony, hooking up with Bon-Bon and then experiencing NMM, and if you don't read it you might accidentally write the exact same story. (Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it!)
3757825
Is not a fanfic, is a comic.
And being influenced? I call horseapples, the more you read the more you know, and the more you know the more you can improve.
3759329
Actually the official story of the mirror is somewhat like this:
Sunset Shimmer escapes using the mirror.
Years later Twilight Sparkle becomes Celestia student.
After Cadance becomes the ruler of the crystal empire, the mirror is somewhat sent there
Sunset Shimmer returns and steals the magical crown (see EQG movie for more details)
For this story to work Sunset would have to been Celestia favorite student, together with Twilight.
3760428 I didn't know any of that. Where did you find the official story at ? O.o
3760428
Oh great Celestia that's that's terrible. You are so right. If the mirror was in the Crystal Empire when Sunset Shimmer rage quit, she wouldn't be able to get it since the entire Crystal Empire had been vanished for "at least 100 years". You just proved that the mirror had to be in Canterlot before the NMM arc, and I'm resoundly wrong!
I still refuse to believe EQG was anything other than a bad dream.
3766283 What's this?! Someone admitting fault?! In comments?! ON THE INTERNET?!
3766114
Comics, watching the movie and logic.
3767779 Oooooh, I haven't gotten my hooves on the Sunset Shimmer comic yet. I've wanted to, but can't find it anywhere!