Welcome to Batstralia

by Damaged

Graduation

Language check. Anything wrapped in < > in this chapter is spoken English, everything else is in Equish.

"Doc Bonesaw?" Lyra pantomimed holding someone down with one hoof, while the other operated an imaginary saw.

Joyce groaned and rolled her eyes. "That's worse than the last one. I don't understand why I need a new name?" Reaching for her cup of tea with one wing—the first of the morning—Joyce sipped at it with every indication of bliss.

"But you're a pony now! All ponies get a new name when they become adults." Sidling up to her mother, Lyra gently elbowed Joyce in the ribs. "And you are barely an adult."

Leveling a stare at Lyra, Joyce couldn't stop a little bit of a smile breaking through her stern face. "You're grounded."

"Wait, what?" Lyra blinked in surprise. "But we graduate today. You can't ground me!"

Joyce lifted one hoof up and poked her daughter's nose repeatedly. "I. Don't. Need. To. You're a unicorn: you're already grounded." Joyce delighted in the look of shock on Lyra's face. For emphasis, Joyce gave one of her wings a weak flap.

Lyra groaned and shook her head. "Nurse Fuzzybottom?"

"I'm not a nurse, and you know it. This isn't going to work. I am far too used to my name." Joyce lifted her cup up, but heard a bat screech come from the bedrooms of the house. "I think your sister just woke up."

Tufts, still screeching, zoomed down the hallway and into the kitchen just moments before Dream Thunder. Landing on his perch, Tufts gave Dream a steady stare and then turned to Joyce. "My darling. I missed you so."

"Hey, Tufts, I'm trying to come up with a good pony name for Mum." To further her cause with Tufts, Lyra opened the refrigerator and lifted out a bunch of grapes.

"Mango Mango." Though Tufts spoke, his attention was locked on the bundle of grapes hovering in Lyra's magic. Everyone stopped what they were doing and turned to stare at Tufts.

"Do you want a mango, or is that your idea of a name for Mum?" Lyra plucked one of the grapes free and passed it to Tufts.

Tufts reached for the grape and stuffed it in his mouth. Speaking around the grape wasn't easy, but Tufts managed it. "My sweet darling's name, of course. Her beauty outshines even that of a mango. So of course Mango Mango means she is twice as wonderful."

"That's kinda sweet, really." Joyce reached out her wing and tickled Tufts under the chin. "But I am not going to be called Mango Mango."

"Why not?" Lyra tossed the next grape to Tufts, and the bat caught it out of the air with practiced ease. "Is it the double-name thing? I mean we could go with Mango Banana. Still marks you are better than a mango, but not quite as far-reaching."

"No fruit names." Joyce was firm with her reply, and didn't want to give into Lyra's game. "Are you ready for the ceremony?"

"I don't get why it's such a big deal!" Lyra grabbed a grape off for herself, then tossed another to Tufts. "It's just a certificate to say I passed."

"It's not just a certificate." Nibbling on some toast next, Joyce had already loaded the poor darkened bread down with rich and sugar-filled jam. "It's a certificate from Candela, a teacher from Equestria. Surely my clever boy—girl—saw the significance in that?"

Standing still and looking stunned, Lyra groaned deep in her throat. "Of course. Candela is an Equestria-trained teacher, which means the certificate from her is actually worth a damn in Equestria."

"Michael, language." Joyce froze after saying Lyra's old name. The phrase had been a highly common one before they moved, and she hadn't gotten used to Lyra's name enough to make the swap. "Lyra. Sorry dear."

Lyra reached her foreleg up and over her mother's shoulders, and pulled Joyce into a hug. "It's okay, Mum, I have a feeling everything will be just fine now."

Joyce wrapped a wing around her daughter's shoulders and squeezed back. "I think I will come with you."

At that moment, Robin dragged her hooves into the kitchen, and looked at Lyra and Joyce in confusion: both were silent and looking meaningfully at each other. "What's for breakfast?"

"I'm going to go to Equestria." Joyce turned to look at Robin, and saw her youngest daughter freeze. "You should probably stay here until you are finished schooling. I have spoken to Candela about it already."

Lyra lifted her leg—stretched as it was across Joyce's back—and caught Robin into their hug too. Robin reached a wing across and all three hugged together. "We aren't even going to be far. You could send us a letter, or even come visit us in Canterlot."

Fighting off her urge to cry, Joyce buried her snout into Robin's mane and inhaled deeply. "I don't even know if I'll be able to get training there. If I can't, I'll be back here before you can blink."

"I-I-I'll miss you!" Robin clung as tightly as she could, but when she got a hug from the other side she turned her head to see Dream Thunder hugging her.

Dream squeezed against Robin. "We'll visit them every school holiday until you graduate."

Robin spun to look at Joyce for confirmation, and when her mother nodded she practically exploded with hugs and tears. "I'll come visit whenever I can!"

"You're settled here, with friends and school, and I don't want to tear you away from all this twice in one year." Joyce couldn't stop her own tears from falling. She hugged her daughters until the tears paused—she knew they would never be gone forever.

Sensing an end to the heaviest of the emotional outpouring, Lyra cleared her throat. "We should get cleaned up and get ready to go. The ceremony starts in an hour."

Despite her daughter's reminder of events, Joyce kept just hugging Lyra and Robin, and not sparing Dream either. "I promised myself I wouldn't get overly emotional." She snorted. "So much for that."

"Yeah. Good going on being an awesome mum, Mum." Lyra gave one more squeeze before letting go. "Let me just go wash my face and hooves, and I'll be ready to go." Disengaging herself from all the wings carefully, and headed back down the hall towards the bathroom.

Robin watched her big sister leave, and realized something shocking. "Did Lyra just beat us all to using the bathroom to freshen up?"

"She learned feminine ways quickly." Joyce picked up her daughter's meaning. "There's nothing else for it: she must be stopped before she grows too powerful!" Joyce wasn't clear who let out the first batty screech, but all three of them turned and started to stalk Lyra.

---

Leaving the house on their way to the schoolhouse, Joyce, Lyra, Robin, Dream, and Tufts stopped at the first band-change. What should have been a crisp delineation between Equestria and Australia seemed oddly blurred. There was snow gathering on the ground in Equestria, and even the Australian sun was having trouble dealing with it. Likewise, magic seemed to pour out much more into the Australian section, but only Lyra noticed that.

"This is really strange." Lyra walked up and put her hoof closer to the Equestrian section. "I can't feel where the magic actually stops. It's like the magic is out of phase with the pattern, or something. I hadn't noticed it until now, but I don't think the magic is stopping at the border anymore."

Lyra spotted a significant look between Dream Thunder and Tufts. It didn't seem to mean anything at first, but when she saw Tufts nod back to Dream, it made Lyra want to ask them about it.

"We can't stop for that now; we were meant to be at the school five minutes ago." Joyce pointed ahead with one wing. "We've all been in magic areas before." And with that, she strode ahead.

Robin followed after her mother, which left Lyra standing, looking at Dream and Tufts (the bat was riding on Dream Thunder's wing). "Whatever you two are up to, did it cause this?" Lyra pointed at the crossover.

"No!" Tufts and Dream both said at the same time, then looked at each other almost in surprise.

Tossing her head in the air, Lyra turned and started walking after Joyce and Robin. "If this comes back to bite us in the arse, and either of you two caused the tiniest part of it—" Lyra intended to leave her threat hanging, but realized she couldn't do that. She froze, but didn't look back. "… I'll tickle your wings for days. Now come on."

"Lyra is scary." Tufts' whisper wasn't very quiet, and it put a smile on both Dream and Lyra's faces. "We should catch up, too. There is a really nice orange tree near the school."

Bat wings could be silent, when the bat was being careful, but Lyra could easily hear Dream's wings beat several times. The young mare she had come to think of as a little sister zoomed past Lyra with Tufts clinging tightly to the fur around Dream Thunder's neck.

Laughing with excitement, Lyra shifted her walk into a gallop to catch up with the pair. As she ran, she watched Tufts let go of Dream and spread his own wings.

Lyra sighed, and not for the first time envied everyone she knew growing wings. She caught up with Joyce and Robin just as they got to school, and saw Pinkie, Maud, Marble, and Limestone Pie, along with Ball Clay, and amended her envy to being thankful she had magic. "Hi every—pony." Her mouth curved into a big smile at using the traditionally Equestrian greeting.

"Lyra!" Pinkie Pie rushed at Lyra, giving no chance to dodge a huge hug.

Spun around in place by the force of Pinkie's slightly off-center hug-tackle, Lyra giggled happily and squeezed her friend back. "Sorry we're late. It was all my fault." Of course it wasn't, not completely, but she was happy to take the blame. "We're not too late, are we?"

"No. Miss Candela hasn't even gotten to the younger foals yet." Her tone emotionless and steady, Maud had improved at her deadpan persona greatly. She then ruined it by smiling, but Lyra could tell she was intentionally breaking from it.

There wasn't even a foal in each grade, so instead of working by grades, Candela just started with the youngest foal. "<Kelly>?"

Squealing with excitement, Kelly—Robert and Maureen's daughter—ran up to Candela with a huge smile on her fuzzy face. She hadn't finished changing completely, and she stumbled a few times while she ran, but caught herself each time.

As the girl reached Candela, she slowed down and looked at her teacher with a more somber expression. "<Yes, Miss Candela>?"

Holding out a rolled up graduation certificate, Candela beamed up at Kelly. "<For graduating from grade one. Congratulations, Kelly>!"

Lyra could see that Candela was possibly more excited about the moment than little Kelly was. Their teacher was positively beaming with happiness, and threatened to break out into tears, or so it seemed.

Candela gave Kelly a hug amid cheering from everyone present, and then let the girl retreat from the stage. "Ball Clay?"

Bouncing his way up to where Candela stood, Ball Clay had retained his earth pony shape despite frequent time spent in Australia. He stopped before Candela and looked up at her. "Yes, Miss Candela?"

Repeating the gesture with a new certificate, Candela offered Ball his graduation papers. "For graduating from grade two. Congratulations, Ball Clay!"

Ball just bounced in place excitedly, forgetting to even take his certificate with all the cheering. Porcelain Clay rushed up and thanked Candela, taking her colt's papers and leading him back into the surrounding crowd.

"<Robin Robertson>?" Candela wore a wide smile for Robin, and there was much cheering for her as she ran up to her teacher. "<Robin, like Kelly you have been through a lot this year>,"—Candela seemed able to turn to face Kelly and give her a nod—"<but it is with great pleasure I present a certificate for the completion of grade five>."

Lyra was surprised, she knew her sister had been working hard, but hadn't realized she had skipped ahead a class. "Way to go, Spud!"

Robin took her papers and turned to prance back to Joyce.

"Dream Thunder." When Candela said the name of her own filly, her face (somehow) lit up even further. Her wings ruffled a little, and Candela's tail swished a little behind her. The moment Dream was in front of her, Candela continued. "For graduating from year eight."

Taking the little scroll of paper from her mother under one wing, Dream couldn't hold back her emotions and jumped up to hug Candela.

"Congratulations, Dream Thunder." Candela said the words softer than for everypony else, but with their more focused pony ears, everyone was able to hear exactly what she said, and cheered.

When Dream was done with her presentation, she trotted back over to stand beside Lyra and the Pies. "Hey. Congrats, Dream." Lyra lifted a foreleg and pulled Dream into a hug.

"Pinkie and Marble Pie." Candela's voice was clear, but she wore a smile for the two young ponies who walked from the crowd. Pinkie was bouncing along, catching everyone's attention, and Marble seemed to use her sister as a shield, slinking along beside Pinkie. "For graduating from year ten. Congratulations, Pinkie Pie and Marble Pie."

A big cheer went up for both fillies, but when Candela fluffed out her wings, all the students in the crowd went silent (as they had learned meant that Candela wanted quiet), quickly followed by the adults.

"My last three are something special. Maud Pie, Lyra Heartstrings, and Rose Stein, please come up here." Candela didn't hold out any diplomas, she just stood with a big grin on her face.

Lyra looked askance at Maud, and spotted Rose standing over with Dave. "Do you have it?"

"Of course." Maud's passive face twitched for a moment, the ghost of a smile playing out before being gone again. "Do I have to do the silly-pony part?"

"I can't be the silly one all the time. Come on." Lyra pranced out, her hooves lifting high, but just as she reached Candela, she slipped up beside her teacher instead. Holding up one hoof, Lyra leaned to Candela, and in a faux whisper (that everyone could hear clearly) asked, "I hear this teacher is really terrible. But good thing we got through the year, right?"

Candela was dumbfounded, but when Rose came up on her other side, she started to get the idea that her eldest students had organized something.

"Look out, here she comes." Rose only had one line in the gag, but she managed to give it a credible spin.

Maud stood up proudly before Lyra, Candela, and Rose, and held out a scroll to Candela. "For graduating from year twelve—" A stricken look came over Maud's face. "Wait, this isn't in the script."

Lyra, using her magic, reached over to Rose and grabbed a big fold of papers from under Rose's wing. Flipping through the paper, Lyra stopped and exclaimed loudly. "You're right! It's meant to be Candela who is over there. Maud, you're the one graduating!"

When Maud turned to look at the crowd staring with mild confusion, she lit her face up into the biggest smile she could, and shrugged nonsensically. Laughter broke out in the crowd, and the cover of giggling gave Maud the chance to join Rose and Lyra, while all three pushed Candela out in front of them.

Candela closed her eyes for a moment, but a smile gave away her mood. "Having three such amazing ponies for students has made this an exceptional year. I won't pretend it was easy, or that any compensation was offered, because that would belittle the amazing effort all three of you displayed.

"Maud Pie. You might have had an Equestrian teacher, but the entire syllabus was new to you. You picked up your skills and passed a year eleven equivalency test and pushed through year twelve with the determination and solid performance any earth pony would be proud of." Candela passed Maud a scroll. "Congratulations on passing year twelve."

A cheer rose up from the crowd.

"Rose. You had a rough year, but I think everyone will agree that you held together with admirable determination and completed your twelfth year of education. You adapted to having a pony teacher, pony friends, and even becoming a pony yourself, you learned a new language, and passed every test I could throw at you. Congratulations on passing year twelve." Candela passed Rose a scroll.

"I'm next, right?" Lyra lifted her head and looked on each side of Maud and Rose, then lifted one of Rose's wings and peeked under it. "Right?" Her antics drew more laughs from those assembled.

Candela blew out a sigh, trying not to laugh herself. "Lyra, despite the best interests of sanity, I am proud to say you will be graduating. When I first met you, I was more than a little worried my little filly would learn bad habits from such a rowdy human—I should have paid more attention to that worry. You have been through several things that could be called an upheaval, each, and despite that managed to rise and become a fine—if a little strange—pony." Candela held out a rolled up paper to Lyra. "Congratulations on passing year twelve."

Lyra didn't hesitate. Her time spent in Equestria, and now spent with Equestrians living on Earth, resulted in her having become quite huggy. In Lyra's estimation, now was a perfect hug moment. She stepped forward and wrapped both forelegs around Candela's neck. "Thanks for being the best teacher ever."

Maud and Rose moved forward and joined the hug, and each offered their own little thanks for the most interesting year of their lives so far.

Author's Note:

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Awesome ponies who are already helping to keep me in keyboards and rum:
A.P.O.N.I.
Boulder
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CrimsonPhoenix
Daremo
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Sirion123
Tanis

And special thanks to the following, for careful eyes and friendly words:
Cross Lament
Vutava

Comments

[PiMan]

I feel like the languages are mixed up a bit in this chapter. I would have made the talk before the graduation ceremony be in English, and the ceremony be in the native language of the recipient. Instead you've got Robin graduating in English and everyone else in Equish, except that you have Candela call Ball's name in English.
The comedy at the end should probably be in whatever language the majority of audience members can understand, but since you've got a mix of Australian and Equestrian people there (including parents who wouldn't have learned a second language), I don't know which would be better to pick.

[Damaged]

8690234 Gah, you're right. All fixed now. She was meant to address the children in their native language, except the year 12s.

[tsaukpaetra]

Heh, new name for Joyce? Her name seems mostly pony enough, right?

[Damaged]

8690377 But Mango Mango would be so much better! 🦇

[Rhawkas]

Am I the only one that thought of calling her Nurse Joy?

[Damaged]

8690891 I think Joyce would get a little annoyed at the demotion.