Lyra's Song
Lyra's Song
To find humans I've always vowed.
They called me crazy, they called me mad
For chasing a silly old fad.
Laughing as their words made me sad.
Well everypony who's laughing now?!
All of you take a look and see,
Then try to tell Lyra she's insane!
He wears clothes but has no mane,
So will your criticism wane?
Now do I have all eyes on me?
He has tricks that could make Twilight bow!
He's better than I could have dreamed!
It's even better than it seemed!
I'll go from outcast to esteemed!
It looks like Lyra's laughing now!
We ask you gather round the stage
Listen to what he has to say.
Want answers? You don't have to pay.
Oh, you wanted that hidden away?
Sorry! He let it out of the cage!
You've treated me like a mad cow,
Now Master Thorn will make me strong!
With his help I'll prove you all wrong!
Sorry you laughed at me for so long?
Is it because I'm laughing now?!
...No! Please! This isn't what I wanted...
I didn't want anyone to die...
This whole mess is no dream of mine...
Just a bad nightmare based on lies...
And Bon Bon's still with the haunted...
Innocents have suffered, I am how
Now a madman has become a god.
Because I fell for his facade
By not wanting to be thought odd
His laughter's all I hear now.
...Twilight and friends are coming now
To defeat him and save us all
I have to believe they won't fall.
Evil will fall, good will stand tall
I'll make things right, I don't know how.
His victory they won't allow
They are not afraid of his might
With their friend's help they end the fight
Darkness lost to music and light
It will be their turn to laugh now.
...A second chance I am endowed
Bon Bon is free Thorn is banished
But my misdeeds have not vanished.
I'll need to clean off the tarnish.
I'll laugh again someday, not now...
...And that my friends is...my new vow....
Stats
Page generated in 0.181 seconds
Total duration
975 users online
68,831 hits today, 2,244,100 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
A nice summary of Lyra's experience for sure, and glad to see a bit of this again after so long.
4757738 Thanks! And I'm glad you like it. If you want something similar you can go ask GodzillaWolf AKA Kendell2 about it over on DeviantArt.
I honestly love this story to bits and it certainly got me into reading the tales of Silver John the Balladeer. So my thanks for having given me that chance, Ardashir.
But my misdeeds have no vanished.
Shouldn't that be "not"?
4758143 Ach! Yeah, it should. Thank you for pointing that out.
4758123 And thank you for letting me know that I inspired you to seek out more of Mister Wellman's work. That to me is one of the best things I can ever hear in connection with this story. I hope you enjoy it as much as I have.
4767854 Thanks. It just seemed so obvious when I wrote this.
Well, I finally decided to get around to reading this story. I was "tugged" into this story right from the beginning.
This is actually the first "Humans in Equestria" story that I have let myself read. As such, this story has set the bar for my standards of what I expect a HiE fic to be. As far as I can tell, it's a pretty high bar, too...
This crossover also manages to balance both series fairly well, at least as far as I can tell. Most crossovers seem to largely tip in favor of one side or the other of the crossover. So, I applaud you for that.
It's been said that it's the villain that makes the story, and in my opinion, there are two main types of "successful" villains:
1. The kind of villain that you can't help but feel at least some sympathy towards, such as Mr. Freeze.
2. The kind of villain that you can't help but detest and direct all of your hate towards, such as Sauron.
Guess which category I'm placing Rowley Thorne in. The only hint you'll get from me is that I have a very strong feeling towards him now, so in my opinion, this story was indeed successful.
About the only complaint I have with this story is for as important as Lyra was to the plot, she doesn't seem to have enough of a spotlight on her. The piece you commissioned from Kendell2/Godzillawolf manages to alleviate that complaint drastically.
Well, I could also say that I didn't much care for how RD was portrayed as so much of a jerk towards John, but after she explains herself, it becomes much more understandable and reasonable.
As far as the Author's Notes go:
You may consider yourself victorious and delighted.
I'm looking forward to reading more about our friend John soon.
I'm sorry to do this to you, but for as immersed in this tale as I was, I noticed a few errors throughout this story:
I've noticed that you have used both Thorn (without an "e") and Thorne (with an "e") in several places....
Chapter 1
I know John has a bit of a heavy accent, but shouldn't that be "up at them" ?
Chapter 10
If I'm not mistaken (it's entirely possible that I am), you should have used than.
Too many spaces between "but it" and "now takes."
Chapter 11
I believe that should be warming.
Chapter 16
Unless there's a missing word after "only," the seems unnecessary.
Chapter 17
Don't in this case does not need to be capitalized.
Chapter 18
Shouldn't that be chomping?
Wouldn't that read better as closer, and another?
Chapter 20
Paragraph spacing and indent in the middle of RD's name...
Just missing the "i" in ponies.
4929534 Thank you so very much for the fave and the lengthy and involved comment! I'm always happy to see when I entertained someone that much.
As for the difference in the spellings of Thorne/Thorn, the idea behind that (which I may not have explained in the story as well as I should have), is that Equestrian doesn't have a silent 'e' on the end of words.
Sorry about that, I'd thought myself that between the flashback chapters, her appearance at the Ponyville library, and her appearance at the climax that she got some good coverage here. Please accept my regrets if that wasn't the case in your judgement.
And yeah, I like that song. I also wonder if there might be a brief story in what became of Lyra after this story? I doubt she felt very welcome in Ponyville after everything, even with the Mane Six looking out for her.
That was born out of the idea that in almost every single HiE story, especially the crossovers, all the Mane Six immediately liked the human visitor. It just felt unlikely to me, especially here given Dash's protectiveness of her friends and suspicion of humans after meeting Thorne. But she's still a decent pony, and after John and her friends cleared everything up she let go of it.
Thanks for listing those errors, I'll work on correcting them over the next few days. Sigh. And I'd thought I got everything, too!
Thanks for letting me know you'll be looking for more works about John the Balladeer; and for faving the story. And there will be more about John and the ponies, but probably not for a little bit. But it WILL happen.
All the best!
4929534
Actually, though it's not as commonly used as it once was and my apologies for any confusion, 'champing' is a word used to describe something or someone grinding their teeth together.
4929868
You did explain that fairly well. I just happened to forget about that scene until now...
No need to regret that. She did get good coverage, it's just that it seemed like spotlight wasn't really focused on her often enough. I'm sorry if that's a bit vague, but it's the best way I can think of to explain it...
I'd say that in ths case, RD being a little hostile towards John did work in your favor. Like I said, her explanation was actually quite understandable.
I eagerly look forward to it.
In the meantime, I might just have to have myself a little gander at Wolf in Ponies Clothing.
You're welcome. I'm sorry I'm puttting you through that trouble, though...
I had a feeling I should have looked in a dictionary regarding that one...
5076341 You'll see. All I can say is that I'm not normally a fan of 'the villain wins' kind of stories.
5076460
Ah. so she is just being suspicious.
-I meant more of a Wormtongue type attack, via sending in letters under a false name to make her more suspicious than she'd normally be.
5078134
No, no one's sending any false letters here. Celesta just wants Twilight to be very careful.
This is a wonderful story, and I thank you for sharing it! And now I must ser of I can't find more John the balladeer stories...
5230350 Thanks for the fave and the comment Roc Singh! If you check out my second-to-last chapter of the story you should find some links and titles to help point you in hopefully useful directions.
5233262 I saw that, actually, but was hoping I could maybe find something physical. Reading on a phone is perfectly fine, but I just like turning paged most of the time. And book hunting is always fun
5233626 Actually, some of those links should point to physical books, available through interlibrary loan if nothing else. The most recent physical collection of John the Balladeer is Paizo.com's Who Fears The Devil?, though I'm not sure if it's still available through them or only on Amazon.
5233783 oh. Derp. Bookhunt aborted.
TO THE INTERNETS!
5233808 Actually I was wrong, Who Fears The Devil is indeed still available from both Paizo and Amazon. So you can get a print collection of all the John short stories for about $16.
If you are willing to go with digital and are willing to get something from Baen, they have most though not quite all of the John the Balladeer stories in their 'Mountain Magic' PDF/digital book collection, along with the also Wellman inspired 'Old Nathan' stories by David Drake. And I've seen it available for free on their site at times, too.
Best of luck and happy book hunting!
5359848 Thanks for the thumbs-up and for comparing my work favorably to the inspiration for it all. I seriously mean that.
4929978
"Thirty white horses, on a red hill.
First they champ, then they stamp, then they stand still."
Almost certainly where I first encountered the word.
5387942 Great to see someone posting that old riddle!
5391840 Thanks so very much! I assume you're a fan of Mister Wellman's work?
They will find a way around the language barrier. And I just assumed that the Equestrian language sounds like the noises horses would make, only far more complex and sophisticated, rather than modern English.
5391840 Also, thanks for the fave and the comment! I hope you enjoy the rest of the story.
5391983
I am indeed a fan of Silver John, it's pretty unique, in setting, tone, and the creatures John has to confront.
5393650 Agreed on all of this.. It's a pity his work never seems to get any attention.
5408750 Thank you! I hope you enjoy them.
6028729 Well, those had the benefit of not having to actually work
I just imagine Thorne's face if he does end up summoning God by accident 
6028843 I imagine he was more careful than that, though if ti did happen Thorne wouldn't deal with it very well as you'll see in the last chapter.
6162866 Thank you for taking the time to read it, comment on it and like it.
And if you enjoyed this I recommend you look for the rest of Manly Wade Wellman's work, it is amazing.
6634687 First of all, thank you for your lengthy and involved comment, I appreciate it.
Let me start by saying that I am intrigued and fascinated to see a mashup of Manly Wade Wellman's "John the Balladeer" stories with MLP:FiE. I am also pleased to see it being done well.
Thank you again. I am finally working on the sequel to this right now. If you like this you can keep your eyes open for it and hopefully it will entertain you too when it gets posted.
I observe, though, that Rowley Thorne sounds a lot like some characterizations of Nyarlathotep, the Herald of the Great Old Ones, in Lovecraft's cosmic horror stories. The other Great Old Ones--Cthulhu, Azathoth, and the rest--don't bother to try to communicate with humanity. Nyarlathotep is genuinely cruel and malevolent, and seems to take great joy in playing cruel pranks on humanity, telling people truths that drive them mad and even destroy their societies. Is the resemblance accidental?
It definitely is an accident, but thanks for the compliment. I have to admit I never noticed the similarities until you pointed them out! Thorne is from the Thunstone stories by Wellman, where he was described as a much more evil version of Aleister Crowley (or at least of the persona Crowley presented to the media). Thorne would probably be flattered to be compared to Nyarlathotep. I should also add that a lot of what he does in this story, especially when he first comes to Ponyville, is based on similar scenes from the Thunstone stories. And Thorne was trying to destroy pony society, or at least damage it enough to set Discord free. So in some ways he was acting like the Black Pharaoh here!
And Discord as Nyarlathotep? Again, not something I would have thought of on my own, but it works very well.
6842883 Thanks, glad you like it so much. Sorry it took this long to respond to you, but I've been away from computer access for over a week.
6634720
Ah, thanks for the response. Of course, I probably read too much Lovecraft and begin to see his literary influence everywhere.
On the other hand, I also have a mental image of Silver John rendered magically into pony form, revisiting Equestria. No points for guessing whom he'd resemble:
He sure goes through a lot of guitars, doesn't he?
7012391 Yikes! Love the video, thanks for sharing it. I used to watch Quick Draw and Baba Louie all the time as a kid on the old local stations, but I can't see John as El Kabong (even if there will be a scene in the new story -- but that's a spoiler!). He'd probably be some fairly nondescript Earth pony IMHO.
That said I'd love to see someone have either those two or OCs based on them show up in Equestria.
And with the Lovecraftian influences on the Silver John stories, they were a part of them originally. The monsters John meets are often rather Lovecraftian, very alien to the normal world; and Arkham and some few Mythos tomes and horror writers who wrote Lovecraftiana get mentioned. Wellman did some stories in honor of HPL's work, though the humans tended to win in them.
7012472
Ah, but the accent, the lanky height, and the habit of smiting evildoers with a magically potent guitar--
But, to be serious for a moment. Some of Manly Wade Wellman's low fantasy stories were dark, but not all were, and if some of them were in a setting that could be interpreted as overlapping with Lovecraft's, others weren't. Especially the Silver John short stories. In "Nine Yards of Other Cloth," there is an unearthly being named Kalu, if it is his name--the viewpoint character isn't sure what Kalu even is--but, at the climax of the story, we learn that Kalu understands enough of what he's seen, and is sufficiently similar to us to have some grasp of our concepts of right and wrong, so he visits horrifying revenge upon the story's villain rather than slay a man and woman who have not wronged him (if that pronoun even applies). And we have "Over the Hills and Everywhere," where Jesus himself, the real deal, appears in the guise of a carpenter and heals a crippled child.
Lovecraft's work, by contrast, is cosmic horror: unrelentingly bleak, and is set in a rather different world, one in which there may exist powers higher than Man's but they do not love us, and some truths about the universe are so terrible that they corrode men's sanity and drive men mad.
7015617 Your words are all true, and I'd call the two stories you listed among the very best of the John stories. It might be better to say 'influenced by'' the Cthulhu mythos than 'a part of'.
7119419 Thanks, I'm glad you like it.
Really good story, Thorne felt chilling for a villain, the main 6 didn't feel like they were useless add-ons while insert character dealt with all of their problems, I always like the language barrier problem when it shows up (this and Stardust also had the concept problem within the language barrier which is great), and John's a great character, reminds me of a insane mix between a mountain man, Druss the Legend, Bob Dylan, and Harry Dresden, all while retaining the very human trait of defiance.
Have a fav, and a like.
7171589 Thank you for the fave and for the kind words.
As far as similarities between Harry Dresden and John the Balladeer, there may well be a connection given that the John stories were originally written from the 1950's down to the early 80's. It could be that Jim Butcher read Wellman's stories as a youngster; they were rather popular for a time.
Personally, I believe that the true test of a crossover is whither it's accessible to somebody who has know nothing of the source material. At the same time, a crossover writer must avoid burdening down a reader with too much info.
Despite being completely unfamiliar with the books I was able to get into it as soon as I started reading. John's character comes across pretty well, displaying a keen and insightful mind. Thorne himself is considerably menacing, and serves as an effective foil to both Discord and Twilight.
All in all, I'd say that this passes with flying colors.
I have always liked Lyra. Her gimmick for humans always pleaded me and I always love how she drives others nuts about it.........
.............and this story was nothing but tragic on what befell her. She had been deceived and committed horrible crimes, including the taking of innocent life...........that is gonna be stuck in her heart for a looooooooong time. I don't think she will get over it.
I consider Celestia's judgment on her to by fair and I wish her blessings on her road to atonement.
7359758 Thank you very much. I wanted to make *both* settings feel real to the readers, and it seems I managed it.
7364596 “I, John, go on a journey today. I walk upon God’s way, and walk where God himself walks… I pray that no wolf bite me, no beast tear me, and no murderer secretly approach me. Save me, O God, from sudden death!” And then, because else it sounded selfish to say it just for me right then: “Save my friends from sudden death!”
I very much appreciate the Judeo-Christian reference. It does me good.
Thanks, but I mainly just cribbed that from my personal copy of The Long-Lost Friend, which is the main handbook for Pennsylvania Dutch folk magic of the healing and protecting variety; and it has enough invocations of God, Jesus, Blessed Mary, and the saints to qualify as a prayer book.
And I'll try and answer your other comments as I can; sorry it took to long to get back to you, but I was out of town for a week and it'll be some time taking care of everything.
7370415 Looking forward to your answers.
7402038 Ooops, sorry, but which question(s) were they again? Things have been hectic on my end and a heat wave isn't helping (no AC), and I apologize for forgetting about them.
7365317 I am getting really frustrated with RD's hostility towards John.
I hope that at least was answered to your satisfaction when Dashie and John had their little conversation. Dash was upset at everything bad that happened to her friends, John seemed to have all the answers, and between her suspicion and pain it brought out the worst in her.
That and on a meta level I wanted to get away from the trope of 'human comes to Equestria, and all the Mane Six like/love him on sight despite having no reason to.'
7402849
Well, I can honestly say you did a good job on that area. It made things more realistic.
8209511
More or less, yes.
Thanks for taking the time to comment.
Approved for The Goodfic Bin
camo.derpicdn.net/cfb7e7c5db77f37f7061c766059078be3c297e6a?url=http%3A%2F%2Fs13.postimg.org%2F5a2dthj87%2FGiz_Vyc0.png