Lyra was back in her chair. Sessions had resumed and she couldn't be happier about a return to the status quo. Sunny had returned a few days afterwards wielding apologies and trying to integrate back into the house. Most of the others were alright with it, but... "How are you, Sam?"
Sam shrugged. "Annoyed."
Lyra nodded lightly. "What's bothering you?"
Sam gestured in the direction of their shared home. "So Samantha turns into Sunny, she's fixed, but she insists on hanging out with us, and asking all kinds of questions about humans. I'm not trying to be a pansy, but she's making it the opposite of relaxing and calm."
Lyra held up a hoof. "No one is calling you a pansy, Sam. Have you asked her to leave you alone?"
Sam grunted softly. "She's a girl, a young girl in her, what, early twenties? I know she doesn't mean anything by it, but it still pisses me off."
Lyra rolled that same hoof, "Let's talk about a related thing, if we can? Sam, you were a truck driver, right?"
Sam bobbed his head. "Sure was, 'till I killed myself with some sloppy driving."
Lyra nodded slowly. "But you have no job now. What would you like to do? Did you enjoy truck driving?"
Sam tensed a moment before he sagged. "You might be right... I really am doing shit-all these days."
Lyra tossed over a chocolate. "You have, but that's not a mark against you. This has been a very traumatic part of your life, which is why I'm asking what you want to do, if you could do anything at all?"
Sam raised a brow. "Besides going back to being human? I tell you, that dollhouse universe looks more tempting by the day." He took up the chocolate and devoured it with barely a chew. Lyra doubted it could have been that tasty that way. "I'm not supposed to be a horse."
Lyra restrained the frown that wanted to come to her face. "As your fri--"
"They're not friends," cut off Sam. "I know their names but not too much more than that. Acquaintances you could say."
Lyra tilted her head a little. "Have they been excluding you?"
"No, nothing like that." Sam leaned back on the couch, sitting in a more biped fashion. Lyra couldn't fault him for that, being a guilty pleasure of her own. "They're just not my, uh, type? Besides, they're horses."
Lyra sighed softly. "We're ponies, and what's wrong with being a pony? Wouldn't you say we've done quite well for ourselves just the way we are?"
"Yeah yeah, that's good for you, but this." He clopped his hooves together. "It's like my fists are balled up all day, every day. I try to undo it, but 'just part of being a pony'. "
Lyra held out one of her own hooves. It didn't feel tense or clenched, but she wasn't a former human. "I'd like you to, if you're up for it, to discuss these feelings with one of your fellow former-humans. I can't really empathize with missing hands, seeing as I only had them for about an hour. They were interesting, but I prefer my horn."
"That's another thing." He thumped a hoof on the arm of the couch. "I don't have a horn or fancy wings. I got the shit pick of ponies, not that I wanted any pick, but it's the shittiest."
Lyra tilted her head a little. "Did you fly or do magic as a human?"
"Fuck no, but I also had hands, and walked upright without feeling like I'm tightroping. Now I'm just a talking animal that doesn't have anything."
Lyra rolled a hoof. "Earth ponies are not 'the worst', they have incredible endurance, great strength, and can be the fastest runners of all the tribes. It's all about what they do with their bodies, but they have the best ones, bodies that is." She tapped her horn. "Unicorns are all up here. Once something's grabbed us, most of us are out of luck. Pegasi are all about their wings. In tight quarters, or, again, once they're nabbed, they're also out, but you can't pin an earth pony easily, especially if he's been training that best weapon of his."
Sam raised a brow. "Best weapon being their body? I wasn't a boxer before, and I didn't plan to start now. Fighting isn't my bag."
Lyra shook her head quickly. "I didn't mean to imply just fighting. Any physical pursuit. Sports, construction, even some arts have amazing earth pony participants. Of course, none of this matters if you want to do something mental. Earth ponies are just as smart as any other. There are earth pony scholars that I feel downright stupid next to."
Sam suddenly pushed up to his hooves. "You should."
"I should?"
"Feel stupid." He turned and stomped out angrily without further word after his awkward lashing out.
Lyra sank a bit in her chair, wondering how she could have approached that differently, and how she could help Sam be a happier person, pony or not on the inside.
It was her last session of the day. She reflected on the other ponies. Sunny had returned and was much more attentive. She smiled more, and seemed excited to be around the former-humans. Lyra would have to be sure she wasn't irritating them, though only Sam had expressed any negative feelings to the presence of the not-human pegasus.
Lyra locked the door to her office and trotted for home, already planning for the next day.
hum some how I have a feeling that Sam is going to find something vary special in his life it is just going to tack a wile to show up.
things are looking good for the little group.
Harts Fire
She really should get the group together to discuss their past lives and make sure everything lines up. Just to try to prevent any more...really weird incidents.
6020174
Actually, that's a good point. The stuff is supposedly permanent until actively cured. Why would the transformation stop?
6020636
Is it really permanent until cured? I mean it lasted at least several hours from what we saw, sure, but I don't expect it's effects to last indefinitely. That'd make it extremely powerful. I always thought it'd wear off after a few days, tops.
6020667
Well, it certainly hasn't ever been shown going away on its own, as far as I know.
6020667
6020636 It's never stated clearly, and a strange alchemical breather? Yeah, we're outside what the show has information on.
6020671
Fair enough... I think that's the kind of stuff you might want someone in-story to point out, though, just in case. It's bound to cause confusion otherwise.
Also, that makes it only even weirder. Where would some random frat guy get a strange magical rebreather that a transmutation expert doesn't recognize? Oooh, clues! Or the herrings might be reddening.
6020676 She didn't 'not' recognize it, she never inspected it. She had theories that were wild and untested and was just a little frazzled from WE ARE UNDER ATTACK! She carried everything to Twilight, who did inspect it. She thought it was just a rebreather thingie and never gave it a second glance.
6020689
What I meant was that if it was common enough that any random Joe Pone can buy it, she would probably recognize it on sight, being an expert and all. I know I can recognize most common tools of my trade pretty much at a glance, so I figure she ought to be able as well. Pure speculation, though.
6020694 So you're saying suddenly being attacked and actively concentrating on something (magic) isn't a reason to not think to check for something? Well alright then. I was wrong.
6020703
Don't be a dick. What I'm saying is that if some guy jumped me wearing a labcoat, I'd be able to tell it's a labcoat. It they threw a titration set at me, I would notice. That's all.
6020714 Sure, and the guy was wearing a breathing mask, which she recognized as a breathing mask. You're saying a guy wearing a labcoat with some radioactive isotope in a pocket comes at you and you'd automatically know that's a radioactive isotope without even looking into the pockets.
6020731
No, I'm saying that labcoats with lead sheets taped to them are kind of distinctive. "Strange alchemical rebreather." Your words. Containers for strong acids are pretty distinctive, for example. Brown bottle = light sensitive, probably. That sort of thing. Thus I'm assuming it's not a commonplace kind of thing anyone can just get anywhere.
God, you're touchy.
6020741
Funny about all your examples are from chemistry knowledge, something we've been shown isn't common knowledge, at all, based on Lyra and Cherilee's comments to Lucy. Maybe it might be for alchemists, but not common education.
Distinctive appearance, yes, but Lyra hasn't been shown to be observant outside her specialty, based on descriptions on stuff like computers and the mirror world in general
6020763
It happens to be my field, but fair point. I was just more or less assuming it's at least a related field, considering that it contains transformation gas(tm), but that's really baseless.
I get the feeling that if anypony decides to move to the EQG world, it'll be Sam. Poor guy's clearly more distressed by the absence of his digits than anyone else in the group. Even Darrell seems to be coping better than he is.
Sam seems determined to be miserable. I'm not sure how Lyra can coax him out of this lovely funk he's made for himself.
6020953 Darrell has fixated on the lack of her dangly parts. Having hooves seems minor compared to it.
6020972
Rosa Palms just broke up with him and moved out. "Miserable" doesn't even begin to describe that experience.
6021007
Oh I knew that, it just seemed like from previous chapters that Darrell wasn't acting quite as short-tempered about it as Sam has.
Looks like Sam is going to be the problem child. He sounds less traumatized, than spoiled. His whole 'but I wanna be human' whine lacks the curl up in a ball desperation of the damaged psyche. Heh, if Twilight told him she could send him back, but that he'd be dead at the bottom of the ravine, I bet pony life would start looking really appealing.
Also, concerning last chapter... Och ye terrible, terrible tease! Ye threw all me Mulder an Scullin' theories right out ta window. So much for mind wiped humans being sent through pony portals as a secret government experiment geared toward infiltration and eventual invasion... not that I'm paranoid or anything... of course that pony in the pasture across the street has been staring awfully hard over here recently...