Twilight, after becoming an alicorn, finds her plain unicorn magic has been increased drastically. Yet, she wonders about the other kinds of pony magic? She should have the natural talents of all three clans in equal measure. So, to test this hypothesis and to see how much she's changed, Twilight begins an experiment. She enlists the aid of Applejack and Rainbow Dash to provide the tests, and pulls in an unsuspecting Lyra to be the control group.
Let the experiment begin.
Written in a google-doc live stream based on an idea from Rinnaul and contributed to by those viewing the stream.
Chapters (1)
oh my god yes take all of my likes aaaaaa
Oh, this is going to be a whole bundle of fun. Time to begin reading.
Twilight with Drain Bamage is best pony.
It was a joy being at the stream, time to read this wonderful story.
EDIT: This story was very entertaining.
Oh God, the infection is spreading. Now EVERYONE wants to be a princess.
AWESOME! Cant wait to read this. The Idea sounds great and is sure to be a fantastic read. Time to dive in....as soon as I get out of English class....
Probably one of the most fun streams I participated in!
If anyone wants to read through the Stream chat, here is a link for you
Stream chat
This was fun. It went in directions I would never have expected from my suggestion. I really wish I could have sat in on the stream, but I couldn't get on my computer at the time, and that many people in a Docs chat kept crashing my phone.
(Edit) And for some reason, my favorite part is Lyra wanting feet instead of hands.
You on the hunt for some cover art? I can help look if need be.
This made me laugh more than it should have.
Excellent work! It had enough laughs to cheer me up. Have an upvote and a favorite!
That was fun. Yay, people listening to my ideas! (Like the one about ka-rock-te, please don't forget about that in the author's note list of contributions that were made by viewers.)
Edit: Thank you.
I lost it when Lyra mentioned feet.
Yep, this was fantastic. Very funny all throughout. Now, time to start the Lyra and feet revolution.
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Oh you.
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FEEEEEEEET!
Ya, that was a good/fun/crazy/wat part.
This was an absolute blast to watch be made.
~Skeeter The Lurker
healthcentral.com/sites/www.healthcentral.com/files/feet_2.jpg
Feet, by Andrew J. Talon.
Oh cool, I've been looking forward to this. Can already tell before reading that this is going to be a fun story.
You used the wrong Twilight tag. You should use the Alicorn Twilight tag.
Let the adventure begin!
Literary Sins: EVERYTHING WRONG WITH:
Experiments in Determining Alicorn Growth, by Pen Stroke
Spoilers Ahead:
My grocery list Ding!
Spike knows more about mustache types than I do and I HAVE a mustache Ding!
Seeing as a dragon can't grow hair to begin with, it stands to reason that the act of magically growing hair from nothing would take considerably more effort on Twi's part, than changing the shape. Once she passes that barrier, it's obvious the changing the shape would take the utmost minimal effort, alicorn princess or not. It's like fitting a golf ball through a pebble sized hole, getting it through, then putting more pebbles through it. Ding!
Seeing as how there was only other unicorn to undergo this. I feel like this report would only be remembered as one of those studies that people find no use for other than being "fun to know" Ding!
Which she could probably do now that she's an Alicorn, but Goddammit Spike don't give her ideas! Ding!
I thought we verified that there were none outside of academic professors, you know, the ones that were turned into plants. Ding!
Look how far we've come from the first episode when you eagerly waved at her but got ignored. WHO'S WAVIN NOW TWILY! Ding!
That's what happens when you share the same base pony model. If anything, half the ponies in equestria would match that description Ding! However, due to Twilight's unique eye shape I would say that Rarity is a slightly better match, since most ponyville unicorns don't have that shape. Also, Twilight passively acknowledges that no pony around could match her magical abilities as a unicorn. Ding!
Applejack is a dick to those who don't have earth magic Ding!
Now wait just a second, is that what this was about. Isnt the simple fact that Rainbow Dash has to teach you how to fly and shape clouds proof enough? You could have avoided all this pain by simply looking back on past experiences Ding!.
But apparently you can be away for ten years. but still expertly move on 4 legs, and use advanced teleportation magic. Ding! But see, Sunset agrees with me.
Cuz dat plot Ding!
Author obviously trying to be original by replacing hands fetish with feet fetish. Ding!
Final Sin Count: 14
Sentence: “I don’t have anything new to learn.” Hell!
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Wasn't planning on hunting around to much for a cover image since this was just a short, quick thing. But I'm more than happy to take cover image suggestions.
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Neat. Should I send a PM, or do you care if everybody can see?
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PM's are fine. No sense spamming the chat with images.
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Alrighty. Gimme a little bit.
The stream was a lot of fun, it's cool to see the author in his natural writing state of writing a sentence and then deleting it for the sake of writing it better. It was overall an amazing experience to see my favorite fanfic author write a story.
I would have enjoyed watching the live streaming of the story come to life.
I'll be honest, I never thought a writing livestream would be entertaining. It absolutely was - thanks, Pen, for an awesome few hours.
As for the story...
. 'Nuff said.
4727661 You know what lol someone shouldve recorded it. I'm pretty sure that it was the first one ever done.
Well, Twily, all I can say is that it was a good idea. Maybe you would have been better off with making more preparations, starting with easier stuff and, most importantly not involving Rainbow Dash.
Purely FWIW, I am a follower of the fanon that says Lyra is originally from the EqG world and that is why she sometime thinks and acts human on a subconscious level. She fell through the portal when a baby and the resulting orphan foal was adopted by the Heartstrings family.
So wait, Twilight is permanently brain damaged now?
Silly Twilight. Any headbanger knows that the fastest way to break wood so you dont get hit in the face is to hit it with your face. Or preferably that bit of the forehead where unicorns have an armour piercing weapon.
Weird, research says that the forehead is supposed to be as sensitive to pain as fingertips. I know a supportng steel structure that says otterwise.
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If you mean the first one Pen Stroke has done, then I think you're right. If you mean the first time anyone has done this, then no, it's been done before. (And probably several other times that I don't have links for.)
It's strange that neither Twilight nor Lyra mentioned that both had attended Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns (Lyra is right there in the series premiere).
Then there's also Twilight's royal stipend, first from being Celestia's personal student, and then there's all that Hazard Pay and Imminent Danger Pay she would HAVE to get from saving Ponyville and Equestria so many times. And then we have her stipend for being a princess, so she should have more than plenty bits to pay Lyra.
Though I'm surprised you didn't have Lyra prancing naked on that field, lol.
Most entertaining. Bad things seem to happen to Twilight whenever she studies the magic of other tribes, doesn't it? I'm surprised she was still recovering ten moons later. Did she keep up the testing, were the injuries that bad, or are you using a different conversion factor than "moon = month"?
In any case, thank you for a lovely bit of science and slapstick.
This was fun to read. I particularly enjoyed that for once the mention of Lyra Heartstrings wasn't synonymous with hands.
But, (and I can't believe I'm going to say this.) "She probably have been able to continue" between 'probably' and 'have' there should be a 'would.'
Mistakes aside, Pen, this is another one going into my already cluttered favorites folder.
great to see a new story
4728128 Yeah, I totally should have.
Cute story. There aren't a whole lot of stories that go through the mirror, or even treat it as canon.
Come to think of it, I'm not sure if EqG stories should require a Human tag. The EqG people aren't entirely human, if ludicrous skin/hair colors and spontaneous pony ears are anything to go by...
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Who wouldn't want to be a princess? You get a fancy crown, you get a palace, you get drafted into fighting Equestria's battles and solving Equestria's problems on a regular basis...
Never mind, I just answered myself.
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Maybe they repeated the experiments a few times, like scientists should, and Twilight is just inherently unlucky in these endeavors.
Alternatively, Equestria does see the moon every night (excepting cloud cover)...
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Cause a mind is a terrible thing ...
Best. Ending. EVEEEERRRRRRRR
Wouldn't Twi have healed in the time it took for the mirror to reopen?
Other than that, great story. Lyra's fun.
I loved reading this while it was being made. I caught a few typos.
Feet? Not hands?
You're a genius.
...
If Twilight's that beat up, over ten months later... what did she do? How can she go ten months without getting better at anything?
4730443 Yeah, it somehow makes it a little creepier. I'm not entirely sure why.
This was a simple, yet funny story. Nice work.
Darn.
Hmn, maybe for the next control group they can go back and grab Twilight from before the brain damage.
4730469 Perhaps... perhaps she is only as good at pegasus and earth pony magic as she is at dancing?
This story was grape! I loafed it.
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"Mexican, fu manchu, handlebar, horseshoe, pencil, toothbrush, walrus, dali, Freestyle!!
I wanna touch it!!!"
Baby you're right to love a mustache,
Cuz a mustache adds a little bit of class!